Somatic
Psychotherapy
Today
Volume 5 Number 4
Fall 2015

Each issue of Somatic Psychotherapy Today takes hundreds of hours of time, thought, resources

and love. If you find any joy and stimulation here, any educational merit, any clinical application,please consider becoming a member of the SPT community and support our publication with arecurring monthly contribution. You can also become a one-time paying patron or sponsor with a single
donation. All contributions must be in U. S. dollars. We welcome individual members as well asorganizations wanting to pledge a higher level of support in return for space on our website, on our
Facebook page, and in the pages of our magazine.
For information and to contribute please visit our website:
www.SomaticPsychotherapyToday.com or contact our Editor-in-Chief, Nancy Eichhorn, PhD at
Nancy@nancyeichhorn.com.
Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 2

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 3

Somatic
Psychotherapy
Today
Our Feature Stories
18

Trauma Treatment from a Global Perspective
By Nancy Eichhorn

30

What Language Does Your Body Speak: Some Thoughts on Somatic
Psychotherapies in International Contexts
By Amber Elizabeth Gray38

Echoes in Bosnia and Beyond
By Elizabeth Boath and Caroline Rolling

42

Using Emotional Freedom Technique to Treat Veterans and PTSD
By Tom Porpiglia

68

Connecting to the Primary Couple Personality
By Gabriel Shiraz

78

What is Didgeridoo Sound Therapy?
By Joseph Carringer

92

Potential Influence of the Somatic Experiencing Paradigm on Social Work
Practice
By Nicola M-L Ranson

94

Somatic Experiencing and the Freeze Response in Social Work Practice
By Nicola M-L Ranson

96

The Felt Sense of Safety and Pleasure and How They Can Be Applied to Social
Work Case Management
By Nicola M-L Ranson

102 Applying Somatic Experiencing Therapy in the Treatment of Substance-abuse
Addictions
By Galit Serebrenick-Hai

Volunteer Magazine Staff
Nancy Eichhorn
Diana Houghton Whiting

Editor, Layout Design
Cover Design

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 4

Our Usual Fare
10

From the IBPJ Managing Editor
By Jill van der Aa

74

14

Across the Pond
By Jill van der Aa and Lidy Evertsen

108 Current Research in Review
By Dawn Bhat

16

Join the Conversation
By Nancy Eichhorn

64International Connections
By Asaf Rolef Ben-Shahar

112 Resources
By Jacqueline A. Carleton
assisted by Dawn Bhat and the
USABP Interns

Body Wise
By Kamalamani

Reviews and Reflections
52

Deep Play: Exploring The Use of Depth
Psychology with Children
Reviewed by Nancy Eichhorn

58

Deep Play: Reflections
By Dennis McCarthy

60

Deep Play: Reflections
By Tim Woodhouse

62

Deep Play: Reflections
By Neal Brodsky

82

87

Hakomi Mindfulness Centered Somatic
Psychotherapy: A Comprehensive Guide toTheory and Practice
Reviewed by Nancy Eichhorn
Hakomi Mindfulness Centered Somatic
Psychotherapy: A Comprehensive Guide toTheory and Practice
Reviewed by Michael Fiorini

88 Hakomi Mindfulness Centered
Somatic Psychotherapy: A
Comprehensive Guide to Theory
and Practice
An Interview with Halko Weiss
By Nancy Eichhorn
118 The Phenomenology of Dance:
The Fiftieth Anniversary Edition
Reviewed by Michael Fiorini
120 The Phenomenology of Dance:
The Fiftieth Anniversary Edition
An Interview with
Maxine Sheets-Johnstone
By Michael Fiorini

www.SomaticPsychotherapyToday.com
Read us on your smartphone: install the app using this link: http://bit.ly/IssuuOnAndroid
Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 5

From Our Editor
Just saying the word ‘trauma’ aloud sounds harsh. The realities
associated with the word are even harder to conceptualize. How canpeople inflict pain and suffering on one another? How can life’s
accidents and unexpected catastrophic experiences be reconciled?
Why do some people react to bad situations differently than others?
What creates the lasting changes in our being when adverse situations
occur and how can we shift from being stuck in dark, scary places,
repetitively reliving the explosion, the crash, the slaughter, the rape inevery moment of our lives to a peaceful place of release, surrender,
even joy?
Trauma, in my mind, is unexpected, unavoidable. Bad things happen
in life despite our best intentions. But, we can alter the impact, we
can lessen the degree of suffering with awareness and mediation. Finding the right person, the rightapproach, the resonance and fit between you and the practitioner matters. There is no one way toheal yet healing can and does occur.
Our contributors share their insights into trauma and possible ways to mediate its effects, to movebeyond the fear and behavioral responses, the bodily holding, to achieve a restorative and healthy
quality of life. The methods differ, the foundational theories are accepted and at times contested, thepurpose and motivation for the intervention may be questioned; yet, the relationship remains
paramount in the process.
We invite you to share our stories, to hear from leaders in our field as they discuss trauma from a
global perspective, from practitioners researching intervention options here and abroad, fromtherapists making a difference in individual’s, couples’, families’, and communities’ lives. We alsooffer in-depth reviews and interviews with colleagues writing about trauma and their approaches tosupport the body, allowing it to move, to flow, and to let go.

If something resonates with you, please let us know. Our contributors offer their email addresses andinvite your response. We write to reach out and connect, to create a supportive dialogue so we canlearn more about ourselves, our profession, and our clinical practice.
Warmly,Nancy Eichhorn, PhD
Nancy@nancyeichhorn.com

From Our Cover Designer
Dear Reader,
I would like to thank artist Dr. Yavishtha Kaushik for permission to use his
artwork for the magazine cover. This piece spoke to me in regards to this issue's
theme, and I wanted to share it with everyone. Trauma can leave a person
feeling off balance, alone, afraid, and uncertain. Hopefully this is conveyed in the
cover. You can also see more of Dr. Yavishtha Kaushik's work here: https://yavishtha.wordpress.com/about/
Sincerely,
Diana Houghton Whiting, M.A., BED

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 6

Our goal is for every baby toreceive sensitive and responsive
care from their main caregivers
in the first years of life. Parents
need to feel confident to raise
their children in a loving andsupportive environment.

Why is the Conception to Age 2 period so critical?
Pregnancy, birth and the first 24 months can be toughfor every mother and father, and some parents may
find it hard to provide the care and attention theirbaby needs. But it can also be a chance to affect greatchange, as pregnancy and the birth of a baby is a
critical ‘window of opportunity’ when parents areespecially receptive to offers of advice and support.
Ensuring that the brain achieves its optimum
development and nurturing during this peak periodof growth is therefore vitally important, and enables
babies to achieve the best start in life.

From birth to age 18 months, connections in the brain
are created at a rate of one million per second! The
earliest experiences shape a baby’s brain
development, and have a lifelong impact on thatbaby’s mental and emotional health.
The best chance to turn this around is during the 1001
critical days. At least one loving, sensitive andresponsive relationship with an adult caregiverteaches the baby to believe that the world is a goodplace and reduces the risk of them facing disruptive
issues in later life.

To learn more and participate, please read the official 1001 Critical Days Manifesto, click here.
Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 7

From the USABP President

Dear Somatic Psychotherapy Today Readers,Our 2016 Conference is coming together. The stage is set for next July in
Providence, Rhode Island. See the line-up of keynotes and workshops we havefor you at www.USABP.org.
To encourage you to attend this exciting event, we have slashedmembership costs in half. Members receive significant discounts to ourconference.
THIS IS THE TIME TO JOIN.
Please help us get YOU more visibility for the work you do. Member events areposted in “The Hub” on our homepage. Monthly webinars from experts aroundthe country are yours for free.
Be part of our work to get more people knowing about ourfield of Somatic Psychology— NOW.

Beth L. Haessig, Psy.D.
President, USABP
Licensed Psychologist
Certified Core Energetic Practitioner
President@usabp.org
Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 8

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 9

From the IBPJ Managing Editor

Honoring Jacqueline A. Carleton
Founding Editor
International Body Psychotherapy Journal
Jill van der Aa
Jacqueline A. Carleton

The 15/2 issue of the Journal coming out
in October 2015 marks the end of the
Editorship of Jacqueline A. Carleton, PhD.
Dr. Carleton founded the United States
Association of Body Psychotherapy Journal
in 2001, which ran twenty issues until in2010 negotiations with the European
Association for Body Psychotherapy brought
about the creation of the International Body
Psychotherapy Journal – a collaborative
publication of the two sister body
psychotherapy organisations, USABP and
EABP. Dr Carleton continued on as the
Editor-in-Chief for the next eight issues.
This is the end of her fourteenth year.
Thankfully she will remain as the Founding
Editor and has brought in a new young teamto ensure the continuity of the Journal.

What an achievement!

THE ART AND SCIENCE OF SOMATIC PRAXISSomatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 10

The very effort of delivering two issues
a year, each containing 4-8 articles, is a featin itself. Her major achievement however, is
her deep knowledge of the field,
understanding how it is developing – insome senses leading growth by bringing to
the readers the work of the people who aremaking a difference and introducing her
audience to new ideas and approaches. Her
aim of “stimulating the exchange of ideas,
scholarship and research within the field of
body psychotherapy as well as encouraging
an interdisciplinary exchange with related
fields of clinical theory and practice,” hasbeen well fulfilled.
The Journal has covered the work ofpeople working with various methods andwritten on diverse topics. A few articles
include:Dance Movement Therapy, Biosynthesis,
Bioenergetic Analysis, Body Awareness,
Ethical use of Touch, Breath work, Researchin body psychotherapy, Transference andResistance, Neuroscience, Pre and Perinatal
Psychology, Bulimia Nervosa, Continuum
Movement, Clinical Applications of Singing,
Body Psychotherapy Modalities,
Biosynthesis, A Somatic Approach to
Recovering from Sexual Abuse, Pulsation,
Emotions, When the Therapist is Aroused,
Yoga Body Based the Clinical Theory of
Lowen, Gratitude, the Work of Alice Kahn
Ladas, Oppression Embodied, The Changing
Face of Age, Relational Body Psychotherapy,
Trauma Psychotherapy, Grounding, The
Experience of Shame, Mindfulness,
Psychotherapy, Integrating Psychodynamic
and Body-Centered Therapies, Helping the
Body Grieve and many more topics. Special
editions have been presented on the work ofCharlotte Silver, David Boadella and Stanley
Keleman and also on Research in Body
Psychotherapy.
Jacquie‘s contribution has beenenormous, quietly working behind thescenes over the years, stimulating andinspiring more than 150 psychotherapists towrite about their special contributions, insome cases encouraging them to take theleap into an unknown world of academic

Contributors 2001-2015 include:

Barbara Goodrich-Dunn, Elliot Greene,
Pamela M. Pettinati, Kerstin E. White,
Diane Poole Heller, Laurence Heller,
Christa D. Ventling, Patrizia Pallaro,Angela Fischlein-Rupp, Douglas Radandt,
Jiffy Phillips, Margot S. Biestman, Alexis
A. Johnson, Penelope A. Best, Peter S.
Fernald, Cynthia Price, Peter Levine,
Elizabeth Rablen, Katherine Brown,
Marcel A. Duclos, Aline LaPierre, Scott
Baum, Charles Schick, Judyth O. Weaver,
Majorie L. Rand, Terry Ray, Barbara
Cabbot, Richard Lowe, Connie Smith
Siegel, Susan Kilkus, Ernest Lawrence
Rossie, Christine Caldwell, Anna Maria
Bononcini, Mauro Pini, John May, Emilie
Conrad, Ron Panvini, Alice K. Ladas,
Margit Koemeda-Lutz, Soeder, Amelia H.
Kaplan, Laurie F. Schwartz, Colleen
Campbell Barshop, Harold Ladas, EstherFrankel, David Boadella, Milton Corrêa,Jane R. Wheatley-Crosbie, Robert Lewis,
Michael Coster Heller, Cedar Barstow,
Stanley Keleman, Andrew Gootnick,Sylvia Adler, Clifford Goldenberg, Gerhard
Zimmermann, Leila Cohn, Peter Loliger,
Hubert Mossmann, Gine DijkersLotgering, Isobel Cosgrove, Tim Davis,
Danielle Chauvelot, Maggie McKenzie,
Christine Hickey, Martha Knobler,
Josephine Dahler, Carola Butscheid, Irene
Kummer, Terry Cooper, continues . . .

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 11

writing. She has had to cajole, mentor,
encourage and inspire a more disciplined,
rigorous approach to writing and over the
15 years has produced a body of work ofgreat quality. Her thoughtful and insightful
editorials have also made a great
contribution to the field.
The New TeamAs Jacquie comes to the end of her
editorship a new team is already working
on a transition. Asaf Rolef Ben-Shahar,
PhD, Nancy Eichhorn, PhD and Debbie
Cotton all have a wide knowledge of the
field and are in touch with the writers andpsychotherapists.
Asaf is an Israeli-born psychotherapist,
who teaches and lectures in clinical andacademic settings in Israel and Europe. He
has published in the IBPJ and is theauthor of Touching the Relational Edge
published first in Hebrew and then in the
English language in 2014 by Karnac.
Asaf comments: It is my personal
preference to balance improvement ofquality – by encouraging more rigorous
writing, by sponsoring clinicians, creating
both intra and inter-disciplinary debate,
initiating theme-issues, mentoring writers
and generally increasing clinical andacademic writing.

Contributors 2001-2015 include:
Fernando Ortiz Lachica, Antonio Pribaz,
Judith Blackstone, Maria Irene Crespo
Gonçalves, Maria Amélia Pereira, Anita J.
Ribeiro, Ana Maria G. Rios, Lisbeth Marcher,
Erik Jarlnaes, Kirstine Münster, Ria van
Dijke, Ofer Zur, James Elniski, Robert Hilton,
Philip M. Helfaer, Odila Weigand, Lauire Ure,
Frank Hladky, Carol Gaskin Ladas, Jeanne M.

Denney, Morgani Lazzaro-Smith, Anastasia
D. McRae, M. Laurie Leitch, Erica J. Kelley,
Erica Goodstone, Rae Johnson, Kate Wood,
Lore Reich Rubin, William F. Cornell,
Courtenay Young, Ronald A. Alexander,
Judith Deborah Harkin, Katy Swafford, Leslie
Ann Costello, Asaf Rolef Ben-Shahar,
Julianne Appel-Opper, Jerome Liss, Sharon
A. Stanley, Vivialn Gay Gratton, Philip M.
Helfaer, Joan Klagsbrun, Susan L. Lennox,
Lauren Summers, Jennifer Bruha, Mary
Abrams, Robert LoPresti, Bernadette St.

Nancy is well known as the creator,
editor, writer, layout designer andmarketer for Somatic Psychotherapy
Today. The interviews and shorter articles
in this wonderful, colourful magazine
complements the IBPJ while reaching avery wide and different readership.

George, A. Anya Hricko, Jennifer Frank

Debbie is a naturopath and a relational
body psychotherapist with a broad
background in the field.

Westland, Eric Wolterstorff, Herbert

In the meantime, issue 15/2 will beout soon. It will feature articles by:
Terry Marks-Tarlow on Embodied
Clinical Truths
Ulrich Sollmann with A Transculturalcase study

Tantia, Gregory J. Johanson, Yudit Mariah
Moser, Stefan Deutsch, Daniel Hoffmann,
Maurizio Stupiggia, Genovino Ferri, Luigi
Corsi, Merete Holm Brantbjerg, Ralf Vogt, Gill
Grassmann, Manfred Thielen, Will Davis,
Akira Ikemi, Nick Totton, Chrstian Gottwald,
Dyana Reisen, Olga Brani, Kate Hefferon,
Tim Lomas, Itai Ivtzan, Joan Painter,
Stephanie Pollock, Bernhard Schlage, Dana
Houghton Whiting, Albert Pesso, Christina
Bader, Sibylla Huerta Krefft, continues . . .

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 12

Rae Johnson and Christine Caldwell on
Research 101
Aline LaPierre on Relational Body
Psychotherapy
Danielle Tanner, Let’s face the Music andDanceand Will Davis with The Return to the Self.
As well as the last editorial from your
Editor-in-Chief, Jacqueline A. Carleton.

Contributors 2001-2015 include:

Claire Hayman, Salita S. Bryant, Morit
Heitzler, Livia Shapiro, Debra Greene, P.
József Vas, Noémi Császár, Rachel Shalit,
Gary Glickman, Daniel J. Lewis, George
Downing, Lidy Evertsen, Joop Valstar, Terry
Marks-Tarlow.

To access the complete archive for the USABP Journal and the IBPJ, simple Click Here

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 13

Across the Pond

European Association for Body Psychotherapy

Jill van der Aa
General Secretary/Vice President

Lidy Evertsen
EABP President

TRAUMATIC
It’s mid-July as I am writing this column. It
is my summer holidays. I am seeing noclients for eight weeks. At least, that is theidea.
But having a lot of clients with a traumatic
history, I usually do not succeed fully. And I
am happy that the clients who really need it
are not afraid to ask for help.
Especially in clients with dissociative
personality traits—their younger memory
systems can become afraid of what seems
an endless period without regular sessions.
WhatsApp, E-mail contact, a Skype session
or sometimes a live session serve the goal of
helping them remember it is 2015 and how
to separate that from 1979 or some otherdate that is in reality already behind us.
With the help of physical resourcing
exercises the client has learned during thesessions we, the client and I together,always succeed to get her or him back in thisreality sooner or later.
Of course we also do a lot of talking, but thephysical activity or contact is essential tobring the client back in the ‘now’.
Nevertheless I still have a lot of time toread. This morning I started on a detective
novel that is very popular here at the
moment: ‘The girl on the train’, by Paula
Hawkins. I don’t know how it will end, but it
describes certainly a lot of unhappy andtraumatized persons.
Even a psychotherapist, who at the moment
seems to have fallen for his client and tohave started a relationship. Although I am
not sure whether this is for real, whether it
happened in the imagination of one of theprotagonists, or whether I am
misinterpreting what I am reading.
The therapist himself had a traumaticbackground as well.
I guess this is the case for many
psychotherapists. What touches us deeply
personally will hold our attention the longest
and will make us look for more knowledge
and resources. So we become professionals.

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 14

Subsequently, the challenge lies indeveloping the capacity to become aprofessional without losing the ability to feeltouched at the same time. To be involved,
yet not dragged in. Our boundaries like asolid, though permeable membrane.
Our clients, in particular our traumatizedclients, are true artists in detecting whether
our reactions as a therapist are true andbounded at the same time.
In the afore-mentioned novel we see
relationships becoming affected by thetraumatic memories and reactions of theprotagonists. This is what I often encounterin relational therapy sessions: patterns ofdealing with trauma intervene in the daily
communication and the partners cease tounderstand each other, they start tobecome mistrustful and defensive.
I wonder how this plays a part in therelationship between Greece and the otherEU countries. These partners seem tomisunderstand each other. They seem tolive in two different universes. And most ofall, they seem to mistrust each otherdeeply.
I hope this marriage will be saved, because

the EU needs Greece and vice versa.
Within the EABP, the relationship between
our Greek colleagues and the othernationalities is fortunately of a better
quality. As we have written before, the
EABP’s 15th congress will be in Athens,
October 13-16, 2016. Our Greek National
Association PESOPS and EABP cooperate inorganizing this event.
The title is: The Embodied Self in a Disembodied Society.
We body psychotherapists see a person as acomplex whole of experiencing, thinking
and expressing him- or herself. This
provides us with an access to areas that
normally lie outside of conscious
experience, like early childhood ortraumatic events. By engaging the body wegain the benefit of a large toolkit forresourcing ourselves and our clients.
Experiencing oneself through sensations
and movement is crucial in overcoming theinfluence of traumatic events and in theworking through of traumatic memories tosuch an extent that the survival mode canbe switched off and normal living can begin.

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 15

Join the Conversation
Communication is an essential part of all relationships, and the Internet affords
opportunities to network with like-minded colleagues and participate in forums
that challenge your thinking and ways of doing. Join the conversation and voice
your thoughts on Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, ResearchGate, and more.
Ruth M. Buczynski, PhD is a licensed psychologist and president of The National Institute for
the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine http://www.nicabm.com.
She has created an educational system via online webinars, videos, handbooks, pdfs, andmore to promote major topics in our field including: Brain Science, Trauma Treatment,
Mindfulness Practice and other Mind-Body Medicine topics.
Her current focus is entitled, Rethinking Trauma: The Right Interventions can Make Trauma
Treatment Faster and More Effective. This 6-webinar series features Bessel van der Kolk,
MD, Peter Levine, PhD, Stephen Porges, PhD, Pat Ogden, PhD, Daniel Siegel, MD and
Sebern Fisher, MA (CE/CMEs are available).
To promote her series, Ruth offered free video segments with each presenter, and for thetime it takes to fill out a form and offer a response to the segment, you receive a free PDF
of the conversation. She invites all listeners to JOIN the conversation, to participate withpeople worldwide who respond to their experience of the material presented and thenextend the discussion by adding their own background and knowing.
SPT has been sharing these segments via our Facebook page, linking Ruth’s videos tospread the word, to invite our readers to join her listeners and add to this global
conversation on trauma treatment.

Peter Levine on trauma treatment“When a person has experienced trauma, almost
nothing feels safe,” Levine said during his recent video
cast with Ruth. He shared his thoughts about our roleas therapists when working with trauma. “We want tobe able to convey, at least in the smallest amount, anisland of safety—that there is a way to feel safe.
Something has happened to you and you survived it.
Now we’re going to go back and I’m going to pick upsome of those pieces that you left behind, so you canbe whole again. The other thing that is important intrauma therapy is that, as soon as possible, thetherapist needs to provide tools.”“It is important is to help clients learn tools that they
can use to help them feel relatively safe. If the only
Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 16

place they feel safe is with you, thetherapist, then when they leave and they
start feeling horrible, terrified, helpless,very frequently they’ll shame themselves
into what Fritz Perls called ‘the top dog.’
They’ll feel . . . completely dependent on
the therapist. We can help if we can givethem even the smallest tools for selfsoothing and self-regulation.”chest) and wait until there’s some sort ofshift or flow.

The first tool Peter shared:

Ruth also shared a video cast with Daniel
Siegel, MD about the brain and integration.
According to Ruth, trauma disrupts healthy
brain integration and when a person’s brain
is not integrated, he/she tends to be morerigid, emotionally reactive, and unhappy.
“So if a well-integrated brain is importantfor our patients,” she asked, “how do wehelp them get there? How should we think
about integrating the brain?”“Take your right hand and put it under yourleft arm on the side of the heart. Put theother hand on the shoulder. The body is thecontainer of all our sensations and feelings,
it’s all in our body. Yet the container of the
body is the outside of our body—ourshoulders, the sides of our thorax. When we
can feel our body as the container, then theemotions, and the sensations do not feel as
overwhelming—they are being contained.”

He also offered tools such as tapping(Emotive Freedom Technique) as well as
just tapping the skin all over, or squeezing
muscles in different parts of the body to geta sense of the body as a container.
To hear Peter, click here.

Dan offered Nine States of Integration:

A second quick tool Peter offered was tohave clients put their hand on theirforehead and the other hand on their upperchest. They can do it with their eyes open or
closed depending on how safe they feel hesaid. The idea is to feel what goes on
between the hands and the body.

Integration of ConsciousnessBilateral (Horizontal) Integration



Vertical Integration

Integration of Memory

Narrative Integration

Sometimes, he said, they will feel an energy
flow or a change in temperature. Petersuggested that clients keep their hands
there for a few minutes, maybe five to ten
minutes until they feel some kind of a shift.
Then have them move their upper hand totheir the belly (keeping the one hand on theState Integration

Interpersonal Integration

Temporal Integration

Transpirational Integration

To learn more about these states be sure tocheck out Ruth’s upcoming webinar.

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 17

Trauma Treatment from a Global Perspective
A conversation
with

Bessel van der Kolk, PhD

Joseph LeDoux, PhD

Stephen Porges, PhD

Ian Macnaughton, PhD

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 18

“To feel the presence of others, our brain has to feel our body.”
Stephen W. Porges, personal communication, August 5, 2015

By Nancy Eichhorn, PhD

We sluffed off our
backpacks and pitched
our tents in a grassy
meadow along Bubbs
River in Kings Canyon
National Park. Several
deer stopped to graze
just beyond ourcampsite. A black bear
and two cubs strolled by,unalarmed by ourpresence (though mybreath momentarily clutched even as our cameras flashed). Animals
and humans together without fear. Later that day another deer
skittered into our camp wearing a thick leather collar with an antenna
projecting off the right side. It inadvertently found itself between
myself and another hiker. The deer tried to dart one way thenanother, perhaps it felt cornered, trapped. It froze. I backed away,
created an escape path. Seconds passed before it fled. I felt fear
permeated this creature’s existence: it was palpable, undeniable, real.
What happens in a traumatizing instant that creates lasting change?
Was it a memory of restraint, of humanbeings that triggered immobilization? Do I
need to know what, if any, thoughts
crossed this animal’s mind during its
restraint or is the reality that its brain andbody registered a connection between
humans and a behavioral response that in
my mind indicated fear enough? (A note:
Joseph LeDoux states that behavior is not areliable indicator of such feelings in animals
or human beings; yet, for me, the deer’s
movements appeared to be fear-filled.)

Fear: A Biological Response to Trauma
The biological nature of trauma (defined
as a life threat in the face of helplessness)is on the forefront of therapeutic
conversations. Proponents of body-based
approaches accept that trauma is stored in
the body and in the limbic system. It isnoted as the major center for emotion
formation and processing and for learning.
The amygdala, located within the temporal
lobe of the brain, is said to be a limbic

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 19

system structure (though this is debated)that is involved in emotions related tosurvival—fear, anger, and pleasure. It isalso responsible to determine whichmemories are stored and where they are
stored in the brain. The amygdala shifts
when we encounter a life-or-death
threatening event (associated with fear
conditioning).
Of all of the brain’s parts, the amygdala
has received most of the attention inregards to trauma. It is said to be directly
related to the cascade of responses that
activate the sympathetic nervous system(SNS) and the flight/fight response. Thus,
the autonomic nervous system (ANS)—thevegetative unconscious system that runs
our body—is critical to trauma. Our defense
systems, located in the lower brain levels,
determine whether we fight, take flight ordisappear and shut down (immobilize).
According to a recent blog post written
by Joseph LeDoux, PhD the amygdala’s
circuits are “directly responsible fordetecting threats and the resultant
behavioral/physiological responses elicitedby threats that alter information processing
in diverse regions of the brain.” One
important response that he noted was “thesecretion of chemicals throughout the brain(norepinephrine, acetylcholine, dopamine,
serotonin) and body (hormones such as
adrenalin and cortisol). In situations ofdanger, these chemicals alert us thatsomething important is happening. As aresult, attention systems in the neocortex
guide the perceptual search of theenvironment for an explanation of thearoused state.” (Blog quotes retrieved August 17,
2015 from https://www.Psychologicaltoday.com/blog/
i-got-mind-tell-you)

Stephen Porges, PhD coined the term
‘neuroception’ to describe the nervous
system process to monitor the environment
for safety, danger, and life threat.
Neuroception evaluates risk to negotiate,navigate, or trigger neural components that
regulate autonomic state to fit theenvironmental context or the particular risk
factor in question. It also connects risk

evaluation with social behavior, specificallyfacial expression, and tone of voice(prosody), gestures and body posture that
implicitly and explicitly communicate
messages of safety or threat to others.
These signals impact what Porges calls the“brain-heart-face circuit” that exists outside
our conscious awareness. It functions tocontrol our range of emotional expression,
our quality of communication andaccompanying bodily states, including stressrelated responses (expression of andrecovery from). In potentially threatening
situations, our social engagement system
has the ability to trump the sympathetic
nervous system’s arousal and the fight or
flight response. Similarly, under
threatening situations, in which the social
engagement system is already offline, thesympathetic nervous system’s support forfight or flight responses trump
immobilization.
LeDoux also wrote that the meaning ofpresent environmental stimuli wasaugmented by the retrieval of memories. He
asserts that “a key part” of his “argument”
is that “the amygdala is not directly
involved in making feelings ofSomatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 20

systems get stuck, as happens when people
fear” (personal communication,
develop PTSD, the changes in our physiology
09.04.2015). “If the stimuli are known
and nervous system create profoundsources of danger, ‘fear’ schema arechanges in the ability to adapt to the world.
retrieved from memory. The feeling of fear
When we cannot actively fight back orthen, results when the outcome of theseescape a traumatizing situation, or,various processes (attention, perception,
alternatively, find outside
memory, arousal) coalesce
protection, the overwhelmingin consciousness and“Trauma changes
experience may result in acompel one to feelthebrain—andthesystem wide shut down. The
fear.” (Retrieved August 17,
rational mind, the2015 from https://result is often distrust
www.Psychologicaltoday.com/(constant vigilance) andfrontallobe
loses
blog/i-got-mind-tell-you)difficulties creating supportive
control over the
He stated that therelationships, including
more primitive
feeling of fear can only
tolerating people to get close,
limbic brain. The
happen in brains equipped
one of the principalwith the cognitive ability ofcomponents of healing.”
brain circuits
autonoetic consciousness—change, the fear
If we look at trauma’s
the ability to mentally place
impact on the human brain
system changes,
ourselves in past, present
from a global perspective,
and future situations andand the self systemthen, as Ian Macnaughton
analyze our own thoughts.
is changed.”said, “The old adage that ‘it
As well, Porges added thattakes a village to raise a child’
while neuroception detects
is apt in the sense that from the global
threats, transgenerational messages,
perspective there needs to be community
genetics, culture, childhood experiences andawareness through education as well as bothsociety convey the notion of what isindividual and group processes that can
dangerous.
bring more healing to the traumatic imprints
Looking at treatment approaches then,in the nervous system.”perhaps it’s not the feeling of fear thatAs Porges pointed out, our brain isneeds to be addressed as much as what
integrated within a nervous system that
happens in the brain.
regulates our entire body. And while the“Our survival brain is not created bybrain is an important regulator of the body,culture; there probably are few crossthe brain stem is actually the pivot point
cultural variations,” Bessel van der Kolk,
between the body and the upper brain
PhD said. “Brain development, and the core
structures.
processes involved in threat detection and“Within the brain stem there are major
survival, evolved in humans, as it has in all
intersections of neural pathways sending
mammals. Trauma changes the brain—andsignals downstream to the body andthe rational mind, the frontal lobe loses
upstream to the cortex. Early
control over the more primitive limbic brain.
The brain circuits change, the fear systemchanges, and the self system is changed.”“While the capacity to manage ouremotions resides in the cortex. The limbic
system primarily processes intense
emotional experiences,” he continued.
“Faced with trauma our brain automatically
activates unconscious mechanisms tosurvive the experience. When these survival
Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 21

“In fact through war, malnutrition, violence etc. we are damaging thebrains of the younger generation, which can only lead to a lessevolved human being and one that has experienced trauma.”experiences can actually turn on and off
genes and disrupt or bias the neuralpathways that travel through the brainstemand communicate between body and brain
structures,” Porges said, then he added thatour personality structure has the potential
to take on the trauma of those who came
before us.
“We are a flexible species, there is not
one idealized way of being,” Porges
explained. “If culture demands morewarriors, we modify to become morevigilant and aggressive. In a sense cultural
demands turn genes on and off in responseto threats to society. How is the genotype of
the wounded Self relevant to that current
society? In terms of trauma and trauma
response, we need to look both at thestimulus and the neural state and resilienceof the individual. This enables us tounderstand the interaction between thecues that effectively trigger physiologicalresponses, which are capable ofincapacitating social connection in someindividuals, while others seem buffered andresilient to the same challenges.”“We are bombing countries and creating
unsafe environments, we escalated terror toconvince “victims” to be our friends, and weare changing their biology,” he continued.
“Creating volatile trauma responses makes
them physiologically unsafe and lowers theirthreshold for shut down. They have tomobilize; they have to be aggressive or faceimmobility and death.”
Macnaughton agreed, and extended
Proges’ statement adding that, “In fact
through war, malnutrition, violence etc.
we are damaging the brains of the younger
generation, which can only lead to a lessevolved human being and one that has
experienced trauma. The affluent andwealthy individuals and nations try tomaintain their steady-state, fending off
depletion of any of their assets or theirlifestyles to assist in the global sufferingthat is being created by trauma. That can
only last so long.”“In global situations,” he continued, ”I
think what we see is this vast systemic
wave of past traumatic experiences being
attempted to be worked out through wars,
attempting to stabilize through different
religions, different ethnicities, different
languages, forgetting the effect of how all ofthese were generated from geographicalcontexts.”“A friend of mine recently had an
extensive genetic report on his history,” headded. “In that history he said that ofcourse it all went back to Africa, as well thatat one time in the world there were only
2000 human beings that we all came from.
When we see the landslide destruction of
our environment and the creatures within it,
it's only logical that there is a probability
that we, as one of the creatures, will face atleast the possible reduction in population if
not destruction as a race in centuries tocome, perhaps sooner if something is not
done. I believe much of all of this is rooted
in the lack of development of our brains andour capacity to be more human than
animal, as well as the effect on our common
sense, our executive functioning, of pastand current, individual and collective,
trauma.”Trauma is pervasive. Trauma isembedded.
And, if we define trauma as the
disruption of our ability to regulate ouraffective and physiological state, then is it
safe to say that treatment must revolvearound state regulation?

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 22

Self-Regulation“A number of techniques are likely to be
helpful in self-regulation,” Van der Kolk
said. He shared examples from his book,
The Body Keeps the Score (see review on
page XX), such as practicing mindfulness toaccess the medial prefrontal cortex, using
interoception to notice what is going on
inside and re-interpret danger, moving
together, synchronizing our voices andrespiratory systems by singing andbreathing together- that is, by activating
the bi-directional communication system
between the nervous systems of different
people. Moving, sensing what’s happening
in the body, allows the self to know what
you know, he said. Sensing the innerexperience is a gigantic part of healing.
“In South Africa,” Van der Kolk shared,“I noticed their approach was very different
than in the US. Everywhere around theworld people use singing, moving,
synchronous activities to deal withtraumatic stress. This is not common informal therapeutic programs in the US,
though these methods are continually rediscovered in school systems, prisons, andrehabilitation programs.”
Thinking versus Feeling“What if we misinterpreted thestatement, I think therefore I am? It shouldbe, I feel therefore I am. I feel my body,myself, with “feel” as a reflexive verb,”
Porges said. “French distinguishes between
feeling an object and feeling into the bodywhereas English uses the same word for
feeling a physical object and feeling our
body or emotions. Yet the meaning of thewords are not the same.”“All therapies have a common theme,”
he continued. “We have implicit memories
and explicit experiences. Trauma experienceis implicit, the body holds the story; we do
not have the vocabulary to discuss it. We
have to go in and move those memories tothe explicit level so we can deal with them.
You have to go back and re-experience it so
it can be defined in the implicit, theunknown needs to be defined, contained,

and brought forward into explicit thoughts
and words, so you can resolve it. The
therapist’s job is to provide the tools toexperience and contain, to describe anddefuse.”As therapists then, we can help ourclients understand what happened to themfrom a neurophysiological and biobehavioral view. For instance, a young
woman comes in because she was raped.
She has all these bodily feelings that she
doesn’t understand as well as feelings suchas embarrassment and shame because she
didn’t fight back (immobilization). As
therapists, Porges said we can give clients a
vocabulary to deal with implicit memories.
But, he stressed, it is not so much the eventthat matters.
For example, in the case of our rape
survivor, Porges explained that it’s crucial tofind out her initial response to the trauma,
what happened in the moment-where did
she go (pass out, dissociate, fantasize),what happened then, step-by-step. From
this case history, we can then create ahealing intervention that supports thenervous system, where we can navigate or
negotiate with her sense of safety so she is
not working within her defense system(either shutting down or pushing tomobilize).
“As long as features of the social
engagement system are on board throughthe use of modulated prosodic voice or safe

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 23

environments, then you might be able todiscuss or get the person out of that state,”
Porges said. “Our social engagement systemenables us to change our physiologicalstate. The most successful trauma
therapists are those who enable their clientsto negotiate and navigate in a state ofsafety.”“I agree with what Steve has said, ofcourse,” Macnaughton added. “However, I
would say that people do not always need toactually recall, certainly not relive all of thetraumatic incident details. The treatment
should allow for the person to respond towhat traumatic events have happened sothat the persons system can restore to its
innate optimal functioning. The trauma
pattern rests within the blocked responses
that the individual and the group were notable to manifest in order to take appropriate
action so that they were not traumatized.”“Trauma certainly has the effect ofdestabilizing the optimal human and societal
functioning,” he continued. “And once
destabilized the organization of
consciousness is shifted so that it cannot, as
effectively, be able to realistically ascertain
what is truly dangerous on the outside andwhat thinking and personal experience isskewed on the inside in ways that result in
reinforcing behavior that keeps thetraumatic patterns inside oneself as well associetally to maintain a new so-called‘functional steady-state’, usually a reactive
and less considered state of consciousness.”tolerating feelings and sensations, it’s about
learning how you can change your own
physiology,” Van der Kolk said.
Another component involves, “Learning totolerate knowing what you know, andfeeling what you feel. Finding a language forinternal self-experience,” and, “Finally,taking action to re-engage frozen
engagement systems and overcoming thelegacy of inescapable shock,” he said.
The importance of trauma interventions
rests in body-based approaches—language
alone has limitations including the lack of aclear vocabulary to capture a sensation as it
is occurring—to describe the experience ofthe sensation takes you out of the moment(out of the midbrain) and places you back in
the neocortex—you are responding from thethinking brain, not the feeling brain.
As Van der Kolk notes, you cannot treat a
traumatic event but you can treat theimprints of trauma on the body, mind, andsoul. The rational brain can’t simply abolish
our emotions, sensations or thoughts—

Offering concrete steps to address
trauma, Van der Kolk listed several criticalcomponents for any treatment approach.
The first involves self-regulation. Effective
treatment, Van der Kolk said, means
learning ways to change one’s arousal
system. This needs to be front and center inany treatment.
“We have in-born self-regulatory
systems that need to be activated. This
involves moving, taking action, and being insync with others. You can establish internalsensory integration with methods such as Qi
gong, drumming, dancing. It’s more thanSomatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 24

“understanding why you feel a certain way
does not change how you feel,” Van der
Kolk writes. Using the phrase, “Limbic
System Therapy”, Van der Kolk explainsthat one goal of trauma interventions is torestore balance between the rational brain
and the emotional brain—you have to repair
faulty alarm systems dysregulated bytraumatic events so that the brain is nolonger automatically (and unconsciously)
responding to triggers/cues as if thetraumatic event (a past reality) is
experienced as live and present in the here
and now.
As LeDoux pointed out, we can only
consciously access our emotional brain
through self-awareness. So, interventions
need to provide tools that support selfregulation techniques/emotional regulation
techniques such as using the breath to calm
the SNS and stave off the fight or flight
response and mindfulness practices thatteach clients how to notice the interplay
between their thoughts and physicalsensations. As Van der Kolk writes, trauma
often results in the fear of being
overwhelmed by uncomfortable sensations
such that the body is frozen and the mind isshut. (See Join the Conversation in thisissue for two easy self-regulation tools
shared by Peter Levine, PhD).
There are many treatment approaches
available to work with trauma including but
not limited to: Somatic Experiencing,sensorimotor psychotherapy, Eye Movement
Integration (EMI), Eye Movement
Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR),
Emotive Freedom Technique (EFT), Hakomi
therapy, hypnotherapy and neurofeedback.
Macnaughton also added group andsubgroup work such as developed by
Yvonne Agazarian's in her SystemsCentered Therapy for Groups. And Dr.
Marvin Westwood’s work with soldiers who
experienced trauma. Westwood teaches
veterans how to self-govern their own
healing processes, which appear to parallel
Van der Kolks’ four precepts.

However, in the larger scheme of global
awareness, Macnaughton said, “We needmore than just trauma teams going in todifferent countries, notwithstanding thegreat benefit of them doing so andespecially when they teach other people inthe communities and countries how to assist
individuals, families, communities to workwith storytelling and connection. I'm not up
to date on some of those global initiatives,
more a sense of it has to go beyond justworking with crash teams and just individual
one-on-one work. I do believe that thepower of stories, being listened to, attuned
to, specially shared in groups that are wellcontained, is probably the way to go but
really we need awareness and a larger
global sense of what type of world we are
creating for the future. I lose hope when I
see that even in our individual countries andcommunities we don't know or are blind to
how to work with the trauma of ourchildren.”
Fortunately Van der Kolk dedicated aconsiderable amount of space in his recent
book, The Body Keeps the Score, to discusschildren and trauma from a variety ofperspectives: attunement, attachment,
brain development in relationship, and brain
impacts in situations of abuse and trauma.
He explored the overall question: Is it
possible to help the minds and brains of
brutalized children to redraw their innermaps and incorporate a sense of trust andconfidence in the future? He noted thatearly attachment patterns create innermaps that chart our relationships
throughout life, not only in terms of what
we expect from others but also in terms of
how much comfort and pleasure we canexperience in their presence. The map is
implicit, etched into the emotional brain. It
is not reversible simply by understanding
how it was created. Children who experience
early abuse, neglect, violence,misattunement, abandonment, sexualassault, incest and other forms of trauma
have no internal sense of security; it’sdifficult for them to distinguish between

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 25

safety and danger. The staff at Van der
Kolk’s Trauma Center(www.traumacenter.org located in Boston,
Massachusetts)) have developed programs
to help parents attune and connect with
their children, to help heal damaged
attunement systems through training inrhythmicity and reciprocity.

and society’s scope of consciousness—theirstory of what is true, when actually there
are multiple perspectives often polarized
into two main ones. Yet, between the two
exists a ‘third story’. When working withfamilies, couples, individuals, businesses, I
am looking for the ‘third story’,” hecontinued.

Coming to a Place of Closure“The most flexible element inany system is the one that willsurvive,” Macnaughton said.

Looking at trauma treatment from a
global perspective, the overall sense I
gathered is that we have to step back andlook at what is going on in social, political,
and environmental systems. As
Macnaughton said, “They are all in a way
trying to self-organize within their domains
yet not quite sufficiently interdisciplinary. I
think part of that, as I mentioned, is theevolutionary state of us as human beings:
where will we have evolved to so far? I
think the other is that we have tended tothink more linearly rather thansystemically.”“I find trauma narrows down a person's

Bessel A. van der Kolk M.D.
is the Medical Director of theTrauma Center in Brookline,
MA, and professor of psychiatryat Boston University School of
Medicine who has taught in“If we look at the pattern of what
happens worldwide we can see that nature
itself has many traumatic patterns—fire,
wind, water, for instance—and with hugechanges many species have survived,
including human beings who are theconsensual highest level of functioning
species,” Macnaughton said. “So it seems tome that if the latter is true that we are
actually the most evolved, then we need toreally address how global traumatic patterns
are not being studied systemically, andneither are the solutions.”

hospitals and universities allover the world. His work
integrates developmental,
biological, psychodynamic andinterpersonal aspects of the
impact of trauma and its
treatment. Funded by the
National Institutes of Health,
The National Center for
Complementary and Alternative
Medicine, the Centers for
Disease Control and private
foundations, he has extensively
researched the impact of
trauma on development, suchas dissociative problems,borderline personality and selfmutilation, cognitive
development in traumatizedchildren and adults, and thepsychobiology of trauma, as

well as a variety of treatments
for PTSD, including
medications, EMDR, yoga andneurofeedback. His recent 2014
New York Times bestseller, The
Body Keeps the Score: Brain,
Mind, and Body in theTreatment of Trauma, (seepage 28 for review)transformed the understandingof traumatic stress, spelling out
how it literally rearranges thebrain’s wiring—specificallyareas dedicated to pleasure,engagement, control, and trust.
He shows how these areas canbe reactivated throughinnovative treatments including
neurofeedback, mindfulness
techniques, play, yoga, andother therapies.

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 26

Stephen W.
Porges PhD isDistinguished
University
Scientist at
Indiana
University
Bloomington,
where he iscreating a
traumaresearch center within the
Kinsey Institute. His wife, C.
Sue Carter is the Director of theKinsey Institute. Dr. Carter isknown for her discovery linking
oxytocin to social behavior. Dr.
Porges is also a Professor in the
Department of Psychiatry at the
University of North Carolina in
Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He
formerly directed the BrainBody Center in the Departmentof Psychiatry at the University
of Illinois at Chicago, where healso held appointments in the
Departments of Psychology,
BioEngineering, and theProgram in Neurosocience. He
is a neuroscientist withparticular interests inunderstanding the neurobiology
of social behavior. In 1994 heproposed the Polyvagal Theory,a theory that links the evolutionof the autonomic nervous
system to the emergence ofsocial behavior. The theory,summarized in his 2011 book,
The Polyvagal Theory:
Neurophysiological Foundationsof Emotions, Attachment,

Communication, and SelfRegulation, provides insights
into the mechanisms mediating
symptoms observed in several
behavioral, psychiatric, andphysical disorders.
Ian Macnaughton, MBA,
PhD, is a psychotherapist andtrauma specialist as well as theprincipal of TransitionPoint
Coaching, a consulting
company that works withbusiness owners and theirfamilies. Recognized as one of
Canada’s most qualified andtrusted business familycoaches, Ian has more than 35
years of experience as a familysystems consultant and as achange management andorganizational consultant. He
advises a number of familybusinesses and maintains apractice as an executive coachfor leadership development. Ian
is also the former owner and
CEO of a second-generation
family enterprise. Ian has an
MBA and a PhD in humansciences. In addition to being acertified Family Enterprise
Advisor, he has multiple
certifications in Family Firm
Advising and is a Registered
Clinical Counsellor. He is a long-time volunteer with PACE
Children and Family Centre in
Vancouver, an earlyintervention and education
center for preschool-aged

children and their families. He
also edited two anthologies:
Embodying the Mind andMinding the Body, and Body,
Breath, and Consciousness.

Joseph LeDoux, PhD is the Henry and Lucy Moses Professor of Science at NYU in
the Center for Neural Science. He directs the Emotional Brain Institute of NYU andthe Nathan Kline Institute. His work is focused on the brain mechanisms ofmemory and emotion. He writes a blog for Psychology Today called, I Got A MindTo Tell You. He recently authored, Anxious: Using the Brain to Understand andTreat Fear and Anxiety. LeDoux is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts andSciences, the New York Academy of Sciences, and the American Association for
the Advancement of Science, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
He is also the lead singer and songwriter in the rock band, The Amygdaloids.
Joseph’s blog material is derived from his new text: Anxious: Using theBrain to Understand and Treat Fear and Anxiety.

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 27

This best selling book on traumatic stress—on the charts for over 52 weeks in arow—has reviewers noting how beautifully it is written and how easily accessible
Van der Kolk makes complex material—scientific findings are presented in apersonable writing style that opens doors to understanding for all readers.

Bessel van der Kolk, MD

Translated in 15 languages

Reviewed by Michael Fiorini
Bessel van der Kolk’s The Body Keeps The
Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healingof Trauma takes a detailed, well-researched,
and multidisciplinary approach to discussing
trauma and how it can be treated clinically.
The book approaches the topic with anemphasis on detailed therapy outcome data,
firsthand clinical examples, new andcompelling neuroscientific findings, and aframework that looks at the long clinical andtheoretical history of trauma treatment.
Although there is a definite slant toward a
non-pharmacological approach to
psychotherapy, the psychiatric backgroundof the author informs his discussion
frequently. The cases covered throughout
the book illustrate severe forms of trauma;
however, the forms of treatment are notexclusive to that population. More severecases are shown here to exemplify that theSomatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 28

included methods have wide-reachingclinical efficacy. The methods draw from awide array of past and contemporary
clinical work, and can be thought of as alook into the most current approaches toand ideas regarding trauma work. It also
brings specific emphasis to the ways the
body changes in reaction to early andprolonged traumatic experiences comingfrom a neuroscience perspective. It isbecause of this that the book is highly
recommended for those professionals who
commonly encounter patients with varying
degrees of trauma in their practice.
Beginning with insight into the author’s
initiation into trauma work in his clinicalpractice, The Body Keeps The Score starts
by framing for us how the dialogue about
PTSD has changed over the years. The
structure of the book is broken down into
five parts, each covering a different
important dimension of trauma necessary
to grasp for a more effective understandingof it. Part One, The Rediscovery of Trauma,
covers the aforementioned historicalprogression of trauma treatment examining
how new research in neuroscience is again
revolutionizing the clinical approach to thisdimension of therapy. The second part,
This Is Your Brain On Trauma, looks at the
specific brain regions associated withtrauma. The book discusses these alongwith tangentially related neurological areas
in order to give readers a practicalunderstanding of the biological impact thattrauma has over the lifespan and in specificcircumstances. Part Three, The Minds ofChildren, focuses primarily on trauma
effects and dynamics among adolescents.
Part Four, The Imprint of Trauma,
examines the act of recalling andremembering past and hidden traumatic
memories. Part Five, Paths to Recovery, isthe largest section. This portion of the bookdeals with the many treatments andapproaches used and studied by the author
to treat trauma. EMDR, yoga, neurofeedback, and aspects of language among
other treatment forms are discussed.

The product of over thirty years ofclinical experience and research, The Body
Keeps The Score presents readers with up
to date findings, a largely objective andeffective psychiatric narrative, and a solid
platform to further additional research andimprove therapeutic practice. Drawing fromrelevant new findings in neuroscience forthe biological and psychological impact of
trauma, the book can bring readers up to
speed on what is known about and helps totreat trauma. Relating outcome varianceamong differing schools of thought andbringing to light the efficacy of treatments
like, for example, EMDR that would
otherwise not have widespread clinicalattention is an important part of the book’s
significance for the international
psychotherapy community. In giving a
biological basis for its claims and clinicalsuggestions, it additionally adds a degreeof medical and psychiatric legitimacy to its
findings and conclusions. The bookpresents its data alongside a thoroughwalkthrough of many different forms of
trauma and how they can affect therapy
dynamics. Contemporary and concise, thebook is essential for understanding new
trends in trauma treatment and its
biological effects.
Michael Fiorini graduatedfrom NYU's psychology andsociology departments withhonors last May, and iscurrently in the process oflooking for and applying todoctoral programs in clinicalpsychology. As a student, he
has written two theses andconducted a qualitativesociological survey analyzing
comparative perceptions of
discrimination. He has worked
in numerous psychology
laboratories, and studied drug
efficacy for treatment of schizophrenics, earlychildhood education intervention, and the cognitive
influences on morality. Michael is an avid writer as
well, and regularly participates in writers workshops
across New York City. In addition to writing for SPT,
he volunteers at the Samaritans crisis hotline forsuicide prevention.

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 29

What Language Does Your Body
Speak:
Some Thoughts on Somatic
Psychotherapies in International
Contexts
Somatic Psychotherapy Beyond Borders
Amber Elizabeth Gray

Trauma, by definition, is a body experience. A cascade ofphysiological and biological changes that become the imprint of suffering
begins the moment of exposure in those who go on to be traumatized.

This is the universal. Culture is the component that “dresses up“, andlayers in, how a person demonstrates or expresses his/her state(s) oftraumatization.

The body may potentially be a dualexperience as both refuge and minefield foranyone who is truly traumatized, and we now
have greater understanding of themechanisms behind this dual reality. Recent
discoveries in neuroscience, and more
specifically arising from research in the fieldof interpersonal neurobiology (Siegel, 2012)
and neuroplasticity, and perhaps mostimportantly, social engagement (Porges,2011), are guiding the increased
endorsement of mindfulness, somatic, andmovement based approaches, therapies andpractices for health and well-being.
Increasingly, neuroscience endorses somatic,
and/or non-verbal, therapies as promising(and perhaps best practice) for trauma

survivors. The majority of somatic
approaches, frameworks, programs andtraining opportunities remain in the“developed” world, and more specifically inthe west or north, where mainstream
psychotherapy has existed and been utilized
far longer than in non-western, “developing”
countries.
Internationally, the inclusion of psychosocial
interventions in humanitarian response work
is a fairly new phenomenon. Only recently isthere some openness in Western,
mainstream mental health to recognize“alternative” practices such as somatic andcreative arts therapies; similarly, crosscultural, humanitarian applications tend toSomatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 30

lean on “evidenced-based” or “bestpractice” approaches, and the burgeoning
field of somatics is still more an item ofinterest than it is consistently included inthese response programs. Simultaneously,some of the somatically-based trauma
training programs are outreaching theirtrainings into post disaster and complex
humanitarian contexts, with unclear impact
and little evident attention to social/cultural
integration. An assumption seems to bemade that these approaches are helpful andmeaningful in these cultures, because
working through the body or the creative
process is more universal.
An important consideration is that many(but not all) of the recent crises anddisasters have occurred in moresociocentric cultures. The US is aparticularly egocentric culture, and one inwhich many of the somatic approaches thatare rooted there, are still framed in a
traditionally western psychotherapeuticparadigm. Many of the non-white dominant
or western/northern cultures have neversubjected themselves to the mind-bodysplit of the post-Cartesian era (Damasio,2005).
In sociocentric cultures, a history of healing
through embodied and creative rituals andpractices may actually mitigate the need for“discovering” new treatments. In fact, one
might argue that in these places, thehistorically intact socio-cultural processes
that serve as ritual, rite of passage,
healing, celebration, mourning and marking
may be more relevant than “new” somatic
approaches (Harris, 2002) . It is worth
considering that what science is now
endorsing through its studies of memory
and trauma, and the essential role the bodyplaces in the restorative process after
trauma, has always been central toindigenous healing practices and processes.
This is notwithstanding the fact that inmany large-scale disasters andemergencies, these important social
structures are undermined, distressed, andsometimes destroyed, and may therefore
not be as accessible. That topic is beyond
the scope of this article.

There isn’t a right or wrong here; however,the fundamental principle upon which
psychosocial programs in humanitarian
response contexts are offered is Do No
Harm. The IASC Guidelines (2007)
framework of guiding principles forpsychosocial work across borders andcultures, with Do No Harm the foundation.
As a long time humanitarian worker who
now also trains health and mental healthprofessionals, as well as allied healthprofessionals and paraprofessionals in the
integration of dance, movement, body andarts-based therapies into their work, I amaware of the need to constantly reconsider
my intention in offering this work, as wellas my methods and style of delivery. I
have begun to ask myself an orienting
question that serves more as an ongoinginquiry to assist me to re-organize thework, as needed, versus a question thatalways has a clear answer: What language
does my body speak?
Photo generously donated by ©2015 Ross Oscar Knight Photography
Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 31

The Language of Compassion
Body language is a pedestrian term for non-verbal communication. Having participated inmany training, relief, and development programs that introduce, promote, or bring somatictherapies to other countries and cultures recently exposed to mass trauma, I now realizethat the truth of what we communicate reflects from a deeper, more introspective place,and may be “heard” through our non-verbal messaging. What we say may be lessimportant than how we carry or “are” the message. And a source of the message may
reside in our worldview on a continuum that is marked by many things; among them, andcentral to the imprints we may leave when we take our work (direct services, trainings,
programs) overseas, especially in times of collective distress, are sympathy, empathy andcompassion.
The question “what language does my body speak” is central to this introspection. I am
proposing that important feedback to guide our work relates to an understanding of thestrength, and challenge, of empathy, long considered the key ingredient of successful
psychotherapeutic and humanitarian connection and rapport. Empathy is indeed essential
to our connection with others. However, it is a term that is often confused with compassion,and sometimes, though less frequently, with sympathy (Brown, 2013).
I invite you to take the type of “quiz” that you may have taken when you were a child.
Below is a table with three terms (Sympathy, Empathy, and Compassion) in the firstcolumn (left-hand side), and three definitions in the second column (right-hand side). The
task is to connect the word with its correct definition.

SYMPATHY

A human response based on feeling sad about/sorry for another person’s pain.
“ I feel sorry for you.”____________________________________EMPATHY

The ability to recognize pain and suffering in another human, because we recognize and know ourown pain and suffering. In this recognition, weknow this pain in self and other is not the same. “Irecognize your pain because I have known
my own.”____________________________________COMPASSION

An interpersonal skill/human response based on
identification with another person’s pain. “I feelyour pain.”

Here are the correct answers:
Sympathy is: A human response based on feeling sad about/sorry for another person’s
pain.

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 32

Empathy is: An interpersonal skill/human response based on identification with anotherperson’s pain.
Compassion is: The ability to recognize pain and suffering in another human, because werecognize and know our own pain and suffering. In this recognition, we know this pain in
self and other is not the same.
What I am proposing is that a key ingredient respond to humanitarian disasters (especiallyin our own understanding of both how andthose who respond on their own, outside ofwhat we communicate is our self awareness official systems of response). Many peopleof how we feel toward those we are in ashow up because they feel sorry for “thehelping, teaching, or supervisory relationship poor victims” or “the poor impoverishedwith, especially across borders and cultures. survivors”. Airplanes traveling to Haiti after
There are emergent ideas and even theories the devastating earthquake of January 12,
about the legacy of colonialism and its
2010 began to fill with teams of people withongoing effects in both the international“Jesus saves Haiti” t-shirts (in fact, thisdevelopment and and humanitarian sectors. continues today). Feeling sorry for another
When we show up to help, we are
person has its time and place, and it only
automatically in a power differential; wereinforces the power differential. Sympathy
have the power by virtue of the fact that we may not be as helpful if one is suffering due
can leave. Unless we are immediate victims to abuse of power, which is often the case inof the same earthquake, tsunami, war orcomplex humanitarian emergencies, or indisease outbreak, we almost always have the clinical (or other) work with survivors of
power to enter, and to leave. And whenever human rights abuses. Our ability to
any of us is disempowered by life events, we sympathize is certainly related to our ability
need to rely on others for services andto empathize, but sympathy alone may
supports we may usually provide toourselves. This is especially true insituations where entire populations
have been subjected to thedestructive nature of disaster orwar. We literally may be (actuallyor perceived) life-savers.
Sympathy, empathy andcompassion are inter-related; Iwould describe them as possibly
existing on a continuum. Sympathy
may perhaps be considered a coreingredient of empathy, andempathy an ingredient ofcompassion. Our ability to connect
to others, to care about them andwhat they are feeling, is certainly
important to all these human
responses to another human being.
Lets start with sympathy, which I
have observed as a common
response from many of those who
Photo retrieved from: http://www.whatsyourgrief.com/how-to-write-a-sympathy-card/

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 33

Empathy is perhaps the most widely citedemotion endorsed in psychotherapy. It is ahuman emotion that enables us to connect
to another person’s emotions, or feelings,
and as such is widely lauded as a primaryand essential tool for positive psychological,
therapeutic and healing work. In 2010,
Jeremy Rifkin’s TED talk, The Empathic
Civilization (2010) based on his book by thesame name, was placed on You Tube. In thistalk he argues that the discovery that weare “soft wired for empathy” (2010) may
promote a healthier, saner and friendlier
civilization. I propose a flaw in this theory,
and a new consideration towards the place
and potency of compassion as the pathway
to individual, collective and global health,equanimity and civilization.
Recognizing the role of empathy in oursocial and relational capacity, and also as arisk factor for burn-out and vicarious
traumatization (Saakvitne &Pearlman,1996), my inquiry into embodied
compassion as both a therapeutic tool tomore deeply engage with, and help, clients(from individual trauma survivors tocommunities affected by large scale violence
and/or natural disaster) has contributed tothe thesis that compassion is a possible
direction of the evolutionary pathway thehuman species is currently treading. In
other words, research into mirror neurons(Winerman, 2005) seems to prove thathumans truly are soft wired for empathy,
which is both a relational virtue in that it
promotes our ability to connect to others
and, a risk factor for the many facets ofvicarious traumatization that encounterswith trauma stories, histories, andexperiences expose us to. The question is:
How are empathy and compassion different,
despite their frequent use asinterchangeable concepts? And how do theyaffect our helping relationships with others?
Dr. Henry Tobey (clinician and theorist)(1999, personal communication) and Dr.
Tania Singer (clinician researcher) (2013)
are among the first to differentiate theseterms and to recognize the unique qualities

of compassion as a healthier, more holisticmeans of creating interconnectivity withclients (and others), and a protective factor
for therapists working with and therefore
exposed to difficult histories of suffering andabuse. A premise in all my work is that wehuman beings gain meaning for our lives,and offer services and teachings that are
truly relevant, respectful, and in service toothers, when we are in service of evolution.
As journeyers on the road of evolution, withunknown possibilities and potential for ourown individual and collective advancement,
as well as the planetary community’s wellbeing, practices that promote compassion
may serve not only our selves’ and ourclients’ well-being as we work with survivorsof trauma; we may also contribute to thephylogenetic enhancement of our species.
Compassion as a practice and an emotional
response that may benefit from ourempathic connection, but that also serves todistinguish mine from yours, might promote
levels of regard and respect that
communicate more equanimity in ourhelping interactions and interventions.

Central to this idea is this: Empathy, while
clearly a core ingredient in compassion, isalso a core ingredient in cruelty. Cruelty is
not possible when we practice compassion.
Therefore, the very same emotion thatoffers us connection to others is also a
useful tool to increase another’s suffering.
The origins of this idea are in Anna Salter’sbook Transforming Trauma (1995, p. 250251). The most sadistic perpetrators canutilize their empathic abilities to increase thesuffering and pain of their victims. Consider
this idea on a global level: Could the humanspecies, if we moved beyond our current
biological, physiological, psychological andemotional/mental state of “soft wired for
empathy”, enhance the possibility weinherently embodied to become beings whoare soft (or, perhaps even hard) wired forcompassion? And if we can do this, would
we more consistently relate to one anotherin ways that promote equanimity, especiallywhen we are in a helping relationship? Whatwould our embodiment and practice ofSomatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 34

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 35

compassion communicate to others? How
would we see, and be seen?
As someone who has traveled to Haiti towork since 1998, I have provided program
start-up and management, training, andclinical services in the post-embargo years,
during the violence of 2004-8, and after themassive earthquake of 2010. It isquestionable how much any of the aid,
especially post-earthquake, has reallyhelped Haiti advance as the independent
nation state it fought to be in the 1700’s
and early 1800’s. In fact, many
humanitarian responders and Haitians saythat the massive influx of aid after theearthquake only made things worse. An
inflated economy and sparkly clean newvillages that are located where no-one
wants to live are signs of well-intentioned
aid workers leaving behind the remains of
top-down sympathetically driven projects
and interventions. After the earthquake, I
received many phone calls from would be
aid workers, with no prior experience inhumanitarian work, but who claimed to have“the perfect somatic approach to trauma
healing”, asking if they could join my nonprofit’s work there. My first questions was:Who are you going for? I also asked: Did
anyone from Haiti invite you? How is yourapproach specifically appropriate for Haiti?
And so on.
I suspect many of those who inquired went
on to find other ways to go to Haiti not
realizing that they were really going forthemselves. I question if compassionate
response would allow this. A few reflectedlong enough to recognize that their interest
was perhaps more self serving(sympathetic) or based on their need forsome sort of vicarious experience(empathic), rather than compassionate(with active regard for self and other). Of
course, there were and are many helpers
and would-be helpers who do come from aplace of compassion. It might improve bothhumanitarian responders work conditions
and longevity, as well as the programs andservices they offer or “plant” for thesurvivors of humanitarian emergencies, if

If it’s compassionthat allows us toact on behalf of self

and other, it may
well be compassionthat supports our
somatically-based(and other)
initiatives overseas
to be truly
meaningful andrelevant to thecountries andcultures we bringthem to.

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 36

we could somehow screen, or measure, forcompassion.
How does this discourse relate to somatic
psychotherapy in international contexts? I
think another way to ask this question is:
how do I show up to help, whether help be
direct service, trainings and teaching, or
creating programs? Am I relating to others,
individually or collectively, mostly withsympathy, empathy, or compassion? Do I
access and use this continuum of human
response appropriately; do I reflect them at
the right time, and context, with balanceand clarity?
I believe that the answer to these questions
are related to understanding what language
our body speaks when we are in thesecontexts.
There is an increased surge of attention tohumanitarian responses such as burn-out,
secondary trauma, vicarious trauma andcompassion fatigue, because the risks tohumanitarian workers are higher (Rogers,
2015). While sympathy may not bebeneficial because it reinforces power
differentials, empathy may not as helpful toor our clients because we can become
exhausted and therefore less effective(which can also be a security risk) when weare so affected by another’s feelings thatthey dominate our own. Roshi Joan Halifax
described compassion as “empathy withaction” (personal communication, 2013). If
it’s compassion that allows us to act onbehalf of self and other, it may well becompassion that supports our somaticallybased (and other) initiatives overseas to betruly meaningful and relevant to thecountries and cultures we bring them to.
Perhaps compassion creates the place forthose we help to take action, and ultimately
serves restoration and recovery—be it
individual or large scale, communal—in amore sustainable and globally meaningfulway.
Amber Elizabeth Gray provides training andconsultation nationally and internationally on
clinical treatment and program development forsurvivors of trauma secondary to torture, war,
combat, trafficking, organized violence and andnatural disaster. She has almost thirty years ofexperience in human service work, and in thepast fifteen years has focused on clinical services
and programs for those displaced by war,
violence and human rights abuses. She trains
health and mental health professionals, andparaprofessionals, on such topics as working
with traumatized children, models for the crosscultural application of psychotherapy, innovative
approaches to trauma recovery that integrate
local, individual and community resources andtraditions, clinical issues in work with survivorsof combat, war and political violence, staff care.
She is the originator of restorative movement
psychotherapy, a somatic and creative arts
based approach for work with survivors of
trauma. She is the 2010 recipient of The
American Dance Therapy Associations“Outstanding Achievement Award”.
www.restorativeresources.net

References
Brown, B. (2013). RSA shorts: Brene Brown on empathy
http://brenebrown.com/2013/12/10/rsabear/Damasio, A. (2005). Descartes error. New York:
HarperCollins Books.
Harris, D. A. (2002). Mobilizing to empower and restore:
Dance/movement therapy with children affected by war
and organized violence. UMI Dissertation Services: Ann
Arbor, MI
Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) (2007). IASC
Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support inEmergency Settings. Geneva: IASC.
Porges, S. (2011). The poly vagal theory: Neurophysiologicalfoundations of emotions, attachment, communication,
self-regulation. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
Rifkin, J. (2010). The empathic civilization. You Tube Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7AWnfFRc7g
Rogers, K. (2015). Will an online petition finally put staff
wellness on the agenda? Devex International
Development News.
Saakvitne K., & Pearlman, L. (1996). Transforming the pain:
A workbook on vicarious traumatization. New York: W.
W. Norton & Company.
Salter, A. (1995). Transforming trauma: A guide tounderstanding and treating adult survivors of childsexual abuse. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Siegel, D. (2012). The developing mind. New York, London:
The Guilford Press
Singer, T. (2013). Concentrating on kindness.
WWW.Sciencemag.org, Vol. 341, 1336-1339.
Washington, D.C.: American Association for the
Advancement of Science.
Winerman, L. (2005). The minds mirror. Monitor on
Psychology, 36(9). Washington, DC: American
Psychological Association.

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 37

ECHOs in Bosnia and Beyond
By Elizabeth Boath and Caroline Rolling

Elizabeth Boath, PhD

Caroline Rolling

As the twentieth anniversary of war in Bosnia—Herzegovina looms, many civilian
survivors remain traumatised by the events they experienced and/or witnessed. Following
the end of the war, the ensuing social and political upheaval and lack of resources haveresulted in chronic emotional issues and mental health problems within the civilian
population.
Ongoing help has come from a British-based charitable organization—Healing
Hands Network—which, since 1996, has provided hands-on therapies in and aroundSarajevo to clients referred by local organizations, including the Association ofConcentration Camp Victims, the Association of Civil War Victims. Women Victims of War
and Mothers of Srebrenica. Some clients have received treatments for many years and theCharity has been looking into how the current or perhaps new interventions might help
these clients move on.

http://www.healinghandsnetwork.org.uk/.
Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 38

An answer came in 2010 in the form of a
new and evolving therapeutic intervention,
developed by Karl Dawson, called Matrix
Reimprinting (Dawson & Allenby,
2010). Matrix Reimprinting is an energy
psychology technique that incorporates
Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), where
acupressure points are tapped while voicing
specific statements. Imagined inner parts/
child work and understandings fromquantum and epigenetic science are also a
key feature of Matrix Reimprinting. Clients
work with the ‘part’, called Energy Conscious
Holograms or ECHOs, to release the trauma.
They imagine talking to and supporting the
ECHO to revise or overcome the traumatic
event. A new and positive picture is thencreated and used to reprogram the mind,
indicating the trauma is over and changing
self-beliefs formed at the time of the trauma
to something more helpful.
Imagine how it might feel to safely voice
all you wished you had been able to say at
the time of the trauma, to quickly releasefeelings of fear, shame, guilt, pain andreplace them with something more
supportive instead? This is what was donein a pilot study of Matrix Reimprinting forcivilian survivors of the 1992-1995 war in
Bosnia– Herzegovina (Boath, Steward, &Rolling, 2014).
The pilot study (a mixed-study design)investigated the feasibility and effectivenessof Matrix Reimprinting (MR) in treating
posttraumatic stress symptoms in civilian
survivors of the war in Bosnia. Two Healing
Hands Network Centres in Bosnia (Sarajevo
and Hadzici) participated. Clients accessingthese centres were invited to take part.
Participants completed a modified version of
the PTSD Checklist-Civilian Checklist (PCLC) at baseline, immediately after the twoweek intervention, and then at a 4-weekfollow-up. Fourteen civilian survivors
completed the study. Four were aged 30 –40 aged (1 man, 3 women), seven 40-60
years (3 men, 4 women) with the remaining
three participants were all women aged over60.
Before individual Matrix Reimprinting
sessions occurred, everyone involved in thepilot study, including translators, wereintroduced to the basic EFT protocol (aneasy-to-use method for stress-relief) and asimple breathing technique. Developed by
the Heartmath Institute, the techniqueSomatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 39

involves breathing for a count of five intoand out of the heart directly through thechest. This breathing use theelectromagnetic field of the heart toregulate the autonomic nervous system andthe brain allowing it to come out of thefight/flight/freeze response.
Following the initial group sessions,each participant received four, one-hour,
one-to-one Matrix Reimprinting sessions
with the same practitioner and interpreter.
Each person was also given a written copyof the basic EFT protocol, including
suggestions for using EFT to aid sleep, andwere instructed that they could continue to
use EFT on themselves any time they
wished. Though it was suggested they did
not use Matrix Reimprinting by themselves.
Measured outcomes were positive.
“There was a significant reduction in themean scores from baseline to immediately
post intervention (p = 0.009) and again at
the 4 week follow-up (p = 0.005). The sizeof the immediate effect was sustained atfollow-up (p = 0.65).” Andphenomenological results were positive as
well: the qualitative analysis (via. an
evaluation form at four week follow-up)
identified the following four themes: “Theme
1: Physical and psychological changes;
Theme 2: The strength to move on and to
self-care; Theme 3: Rapport with the MR
Practitioners; Theme 4: Recommending it
for others. Despite the limited sample size,
significant improvements were shown. The
qualitative and quantitative results support
the potential of MR as an effective treatment
for posttraumatic stress symptoms” (Boath,
Stewart, & Rolling, 2014). Furthermore, allof the participants reported that they
continued to use EFT at home.
On a return visit to Bosnia in 2014,
Caroline met with two of the women fromthe original study, which was conducted in2010. One lovely lady had maintained heroutgoing confident character that grew overthose initial two weeks in 2010. It isperhaps significant that she had continued
to use EFT and heart breathing whenevershe felt under stress, saying she goes into
her garden to tap whenever she finds things

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 40

To sum up in the word of the survivors:“I have changed for the better. I feel a lot
better, and other people say that about me
as well...”“I managed to achieve so much within thepast ten days. Five days after the firstsession I felt great and relaxed.”“I feel like I’ve achieved so much both
physically and psychologically. I am morecheerful, calmer and happier. During thetreatment I have had a nice feeling of
calmness and positive emotion as if blood
circulation improves in my entire body.”

are stressful. Another reported that she
finds EFT helpful and uses it sometimes.
Some of the other participants may still
have some way to go to recovery, butverbal reports from representatives of the
Healing Hands Network suggest that,
overall, longer term results have held well.
In more recent research, Stewart andcolleagues (2013) concluded that mostpeople require eight sessions of EFT/Matrix
Reimprinting in order to make more lastingchange. It’s perhaps not surprising then thatthe four available sessions the pilot study
may not have been enough for people who
had lived through complex traumatic
experiences. That some people from thestudy gained significant change in a shorttime makes further study of Matrix
Reimprinting of interest.
The results that couldn’t be shown inthe study (observed bodily changes)
perhaps tell more. We wish it was also
possible to portray the physical changes in
the participants at the time—at the end ofsessions their whole bodies relaxed, there
were smiles and happy tears of release,
there were big bear hugs at the end of thetwo weeks and joyous laughter in theclosing group sessions.

“This therapy has had a positive effect onme most definitely. I would love to be able
to get this kind of treatment again and I
would recommend this treatment toanyone . . . I personally experienced thebenefits of it.”As the evidence for the effectiveness of
trauma interventions such as Matrix
Reimprinting, EFT and breathing techniques
continue to grow, it is envisaged that theuse of energy psychology therapies will
expand and their influence will have a keyrole in the recovery from trauma.
Dr. Elizabeth Boath is Chair of the AAMET(Association for the Advancement of Meridian
Energy Therapies) Research Committee. As anadvanced EFT and Matrix Reimprinting
practitioner and Matrix Reimprinting
trainer, Elizabeth has a keen interest in energy
psychology. She is also a clinical hypnotherapist,
Emotion Code and Reiki practitioner.
Continued on page 126
Caroline Rolling has been a practitioner andtrainer in Energy Psychologies since 2008 and
was among the first people trained in Matrix
Reimprinting. Caroline grew up in and married
into a Service family and has a special interest in
the effects of trauma and stress on communities.
She has a long background in the voluntary
sector in Youth and Community Development
and helping combat social isolation in older
people in local neighborhoods experiencing
Continued on page 126

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 41

Using Emotional Freedom Technique
To Treat Veterans with PTSD

By Tom Porpiglia, LMHC

Veterans hold a special place in my heart. As a non-combat Vietnam
Veteran, I had no idea how my tour of duty had affected me until the Persian Gulf
War started in August of 1990. That brief military action brought up layers of fear
I had stuffed just to get through my year in country.
Traditional therapy had been helpful, but it was slow and incomplete.
Some aspects of my memories like guilt and anger never went away. The sight orsound of “Huey” helicopters triggered me as well as news stories on TV, especiallyat Christmas or Thanksgiving. I had delayed onset posttraumatic stress disorder(PTSD). Monson’s (2006) research demonstrated that traditional methods ofcounseling FAIL 60% of our veterans, meaning that they did not achieve subclinical PTSD levels. The research also demonstrated that 50% of the veteransexperienced no improvement at all.
Treatment proved elusive until I experienced Emotional Freedom
Technique (EFT) after a 1998 snorkeling incident in Jamaica. Up to that point I
had been on a silent quest to find a better treatment approach for trauma and
PTSD, for myself and my clients. My quest was fulfilled when I learned about EFTand experienced a profound healing effect.

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 42

What is EFT?
EFT or tapping, developed by Gary Craig,
is a simplified version of Dr. Roger
Callahan’s Thought Field Therapy. EFT isbased in acupuncture and is often referred
to as acupuncture for the emotions
without needles We have the client recall
a distressing memory (exposure therapy)(Lane 2009; Wolpe & Wolpe, 1981), rate
the intensity, (SUDs or Subjective Units ofDistress) of the issue and then starttapping on the acupoints (specific points
on acupuncture paths or meridians)shown in the chart (somatic therapy)
while repeating a phrase related to thememory (cognitive therapy) to reduce theemotional intensity of the issue. Our goal
is to get the SUDS level to zero.

How Does EFT Work?
EFT works by down regulating the fight,
flight, freeze response governed by theamydgala. Research suggests that thetapping stimulates the production ofendogenous opioids, serotonin and gammaaminobutyric acid (GABBA) and regulates
cortisol, the main stress hormone (Akimoto
et al., 2003; Lane, 2009; Lee, Yin, Lee, Tsai
& Sim, 1982; Napadow et al., 2007; Ulett,1992). Together, all of these “chemical”
changes create “counterconditioning or
desensitization” (Feinstein 2008a, 2009).
This reduces the fear/distress response of
the amygdala and the limbic system(Feinstein, 2010). Lane (2009) goes into an
in-depth explanation of the mechanisms as
does Ruden (2005), which are beyond the
purpose of this article.
My personal interest extended into myeducational pursuits. While writing my final
paper on PTSD in veterans for my bachelor’s
degree (1996), I discovered veterans as awhole and individually do not want to open
up about their experiences and pain. This
supports a major concern in the EFT/energy
psychology community, because of
neuroplasticity, that talk therapy may
reinforce the existing neural networks
connected to the traumatic memories or retraumatize the veteran.

I certainly did not want to talk about myexperience, and my research into thesituation explained why. Society socializes
men to be tough and strong and not to feel.
Many men buy into the stigma that it is
weak to be emotional. The military
reinforces this, and then there is the combat
experience on top of that. There appears to
be an unspoken code that says, one does
not talk about these experiences because
nobody wants to hear about it, they will not
be able to understand it or deal with it. Not
to mention, talking about the war and theirexperiences brings up the pain they have
tried to avoid all along.
Nobody wants to re-experience those
painful memories, they just want to put
them behind themselves. Unfortunately, it
does not work that way.
For my own part, I discounted all the fearand pain I had experienced until anotherveteran who was also a therapist informedme that as long as I discounted myexperience, I would not heal. I got it in that
instant that I needed to acknowledge andfeel the pain. Again, this provided limited
healing.

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 43

Our research demonstrated that EFT could
create significant, sustainable outcomes.
The Veterans Stress ProjectIn 2008, I became involved with the
Veterans Stress Project. The purpose of the
project was to document outcomes using
EFT on PTSD symptomology. One
advantage of EFT is that we can teach it toveterans and encourage them to use it
between sessions. During sessions, veteranstap on specific treatment points while telling
their story, to reduce the emotional content
of the memory and therefore reducing theirdistress level of the memory. It is also quitepossible that EFT is unwiring existing neuralnetworks related to the traumas. We doknow from other research that EFT
facilitates changes in brain waves fromstates of high arousal to states of calmer,
more peaceful brain wave activity (Feinstein,2012; Groesbeck & Bach, 2011).

The project recruited qualified, EFT coaches/practitioners across the United States tooffer veterans six free sessions lasting one
hour each, so we could gather data, have it
analyzed by our lead researcher Dawson
Church, PhD, then peer reviewed andpublished. Each Coach had to fill out aprofessional background profile,contractually agree to follow standards andprocedures set forth by the primary
investigating organization, agree to follow
the Association of Comprehensive Energy
Psychology Code of Ethics, and pass the

CITI Ethics exam to qualify as a coach. The
research was also governed by an IRB. We
were given a standard tapping protocol tofollow which we also gave to the veteransfor their own use.
Fifty-nine veterans were recruited in a
number of ways: word of mouth, personal
contact, brochures, press releases, and a
web site. We evaluated each veteran at the
beginning of treatment (see table one).
Thirty veterans started treatment
immediately and we randomly placed 29
veterans on a 30-day wait list to provide acontrol group. We reevaluated the control
group after 30 days to determine if theirintake scores had changed. Invariably, thechanges were insignificant; time does notheal these types of wounds.
Once veterans started treatment, we reevaluated them after three and six sessions,and then stopped treatment. We evaluatedthem again after three and six months. After
six months, they were allowed to return fortreatment if they wanted. We tracked somestudy participants for up to one year after
treatment. Our research demonstrated that
EFT could create significant, sustainableoutcomes. All study data can be reviewed inthis paper: Church et al., Psychologicaltrauma in veterans using EFT (Emotional
Freedom Techniques): A randomized
controlled trial.

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 44

Table One: Evaluation Tools Used
Evaluation Tool
PTSD Check List -Military PCL-M
Symptoms Assessment – 45
questions-SA-45
Insomnia Severity Index ISI
Confidential Health History Physical Symptoms – 27 total

Min. Score
17

Max Score
85

45

225

0

28

Never

Occasional

Higher is better

Lower isbetter

The PCL-M is a 17-question, military version,
symptoms assessment check list. The SA-45
is a 45 question check list that assesses avariety of psychological symptoms. The ISI a
5 question symptoms assessment about thequality of sleep.
The confidential health history assessed anumber of physiological symptoms, including
symptoms of Traumatic Brain Injury, on thebasis of how often they were experienced:
never, occasional, or frequent. Symptoms
assessed were stomach pain, back pain, pain
in arms legs and joints, headaches, chest
pain, feeling the heart pound or race,shortness of breath, constipation, loose
bowels or diarrhea, nausea, gas orindigestion in the past four weeks.
The health history also asked about
recurrent headaches, high blood pressure,seizures, head injuries, concussion injuries,
bleeding from the nose, mouth or ears,
dizziness, memory loss, loss of
consciousness under 30 minutes, loss of
consciousness over 30 minutes, full or
partial loss of vision, difficulty reading or
writing, decrease or loss of hearing, tinnitus,
inability to tolerate light, diminished sense of
taste or smell and fainting spells. These
were also rated on the basis of never,occasional or frequent.
I worked with 32 veterans. Thirteencompleted the program. I worked with someof veterans in person, some over the phone,and some via Skype. This was done to prove>50 = Clinical PTSD
Higher = more
symptoms>15 = Clinical
Insomnia
Frequent
Lower is betterthat the medium of delivery did not matterand that EFT was effective provided in avariety of methods. One veteran felt somuch relief that he dropped out after fourphone sessions because there were no moretraumatic memories to process. Several
were combat veterans and others were noncombat veterans who developed PTSD as
the result of their jobs in the military. Manyof the combat veterans had been in
traditional therapy in the VA for years
without significant relief.
Two cases stand out in my mind, and I will
share some the details here without
disclosing specific memories or incidents.
Instead, I will offer observations andoutcome scores based on the tools used.
Number 8
One of the early vets I worked with was aVietnam Veteran who had witnessed thedeath of his friend during a firefight. The
friend died right next to him and he wasunaware of it until he reached over to his
friend for more ammunition. I will call him#8 as that was his anonymous number inthe program.
When #8 arrived, I thought that he had
Tourette's Syndrome. He was experiencing
significant body twitches. These twitchesalso showed up in his speech, similar to
stuttering and not quite the same. He wason 12 medications. He was fed up with the
VA and wanted relief. He had a history ofSomatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 45

being addicted to oxycodone, using it to manage pain; however, he was currently
free from that addiction.
Table Four
#8 Evaluation Scores

Evaluation Tool
PTSD Check List - PCL-M

Intake Score
74

6th Session Score
64

Symptoms Assessment - SA45
Insomnia Severity Index ISI

165

139

10

10

>50 = Clinical
PTSD>15 = Clinical
Insomnia

Table Five
#8 Physical Symptoms Inventory
Physical Symptoms – 27
total
IntakePost 6th Session

Never

Occasional

Frequent

10
15

13
6

8
6

The most obvious visual outcome at the endof six sessions with EFT was that as wetapped through his traumatic memories, thephysical and vocal twitches diminishedalmost to the point of not existing. Thisappeared to be somewhat strange as his
PCL-M score only dropped 10 points, andyet there was a significant change in how
his body was handling the traumatic
memories. He also went from using alcohol
up to three times a month to not using
alcohol at all. Unfortunately, he died fromother physical illnesses, and was not able toreturn for more help after a 6-monthhiatus.
Number 22
The second case is significant to me. I havefull permission of disclosure, as a local TV
station did three segments about this work
(http://www.lifescriptcounseling.com/
veterans.htm).

Participant #22 was a sniper in the Armyfor 12 years. He had serious PTSD, family
troubles in many forms, attempted “suicide
by cop”, meaning that he attempted to
provoke a police officer into shooting him.
On the anniversary of 9/11, he got drunk,
passed out in his driveway with a saber inhis hand, and came to with a police officer
standing over him with a weapon pointed athim. Because of his inebriation, he thought
he was still in combat and had analtercation with the officer. He ended up in
jail.
When #22 arrived in my office, both he andhis wife were desperate for answers andrelief. He had been through NINE different
treatment modalities without significant
relief. He had been through 1) cognitive
behavioral therapy; 2) cognitive processing
therapy; 3) meditation in a monastery; 4)massage therapy; 5) Reiki; 6) nutritionalcounseling; 7) hypnosis; 8) medications;and 9) exposure therapy. This is an unusual

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 46

number of treatment modalities, which goesto show how desperate this man and hiswife were to achieve relief for him and his
family.

Table Six
#22 Evaluation Scores
Evaluation Tool
PTSD Check List - PCL-M
Symptoms Assessment - SA45
Insomnia Severity Index - ISI

He said that in the past when he started“therapy” with a new clinician of any type,he ended up in the hospital. That did not
happen this time. He reported that there
was a lack of rage, irritability, andnightmares after the session.

Intake Score
70
130

6th Session Score
24
59

6 Month Score
28
66

17

5

13

Table Seven#22 Physical Symptoms Inventory
Physical Symptoms – 27
total
IntakePost 6th Session
6 Month Follow-up

Never

Occasional

Frequent

5
9
7

10
15
15

9
1
3

He was also using recreational drugs over
10 times per month. He was on 6 mg of
Abilify, an anti-psychotic often combinedwith anti-depressants to treat major
depressive disorder, three times a day alongwith 50 mg of Citalopram, a Selective
Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) dailyfor depression.
The TV interview consumed forty-fiveminutes of our first meeting, and we thenspent 15 minutes tapping on a disturbing
memory of a tow bar on a truck breaking
loose and swinging into an oncoming
vehicle, cutting the driver in half at the
waist. Children were somehow involved andhe did not know what happened to them.
His SUDs level (Subjective Unit of Distress)
when we started was a 9. When we finishedit was a ZERO.
When #22 came back nine days later for his
first full hour session, he reported
something that I found profound and brings
tears to my eyes when I relate the story.

Over the next five hours, we continued towork on distressing memories with EFT.
Memories about children used as humanshields, the killing of children, being
ambushed in a market where weapons werebeing sold, feeling as if he was a coward
because he dropped his weapon and more.
He remembered exactly when and where heturned into a “monster,” becoming a tool
doing a job and human life did not mean
anything anymore. That was an 8 (SUDS)
when we started and we got it down to a 1,
along with collapsing his “reputation forbeing dangerous.” Some of the traumatic
memories were about his superiors treating
him “like shit” for doing his job.
His medication had also changed from 18
mg of Abilify a day to 6 mg per day. He wastaken off the Citalopram and placed on thetricyclic Clomipramine, 50 mg per day
indicating both a decrease in depressive
symptoms; therefore, he need lessmedication as well as the need for a

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 47

different medication to manage the existing
symptoms. Sometimes, certain medications
become ineffective over time depending on
the individual and the severity of symptoms.
At the end of six months, he had ceasedusing recreational drugs. His physicalsymptoms did not change significantly fromhis sixth session evaluation. He was nolonger on prescription medications, instead
using St. John’s Wort and Valerian Root tomanage any depression and anxiety he wasexperiencing. Again, these changes are
significant compared to what traditional
methods of treating PTSD can accomplish.
The Reality of Combat for Veterans
Many veterans have a mistrust of the VA or
are dissatisfied with the outcomes. Some
live in areas where they do not have access
to VA services. Others will not go to the VA
because they do not want the diagnosis on
their record. I have been told that in someinstances, a diagnosis of PTSD can affecttheir ability to carry firearms as a police
officer in civilian life or lose a security
clearance. I have been unable to verify theaccuracy of these statements. There is still
the stigma that this normal response tohighly abnormal experiences is a sign ofweakness, especially in men.
Compounding this problem is the fact thatmany veterans end up in law enforcement,
fire departments, and other first responder
positions. Most people do not realize thatthe effects of trauma are cumulative. The
more traumas one experiences, the more
the body reacts in various ways, attempting
to heal or at least get ones attention thatsomething is wrong and needs to beattended to. There are also veterans whobelieve they cannot be helped and that
there is no way out of the quagmire;consequently, 22 veterans commit suicideeach day (http://www.va.gov/opa/docs/
suicide-data-report-2012-final.pdf).
Now that the military employs women in
more positions than ever before and there isan open policy about being gay, there isanother level of trauma happening that inmany cases does not have to do with

combat: Military Sexual Trauma, or MST,
and statistics say that it is higher among
men than in women.
Those of us who have used EFT for at least
two years or more were well aware of how
effective EFT is on PTSD. Until this study,
we had no scientific data to back up the
anecdotal reports of people becoming freefrom the effects of trauma. Additionally,
even though EFT is considered a benign,
harmless technique that does not require aprescription, the VA would not consider it
without traditional, scientific research data.
Unfortunately, for veterans, the VA still does
not employ EFT.
To find out more about the Veterans Stress
Project, visit http://www.stressproject.org.
To read more about EFT visit http://
www.eftuniverse.com or visit my web site
listed below.
Tom Porpiglia, LMHC is in private practicein Webster, NY. He specializes in using
Emotional Freedom Technique on traumas ofany type. His website iswww.lifescriptcounseling.com and he may
be contacted at
info@lifescriptcounseling.com or 585-7040376.
References
Akimoto, et al., (2003). Acupuncture and responses of
immunologic and endocrine markers during
competition. Medical Science and Sports
Exercise, 3598, 1296-1302.
Church, et al., (2010). Psychological trauma inveterans using EFT (Emotional Freedom
Techniques): A randomized controlled trial.
Poster session at the 31st Annual Meeting &Scientific Sessions of the Society of Behavioral
Medicine, Seattle, April 7-10, 2010. http://
www.energymed.org/ep/hold2.pdf
Feinstein, D., (2010). Rapid treatment of PTSD: Why
psychological exposure with acupoint tapping
may be effective. Psychotherapy: Theory,
Research, Practice, Training 47(3), 385-402.
Available from https://innersource.net/ep/
images/stories/downloads/mechanisms.pdf
Continued on page 50

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 48

“Another case stands out in my mind, a client I worked withoutside of the study using the same protocol.”Tom Porpiglia shares another experience using EFT, although the data was notpart of the study:“She was stationed in Oman at a hospital supply depot and perceived that she was in acombat zone. This is important to understand because that perception whether accurate
or not caused her to be in fear and experience events as traumatic when they may nothave been. Trauma is a personal experience, and what one person considers traumatic
may not be considered traumatic by another.
When she came back stateside, the VA diagnosed her with bipolar disorder; there was nosuch diagnosis before her deployment. The VA placed her on medications that caused her
to present with a flat affect. Carrying on a conversation was difficult at best. As anexperiment, I had her fill out the forms as if she were not on medications. She reported
that if she was not on medications she could not do the paperwork; however, she wasable to do it “AS IF” she was not on meds. Table Two shows intake scores and initial “ASIF” scores.
Table Two
TPE1 Evaluation Scores

Evaluation Tool

IntakeIntake6th Session

PTSD Check List

Score
33

“AS IF”
79

Score
25

Symptoms Assessment

104

183

61

SA-45
Insomnia Severity

15

28

15

>50= =
Clinical
PTSD

PCL-M

>15 =
ClinicalInsomnia

Index - ISI

Table Three
TPE1 Physical Symptoms Inventory

Physical Symptoms – 27
total
IntakePost 6th Session

Never

Occasional

Frequent

10
20

14
7

2
0

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 49

However, ”as if” evaluations are not considered valid measures. I chose to work with her
because I wanted to determine if EFT could cut though the medication and restore her
affect. It did and I was elated. As we approached the third session, her face started tocome alive, she was able to converse better and offer more clarity about her experiences.
There was actually a glimmer of a smile emerging.
Interestingly enough, her PCL-M score after the third session went up to 40. Her
explanation was that she was remembering more stuff that had happened. I did not do an“as if” measure to determine what her scores would have been at this point. I have had
occasional public contact with her and she always reports that she is doing well and looks
alive.

Porpiglia References continued from page 48

Kamamalani References
Continued from page 77

Feinstein, D. (2012). What does energy have to dowith Energy Psychology? Energy Psychology
4:2 Nov. 2012, 59-80

Macy, J., & Johnstone, C. (2012). Active hope: How
to face the mess we're in without going crazy.
Novato, California: New World Library.

Groesbeck, G., & Bach, D. (2011)/ EFT and brain
waves. The Energy Field, Jan. 2011, 6.
Lane, J. R. (2009).The neurochemistry ofcounterconditioning: Acupressuredesensitization in psychotherapy. Energy
Psychology 1:1 Nov. 2009, 33-44.
Lee, Y., Lee, T., & Sim. (1982). Effects of acupuncture
on serum cortisol level and dopamine betahydroxylase activity in normal Chinese.
American Journal of Chinese Medicine, 10(14), 62-69.
Monson, C. M., et al. (2006). Cognitive processing
therapy for veterans with military-related
posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal ofConsulting and Clinical Psychology, Oct: 74(5):898-907.

Marshall, G. (2014). Don't even think about it: Why
our brains are wired to ignore climate change.
New York: Bloomsbury.
Mills, S. (2002). Epicurean simplicity. CA: A
Shearwater Book, Island Press.
Randall, R., & Brown, A. (2015). In time fortomorrow? The Carbon Conversations
Handbook. Stirling, Scotland: The Surefoot
Effect.
Vidal, J. (2010). ‘UN Environment Programme: 200
Species Extinct Every Day, Unlike Anything
Since Dinosaurs Disappeared 65 Million Years
Ago’, Huffington Post, 17/8/2010.

Napadow, et al. (2007). Hypothalamus and amygdala
response to acupuncture stimuli in Carpal
Tunnel Syndrome. Pain, 130(3), 254-266.
Porpiglia, T. (1996). Post traumatic stress disorder inveterans. http://www.lifescriptcounseling.com/
myarticles/vetsptsd.pdf
Ruden, R. (2005). Why tapping works. Association ofComprehensive Energy Psychology Conference, http://
www.lifescriptcounseling.com/research/whyitworks.pdf
Ulett, G. A. (1992). Beyond yin and yang: How
acupuncture really works. St. Louis: Warren
S. Green, 38-53
Wolpe, J., & Wolpe, D. (1981). Our useless fears.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 48-61.

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 50

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 51

Deep Play: Exploring the Use of Depth
Psychotherapy with Children

Edited by Dennis McCarthy, LMHC
Reviewed by Nancy Eichhorn, PhD

I interned with children ages 5 to 18 in a traditional cognitive behavioralbased community mental health clinic. I instinctively brought in boxes of “stuff”. Clients
created sock puppets who then told elaborate stories, acted out dramatic scenes.
Building blocks, Legos, small plastic figurines, paper, pens, Crayolas, paints, clay andsand brought life to wordless experiences. Perhaps 14 years teaching in elementary
school systems influenced my desire to play with clients not sit and talk with them. And
when the time felt right, we stopped to watch our sensations, to see what arose in ourbodies when stories happened, slowing the process down when appropriate. Mostly, I
followed the children’s lead.
Honestly, I love to play, though my definition of play may not exactly matchyours. For me, there’s joy in creating new pathways in clay, in sand, in words on a
blank page, as well as in snow, or dirt or mud. The material used is not as important as
the journey, innately trusting the story that arises as I follow new routes into theunconscious, into the unknown fueling my creation. There’s satisfaction in simply doing
and then looking back to witness what I have done.

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 52

came to visit with his Jeep. He wasn’t intoriding horses, which of course Skipper
loved). There were Tinker Toys, Lincoln logs
and Legos. Erector sets. Hammers, nails,
cast off wood scrapes, old rags and bits ofthis’s and that’s in the garage. I craftedmany a vessel to chart the unknown seas
after heavy rains flooded our gutters andoverran the small stream running through aneighbor’s property. As I grew older I
immersed myself in the artistry ofchemistry sets, sand sculpting, andceramics then moved into outdoor pursuits.
Trail running along the river, writing in myjournal beside the river, laying in the sun
telling myself stories based on the cloudformations overhead. Nature became mysolace, my connection to self andsomething greater than me.

When I received Dennis McCarthy’sbook on Deep Play: Exploring the Use of
Depth in Psychotherapy in Children, mymind of course went back to my definitionof play, to the deeper resonance I felt
within myself as I left the stress of my“real” life and submerged myself in othercharacter’s worlds. Play has always been apart of my life, a way to sink into mysteryand imagination, to leave reality behind.
Doodles of creatures to converse with,mazes to conquer, and scenes I envisioned
myself experiencing fill the pages ofnotebooks. I have fond memories snuggling
with special stuffed animals and sharing
adventures with Skipper (Barbie’s younger
friend) and as we rode our horses acrossforeign lands; together she and I faced
body image issues, dating fears (my friend
across the street had ‘Ken’ who regularly

I opened McCarthy’s book with a senseof play and freedom. I was unprepared forthe level of depth the contributors
experienced with their clients, the immense
traumas lived through and enacted withinsand boxes. The monsters these young
children endured and then explored within
the safety of sand: deep sand affording
deep tunnels, deep holes, floods and fights
between good and evil with mass
destruction and annihilation initially thetypical outcome. I felt mesmerized by thetruth of the case histories and anger’s heatas I read about the complete lack of adultcompassion and love that many of thesechildren experienced from conception
onward, the outright abuse andabandonment, the overwhelm and fear. I
read scene after scene enacted in thetherapists’ sand boxes with plastic figurines,
with clay sculptures and hammers to smash
them, with swords and other accoutrements
to accent the storyline, the movement fromstuck to flowing, from dissociation toconnection, from isolation to attunement. I
felt the wonder and the magic of the work
being shared.
The Book Itself
There are ten chapters in this anthology,
including one by the editor, Dennis
McCarthy. All provide detailed case studies.

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 53

All provide extensive citations,
grounding the work in peer reviewed
literature. There are pictures portraying thecreatures clients created, the worlds they
constructed to face their foes. One
contributor’s initial meeting with a young
male client prompted him to meet with his
supervisor (McCarthy) for guidance, for
direction. Most are written in an embodied
style that bring the reader into the moment,
into the feelings and sensations exploredand exposed during the sessions. Somechapters pulled me deeper into the playthan others, the writing more personal,
more poignant, perhaps more attuned tosome of my professional experiences,perhaps resonating with strains of personalchildhood wounds.
Dr. Sue Jennings’ chapter begins thecollection with an anthropological offering ofplay in the form of trance and séance within
the Senoi Temiar people. Timothy Rodier
writes about the power of tunnels and cave
imagery to access the inner imaginative
world while Julie Lyon Rose shares stories ofrevolution and epiphany in deep sand.
Michelle Rhodes’s story depicts the changing
imagery she witnessed with an 8-year-old
male client she called Pete, who wasdiagnosed with a social anxiety disorder. Hisbehavior interfered with normal family life.
She depicts his work with water and sandand the detailed narratives he created toeventually bring “structure into contact withchaos”. In one scene he buries a skeleton

then resurrects it only to shove it into a
corner and immobilize it again. The young
boy moves from sand to clay to drawings,
from figurines and representations that

continually disintegrate into chaos to threemain characters that returned each week inhis ‘play’. As Rhode writes, “While it is ahuman struggle to find balance between theforces of order and chaos, it is a core issue
for those such as Pete whose neurologicalwiring makes them particularly vulnerable toobsessive-compulsive behaviors. . . ” (pg.
72). She also offers a discussion on the useof deep imagery and symbolism, whether it
be Jungian archetypes or Freudian drive
theory. Taking a phenomenologicalapproach, she writes that we can attempt tosee and describe the image itself in detail. .
. . we can rely on specific information
coming from the client, with no associationfrom the therapist. “Regardless of theapproach taken,” she writes, “there is no
way of knowing exactly what any image
really means inside of Pete’s psyche. I
cannot tell him or his parents, or you thereader, what it all means. It was myexperience that my own observations andreverie helped me to be attuned to Pete’s
process . . .” (pg. 74).
Tim Woodhouse writes about “the most
toxic boy in the world’s search for mum”,
Therese Bimka shares two case studies
about female clients who come from a
deeply soul-filled, creative space to invite
the essential Self to come out and play yet
are disappointed by the real world’s
constrictive requirement to conform: “Inessence, the energetic power of these big
and active imaginations is often in conflict

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 54

“ . . . I often felt quiet anxious as they created worlds of sandand clay, paper and ink. Was my role just to watch or could I
be more active? . . . ”
with the need to function in this world” (pg.
105). She depicts her use of Jungian
sandplay therapy, Soulcollage, expressive
arts, and a variety of mindfulness based
practices to work on the body-mind-spirit
level via guided visualizations andmeditation. Dennis McCarthy, Neal Brodsky,
Alan Spivack (who had a stroke in 2013 andcontinued to write his chapter as hehealed), and Rob Greene share case studies
detailing the need for long term therapy, fordeepening and improving family
connections, and body-centered,imaginative play as well as the integrationof Core Energetics (pioneered by John
Pierrakos, MD, who blended body
psychotherapy with spiritual development).
Brodsky’s chapter offered an insightful
look into a therapist authentically struggling
with how to work with two clients, one
young man he called Victor and anothernamed Kenny (all identifying information inthis anthology has been changed to protect
the clients’ identities). Brodsky writes, “Thischapter focuses on two cases where a
combination of body-centered Core
Energetics including expressive arts andsandplay allowed two boys to find their own
channels for concrete achievement andgrowing independence in the context ofcomplex and often challenging family
lives.” (pg. 143).

I was fascinated by the adaptation ofCore Energetics (CE) for use with children
and adolescents. The use of bodily
movements such as standing with the knees
unlocked and softening to create a postureknown as the bow in CE to increase
grounding and presence. Bringing the bodyin, taking time to connect and sense andfeel what is happening during the play. “Thegoal,” Brodsky writes, “was to complementthe ‘big energy work’ he’d just done

through an energetic ‘pulsation’ or‘vibration’ he could feel through his entire
body, as the partially exhausted
musculature of his legs shook and vibrated
gently” (pg. 161).
I appreciated Brodsky’s honesty when
he writes about connecting with his
supervisor, (Dennis McCarthy) for
assistance. It felt gratifying to know that apracticed therapist easily reached out for
help, didn’t have to take on the process in
isolation, letting community—colleagues—
offer insight into the current situation andthoughts about where to go next.
Brodsky also offered his outlet for
dealing with the intensity of the deep play.
As he writes, “Helping ‘depth work’ tohappen with children like Victor was noteasy for me at first, especially in the arenaof expressive arts that went beyond words.
I often felt quiet anxious as they createdworlds of sand and clay, paper and ink. Was
my role just to watch or could I be more
active? To soothe my own restlessness, I
had taken on a parallel practice where I
wrote my responses in poetry as children
expressed themselves through images andstructure, reaching for my own inner depth
in service of the children who were sharing
their worlds with me” (pg.148).
He then shared the poems he wrote as
Victor delved into his own process. For
instance, when Victor filled a globe withwater to dump into a sandtray world,
Brodsky wrote (pg. 148):“Water contained in layers of multi-coloredsand.
Deep box smoothing the creative urge,
magnifying my own clear growth.
Lights dance in crystal round-ness.
My own hands pressing into the mountain.”Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 55

The chapter is an interesting interweaveof these two boys’ individual work, withfamily therapy (Brodsky’s wife is a therapist
and they offer couples and family therapy),
with Brodsky’s poetry, and interestingly
enough, the boys interactions indirectly with
one another through interventions used in
the therapy room as they completed with
one another—Brodsky had created a hitting
contest to see who could pound on a large
foam cube with a bataka to build up anddischarge energy. He had printed and hunga chart on the wall displaying theindividual’s first initial of his/her name andthe number of whacks).
The Most Toxic Boy in the World’s
Search for Mum
The most compelling chapter for me
was Woodhouse’s case study of a young boy
he called Oliver. He opened the chapter witha discussion about disorganized attachment
patterns, about histories with unresolved
loss and trauma that remain unprocessed
and unmetabolized and therefore untamed
that are thus destined to return again andagain . . . and how these experiences blockthe child (or adult) from linking his carereceiving experiences, emotions and bodily
reactions or actions together. Fragmentationand dissociation lead to feelings ofhelplessness and hopelessness that any
family will ever be able to contain the child.

brain is a social organ. Relationships thatcause pain teach children that their role in
the group is tenuous, their existence
unnecessary, and their future survival is inquestion” (pg. 83). Woodhouse depicts thephysical nature of this place of anxious
unrest as well as the behavioral outcomes.
“This boy was not afraid,” Woodhouse
writes, “he was terrified.” Over the course oftherapy, Oliver worked through his
intensity. Woodhouse and Oliver developed
resourcing activities allowing Oliver to stayin the ‘here and now’ while looking back on
the ‘there and then.’ The storylines
traversed a long span of hurt and sufferingthat ended with release and freedom fromthe pain that bound him. At the end of thechapter we see a young boy able to sink
into a new foster mother’s arms, towelcome the playfulness of a game of hideand seek knowing he would be found. I still
feel chills rewriting bits of this child’s story.
The incredible depth of his trauma, theincredible depth of his play, the incredible
ability Woodhouse portrayed to stay withthis client, to accept and love and contain,
to help him move out of his dramatic placeof being into a calm compassionate reality
touched me deeply.

Then he starts Oliver’s story.
Oliver, age 5, felt extremely anxious.
He lived in temporary foster care having
been removed from his parent’s home twoyears prior due to “domestic violence,physical abuse, and grinding neglect that hewas exposed to during his formative years.”
Despite being in a ‘safe’ place, Oliver wasn’t
safe. “Every fiber of his body almost
screamed at him, warning him that if
relaxed, relented, yielded, even just for a
moment, he would be in danger andperhaps even die” (pg. 83). Citing Cozolino(2006) on the nature of deep trauma,
Woodhouse writes, “The depth of harmcaused by neglect, abuse, and inadequate
nurturance rests on the fact that the humanSomatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 56

Bringing it together
McCarthy begins the Epilogue with aquote from Nishida, 1990: “Love is thedeepest knowledge of things. We can reachreality only through love.”
His writing is eloquent as he captured
the essence of experience editing this book:“ . . . The innate desire to speak our lives
through images, and to attempt to connect
with ‘the other’ and to ourselves throughthese connection, is always a revelation.
Even when we fail in these efforts, theimpulse to do so is moving. . . . If we see,feel, hear, and sense with Nishida’scomment on love kept in in mind, then theway forward is possible.”“What good is this knowledge in a war torn,
violent world?” he asks.
“Love,” he writes, “can in fact show us theway forward through the labyrinth. Then theheartaches we hear about and the wounds
we see revealed in the play become
intertwined with moments of joy that arise
from the creative process. The deeply

wounded child sits by the sand box andmakes a world in which the forces of evil
battle with the forces of good. Beneath it alllies a powerful treasure, named alternately‘the spark of life’ or ‘the goblet of light that
dispels darkness’ or simply ‘the one’. It is
this capacity that can make an impasse a
portal, a seemingly hopeless situation havepotential. In the shadow of an unravelingworld. It offers some glimmer of hope foreach or us and for all of us.”
For those who work with children, thecase studies in conjunction with thereflective analysis offer insight into ways todelve deeper into therapeutic encounters.
Ways to integrate materials such as sand,clay, drawing into each session. For those
who work with wounded children inside
adult bodies, the experiences and thecontent shed light onto ways early abuse/trauma lingers in the unreachable areas inour brain and offer ways to bring play, theimaginative symbolisms aching to speak,back in to the lexicon of psychotherapeuticinterventions.

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 57

The Deep Play Project
By Dennis McCarthy

I set out wanting to compile and edit a book called “Deep Sand –Exploring a Body Centered Approach to Psychotherapy with Children”,
with chapters by various therapists who used a deep sandbox as part of their workwith children and that embraced some version of a somatic oriented approach, notnecessarily mine. This immediately became a problem as there were very few
therapists I could find who used a deep box. (Why this is so could be the subjectof another book.) So I modified the book’s theme to that of considering the idea of
depth in general, i.e. the idea of embracing body, mind, psyche, instincts, all in
the context of play. I wanted psychotherapists to contribute who valued descent,eschewing the linear for the vertical and the labyrinthine in their thinking. I
wanted those contributing to have their own views on this process and hoped
these would be compatible with my own. A few of the therapists were fairly new
to working with children, while others had done so for decades. I also didn’t want
my contribution via the introduction to be too focused on negating the shallow box
and shallow theoretical approach to play (but here I am again tempted to do so!)Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 58

witness to many, many thousandsof sand worlds, monster drawings
and play configurations made byyoung children with a vast variety
of problems. And I am struck
continually by both the complexityand paradox of children’s play.
“Whatever you think it’s morethan that, more than that…” arethe words to an old folk rock song
I do not have permission to quote
more fully. And this feels like aconstant guide for me.

I have a profound faith in thepossibility that a child sitting by a
deep sandbox and digging into its
depths might encounter awellspring of healing there. The
awkward but genuine encounter of
two souls playing, dancing,
sculpting with clay, drawing
improvisationally, exploring a
dream, or exploring the creative
expression of emotion may allow
for a freeing up of new energies
that affect the child, a new way of
being in their bodies, a new andmore functional way ofexperiencing and expressing
themselves.
The chapters were a challenge to edit
for two reasons. The editing rules regarding
citing and/or quoting other authors are very
complex and confusing today. For example,
I wanted to begin with a poem by Pablo
Neruda and received permission to do sofrom the Neruda Society in Spain but notfrom the American translator of this poem.
Each author had to negotiate these rules.
Secondly, I had to weigh using the author’s
ideas and language even when I didn’t fully
agree with them.
There is an ongoing urge toward theformulaic and simplistic in mostcontemporary psychotherapy. Many of themore recent techniques are exciting but
they often disregard the complexity of thehuman organism in what feels like a
reductionist view of life. I have been

Hopefully the book communicates theenthusiasm all the contributors feel about
this version of the psychotherapeutic
process.
Dennis McCarthy, LMHC, trained initially as adancer and dance therapist and went on to train
in Bioenergetic Analysis and Jungian Analysis,
and was in treatment in all three modalities.
With 40 years of experience, he created his own
approach to play therapy that is body-centeredand imagination-drive. He has authored many
articles and several books on his work. He
trains and supervises many therapists andmaintains a large private practice in Kingston,NY. He also leads a biannual workshop for
personal growth in the Greek islands called “TheHeart Leaps Up . . .” that explores the overlapof personal process and mythic story.

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A Reflection on the Writing of
Subcutaneous, Subcortical, Subconscious andSubterranean:

The Most Toxic Boy in the World’s Search for Mum.

By Tim Woodhouse

When Dennis first approached me to write a chapter on ‘DeepPlay’, I experienced a gamut of emotions from my initial feelings ofdelight and I must admit some pride, which very quickly gave way toapprehension and concern that my writing style may give me away as
being neither an academic, nor a story-teller. Once I managed torecognise these feelings as my own childhood scripts I was able toharness them and regulate my growing unease, which allowed the
feelings to abate; this was old-stuff. Relieved of these constraints I set
about the task for which I had been assigned; to consider the notion of‘Deep Play’.

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As my body relaxed my mind freed up.
With my higher cortex back on-line mymind opened up and two boys swam into
my consciousness. The two boys wereseparated by 25 years in my career but
shared the same backgrounds, articulated
their pain both in their symptomatic
behaviours and in their cognitive
verbalisations. The first child I described
was Elliott, who had a worker that wasneither a therapist, nor experienced (I know
this for I was that social worker described in
the chapter). The only tools I had available
in my therapeutic tool box was a desire tohelp and a craving for knowledge. The
second child, Oliver was referred to me
when my therapeutic tool-box had become
somewhat fuller and my knowledge had
expanded over the intervening period andhad gained an ability to offer greater depth.
The process I went through was a mild
form of the children’s experience. It was therecognition that our development affects
how we see and interact with the world,
how it impacts on those we work with andhow owning our strengths and needs is the
only way of enabling ourselves andtherefore others, be they the hurt children
we see or the readers of our work. We haveto face our own pain before we can help
others face theirs.

him as he looks back from the here and now
to the there and then, and make sense ofthat old experience. How the child reaches
this place can vary but will invariably utilise
using the medium that enables him to feelcontained be it metaphor, symbolism, playor bodily action, reaction or somatised
feelings. Then, here in the depths, when thepain has subsided, transformation can
finally emerge allowing the child tocelebrate his survival and move on with hislife.
Tim Woodhouse is a registered non-directive
play and filial therapist, EMDR practitioner,
sensorimotor psychotherapist and ABE-approvedsocial worker who has worked therapeuticallywith children since 1991. He was a tutor on theLiverpool Hope MA and PG dip course in playtherapy and a visiting lecturer to Manchester
University’s Second Year MA social work
program. He worked for the UK nationalchildren’s charity NSPCC for 15 years and was afounding member of St Mary’s SARC children’sassault referral center in Manchester. He is thefounder and director of Tiptoes Child Therapy
Service—a provision that provides assessment
and therapeutic services for children affected bysexual trauma, for children who have sexuallyharmed others, and children with disrupted andinsecure or disorganized attachment patterns.

I then had to overcome how to give atrue and honest account of Oliver’s journey
without compromising his privacy and rightto confidentiality, this is a tall task as it
seemed that with every sentence more of
the child was in danger of being exposed.
However, once I learned how to effectively
conceal identities the chapter itself waswritten relatively quickly, I had lived theirexperiences and thus it felt real.
Finally, the question of what is ‘DeepPlay’?
As can be seen from the book, thenotion varies considerably from author toauthor, but for me, it is creating anenvironment that is not pain averse, thatenables and supports the child to get down
to the source of his pain, to stay alongside

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A Reflection
on the Writing of“Emergence:
A Tale of Two Boys”
By Neal H. Brodsky

The narrative that plays out in my chapter includes a powerful range ofchallenges within the families of the two boys profiled – adoption, problems withalcohol, separation and divorce, and issues of multi-cultural identity. I have been
affected personally by all of these within my own family system and so theemergence of these boys into their own power and agency within the course of thesessions was something that deeply touched me.

When emotions such as grief or terror arepresent, when the possibility of pleasure ispresent, we harm ourselves as humans
when we turn away from their explorationand expression. Both boys desperately
needed to feel what was really inside them,to step away in the therapy room from the“looking good” mentality that plagues mostof us culturally and contributes to theformation of bodily defenses against
breathing, movement, emotion and healing.

How does it feel to be “yelled at” by aparent or teacher you need and also
distrust? What is it like to be in a body thatlooks and feels, in part, a different color, ora different culture? Or have a creative mind
that is so quick it can hurt as you focus,
laser-like, on fear, loneliness and possible
rejection? Such experiences beg for
exploration of the underlying primitive
emotional responses that sometimes firstoccurred before a child had words. This isSomatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 62

why I am so passionate as are othercontributors to “Deep Play,” that therapy forchildren contain words but not be ruled bythem. This is also why therapeutic work thatcombines attention to bodily experience,
movement and dynamic play with various
media is so magical and effective withchildren.
On a surface level, I am dealing as atherapist with difficult family dynamics andchildren effected by them. At the next level,
I am aware and focused, when a young
person is in the room, on the emergence ofcharacter structure before musculature has
been patterned, molded and congealed tocreate the illusion of safety while effectively
but sadly holding back essential life force.
This patterning along with difficult life eventsand accompanying painful narratives is what
usually brings adult clients into my practice.
With children, I am working to see what canbe accomplished by stepping in at an earlier
stage before deeper “damage” is done.
My work is driven by awareness of what canhappen at its worst when a child “falls
through the cracks” since I live 20 miles
from Newtown, Connecticut, the place where
so many children were violently murdered
by a young person, undoubtedly in deep

pain himself. I learned how to “dive deep”
to the source of pain from my mentors andteachers in the Core Energetics community,from Dennis McCarthy through his practiceof dynamic play and from my wife, Judy
Gotlieb, who continues to support me andother colleagues with the adaptation of body-centered methods to heal children and help
families. Ultimately, the broader vision thatpropels me is the hope that through thiswork clients can access life with fuller
energy, clarity, purpose and peace – andthat a few more will come to feel thedeliciousness of just being on this earth.
And yes, I am graced with possibilities forhealing my own inner children along theway.
Neal Brodsky, M.P.A., LMFT, CCEP uses
expressive therapies to help young people,
adults and families create lives they love. He islicensed in Marriage & Family Therapy in New
York and Connecticut and certified in both Core
Energetics and Embodied Couples Work
(Exceptional Marriage Approach). For more, see
www.nealbrodsky.com or www.CoreForKids.com.
Neal serves as a Board Member of the To Be
Heard Foundation, which supports
powerpoetry.org, the worldwide online writing
community for young people. Prior to his work as
a therapist, he helped launch family and afterschool support programs, worked in cable andpublic television and helped create video andphotography for and with young people.

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 63

International Connections
By Dr. Asaf Rolef Ben-Shahar

The opposite of trauma
I rested in the arms of my arms
Dora Maar (1942-1943)

I rested in the arms of my arms
I no longer slept
It was night in the summer, winter in the day
An eternal shivering of thoughts
Fear love Fear love
Close the window open the window
You'll see you'll see
The hummingbird motionless as a star
I’ve been thinking about death lately.
I experience myself more fragile than
before. The last year brought excitingtransformation alongside with quite a lot of
pain, and big life decisions, which will
influence the rest of my life.
What I notice most, perhaps, is how
frightened I am, and how much I haveallowed this fear to shape and steer mydirection. I remember Alex, a client of mine,
telling me once, in one of our last sessions

how she realized that: “The opposite of love
is not hate, it is fear; the opposite ofsadness, happiness, joy and anger – fear isthe opposite of all these emotions.” I
thought I understood her then; today I cansay there is much more for me to learn
about fear and love.
I can see now how fear has controlled
me in numerous ways. Perhaps it hascontrolled many of us. Alex grew up in an
abusive family; her parents were both poor

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I want to write here about the opposite of trauma. Forme, it is not safety, but love. Safety and security exist on thesame dimension of trauma, they attempt to balance it, torepair those deep ruptures of our history. Love does
something else; it reminds us that we are more than trauma.
It reminds us of the reason we chose to embody.
had little education and no prospect ofmaking money and supporting themselvesor their families. This is not an excuse, ofcourse, but it’s a background against which
Alex’s life was set.
Poverty, class, war, racism, isolation,organised religion, crime, death, loss . . .
even though the people who arrive at ourclinic are mostly individuals, suffering is not
an individual business. It takes place inpolitical contexts, familial and societal ones,
and these contexts call for our attention.
Arguably, psychotherapy that doesn’t takethese factors into consideration is at risk ofcooperating with the same isolating powers
and global inducement of trauma. Reich
understood these powers, particularly in
The Mass Psychology of Fascism (1933), as
well as other psychotherapists andanalysts, like Julia Kristeva (1982), Nick
Totton (1997; 2006) and Peter Shcmid(2012), who went as far as claiming thatpsychotherapy has to be political in order
to be considered therapeutic.
As psychotherapists, we areaccustomed to search deep into theperson’s biographical traumas, yet thetraumas we hold, even those held in ourbodies, are not ours alone.
For example, Adina was 58 when shecame to therapy. Growing up with two
holocaust survivors, the fear of poverty andcatastrophe was deeply rooted in her bodyand psyche. Her cupboard was always fullwith food, canned food. Nobody should get
too close. Can such trauma be healed? Can
we convince the body that the war is over?

I don’t know. Really, I once believedthat if something is still alive it can behealed; today I am not too sure. So what isthere to speak of? In the face of infectious
trauma, what is there to be done? I want towrite here about the opposite of trauma.
For me, it is not safety, but love. Safety
and security exist on the same dimensionof trauma, they attempt to balance it, torepair those deep ruptures of our history.
Love does something else; it reminds usthat we are more than trauma. It reminds
us of the reason we chose to embody.
I wish to speak with you briefly about
love. In fact, I would like my heart to speak
in my stead because it is asking to do so.
My heart doesn’t write academically, nordoes it seek reason. When I remain soft,
my heart exclaims, hurt goes more deeply
inside but also doesn’t leave as manymarks. Alex told me how, when she learned
to love, it did not change the fear—it wasalways still there, but it paved a new path
into her life. This is what I do, the heartsays, I pave paths to newness, I pave
paths to connection, and connection
expands the container so that trauma nolonger rests in the limited person, it rests ina wider context. And pain, which is always
created in a larger context, cannot be
healed inside a person; it needs acommunity, even a community of two
would do.
You were my first love, Alex told me,
and then I learned to love my children andmyself, and my friends.

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Keeping the heart soft (not always
open, but engaging) is a difficult practice. It
leaves us vulnerable. And it is a disciplined
practice, as Erich Fromm wisely noted(1957). I often wish it could be easier.
Being angry, for example, comes moreeasily. Blaming myself and others is easiertoo. But it is not as gratifying.
I have often wondered, both in therapy
and more widely, if healing trauma should
focus more on love than on reparative
practices of safety and security (which are,of course, also necessary). What if the main
focus of psychotherapy with individuals,
couples, families, societies, was to cultivate
the capacity to love, to let our bodies soften
even in the presence of fear? Is it possiblethat the journey to recovery need notalways be linear, moving from terror
through security into love? Can love remind
us of its presence even when we are,allegedly, not ready for it? I hope so. Lovecan give me solace where security cannot, it
enlivens me, thrills me, reminds me of allthat I can become and retains my mystery– and that of the other.

2016). He is the Editor-in-Chief of the International
Body Psychotherapy Journal and an editor in Self &Society, Body Dance and Movement in Psychotherapy
and Psychotherapy and Politics International. Asaf is afather to two girls, a novice DJ, bird watcher andloves dancing and hiking.
References
Fromm, E. (1957). The Art of Loving. London:
Thorsons, 1995.
Kristeva, J., & Waller, M. (1982). Psychoanalysis andthe Polis. Critical Inquiry, 9(1, The Politics ofInterpretation), 77-92.
Maar, D. (1942-1943). I rested in the arms of myarms. In M. A. Caws (Ed.), Surrealist Love
Poems (pp. 82). London: Tate, 2001.
Reich, W. (1933). The Mass Psychology of Fascism.
New York: Orgone Institute Press, 1946.
Schmid, P. F. (2012). Psychotherapy is political or it is
not psychotherapy: The person-centeredapproach as an essentially political venture.
Person-Centred & Experiential
Psychotherapies, 11(2), 95-108.
Saint-Exupéry, A. de (1943). Le Petit Prince. Paris:
Editions Gallimard, 1973.Totton, N. (1997).
Not just a job: Psychotherapy as a spiritualand political practice. In R. House & N. Totton(Eds.), Implausible Professions: Arguments
for Pluralism and Autonomy in Psychotherapy
and Counselling. Ross-on-Wye: PCCS Books.
Totton, N. (Ed.). (2006). The Politics of
Psychotherapy: New Perspectives.
Maidenhead: Open University Press.

“Farewell,” said the fox. “Here is mysecret. It is very simple: It is with ourheart alone that we see rightly. The
essential is invisible to the eye.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Le Petit
Prince (1943, p. 72)

I hope that we can share some interests anddialogue, and I welcome your feedback,comments, questions and challenges. You canemail me at asaf@imt.co.il
Asaf Rolef Ben-Shahar, PhD, Israeli
psychotherapist, teacher and writer. He founded two
relational body psychotherapy programmes in Israel(Psychosoma) and the UK, and is regularly teaching
worldwide. Asaf authored two books (A Therapeutic
Anatomy, Pardes 2013; Touching the Relational Edge,
Karnac 2014) and co-edited with Liron Lipkies and
Noa Oster Speaking of Bodies (Karnac, 2016)
and When Hurt Remains – Relational Perspectives on
Therapeutic Failure (with Rachel Shalit, Karnac,

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Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 67

Connecting to the 'Primary Couple
Personality':
Couples Therapy with Body
Psychotherapy

By Gabriel ShirazSome 40 years ago, my teacher, Gerda Boyesen, wrote an article about the'Primary Personality' with which we are born. Within it are all the qualities,
potential, essence, flow of energy and sexuality in the body, the power of vitality,

and the fundamental love inherent within us. As we mature, our emotions, senses,
powers, and sexuality develop and express themselves. We overcome our fears
and our primary personality develops and grows stronger. In contrast, according toBoyesen, the 'Secondary Personality' develops over time, influenced by external
agents of oppression like our parents, education, early traumas, and the failure to
express emotions. It takes shape around our inner core, creating an 'armour'.
Sometimes this armour also hides our Primary Personality, our original potential
and qualities, and even makes them disappear.

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Through observation when conducting
therapeutic work with couples over the past
decade, I noticed that just as we each havean inner essence and a Primary Personalitythat is vital for us to connect to so we cangrow and flourish, in exactly the same way
every couple has a 'Primary Couple
Personality' generated with the encounter of
the two halves of a couple, an encounter
between qualities, emotions, patterns ofthought and behaviour; an encounter
between shared life-stories that create thecouple relationship. As the relationshipinitially takes shape between the couple,
there is a place of authentic connection,
without words and thoughts. A spiritualencounter between two people, a meeting of
one Primary Personality with another.
Potentially it is an encounter for profoundconnection and love. An encounter that’s
able to intensify and grow stronger as therelationship deepens in all strata, and as thefamily grows. Naturally, the moredifficulties, crises, poor communication, andgrowing apart occur, and when the couple
fails to invest in their relationship, the result
is a distancing from the individual Primary
Personality and the couple’s Primary
Personality.

feel that they were connected to eachother's Primary Couple Personality, and not
to their mutual couple relationship.
Wilhelm Reich, the father of body
psychotherapy, called for couples to performa 'joint creative endeavour'—a shared effortof the body, energy, emotions, mind, spirit,
breath, and soul. I believe that Reich's
words reflect the creative work of thePrimary Couple Personality.
A couple’s primary relationshipcomprises, among others, love,communication, intimacy, sexuality,
containment, confidence, acceptance, andgiving. Just as each of us has the capacity
to be connected individually to our Primary
Personality and to be happy and in balance
most of the time, so too a couple
relationship has the potential to be
structured by all that richness. It is therichness of the Primary Couple Personality.
Some couples connect directly to thePrimary Couple Personality in the midst offalling in love, with its euphoria, butterfliesin the stomach, tremendous excitement,
temporary blindness, and the desire to beconstantly together. But when couples arebuilding a relationship, friendship andintimacy also begin— a connection thatflourishes into love, and as their emotional
relationship deepens, a profound link iscreated to their inner core, to their qualities,
the love within them, and to their personaland couple primary personality.

When Idit and Daniel entered my clinic
for their first therapy session, Idit's slumped
way of walking and Daniel's hunched backand impaired breathing were obvious—aheavy and blocked energy, that reminded
me of armor, in this case, the 'armor of acouple'. I couldn't sense any energy,
closeness, or connection to vitality in eachone of them, and not as a couple. I couldn’t
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Frequently, at the very
start of a relationship, or
after the falling-in-loveperiod ends (a matter of afew months), we see thatdifficulties crop up, such as
disappointments,
frustrations, and impaired
confidence, stemming fromthe meeting between
wounds, between the
couple's differing lifestories. In other words, theSecondary Personality ofeach of them has created ashared Secondary Couple
Personality, which places
obstacles, triggers offcrises, and bars access to the essence of thePrimary Couple Personality.
An Example
I offer an example from therapy,
concerning a couple that underwent a
process of 'dissolving the couple's armour'and, in the course of therapy, connected totheir Primary Couple Personality.
Daniel (52) and Idit (50) came to couple
therapy following a marital crisis that led
them to feel they were living 'in parallel' toeach other, but not together. They havebeen married for 27 years and have fourchildren. They married out of love. Over theyears they drifted apart and the relationshipsoured. Daniel is an impressive man, selfcontrolled, and tough. He seemed
emotionally insensitive, as if his wife had'dragged' him to therapy. Idit is sensitive,
creative and brimming with softness. She
initiated the idea of therapy, since thefamily and their mutual relationship are very
dear to her; she strongly hoped to savetheir relationship and restore their lost
intimacy.
Currently, they are both successful intheir work, both are self-employed. Theyreached this point after a crisis some years
previously. Idit had gone through a difficult
time with much anxiety after a professionalchange that was compounded by her
mother's death. He became depressive

because of problems in his business.
Following his personal crisis and their
unravelling marriage, Daniel went abroad
some years ago and remained there forseveral months. After he returned to thefamily, the emotional detachment between
the two persisted, and in fact intensified.
In most cases, like Idit and Daniel,
couples seek couples therapy after
encountering difficulties in the relationship,
and following a range of crises: a crisis intrust, burnout, poor communication,
problems with sexuality, damaged intimacy,anger, cumulative anger and violence, apersonal crisis of one of the couple,
problems with children, economic straits,
and so on. Crises like these build-up armour
around the body and the breath, impelledby the need to protect the Primary
Personality of each member of the couple.
Adding to this is the load of everyday life—
anger, frustration, exhausting routine, anddifficulties vis-à-vis the partner. All of thesetogether create the 'couple armour' whichcontains emotions like disappointment,
frustration, bitterness, and in tandem builds
up a Secondary Couple Personality with its
own patterns and defences. In this way, asort of 'lack of oxygen' is created in therelationship itself that can be fatal for the
couple, in which the relationship cannot
breathe or even exist.

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In many cases, the desire to dismantle
the relationship and to divorce stems from astrong detachment that persists over years
between the Primary and the Secondary
Couple Personality. As long as someconnection is retained with the Primary
Personality in the couple's relationship,some hope and desire exists to return there
because of the fond and encouraging
memories from good periods of shared life.
Thus, the main thrust of working withcouples is maintaining the ties with thatplace. Once detachment occurs, the crisis
between the couple becomes a crisis thatthreatens the very relationship.
Gerda Boyesen termed a situation of
total detachment between the Primary andthe Secondary personality as a 'kind of
schizophrenia'. In the same way thatschizophrenics have a complete detachment
between the two personalities, which causes
severance from the life force and inability tofunction, so too in a couple relationship:
when detachment occurs between thePrimary and Secondary Personality, that is,
between the potential and love inherent in
the relationship, and the defences, anger,
and armour, the result is a situation inwhich the couple ‘suffocates’, the soul of thecouple relationship is lost, and the road toseparation is short.
One of the main trajectories in couple
therapy is regaining the relationship witheach one's Primary Personality; to thequalities, the core, the potential, and love
within us. From that personal connection,
there may also be a return to the qualitiesof the relationship and a process of couple
development—to the love, communication,and intimacy that typify the Primary Couple
Personality. After discussing with the couple
the reasons that led them to embark on
therapy, what their expectations and needs
are from the partner and from the couple
relationship, I lead them back to the start oftheir relationship and ask: “How did you
meet? What happened at the beginning?
What did you like? What attracted you?
When were the best times in yourrelationship? During the relationship, did
you feel that you were falling in love with,and loved, your partner?” In most cases,
when the early relationship was healthy,
characterised by giving, acceptance andlove, one can help the couple elucidate what
happened along the relationship, how theburdens of life affected them, how thepersonal changes in each of them left theirSomatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 71

The therapeutic process enables the couple to look inward at theirmost profound wishes, to observe how the relationship was worn down by
routine, by removing intimacy and sexuality from the relationship. It also
makes possible an examination of personal wounds and a shared encounter
with the childhood wounds that structured certain patterns and defenses.

traces on the relationship, and whatbaggage it created, and the wounds it
sustained. That joint process of discovery
lets them observe the process in which thecouple armour started accumulating, as wellas the process of holding their breath andblocking the inner flow of oxygen. In otherwords, they examine the process which
created the Secondary Couple Personality' in
which both of them are partners and are
responsible for.
Idit worked through a deep personal
process after the crisis she underwent.
Because of it, she connected to her qualities
and strengths. In the couple therapy
process, she reconnected to the emotions
and feelings of her first home, where she
grew up—a loving, warm, and enfolding
home. In tandem, she returned to her
memories of falling in love, how the
relationship with Daniel started anddeveloped, and what impelled her todissolve her armour. In the therapeutic
process, it was visible how her body andbreathing softened in the course of reviving
communication and the rapprochement
process with her husband. Daniel, who had
ostensibly ‘been dragged’ to therapy, went
through a process of plugging into his
strengths and qualities as an individual anda man. In his childhood home, there was asense of survival and emotional chill, which
explained his difficulty in voicing his
emotions to his wife. During therapy, helearned how to express his feelings inwords, and this allowed him to make aconnection with his Primary Personality.
Once they had each revitalised their Primary
Personality, after many years of attrition in
their relationship, the result was a powerfuland vibrant 'Primary Couple Personality'.

Regaining the 'Primary Couple
Personality' is not always an option,
particularly in cases where the wounds are
too deep and trust cannot be restored. In
the case of Idit and Daniel, it was possible.
Through couple therapy, they recognised
and regained the qualities of their original
relationship—falling in love, and feeling lovethat was full of emotion, unconditional, andwithout defenses. The process required eachof them to think back and answer questions
such as “Why did you fall in love with him?”,“Why did you fall in love with her?”, to pay
each other compliments as ‘homework’, tosay things that the other one likes hearing,to identify with the other’s individual
qualities and their shared qualities, as acouple. Another therapeutic tool that I used
was role-reversal; here they managed to
identify with their partner’s difficulties andpain. The modelling process, when I sat next
to him or her, and spoke instead of them,touched their heart, increased empathy
towards the partner, and awoke theconnection to the intensity of their mutual
relationship.
The therapeutic process enables thecouple to look inward at their most profoundwishes, to observe how the relationship wasworn down by routine, by removing intimacy
and sexuality from the relationship. It also
makes possible an examination of personal
wounds and a shared encounter with thechildhood wounds which structured certain
patterns and defences. It’s also important tospark-off empathy and containment towards
the other partner— improving mutualcommunication and reviving the healthy
relationship. The process of observing,talking, venting, expressing feelings andarticulating wishes, generates a situation in

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which the Secondary Couple Personality
dissolves and allows the couple toexperience once again the Primary Couple
Personality and to form ties with it.
Throughout that process of communication,
expressing emotions, and restoring intimacy
and sexuality to the relationship, something
magical happens to the couple . . . they fallin love again, and their love revives themagic of reconnecting to the Primary Couple
Personality.

The more successful a couple is in
making a deep connection to theirpersonal qualities, to the core, thedesires and love within them, to thePrimary Couple Personality, thestronger the resonance that impacts sopowerfully and thrillingly on thepartner.

Through therapy, Daniel and Idit wereable to recall why they fell in love. And
following the process they resumed talking,communicating, complimenting, andenjoying each other, breathing life into their
Primary Couple Personality.
The potential of a couple is vast. It is agreat challenge, but one that can beachieved: rebuilding the relationship andrestoring a family, grounded on connection
at the emotional, physical, and spirituallevel, while handing down the power of thePrimary Couple Personality to the next
generation. The more successful a couple isin making a deep connection to theirpersonal qualities, to the core, the desires
and love within them, to the Primary Couple
Personality, the stronger the resonance that
impacts so powerfully and thrillingly on thepartner. In turn, this can lead to healthy
development, a relationship that's stable,
loving, respecting, and exciting, that canwithstand life’s trials and engender thesense that 1 + 1 = 3, where the whole isgreater than the sum of its parts. The
creation of a Primary Couple Personality.

Gabriel Shiraz is 50 years old, married with four children, two boys and two girls. Upon his returnfrom studying Biodynamic psychotherapy with the late Gerda Boyesen in London in the 90’s, for the
past 18 years, Gabriel Shiraz is practicing as Biodynamic Body-psychotherapist. He is a trainer,
lecturer, supervisor and psychotherapist for individuals, couples, therapists and groups. In 2001-2008
he founded and was a director of the body psychotherapy program in Israel at Reidman College.
Currently, he is a senior trainer at the college; he has taught various courses for 15 years, supervised
and trained about 10 years in hospitals for mental health in Israel. Gabriel is a senior teacher in thefield with extensive experience in Israel and Europe. He is a qualified member of the EABP. He
teaches for the third year, couples therapy for trained psychotherapists who want to develop andbecome couple body-psychotherapists in the field. He runs workshops for couples, focusing on
improving their communication and relationships. His vision is that every experienced body
psychotherapist can progress and expand to work also with couples.
Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 73

Body Wise
By Kamalamani

The Burning House

Once upon a time, many years ago, there

The wealthy man thought on his feet,

was a wealthy man living in a huge old

coming up with the perfect way of luring thehouse. He lived in this house with hundreds

children from the burning house so thatof his children, and many other beings of all

they would come to no harm. Knowing thatshapes and sizes. The house was vast, but it

they were fond of interesting playthings, heonly had one front door. And although hecalled out to them, "Listen! Outside the gate

was a wealthy man, this huge house wasare the carts that you have always wanted:

rather tumble down; decaying in parts. Now

carts pulled by goats, carts pulled by deer,

one day the man was sitting in the garden

and carts pulled by oxen. Come out and playwhen he noticed that a fire had broken out

with them!" The wealthy man knew thatin the house. The man was, understandably,

these things would be irresistible to hisvery concerned for his children playing

children.

inside. 'Flee', 'flee!' he yelled. But, ofcourse, being kids, they were completely
absorbed in their games and toys and theyignored him – I’m sure that’s a very familiar
feeling for many of you parents. All thewhile, the house was being consumed by
dancing flames and the crackling and fallingof beams and wreckage.

The children, eager to play with these newtoys, rushed out of the house excitedly.
Instead of the carts that he had promised,
the father gave them a cart much better
than anything he had described - a cart
draped with precious stones and pulled bywhite bullocks. The children were so happy,
and the man was so glad the children weresafe, as the house burned to the ground.

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This parable of the burning houseis from a traditional Buddhist text called
the 'White Lotus Sutra'. It is all about
the human predicament, and may well
be familiar to some of you. The burning
house represents the 'burning' of thefires of old age, sickness and death(known traditionally as the first ‘threesights’ in Buddhism. The kindly father
represents the teachings of the Buddha;
encouraging the children to leave thepleasures of playing with their toys forthe greater pleasure of enlightenment;
being fully awake, being the complete
embodiment and quintessence of
wisdom and kindness. (These days, ofcourse, the tempting toys might have to
be iPads, Barbie dolls, play stations andthe like, but hopefully you get my drift!)
The father is very skilful in how he lures
the children from the house. He doesn't
nag them, or shout at them, or get in acomplete flap so he's unable to take care ofthem. He stays calm and realises what will
attract and fascinate the children based onwhat they love. In Buddhist jargon, he uses
'skilful means' in helping his children leave
the house safely and without panic.
This parable leapt out at me when I
realised I wanted to write about the traumaof everyday life in 2015. Not only is it one of
my favourite parables, but it seems
particularly fitting in the challenges we facein the world at present. From a Buddhist
point of view, the world is always 'on fire',
as it were. Those of us who are themetaphorical children—in that we are notyet enlightened—are habitually caught up in
the 'games' of everyday life, tending to act
more readily from greed, hatred anddelusion, than contentment, metta, andwisdom. We tend to live as if things arepermanent, substantial and satisfactory,
how: ‘it would all be alright, if only I had
could built that extension so I could have a
dedicated therapy room in the garden, or
once I've done that trauma training with soand so' etc etc.
This parable is clever in using the imageof a house as its main image. Our houses,

our homes, are, quite understandably,sought after places of peace and security. In
fact, our homes, too, are on fire! Hopefully
they are places of sanctuary and rest. They
also decay, need work and aren't immune
from tornadoes, subsidence, burglars, and,in some countries, bombing. These things
which we imagine which will offer us
security in some fixed, unchanging sense,
can, in fact, be a source of great suffering
exacerbated by our delusional views about
what makes us happy and a notion oflasting security in life.
There's a huge amount we could talkabout around this parable and its different
meanings. I would like to draw themetaphor of the house as the world atpresent; a world in which global
temperatures are rising, climate chaos isupon us, sea ice is melting, andenvironmental degradation is a sad fact oflife. We are inflicting an unprecedented
degree of harm upon other-than-human life,
with us being in what's known as the sixth
extinction crisis, with the United Nations
Environment Programme estimating that150-200 species of plant, insect, bird andmammal become extinct every 24 hours(Vidal, 2010).

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So the human predicament causes great
harm, not only to our personal well being,
but in terms of causing harm to the planet,
our home, which ultimately causes harm tous, given the interrelationship of ecosystem.
And, all the while, the majority of theworld's population are carrying on as if
nothing's happening, as if it's business asnormal. It's fairly common place for us tolive our lives as if there are two, three, four,or five planets, rather than the one we'vegot. In fact, it's a challenge to live a life as if
there's only one planet, even if you give up
flying and recycle, given the carbon
footprint assigned to each of us on behalf ofthe carbon footprint of the government on
our behalf (the military, health,infrastructure etc.)

When I heard that this fall edition was
to be about trauma approaches what was
upper most in my mind - a recurring theme
for me - was how can we, as body
psychotherapists, make our mark here? I
know I'm not alone in having clients who arebecoming more and more affected by thereality of, and denial, of climate change.
These clients aren't necessarily all thatenvironmentally aware - some are and somearen't. But they're affected anyway. How
can we not be affected by what's going on,
when we are part of a system which is
condoning loss and destruction? Where canwe voice our fear, pessimism, as well as
cultivate 'active hope' (Macy & Johnstone,2012)? I am reminded of the words ofStephanie Mills:

Still, it's worth trying to clean up our
individual acts. I've had the recent good
fortune to train as a 'carbon conversations'facilitator, holding a space for anyone
concerned about climate change and carbon
reduction to come along and understandtheir own powerful and ambivalent
responses to the subject, supporting themto make practical changes, and understandthe need for political and social change(Randall & Brown, 2015, iv). It was great,
supportive, inspiring, and sobering. Great totake action in the face of themes that can beover-whelming and provoke horrified
anxiety. Supportive to work with such aninteresting and engaged group of people
with similar interests in common. Inspiring
to see that others care about the world andyou're not the only one holding thisseemingly dirty secret that the world's onfire and yet the majority of folk are carrying
on as normal (the famous 'keep calm andcarry on' motivational poster comes tomind, from World War Two). And sobering
to see the size of the task in hand for all ofus.

"Among do-gooders, it is bad form to bea pessimist, but I cannot seem to get thatextinction crisis out of my mind. Or that
population explosion. Or global climatechange. Or the consequences of an era of
trade agreements. Can't get thosebillionaires; those landless, homeless,jobless billions; those new diseases; that
global casino of finance capitalism; thecorporate capture of the media; those aging
nuclear reactors; those surveillancesatellites; those crowded prisons out of mymind" (Mills, 2002: 28).
Personally I long to be part of a body oftherapists who do their bit in embodying thefather in the 'burning house' parable. We
can recognise that the house is on fire(rather than stay in the house, playing,
tempting though that is, with all the playthings on offer in our lifestyles...) and we
can offer the support, awareness andchallenge to others to leave the burning
house. As body psychotherapists we are wellplaced to do this, aren't we? So many of us
understand intimately the nature of trauma.

'Carbon Conversations' originated in work pioneered by Rosemary Randall, Andy Brown and Shilpa Shah during 2005-7 for the
Akashi project and for the charity Cambridge Carbon Footprint. It arose from the conjunction of Rosemary’s work as a
psychotherapist and her prior background in creating distance learning materials for the Open University in the UK. Carbon
Conversations developed into a programme of six, fortnightly, friendly, practical groups that help participants to face climatechange. See: http://www.carbonconversations.org/home

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Intimately in our own experience, and in
the hundreds and thousands of hours wehave spent with clients and supervisees inworking with, talking about, and reflecting
on trauma. Working ourselves in therapy
and offering that holding to our clients invisiting those out-of-reach places of terror in
facing the un-faceable, feeling what's beenfrozen, speaking the forbidden, so we canlive now in a body which is more alive andmore present.
Perhaps one reason why more of us
aren't more vocal in sharing what we know
and making our mark far beyond thetherapy room is because we are, in thewords of Jungian Analyst Jerome Bernstein:'borderlander personalities'. We are in touchwith what he calls 'transrational reality'. He
defines that as:"objective nonpersonal, nonrational
phenomena occurring in the natural
universe, information and experience that
does not readily fit into standard cause andeffect logical structure" (Bernstein, 2005:
xv).
Bernstein points out how many of us
wouldn't be able to function without thisconnection, and yet, in parallel, feel forced
to conceal that dimension of our experience,even from our closest people, through fearof being ostracized and seeming odd. Add tothat the size of the grief in many of ourhearts, as we begin the process ofacknowledging the harm we're causing as a
species, and it's understandable that's itvery challenging to contemplate 'making ourmark' given that it means dwelling in andbeing with the most difficult of emotions.

If we are able to adopt the skilful means
represented by the father in the burning
house, not only do we ourselves stop sleep
walking towards catastrophe, but also
carefully encourage others to look at theirstrategies of choice in the face of climatechange, which may include hedonism,
immense terror, overwhelm, freeze,disavowal, and, of course, denial is deeply
counter-cultural and challenging. It's far
from easy work, but then, neither ispractising as body psychotherapists, so
we're used to a challenge. Added to that,our brains are hardwired to ignore climatechange (see Marshall's excellent book on
this theme: Marshall, 2014).
I guess we can 'keep calm and carry on'in the burning house, playing the game ofbusiness as normal. Or we can 'keep calmand carry on' knowing that whether or not
climate change is reversible, whether or not
the destructive ways of our species has
already gone too far, we are living a simple
life as fully as possible - for life is surely
what this is all about! - and doing what we
can in raising awareness, making changes
and remembering that humans are but one
life form on planet earth. In our therapy
work, I wonder what would happen if we allheld in mind the earth and other-thanhuman life, whether we work in a high riseblock or in a converted shed in the wilds?
Can we dare to make our mark, having thedifficult conversations with family andfriends about our own decisions to curb ourcarbon footprint? Can we bear to check out
how the anthropocentricism of our world
seeps into our therapy work and to bringmore of a whole earth perspective?
Kamalamani is an Embodied-Relational
therapist, Wild therapist, supervisor, facilitator,
and writer, living and working in Bristol,England. She's been a practicing Buddhist since
her early 20s and loves seeing how age-old
teachings and practices are relevant tocontemporary life. She works at the interface ofbody psychotherapy, ecopsychology andecodharma, drawing upon her experiences ofbeing a development worker in sub-SaharanAfrica, a lecturer in International Development at
the University of Bristol, her current meditation
practice and being a child lost and found innature. She is currently finishing her second
book 'Other than Mother: Choosing Childlessness
with Life in mind'.
www.kamalamani.co.uk

References:
Bernstein, J.S. (2005). Living in the borderland: The evolutionof consciousness and the challenge of healing trauma.
New York: Routledge.
Continued on page 50

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What is Didgeridoo Sound Therapy?
By Joseph Carringer

Over 10 years ago I began
my journey into the worldof didgeridoo soundtherapy and soundhealing. During that time I

have had the opportunity
to collaborate with a long
list of holistic health andmedical providers whose
enthusiasm for the soundsof the didgeridoo havehelped myself and otherdidgeridoo players have agreater understanding of
the powerful holistic
applications of its sound.

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 78

Joseph Carringer

There are many forms of soundtherapy, also known as vibrational
medicine, that allow people to entrain(synchronize and resonate at the same
frequency) their energetic being back to ahealthy vibrational level. Essentially,
everything that exists in the physical,
mental, emotional, and spiritual realms does
so on a vibratory basis—electrons arealways moving and vibrating. When we talk,sing, chant, listen to music, our ears catchthe vibration of sound waves. Our bodies,
which are composed of 60% water, contain
fluid-filled cells that vibrate continuously attheir own unique resonate frequency. It isthrough our ears that we perceive andprocess sounds and maintain our physicalequilibrium as sound waves travel throughthe ear canal to the eardrum causing it tovibrate. The ear translates these vibrations
into nerve impulses, which are translated by
the brain. Sound has been shown topenetrate through the skin, through boneand viscera to encourage cellular
reorganization, mood enhancement,
psychology wellbeing and optimal physicalhealth.
In my form of sound therapy work the
primary tool is the didgeridoo. Much like theuse of a tuning fork or singing bowl, thedidgeridoo can help a person releaseenergetic and emotional stagnation. The
didgeridoo produces a broad range ofharmonics in an ancient and universal tonethat has a profound effect on an individual
through the production of ultra sound,energetic clearing and the ease with which it
guides people into meditative states.
Vibrations can lower heart rate variability,
relax brain wave patterns, and reduce
respiratory rates all impacting our physicalhealth. Also, through its unique productionof ultra sound, it has the ability to help
people release muscle knotting and bonetrauma.
1: Ultra (Infra) Sound - The didgeridoo
produces ultra/infra sound frequencies
similar to the frequencies used by medical

practitioners for a wide range of muscularskeletal therapies. The low frequency
producing characteristic of the didgeridoo
creates a no-touch "sound massage" andhas been reported to provide similar results
as conventional ultra/infra sound treatments
and relieve a wide range of joint, muscularand skeletal related pain. It can also be
used post operatively on people who havereceived both metal and non-metal
implants.
Ultra Sound Massage can also be used torelieve: osteoarthritis, arthritis, joint
stiffness, muscle spasm, headache,migraine, bone growth stimulation, surgery(postoperative)
In addition to all of the no-touch relief
benefits the didgeridoo offers, when you
work in conjunction with a massage
therapist and follow the therapist’s hands,
the vibrations the didgeridoo creates
enhances the muscular release and allows
the therapist to go deeper in a session thanhe/she normally would be able to.

2: Clearing of Emotional and Energetic
Stagnation - The didgeridoo's sound is aneffective tool to release stored negative
energy and/or emotional stagnation. Thisnatural characteristic of the didgeridoo
combined with the sophisticated systems ofsubtle energy medicine theory from bothtraditional Chinese medicine (meridian
theory) and Ayurveda (chakra theory)
provide a high level of qi/pranic clearing andbalancing. The most basic description one
could give for the energetic clearing powerof the didgeridoo is “it is like a Reiki or qi
gong power washer.” It has been reported
that the energetic clearing effects are
similar to traditional five-element
acupuncture.
Energetic/emotional clearing can also be
used to relieve: PTSD, chronic fatigue,
fibromyalgia, cancer (treatment support),
stress, anxiety, anger management,
phantom pain, insomnia, surgery (pre &postoperative).

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When using didgeridoo sound therapy andacupuncture together, it can provide anenvironment to help break through deep
blockages or plateaus in therapy.
3: Meditation and Mind Body Healing Meditation is the foundation of mind-bodyhealth. The didgeridoo's unique soundenables listeners to achieve deep meditative
brainwave states of theta and delta, quickly
and easily. It is in these brainwave statesthat we achieve our highest healing
potential for both physical and mental
health by re-engaging our mind bodyconnection.
It is the didgeridoo’s ability to help aperson enter deep meditative states that is
the route of its power as a holistic healthtool. Meditation induced by a didgeridoo
allows a person to enter a vibrational spaceof a single sound wave that blocks out any
outside disharmonious rhythms and brings
him into a state where he can work with his
own intentions on a quantum level—from alevel which is not manifest at a sensory
level. Quantum healing involves healing one
mode of consciousness—the mind— to bringabout changes in another mode ofconsciousness—the body. When you take anopportunity to block out the outside world,
your mind recovers control of the body andcan begin to perform basic subconscious
activities.

that has always been and always will be (or“god”). When you set your manifestation
intention, you are not speaking to a god or
Universe outside but instead are connecting
and speaking through the god and Universe
inside of you. This principle of selfempowerment also places accountability for
our world squarely in the hands of theindividual. Each individual is responsible for
their health, wealth and world around them.
Once that has been accepted, then they canwork on change.
Meditation can also be used to quantum
manifest healing and the co-creation of ouruniverse. When combined with yoga, thesound and vibrations from the didgeridoo
enhances ones relaxation, breathing andflexibility, helping further assist with mindbody healing.
Meditation and mind-body healing canalso be used to achieve: meditation/mindbody connection, personal healing(physical), personal healing (mental),
personal healing (spiritual), cancer(treatment support), creativity,
manifestation (healing), manifestation(general), stress, anxiety, insomnia.

All the energetic and emotional clearing
in the world is absolutely useless if a person
cannot continue supporting or promoting
his/her own healing. This is what we gain
when we mediate and set our intention
toward quantum healing—the belief that themind can heal the body— and quantum cocreating.
Meditation also gives us an opportunity
to connect with the world of quantum
manifestation. I tell my clients to include
their wishes in their mediations. People pray
to a god for things they desire and thenwonder why that god does not listen. In
quantum meditation you accept that you aremade up of that same energy or life force

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 80

In Conclusion
When people take the time to bringbalance, calm, clarity and healing into their
being, they bring it into the world aroundthem. If you are in a more balanced state,
you are less likely to have a negativeinteraction with that person who cut you off
on the highway, thus breaking the cycle ofnegativity and effectively changing the world
we live in one experience at a time. Begin
your day in gratitude and end your day ingratitude and you will bring about lastingtransformation for yourself and the world
around you.
Joseph Carringer is a professional didgeridoo
musician and sound therapist. In his soundtherapy practice he uses concert classdidgeridoos, combining Traditional Chinese
unique and powerful therapeutic sound healing
medicine meridian and organ theory with
Ayurvedic Chakra philosophies creating aexperience. Joseph has been playing an
Australian Aboriginal didgeridoo for over 15
years, using it as a deep meditative tool in his
personal shamanic journey as well as atherapeutic instrument for his clients.
Joseph presents and performs both nationallyand internationally on mind/body connection
and the effects of didgeridoo sound therapy forthe purposes of clearing energetic andemotional stagnation within the energetic bodyto wellness and healthy life style seekers, aswell as to medical and holistic professionals.

To listen to Joseph’s music, please click here

After doing extensive research, Joseph opened
his harmonic therapy practice to the New
England Seacoast communities in January of
2004. Since the fall of 2005, Joseph has offered
yearly classes for the Maine Medical CAM
programs and the University of SouthernMaine’s CAM programs, and presents at the
University of New Hampshire and New England
College. Joseph also volunteered at Maine
Medical Center, Portland, ME on R-1 (cardiac)
and Pediatric floor.
http://didgetherapy.com
http://tablesyndicate.com
Available on iTunes and Amazon

and here.

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Hakomi Mindfulness-Centered Somatic
Psychotherapy: A Comprehensive
Guide to Theory and Practice
Edited by Halko Weiss PhD, Greg Johanson, PhD
and Lorena Monda, MS, DOM, LPCC
Reviewed by Nancy Eichhorn, PhD
Editor’s Note: I offer, for transparency’s sake, that I know two of the three editors. I interviewed Halko for a previous
article in Somatic Psychotherapy Today, (SPT) and have attended his workshops at professional conferences. I met Greg
through our mutual affiliation with the United States Association for Body Psychotherapy—we both participated on theboard at one point and he has been supportive of SPT since its inception.

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 82

The trouble with textbooks is that they
are required. No matter what the reason or
educational pursuit (undergrad, graduate,
professional training, CEUS, a review), thebook is mandatory. It is assigned with the
expectation that the reader will
demonstrate an acceptable level ofproficiency regarding the subject matter.
To make matters worse, many text books
are written with a heady, dense tone. The
materials are offered with extensive
footnotes and endnotes, with references
and citations clogging the page to an
uncomfortable degree. And then there’s thelanguage—glossaries are required tounderstand the content and are returned toagain and again during the reading
assignment.
But, what if the experience wasdifferent?
When I first flipped through Hakomi
Mindfulness-Centered Somatic
Psychotherapy: A Comprehensive Guide toTheory and Practice, edited by Halko Weiss,
PhD, Greg Johanson, PhD and Lorena
Monda, MS, DOM, LPCC, I noticed that theeditors, who are also contributors, clearly
had a view of where they wanted to begin—
the characteristics and essence of Hakomi—
and end—appendices, references,contributors and the requisite index. The
middle—the body of the book—discussed
theory, methodology and therapeuticstrategy, and technique and intervention.
Having experienced Hakomi first hand intrainings and workshops, as well as
personally with Ron Kurtz, the originator of
Hakomi therapy, I had a preconceived
notion of what the book would be about. I
like how Hakomi works, and still, that
undercurrent of dread flowed: it’s atextbook, it is summer after all, and I haveto read a textbook and perform.
But something magical happened.
Perhaps it’s because the contributors andeditors are all Hakomi specialists, perhaps
it’s because they are not just practitionersof this methodology but have sincerely
immersed themselves in Hakomi’sfoundational precepts personally andprofessionally: mindfulness, presence,loving kindness, and nonviolence.
I felt as if the material was written
according to the core essence of Hakomi—“assisted self-study done in a state ofmindfulness” (p. 49). From the forward,
written by Richard C. Schwartz—a therapist
who developed a model of psychotherapy
that he called internal family systems, andhis personal connection with Greg Johanson
and Ron Kurtz— to the end with Uta
Gunther’s chapter on the strengths andlimitations of the Hakomi method, I felt aconnection with the person behind thewords, the presence and spirit within thecontent. I was not reading a typicaltextbook. I was in fact participating
relationally with the contributors, having an
in-depth conversation as I explored what
each had to offer, experimented with theideas offered to see how they felt inside ofme, to see what responses were triggered,and what stayed with me.
And to make matters even better, eachchapter is relatively short! I fell into thewriting without worry of getting lost in aquagmire of data. The writing was clean
and crisp, case studies and links to current
research kept things moving between
information and description with justenough relevant, up-to-date citations, andthen immersion into the present momentwith clients and reflections. Truly a mind
body experience.
A Closer Look Inside
Hakomi practitioners integrated
mindfulness practices into the therapeutic
relationship long before the current
mindfulness explosion fueled by Jon Cabot
Zin, Jack Kornfield, Jaak Panksepp, Dan
Siegel and more.
In Hakomi, mindfulness is considered “themost effective tool to study the organizationof the human experience and begin torelate to it in healing ways” (p. 48). It is thecore principle, method, and practicebecause cultivating mindfulness in order toSomatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 83

witness what our mind has created is said toenable clients to move beyond thelimitations of their ordinary consciousness,
which are based on habitual reactions, toobserve their implicit memory at work in thepresent-moment organization of experience(p.48).
In Hakomi, mindfulness is used in two
central ways: (1) the therapist entersmindfulness and loving awareness before
the session and approaches the work fromthis state; (2) clients are invited into a stateof mindful self-reflection where they do thework each session. Mindfulness thus
supports ‘awareness of unity’ as thetherapist remains conscious of her own
bodily states and thoughts while also
tracking those of her client. Being mindful,the therapist and client can notice clues
about the mind from the body’s posture,
position, tension, movement and habits. The
client learns how to connect with herinternal observer and from there learns theart of nonjudgmental self-observation withcuriosity.
Mindfulness then is the basis for loving
presence, which is considered the state thatcarries the fundamental qualities a Hakomi
therapist brings to the therapeutic
relationship. Within the relationship is thefoundational belief of nonviolence or a senseof ‘nondoing’. Clients must feel safe in therelationship to enter into a mindful state, toexplore their experience and participate in
the experiments that lead to conscious
awareness of the unconscious patterns andbehaviors impacting their lives—those coreorganizing beliefs known as “thefundamental beliefs that structure aperson’s experience of himself in relation to
the world and vice versa” (p. 66).
“When nonviolence, mindfulness, andcompassion meet to create a healing
space, a certain economy of therapy
arises” (p.51).
The function of mindfulness in Hakomi
is to cultivate the ability to stay with thepresent experience and notice what is
actually happening in the moment. Fourfoundations of mindfulness are discussed:(1) simple intimacy with the body itself; (2)awareness of the flux of sensations in the
body: (3) observing thoughts and feelings
as they arise together and come to know
their interdependent nature; (4) turning themind back on itself to witness how theentire spectrum of consciousness, sensation,
reaction, emotion, and thought all arise andinteract with each other (p.63).
Mindfulness is showcased in several
chapters covering the more general andphilosophical use in the psychodynamic

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 84

The function of mindfulness in Hakomi is to cultivate the ability tostay with the present experience and notice what is actually
happening in the moment.

context, specific Hakomi interventions
embedded in mindfulness, the special
benefits of working with mindfulness asmeans for transformation, and using
mindfulness with trauma states.
Mindfulness plays an important part inHakomi and is prominent in this bookbecause the intention is to study a client’s
behavior for sources of what Ron termed,“experiments” designed to trigger reactions
that bring the unconscious, adaptive
processes driving behavior into the client’s
awareness, not to look for symptoms of
disease. These experiments are said toreveal connections between beliefs,
memories and habitual behaviors that keep
the client stuck.
Breaking the Book into Sections

The book is comprised of 25 chapters andthree appendices: the Glossary of Hakomi
Terms; Praxis: Annotated Case illustrations;and Hakomi in Context: The Large Picture in
History and Research. The book can be readin sequence as well as in any order. The
content is consistent enough and repetitive
enough to allow readers to jump in and out
and maintain and/or gain understanding. I
found myself accessing the material more
readily while deepening into my relationshipwith the techniques used during a Hakomi
session. These include, along withmindfulness: an experimental attitude;
following and leading; tracking and contact;
working through core beliefs;
transformation; and character informedinterventions.
Before reading the book, I didn’t knowthat Hakomi’s original character map
evolved from the theories of Wilhelm Reich,Alexander Lowen, David Shapior, and John
Pierrakos. I learned that while someprocesses use character structure as a set

guideline for client patterning (bodily andcognitively), Hakomi sees character as “acreative attempt to assert one’sorganicity”—to find personal empowerment
in untenable situations (pg. 77). The
chapter on Hakomi Character Theory is one
for me to reread along with the chapter on
Hakomi Character-Informed Interventions.
There is much to assimilate.
Methodology and Therapeutic Strategy
The chapters in this section move deeper
into the Hakomi process. While the first two
sections offer readers a basic understandingof Hakomi’s foundational precepts, section
three delves into Hakomi in action. There’s
discussion about the therapeutic relationshipwith attunement, resonance and the use of
insight that are necessary to attune with theclient. Along with the techniques of contact
and tracking, Hakomi therapists also focus
on “creating the bubble”. “The bubble is a
metaphor for a palpable connection between
client and therapist that is infused withwarmth, presence, awareness andattention” (p. 101). Because the therapeutic
relationship directly impacts the‘cooperation of the unconscious’, “Kurtz
used this term to describe the goal andprimary outcome of a well-working
therapeutic relationship” (pg. 105). Loving
presence, empathy and understanding,listening and safety are highlighted within
this primary relationship.
Mindfulness is revisited as a tool in use
followed by the ways to employ theexperimental attitude—curiosity in action.
Following and leading is followed by ethicalconsiderations in terms of the right use of
power: “Right use of power and influence isunderstood as the heart of ethics” (pg.
139).

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Technique and Intervention
This section includes a discussion on
resistance and defense and how to approachthese attitudes in client sessions. Early on,
Ron had renamed habitual defense patterns
as barriers. When working with Ron, I
experienced his direct approach to what heinterpreted as my barriers. He used verbal
statements to confront what he saw as myresistance to his offer to help and withfurther interaction he employed a technique
he called “jumping out of thesystem” (JOOTS). The process is designed
to allow the client to gain distance from thesystem while staying with it andappreciating it, studying it a bit tounderstand how it has functioned in the past
and what it has been good for (pg. 244).
The chapters here bring Hakomi into thetherapeutic context via a more hands onsense—the ideas can be taken from book toclient, from reading to experimenting during
client sessions.
In Conclusion
As with any review, there comes a point
when you have to say, “If you are fascinatedby and/or interested in learning more about
Hakomi therapy, read this book.”
I found myself rereading several chaptersand sensing how to integrate it with my

An Overview from
Norton Publishing:“Hakomi is an
integrative methodthat combines
Western psychology
and body-centered
techniques withmindfulness
principles from
Eastern psychology.
This book, written and edited by members ofthe Hakomi Institute—the world’s leading
professional training program for Hakomi
practitioners—and by practitioners andwork. I also found myself challenged attimes to experience relationships anew. For
instance, I was fascinated by the statements
that: (a) it is erroneous to think we are
separate from one another and, (b) that it
was detrimental to think we are all one andthe same—a belief I have held for sometime considering the interweave of cellularand energetic histories. Yet, from the
Hakomi vantage, we, human beings, areviewed as an “interconnected diversity”. In
this place I sense a connection whilevalidating of our uniqueness.

To bring my thoughts to a sense of
closure, I offer Jon Eisman’s opening
paragraph (pg. 76), which I think offers thebest summary of the Hakomi approach:“ . . . Hakomi focuses on the way somatic,
emotional, and cognitive experiences form
from deeply held beliefs, which in turngenerate habituated behavior andperceptual patterns. These behaviors andperceptions may then be processed utilizing
mindfulness and the careful study of thepresent experience to uncover theunderlying formative ‘core material’. These
operational precepts of the body—
mindfulness, present experience andneurologically held belief patterns-form thecornerstones of the Hakomi method.”teachers from across theglobe, introduces all theprocesses and practices
that therapists need inorder to begin to use thismethod with clients. The
authors detail Hakomi’s
unique integration ofbody psychotherapy,
mindfulness, and theEastern philosophicalprinciple of non-violence, grounding leadingedge therapeutic technique in an
attentiveness to the whole person and theircapacity for transformation.”

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Hakomi Mindfulness-Centered Somatic
Psychotherapy: A Comprehensive Guide toTheory and Practice

Reviewed by Michael Fiorini

Hakomi Mindfulness-Centered Somatic
Psychotherapy: A Comprehensive Guide toTheory and Practice describes Hakomi
psychotherapy, its theoretical framework,
history, clinical models, and practical use.
The book describes itself as being “theauthoritative text on the history, methods,
theory, and practice of Hakomi therapy
today.” Hakomi therapy is an amalgamationof many different theories and practices. It
draws heavily from body psychotherapy,
bioenergetics, far eastern philosophy, andmindfulness practices. A number of thefoundational theories come from work by
Alexander Lowen and Wilhelm Reich. In thisway, Hakomi therapy is presented as bothan independent treatment modality, as wellas one that can be integrated into existing
mindfulness-based and somatic therapies.
Given the contemporary popularity of
mindfulness therapies, the framework usedin Hakomi psychotherapy is extremely
useful for those professionals looking todiversify their existing and related
treatment techniques.

undertaken, and specific techniques andinterventions used. The book begins bycovering a history of the founding, creation,and inspiration for Hakomi, as well as theessential approach and defining
characteristics of the treatment. The central
role of the body, systems approaches
within Hakomi, understanding theorganization of personal experience, theorganization of beliefs, and character
theory are all discussed following the
introductory section. The therapeutic
relationship, mindfulness as a therapy tool,
curiosity and experimentation in therapy,
following and leading through awareness,and the ethics involved in touch and power
dynamics then become the focus of thebook. The numerous specific techniques
used in Hakomi are also discussed at
length, representing the bulk of the book’s
content. The end of the book includes
several case illustrations to demonstrate
how these techniques are used, as well as a
glossary and some future avenues ofresearch for Hakomi.

Designed to serve as a central educational
tool and reference for practitioners andstudents of Hakomi psychotherapy, thebook is written so that those without any
experience and those already familiar withthe framework and concepts will find it
equally accessible. Broken down into four
sections, it covers an overview of thetherapy, the theories behind it, themethodology and therapeutic strategy

Professional psychotherapists and students
alike will find the book highly informativeand helpful for learning about andpracticing Hakomi psychotherapy. For those
who are already interested in theintersection of eastern philosophy,
psychology, self construction, meditation,
and awareness, it is a highly relevant
integrative framework to work with.
Continued on page 91

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Hakomi MindfulnessCentered Somatic
Psychotherapy: A
Comprehensive Guide toTheory and Practice

An Interview withHalko Weiss, PhD
By Nancy Eichhorn, PhD

As I began to read Hakomi Mindfulness-Centered Somatic Psychotherapy: A
Comprehensive Guide to Theory and Practice, my writer’s brain worried with theunderlying process—how difficult was to structure an in-depth review of a
psychotherapeutic methodology adding in history and theory?
Meanwhile my inner editor wondered—what does it take to shepherd multiple authors
to one final resting place that fits your initial vision and how do several editors create aworking relationship that is satisfying, personally and professionally?
The task filled me with a sense of overwhelm. It’s one thing to write what you wantas you want, it’s another to collaborate and bring a shared vision to fruition. According toHalko Weiss, PhD, one of the three editors responsible for the creation of this book, it wasa long time coming and well worth the work and the wait.
“It is hard to believe for me, but I started the project in 2005, 10 years ago!”
Weiss shared. “Finding the right team was very difficult for me in the beginning, and it
took years until I finally found my team. But it is really my fault that it took so long torealize that Gregory Johanson and Lorena Monda were the ones that I should have asked
from the beginning. Once we got working as a team it was fantastic. Gregory is such an indepth scholar, and so devoted to our work, and Lorena has been the steadying force who
has put a huge amount of work into fine-tuning the overall language and the balance ofthe book. For an editing team it is essential to find just the right people, but if you havethem it is very satisfying.”

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Why this book? Why now?

our professional environment.”

The book was written to address aperceived gap in the Hakomi literature thatcaused concern. There were multiple books
written, including those authored by Ron
Kurtz. However, his books, though
beautifully written with a general appeal,
lacked the depth of the professional knowhow that the Hakomi Institute and Kurtz
had fleshed out in their work over many
years. Nor, according to Weiss, did thecurrent materials reflect the clarity of Ron’sscientific mind.

“I tried to persuade even those of ourtrainers who are not experienced writers tocontribute certain content, informed them
about the style and other requirements I
felt were essential to create a coherent textthat would meet the standards of aprofessional book, and that would show
how well we are connected to the discourse
in our field.”“Ron wrote profusely, but he had a hardtime spelling out what we understand anddo, in a systematic way,” Weiss said. “Fordecades we wanted a really professional
book, and a textbook for our students torepresent our work accurately. That has
been a major obstacle for our development
as a training provider.”“Eventually I felt that that problem
became so big that I took it upon myself tostart this book project as a collaborative
effort of the whole faculty, and as an
expression of the diversity of voices thatmake up the Institute today.”“The vision was to not only have acomprehensive text on the Hakomi method
for our students, but also one that would
show our professional peers of all thedifferent heritages and the depth of ourapproach, and how we are linked into thelarger discourse.”“As the book evolved, there were manychanges of course. And when Greg, andlater Lorena, joined the effort, theircontributions helped further shaping theoverall structure, and the quality of writing.
As I am not a native English speaker, they
really moved the process along as the bookreached the stage where their skill atEnglish was crucial.”

Putting it all Together
Pulling pieces together from a worldwide
puzzle was not easy. But in the end, the‘whole’ reflected the ‘individuality’ of eachcontributor with a sense of cohesion, a feelof, this is what we what are about and why.
“It is probably hard to understand bysomeone who has never done such a
project how extensive and time consuming
the work on such a book is. I had an evenlarger effort with the Handbook of Body
Psychotherapy and Somatic Psychology,
which included about 60 authors, many ofwhom are leaders in the field.

The Process“When I started in 2005, I began with
developing an overall structure, aninventory of chapters, their sequence, andan outline of content for each of them. The
outline was meant to show the depth ofunderstanding that we have about thecurrent state of knowledge within our field,
as well as how we feel we have somethingmajor to contribute. Gregory and Lorena
really helped in honing those aspects andemphasized that we offer a highlyinteresting and powerful method whenlooked at from the current state of affairs in

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“If there are many authors, there arequestions of balancing the content, dealing
with redundancies, style of writing, etc.,that sometimes end up as 10 or 12
consecutive versions of a single chapterthat have to be reviewed and worked on by
three editors, who have to communicate
among each other across continents. There
are delays, misunderstandings, personalsensitivities, and so on that can takemonths and months to work out. Then
there are unforeseen events that create
major breaks, like the untimely andshocking death of Greg’s wife in the middleof the process.”“There were many moments where it felt
too big a stone to haul up the mountain,
and some periods where nothing seemed tohappen at all. I certainly went throughtimes of many frustrations, but eventually
we could really count on those who
contributed, and they were really graciousin allowing us editors to work with themand even mess with their writing in major
ways. We felt blessed with muchunderstanding and support from all ofthem.”

Writing with Readers in Mind
While reading the text, I noticed that all
the chapters were rather short, which as areader was nice for me—I felt safe toimmerse myself in the chapter and absorb

key points while not fearing I’d be reading
one chapter all day with some headyvernacular and the need to research terms
and situations to truly understand what I
was reading and why. Weiss explained thatjust as in his previous project - theHandbook already mentioned – the editorial
team asked the contributing authors to limit
themselves to some volume of text, eachweighed to balance the book according to
the weight of the issue to be covered. He
shared that it was “extremely difficult insome cases where writing extended hugely
past the requested pages.” They also had
ideas about which chapters needed what
extent of references, what style of writing,which limits to what they would cover, etc.
At the same time they wanted to havesome redundancy so that chapters could beread separately, and still be understood
well.
“The work with the contributors wasquite extensive at times, with many
revisions, and additions from the editors,”
Weiss said. “There were hardly any
chapters that we needed to reject because
we worked with each of the authors,
sometimes just by some tweaking,sometimes with a lot of input, to bring theminto a shape that would suit the overall
concept of the book.”
Within the overall plan, Weiss also knew
he and his team members were going towrite, to contribute their knowing andexperience. Weiss had planned to write achapter on the characteristics of Hakomi,
and on its history, but he also had to fill in,as well as cooperate on some topics. He
explained that this give and take was allpart of how the overall process evolved asnecessities arose over the course of time.
Basically, he said, “the role of us editors ispretty much a bit of a service to what
seems to be needed.”Coming to Life
It is one thing to have a vision, anotherto strive to create it. I asked Weiss what
was it like for him to see this vision come tolife and how was it to write with Ron and at

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times edit his work, a student editing theteacher in a sense. Did he have any
moments of insecurity or doubt? Weissadmitted that they did not edit Ron's
chapter except for some minor items. He
was such a good writer, Weiss said, they
had no intention of losing his personal style.
Ron’s chapter was actually one of the firstones completed for the project. “Smaller
pieces, like a chapter, is more in line withwhat he is really good at,” said Weiss. “We
could very much count on him.”“For a long time, when the overall process
seemed to be stalled, and I was not able tomove it, it was a very frustrating
experience, and I might have given up were
it not for some peoples' contributions, like
Ron's, that were already in, and who we
could not let down after they had put in aneffort that was often enough huge for them,especially for those who are not used towriting.”“But in the end, when we saw that thebook really would be done at a foreseeable
time, I became quite excited. And when werealized that Norton would take the book and that we would not have to find an
obscure publisher, or self-publish - we all
had a real high! Now that it has even been
#1 on the Amazon new release list forpsychotherapy, we are quite ecstatic! That
we never expected. We were completely
taken by surprise, and still are enormously
happy that Norton felt that we have what it
takes.”

About the Authors/Editors
Halko Weiss, PhD, is the co-founder and senior
trainer of the Hakomi Institute. A clinicalpsychology and lecturer on body-psychotherapy,
couples therapy, and relationship skills, Dr Weissis the author of six book and 20 professional
publications.
Greg Johanson, PhD, is a founding trainer ofthe Hakomi Institute. He has background intherapy as well as theology. He is the leadauthor of Grace Unfolding: Psychotherapy in the
Spirit of the Tae-te-ching. He has a special
interest in integral psychology, which relates
spirituality to individual consciousness andbehavior in the context of social and culturalissuesLorena Monda, MS, DOM, LPCC is a certified
therapist, trainer for the Hakomi Institute andadjunct faculty at the AOMA Graduate School ofIntegrative Medicine in Austin, Texas, She is theauthor of The Practice of Wholeness: SpiritualTransformation in Everyday Life.
References
Marlock, G., Weiss, H. (Ed.), Young, C. (Ed.), & Soth,
M. (Ed.) (2015). Handbook of Body Psychotherapy
and Somatic Psychology. Berkeley, CA; North
Atlantic Books.
Weiss, H., Johanson, G., & Monda, L. (Eds.) (2015).
Hakomi Mindfulness-Centered Somatic
Psychotherapy: A Comprehensive Guide to Theory
and Practice. New York: W.W.Norton & Company.

Fiorini continued from page 87that the book presents additional means of practicing within those existing frameworks,
and is derived from many of the same theories and ideas. The tone is inviting, and in spiteof the book’s density, avoids seeming too much like a text book. As a reference for thosealready familiar with this therapeutic modality, it is a helpful summation of essential pastand current tools used, although it by no means is all-encompassing of the many
derivative and particular practical styles for Hakomi. The book is more concerned with thegoals and ways of considering certain aspects of therapy and mindfulness than expecting
strict interpretations and applications of those ideas. In this way, it is further expanding
how mindfulness and self-awareness can be used for meaningful and constructive changewith clients.

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 91

Potential Influences oftheSomatic Experiencing
Paradigm on
Social Work Practice
By Nicola M-L Ranson, MSW

The biological basis that underlies the Somatic Experiencing
approach provides a radical opportunity to transform both theunderstanding and healing of psychological trauma.
As a social worker with a bio-psycho-social-spiritual background,
I understand that a comprehensive systemic perspective is necessary
to approach the complex truths of a client’s subjective world. We know
that, as individuals, we are part of systems that impact us while we, inturn, impact them: e.g. school, family, workplace. A systems
perspective also incorporates intrapsychic factors such as therelationship between moods and thoughts and physical health, as wellas the mutual influence between these factors and social interaction.

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Somatic Experiencing (SE)—Peter
Levine’s body mind approach tounderstanding and healing trauma—invites
us to take the systemic approach to a whole
new level, and work with the biologicalorganism itself: the physical body. In SE,
both bodyworkers and psychotherapists
alike are trained to use subtle observation
to “touch into” their client’s biology. The
practitioner learns to read the biologicalindicators of the client’s nervous system
state and, in the context of a safe
therapeutic relationship, makes carefully
timed interventions to impact the body andmind.
This is a “bottom up” approach to
psychological healing. While intentional
dialogue with the client is taking place, thepractitioner is simultaneously alert to thephysiological responses to interventions,“reading” the client’s breath, for example,
as an immediate source of feedback thatwill influence her next words or actions.
The system that the practitioner attends
to is the nervous system, which is unique toeach client, (and therapist), while sharing
the basic equipment and responses withmany other living beings. Our nervous
system IS the body-mind connection. As wenavigate our days and nights, cycles ofactivation and de-activation stimulate andrelax us with all the associated mental andphysical responses. Much of this passes
below our consciousness; it is simply how
our nervous system self-regulates when it isfunctioning optimally. But we certainly
notice when nervous system dysregulation
results in psychological distress. SE teaches
how to influence the nervous system so that
our innate capacity for self-regulation canbe accessed and balance can be restored.
As Levine writes in his book, In an
unspoken voice: How the body releases
trauma and restores goodness , “Thiscapacity for self-regulation holds the key forour modern survival - survival beyond thebrutal grip of anxiety, panic, night terrors,
depression and physical symptoms andhelplessness that are the earmarks ofprolonged stress and trauma.”
Dr. Levine’s life work has focused onunderstanding how trauma brings about
dysregulation in the nervous system, and,more significantly for practitioners, how tocreate the conditions that will allow thenatural rhythms associated withpsychological health to resume.

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Somatic Experiencing and the Freeze Response
in Social Work Practice
By Nicola M-L Ranson, MSW

Peter Levine, who is a medical biophysicist
as well as a psychologist, evolved his
approach through his studies of animal
behavior. His observations of animals in thewild led him to note that they frequently
endure traumatic situations, yet rarely seemto suffer the on-going physiological arousalthat is the aftermath of trauma for humans.
Some animals in captivity, however, seem
to show responses more in keeping with ourown. Think of tigers pacing restlessly at thezoo (Scaer, 2005), or the unprecedented
number of pets now taking psychotropic
medication.
When he researched the difference
between the wild animal and the civilized
human response to trauma, he found thatthe animals tended to follow in-built
behavioral patterns, which, if left tocomplete their course, allowed the animal toreturn to normal functioning. For example,
if a prey animal such as a rabbit is about to
be attacked and the defensive responses offight and flight are not an option, it will
likely become completely still. If theattacker leaves the situation, the rabbit willremain immobile for a period of time, go
through some shaking, and then get up andspring away. Levine theorized that thisimmobility, or “freeze” response, was aprotective mechanism which both reduced

an animal’s pain, (through a numbing of
sensation and injection of feel-goodchemicals), and provided an opportunity forescape, such as when an animal “plays
possum” and fools the predator into
thinking it is dead. Freeze seemed to comeon board when the other defenses, fight andflight, were unable to thwart the danger.
Once the immobility had run its course,
activity could resume, and, in the case of
the rabbit, it could run away.
According to this theory, the rabbit’s
shaking is a necessary component of
coming out of the “freeze” or immobility. It
appears to be an involuntary response thatallows the dissipation of stress hormonesthat have accumulated in a life threatening
situation. Levine theorized that the humanphysiology might also have an innate
capacity to dissipate nervous system
activation (Levine, 2010).
It seems that the symptoms associatedwith trauma, (for example, hypervigilance,
an excessive startle response anddissociation), while originating from an
initial incident or series of incidents,
continue to be perpetuated by an overactive
nervous system that keeps responding to
the past danger as if it were still present.
Levine states that, “Humans, in contrast to

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animals, frequently remain stuck in a kind oflimbo, not fully engaging in life after
experiencing threat such as overwhelming
terror or limbo” (Levine, 1997, pg. 16).
Levine theorized that these symptoms
might be related to the incomplete
defensive responses of fight flight andfreeze, and that, if the correct conditions
were in place, the nervous system arousalthat originated in a heightened state ofactivation could be helped to reach a stateof completion, allowing the body to return
to its normal state of readiness.

Levine’s theory is supported by evidence
that an absence of post-trauma
symptomatology coincides with thesuccessful enactment of defensive
strategies. In other words, when the
defensive responses of fight, flight or freeze
are allowed to run their full course, thephysiology, while temporarily charged withstress hormones, will eventually return tonormal. For example, if screaming or
running or shouting enables a potential
victim to successfully avoid an attacker, shemight be shocked or shaken temporarily,
but would be unlikely to suffer from PTSD.
However, if this same victim were
unsuccessful in mobilizing flight and flight,
then the protective response of freeze
comes on board. The victim, like the rabbit,
might become very still, and have anexperience in the dissociative spectrum
such as becoming numbed, “spaced out”, or
distanced, even to the extent of viewing thescene as if it were happening to someone
else. Although, in ideal circumstances, this
response could be successfully discharged
through natural shaking and body
movements, this rarely takes place in crisis
situations. The victim can then be left with
on-going dissociative symptoms which aresome of the hallmarks of PTSD.
Helping clients to increase theirunderstanding of the involuntary nature offreeze can provide relief and empowerment.
There is a strong tendency to feel guilt
when we have not responded to an
emergency in the heroic ways we would

have liked. For example, when a soldierlearns that her immobility on the battle field
was automatic and involuntary, a result ofher body’s protective mechanisms doing
their job, it can be the beginning of thejourney towards recovery. I have worked
with victims of torture, rape and war who
have benefitted from this understanding.

Helping clients toincrease theirunderstanding of theinvoluntary nature offreeze can provide relief
and empowerment.

Viewed through the SE paradigm, oneelement of freeze that becomes apparent isthat, while masquerading as stillness andvacancy, it is actually a state of heightened
activation. This recognition of the nervous
system activation that underlies symptoms
in the dissociative spectrum provides bothclient and provider with a clear direction fortreatment.
For example, one client of mine, Alex, aveteran with a PTSD diagnosis, had a
spouse, Maria, who was irritated with his“spaciness” whenever they were about to goout. While Alex fumbled, unable to find his
keys, Maria would take his apparent
reluctance to leave the home personally andraise her voice. Of course this meant that
her tone and volume were adding
stimulation to Alex’s already overactivatednervous system. When this pattern was
broken down and both Alex and Maria could
recognize his “spaciness” as dissociation
triggered by his nervousness about leaving
the house, Maria was able to provide thesupport that helped Andrew to calm down,
and feel safe enough in the relationship toleave the house with her.

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Revisiting trauma memories involves
accessing the states of heightened emotion
during which the trauma took place. When atherapist invokes this there is a distinct
danger of retraumatizing the client,
something that may inadvertently occur in aclinical interview, (or may be intentionally
provoked in certain exposure therapies).
In Somatic Experiencing, the intention isquite the opposite. A client seeking help fortrauma recovery is already in an activatedstate, so generally no additional arousal isintentionally elicited until after somefoundational work has taken place to enable
the client to stabilize, connect with the here
and now, and access an innate sense ofsafety. This is done through the skillful useof the therapeutic relationship, in
conjunction with a variety of educationaland experiential methods to help the client
enhance his capacity to self-regulate. (Thisstage could take ten minutes or years
depending on diagnostic and situational
factors.)
When the trauma memory is accessed,
it does not need to be through the “story” ofthe event, as the implicit memory isaccessible through association. For
example, working with the client’s fearful
response to an irate boss could also impact
trauma resulting from an incident with anabusive father. While the narrative is an
important component of the trauma, it is
only one of many elements to which the SE
practitioner attends while monitoring theclient’s nervous system state.
The Somatic Experiencing therapist
gently guides the client through states ofactivation and deactivation in a subtle andintentional manner that brings about therelease of nervous system tension
associated with the related trauma. Ideallythe client emerges feeling empowered, withthe absence or reduction of trauma
symptoms, and the sense of capacity thatcomes from experiencing that his/her own
body has the innate ability to self-regulate.
It is beyond the scope of this article todetail how to bring this about; there are

numerous “how-to” books and CDs available
at the Somatic Experiencing Trauma
Institute, as well as the practitioner training
itself. But even without the SE training, theuse of Levine’s trauma paradigm,
particularly his understanding of freeze as adefensive response, can enhance apractitioner’s effectiveness and reduce thelikelihood of re-traumatizing a client.
Levine deserves significant credit for hisrole in bringing “freeze” into the therapeutic
lexicon where it is now becoming morecommonly acknowledged as a full partner inthe trio of defensive responses. Levine has
spent his life lobbying for the recognition
and understanding of this once marginalized
and often misunderstood element of
trauma. Arguably he was the firstpsychologist to be using body oriented
techniques specifically for trauma recovery.
His work led him to receive the 2010
Lifetime Achievement award from theUnited States Association for Body
Psychotherapy (USABP).
Nicola Ranson, MSW has been a Somatic
Experiencing Practitioner since 2005. She received
her SE training from Steven Hoskinson MA, M.A.T.,
and Peter Levine, Ph. D. She has been licensed as a
Clinical Social Worker in California since 1997. She
currently has a private practice called “Tea andEmpathy Counseling” in Encinitas, California, where
she specializes in trauma and anxiety:www.teaempathy.com. She received her MSW at San
Diego State University and her BA in Drama andEnglish at Bristol University, England, where she
focused on Drama Therapy. Since 1999 she has beenon the Adjunct Faculty at National University, where
she teaches in the Marriage and Family Therapy andCounseling programs. Since 2004, she has provided
clinical services for Survivors of Torture,
International, San Diego. Her previous work intheatre and massage helped orient her towards
somatic psychotherapy. She credits gardening,
painting, SE and her husband Ron with helping her tostay present. She can be reached at
nic@teaempathy.com.
References
Levine, P. (2010). In an unspoken voice: How the
body releases trauma and restores goodness.
Berkeley: North Atlantic Books.
Scaer, R. (2005). The trauma spectrum. New York:W. W. Norton & Company.

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 96

The Felt Sense of Safety andPleasure and How They can be
Applied to Social Work and CaseManagement

By Nicola M-L Ranson, MSW

I am unaware of any trauma treatment that does not stress thefundamental need for therapeutic safety. Even cognitive therapy,
cerebral by its very name, needs adaptations when applied to theseverely traumatized. Donald Meichenbaum, one of the leaders incognitive therapy, stresses the necessity of establishing a warm andsafe therapeutic relationship when working with PTSD. Noting that hesounded more like a Humanistic than a Cognitive therapist, one
audience member asked him, “Whatever happened to cognitive
therapy?” He replied: “Trauma happened.” (D. Meichenbaum, personal communication,
April 18, 2007, “Promising Practices in Torture Treatment” conference, San Diego, CA).

However, comfort and safety are elusive for the traumatized client.
Heighted anxiety can make body sensation intolerable, and theoveractive brain anticipates every possible circumstance that might gowrong.
Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 97

While the thought process obviously
should be included in the panoply oftherapeutic elements, body oriented
psychotherapists do not see it as the routeto a feeling of safety. As the Meichenbalm
quote illustrates, a degree of calm andsafety has to be in place before cognitivetechniques can be used effectively. The
cerebral cortex is not fully functioning when
we are in flight and flight.
When in a state of heightened anxiety,such as a PTSD trigger, we are more under
the influence of our primitive brain stem
responses, so it is “bottom up” rather thanthe “top down” approaches that are
effective. Safety, much like danger, issomething experienced physically in an
automatic manner outside cognitive control.
According to Levine, safety is experienced
via the five senses, or six if we include
proprioception. Sensory input is the waythat our bodies learn. A scared baby is notgoing to learn that it is safe to go to sleepby being told so. Parents soothe infants
using sensory input: through rhythmicrocking, soft vocalizations, gentle firmtouch, eye contact and facial expressions.
The parent/child interactions throughsounds, movements, touches, looks and,arguably, smells, generate attachment,
which could be seen as the foundation of theexperience of safety. Levine (2010) states:

acts as reinforcement.
Accessing and emphasizing these
moments necessitates that the therapist be
acutely attuned to the client’s experience inthe here and now. For example, when aclient spontaneously experiences a momentof calm or pleasure, the therapist might joinwith the client and reinforce it. Or the state
could be prompted by encouraging theclient to disclose a recent experience of
healthy pleasure, and then the therapist
would use joining in order to promote the re-experiencing of the state. This serves the
purpose of A) getting the client off the wheelof repetitious anxious thoughts, and B)
allowing the client’s nervous system tobathe for a few moments in pleasantparasympathetic activity. It is very difficult
to worry about tomorrow while recalling thefeeling of a shaft of sunlight on one’s
forehead.
According to my simplistic summary of an
aspect of Stephen Porges’ Polyvagal Theory,(Porges & Furman, 2011), nerve fibers thatwere involved in warning of discomfort anddanger are redirected towards calming – thebody can’t do both of these at once. It isalso possible that spending a little time,(and we may be only talking microseconds
here), in creating new neuronal pathways is
actually allowing them to grow (Scaer,
2005).

The interoceptive experience ofequilibrium, felt in viscera and in yourinternal milieu, is the salubrious one ofgoodness: that is, the background sensethat – whatever you are feeling at agiven moment, however dreadful the
upset or unpleasant the arousal – youhave a secure home base within yourorganism (p.94).
In SE, the therapist encourages theclient to mindfully experience a felt sense ofsafety, which means experiencing how the
body senses the relaxed nervous system
state that is associated with moments ofcalm or pleasure. Mindful sensing in itself

In skilled SE practice, the client’s felt
sense of safety and pleasure is elicited not
only as a foundation for future work, but soSomatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 98

that corresponding states of activation canbe interwoven in a manner that results in
nervous system deactivation. The client
learns self-regulation through learning to
track the subtle rhythms of the nervous
system itself. But for non SE practitioners, it
can be very useful to become more effective
in increasing the client’s positive felt sense.
I say “more effective”, because it is most
likely that social workers are already doingsome of this work, both because offundamental Social Work principles, andbecause it can seem intuitive to pause in a
supportive manner when the client isreminiscing about something pleasurable, or
to join with a client when he is admiring an
attractive plant in your office.
One principle I am referring to is thesocial work value of supporting client
strengths. While many therapeutic
approaches likely embrace this value, it isfoundational in social work and makes social
workers less likely than some of our peers
to see clients through a lens biased towards
pathology. With this in mind, it is likely thatsocial workers will be open to the conceptthat our body’s capacity to feel pleasure is afoundational strength in itself – and one that
opens the pathway towards healing. It is a
capacity that we all have, even if ‘pleasure’,in a dark moment, is simply experiencing
less pain.
When working with suicidal clients on
the Frontline of County Mental Health, I
asked them what kept them connected tolife, and attempted to help them strengthen
this link. One thing that an SE perspective
adds to this, is to help the client ground thisconnection in their physiological capacity tofeel the link itself. If a client says he “likes”
his dog, he could be asked, “How does the
body know that? What is the sensation of
stroking or patting or being licked? And how
much do you feel that right now while
recalling the memory?” A client who
perceived himself as “dead” inside could findthe reassurance that within his own
physiology there are indeed sensations thathe prefers over others, and that, by
becoming interested in these, (bolstered by

One thing that an
SE perspective adds
to this, is to help theclient ground thisconnection in their
physiologicalcapacity to feel thelink itself. If a client
says he “likes” hisdog, he could be
asked, “How does
the body know that?
What is thesensation of
stroking or patting
or being licked? And
how much do you
feel that right now
while recalling thememory?”Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 99

While there are multiple factors involved, the healing potential of theCase Management process can be greatly underestimated. It is often
considered the poor step-sister of psychotherapy . . .
the therapist’s interest), his capacity to feel“OK” or “alive” could become more stable.
This then provides more solid ground, or
containment, that allows the painful feelings
to be safely felt.
The Somatic Experiencing paradigm
allows us to understand that stabilizing aclient’s felt sense of pleasure and safety is
an intervention in itself, one which offers amajor contribution to the practice of Social
Work. Case Management is one area inwhich this intervention could be used.
For example, when engaged with a client in
the seemingly mundane tasks of picking out
some clothing for the family, or successfully
navigating a public transit system, the social
worker is likely to say, “that’s nice” or “welldone”, from the knowledge that she issupporting the client’s self efficacy. While
there are probably some benefits for a client
to have their success acknowledged by ahealth professional, and it is likely toenhance the client/social worker
relationship, SE suggests that these benefits
will be greatly enhanced if the felt sense isintroduced. For example, the social worker
in the clothing scenario might reinforce aclient’s choice, joining with him in thesensory pleasure of a red shirt. Saying,“What a lovely red, what do you like aboutthat color?” would encourage the client tofurther explore a spontaneous moment ofpleasure, thereby basking in the feel-goodchemistry of the parasympathetic arisingfrom his associations with red, and now
enhanced by the warm social contact. The
client who had success using a bus might beencouraged to describe where she could feelthat in her body, and the sense of efficacy
and uplift could be enhanced by visiting therelated memories of other prior successes.
This would likely result in an enhanced felt
sense of capacity, which would thoroughlyinternalize, indeed incorporate, the client’s
ability to take the bus.

I have noticed clients appearing to do
better when engaged in effective CaseManagement. While there are multiple
factors involved, the healing potential of theCase Management process can be greatly
underestimated. It is often considered thepoor step-sister of psychotherapy, (and cancertainly involve a lot of onerous
bureaucratic tasks that justify this.) The
Somatic Experiencing paradigm illustrates
that many “out of office” actions that help
clients get their basic needs met, can be
intrinsically healing in themselves depending
on how they are carried out. Spending timein the felt sense of safety and pleasure,which is perhaps most strongly felt in a
supportive human relationship, can be ofgreat benefit to our clients – and toourselves. Understanding this will allow
practitioners to appreciate that laughingwith a client over the mutual pleasure inenjoying red material is actually beneficial in
itself, not something that should be quickly
passed over to get to the ‘real’ work of
exploring pathology. On the contrary, it
allows a client to experience that it is safe to
feel healthy pleasant sensation, which is an
important step towards making unpleasantsensation less overwhelming; a key elementon the path towards trauma recovery.
CLOSING
If social workers apply our systemic
model to our own work, we can see thatwhat we do, who we are, and how webehave influences those around us. We canlose sight of this when we become
overwhelmed by the immensity of sufferingthat we see in our caseloads. By choosing aprofession that, by its very title, professes toaddress the healing of society , we haveelected to be part of the solution. But tocontinue to do this effectively ourcommitment to our personal well being isparamount.

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 100

The longer I work in the field the moreaware I have become of the dangers ofvicarious traumatization and associatedburnout. The rules of reinforcement suggestthat what you focus on increases, so insocial work it is important to apply ourstrengths based model not only to ourclients’ world, but to our own.
This starts with our personal
willingness to honor our own capacities toheal. These capacities are inherent in ourbodies, and Somatic Experiencing is one
approach that can help us to learn to listen
to our bodies and influence our own nervous
systems, so that they can return to a stateof balance, and so take us in the direction ofrestoring wellbeing to ourselves, ourfamilies, our cultures and our world. To
quote McDermott and Green,“Contemporary social work must take on
board the discoveries of ‘new’ science if it is
to be an active contributor in tackling thecomplexity inherent in twenty-first-century
life” (Green & McDermott, 2010, pg. 2427).
Somatic Experiencing, with its pragmatic
focus on biology, has the potential toenhance social work practice. It provides aparadigm with far-reaching implications.
One implication is that there is atranscultural element inherent in SE’s
biological approach. Although our individual
client interactions will be culturally
influenced, biology itself transcends national
divisions. We all have essentially the same

nervous system and belong to the human(and mammalian) family. SE is practiced
effectively in multiple countries, andtrainings are popular in Brazil, Japan, South
Africa and elsewhere.
If Levine’s theories about how to
influence the nervous system are correct,
this ground-breaking approach can be seen
as not only as an instrument to heal trauma,
but as a paradigm that de-stigmatizes theramifications of trauma as a mental illness,and validates some of the core values in a
Social Worker’s strength-based systemic
approach. If our fundamental strengths arerooted in the rhythms of our own biology,
we have the potential within us to help us
return to states of balance, which in turn will
influence our relationships to one anotherand to the world in which we live.
References
Green, D., & McDermott F. (2010). Social work frominside and between complex systems:
perspectives on person-in-environment for today’ssocial work. British Journal of Social Work, 40,
2427.
Levine, P. (2010). In an unspoken voice: how the
body releases trauma and restores goodness.
Berkeley: North Atlantic Books.
Porges, S, & Furman S. (2011). The early
development of the autonomic nervous systemprovides a neural platform for social behavior: A
polyvagal perspective. Infant and Child
Development, 20: 106-118.
Scaer, R. (2005). The trauma spectrum. New York: W.
W. Norton & Company.

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 101

Applying Somatic Experiencing® therapy in thetreatment of Substance-abuse Addictions

By Galit Serebrenick-Hai, MA,
MSW, Somatic Experiencing®
traineeA few years ago I began incorporating Somatic Experiencing® therapy into my
psychodynamic psychotherapy work with clients who struggle with substance abuse
addictions. This newly applied somatic perspective completely revolutionized mywork as I began to notice that the vast majority of my clients have boundary
issues, in the sense that they tend to go into threat response (fight/flight/freeze) in
the mere presence of other people.
Many therapists tell me that they are notinterested in working with clients who
struggle with a substance-abuse addiction(e.g. street drugs, prescription drugs and/or
alcohol). They give various reasons for thispreference: "They (the clients) lie all thetime, they are manipulative, they are notreally interested in therapy, all they want is
to use drugs…" etc.

After working with hundreds of adultclients who struggle with substance-abuse
addiction in an inpatient detox andrehabilitation facility, I have to admit thatwhat these therapists are saying is true.
Addicts lie a lot, they are greatmanipulators, and their motivation toundergo a therapeutic process is low to non-existent (more often than not they attend

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 102

I suggest that incorporating somatic psychotherapy, inparticular Somatic Experiencing® (SE) therapy, can offer a new
outlook on some of the challenges that addicts face.

therapy sessions or check themselves into
an inpatient rehab facility in order to pleasea family member or due to a court order).
They portray a picture of reality that is far
from what is really going on in their lives,
and then convince themselves that they areright. Although an addict’s self- manipulative
behavior is ostentatiously textbook and to
be expected, it nonetheless does increase
our difficulty as therapists to properly
disseminate befitting advice to the situation
at hand. In one case, a colleague of mine
was working for about a year with an
alcoholic client. The main issue that theclient had presented besides the drinking
problem was overcoming the loss of his
daughter in a terrible car accident. One canonly imagine how surprised this therapist
was when at one of their sessions the client
had to rush to the airport because hisdaughter, the one who had supposedly died,
was coming for a visit. Unfortunately, frommy experience, stories like this are not rare.

Peter Levine (1977, 1997, 2010). In SE™,
an event is considered traumatic if it causes
long-term dysregulation in the autonomic
nervous system (Levine, 1977, 1997). Thismeans that although facing the same event,people will differ in their reaction to it. Due
to various reasons such as genetic,
developmental, and environmental factors,some people will be traumatized whileothers will be able to handle the challenge(Payne, Levine, & Crane-Godreau, 2015).
When people face a threat or a possible
injury, their entire body, as a response, gets
into a state of readiness in order to ensure
its survival. This state of readiness ischarged with high-energy as the body
prepares itself to fight or flee. If, for somereason, the appropriate reactions are notcompleted, this tremendous energy
becomes frozen or stuck preventing thenervous system from "resetting" itself backFor those of us who are still interested inworking with people who struggle withaddiction and are able to maintain an
outlook of addicts being severely
traumatized people, I suggest thatincorporating somatic psychotherapy, inparticular Somatic Experiencing® (SE)therapy developed by Peter Levine (1977)
can offer a new outlook on some of thechallenges that addicts face. In addition, SE
offers practical tools not found in othertherapeutic disciplines. Using such tools is
beneficial not only for the client, but for thetherapist as well.
Somatic Experiencing®
Somatic Experiencing® (SE) is a chronic
stress and trauma therapy developed bySomatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 103

into a regulated state. This chronic
dysregulated state could manifest itself
either in a chronic, hyper-aroused
neuromuscular state or a collapsed,
shutdown-dissociated one (Payne et al.,2015).
SE is a technique that facilitates boththe completion of the biological defense
responses as well as the discharge of theexcess energy. According to this technique,the client's attention is guided toward
interoceptive, kinesthetic, andproprioceptive experiences and imagery. It
is important to note that the whole process
is carefully monitored by the therapist as
clients will only approach sensations
associated with trauma after they haveexperienced an embodied resource in theform of bodily sensations that areassociated with safety and relaxation. This
important principle of titration (bit-by-bit) isfollowed in the same way as the biologicaldefense movements are completed and newcorrective experiences are encouraged inorder to replace former experiences of
helplessness and fear. As a result of thisprocess, trauma symptoms are said to beresolved (Payne et al., 2015).
Somatic Experiencing® and addictions
As soon as I started applying SE into myformer work, which was largely dominatedby a psychodynamic psychotherapy
perspective, I noticed that people who

abuse drugs and/or alcohol have easy
access to their bodily sensations. It is notuncommon for me to be able to make aquick introduction of SE (psycho-education)and then conduct a full SE session (in which
the client is required to stay "in the body"for a substantial amount of time) as soon as
the intake session is over. If a client does
seem to have a hard time accessing his/herbodily sensations, my experience has taughtme that it is not a result of feeling
uncomfortable in one's own skin or that
noticing bodily sensations feels intrusive inany way (or any other reasons that might
be common with non-addicted people). With
addicts, it usually means that more effort
needs to be exerted in order to engage
them in the therapeutic process (regardlessof the approach I choose) or that more
psycho-education work needs to be done. In
some cases this might mean that they weretraumatized in a way that shattered theirability to trust another human being. In
both cases, when these issues are
addressed and resolved to some extent, andthe client is somewhat willing to take part in
the therapeutic process, their access totheir own bodily sensations is quick andquite easy. I have often wondered about thepossible explanation for such relatively easy
access to one's own sensations of clients
who are so severely detached from theiremotions. What seems to me as a possible
explanation is that while intoxicated, addicts
are, in fact, "in their bodies". They closely
monitor their sensations in the search of
feeling “at their best”. Therefore, duringsome time of abstinence (due to their stayat a rehab facility for example), when asked
to notice their bodily sensations as required
in SE therapy, they might not enjoy it as
before, but they can definitely follow suchan instruction quite easily.
After incorporating SE therapy into mywork, I noticed that the vast majority of
addicts suffer from boundary issues, notonly from a psychodynamic perspective but
also from a somatic one. The SE framework
allows me to observe, understand andaddress this well-known issue of addicts in acompletely new way. By this I refer to theSomatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 104

manifestation of boundary issues in one's
tendency to almost constantly feel that one's
space has been invaded in the mere
presence of other people in one's
surrounding. This results in an unconscious
tendency to go into a fight/flight/freeze
response or an approach/avoid response,
also labelled as the "preparatory set" (Payne& Crain-Godreau, 2015). This could be, by
the way, the result of different kinds oftraumas, ranging from a car accident tosexual assault, all leading to the same
perceived threat response.

I believe that this observation isespecially important for addicts since joining
different groups and meetings (therapeuticor self-support) is common and highly
recommended as addicts begin their journey

toward recovery. Group therapy is one of
the most popular therapeutic tools in rehab
facilities, but even more important, addicts
are strongly encouraged to participate in the
AA/NA meetings (Alcoholics/Narcotics
anonymous) and 12-step self-help groups,
which are globally considered as a crucialcomponent in their efforts to refrain fromabusing substance. As addicts try to attend
these groups, the proximity of other people
might generate a fight/flight/freeze
response. Such a response might result in a
projection of this stress on theirsurroundings and lead them to a conclusion
such as, "I don't feel comfortable in thismeeting/group; I don't like these people."
This may result in a misfortunate droppingout of an important resource.
This important boundary issue can be
diagnosed by using a simple exercise that istaught in SE trainings. All is needed is afairly big room in which the client and thetherapist sit on opposite sides of the room
facing each other as far as the room allows.
Before we begin, I usually make a shortdemonstration in which, as the client issitting, I walk slowly toward him/her fromthe front and then from the sides, while
maintaining a fairly big distance. I ask theclient to monitor his/her sensations as I
explain what I am doing and reassure him/
her that I will maintain a fairly big distance
between us. The client is usually surprised to
discover how uncomfortable it feels as I
move throughout the room.
As described earlier, according to SE
principles, as the client and I sit in a fairly
big distance, the client will be asked tomonitor any bodily sensations that come up,
as the goal is to help the client discharge theexcess "stuck" energy (using SE
techniques). We then move to the next step,in which I will move my chair a little bit
closer to the client, only after the client hasreassured me that he/she feels completely
comfortable and relaxed. After reaching afairly "social distance", I ask the client to sit
with his/her left shoulder towards me, thenthe back, and finally the right shoulder.
Again, in each position I wait until acomplete relaxed state is achieved.

In my work with addicts, I have foundthis exercise to be effective not only in the
results it presents, but also as an
introduction to somatic psychotherapy. It
can also be used as a framework for at leasta few sessions. In some cases, thecompletion of this exercise might be rather
quick (1-2) sessions. In other cases it mighttake longer as the client may choose to
discuss some other issues at the next
session, or maybe some images or thoughts
might emerge from the sensations that lead

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 105

us to a different path before we return tothe completion of this exercise. Either way,wherever this exercise might take us, thefoundations of the somatic work have beenlaid, and in whatever path we continue, theinclusion of somatic work later on will bemuch more natural. However, it isimportant to note that in case the client andI decide to take a break from the exercise, I
continue to maintain the exact same
distance that we have reached between ourchairs in order not to provoke anunnecessary threat response.

This exercise enables me to engage
clients who struggle with substance-abuse
addiction in somatic therapy. Being able todemonstrate to them how their bodily
sensations shift as I slowly walk toward
them (as they expect to "talk" about theirproblems) definitely catches their attention
and makes many of them become curious
and engaged in the therapeutic process. As
for myself, the therapist, the use of thisexercise helps me be more efficient, as I
get the client to cooperate in a way thateliminates my wondering whether what isbeing said is true or not, or whether I am
being manipulated. Bodily sensations don'tlie.

Galit Serebrenick-Hai, MA, MSW, Somatic
Experiencing® trainee, is a certified
psychodynamic psychotherapist who holds a
M.S.W form Haifa University (Israel), and a M.A.
in Business and Industry Counseling from Kean
University (NJ). She is the therapeuticsupervisor at Step-by-Step inpatient detox andrehabilitation Center in Israel. Email:galit.hai@gmail.com

References
Levine, P. A. (1977). Accumulated Stress, Reserve
Capacity and Disease. Ann Arborm, MI: Universityof California, Berkeley.
Levine, P. A. (1997). Waking the Tiger: Healing
Trauma: The Innate Capacity to Transform
Overwhelming Experiences. Berkeley, CA: North
Atlantic Books.
Levine, P. A. (2010). In an Unspoken Voice: How The
Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness.
Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books.
Payne, P., & Crane-Godreau, M. A. (2015). The
preparatory set: a novel approach tounderstanding stress, trauma, and the bodymind
therapies. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience,
9:178. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2015.00178.
Payne, P., Levine, P.A., and Crane-Godreau, M.A.
(2015). Somatic experiencing: using interoception
and proprioception as core elements of trauma
therapy. Frontiers in Psychology, 6:93. doi:
10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00093.

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Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 107

Research in Review: A Brief Look at Current
Studies in the Literature
By Dawn Bhat, MA, MS, NCC, RYT-500, LMHC
Research from the fields of contemporary medicine and mental health is increasingly validating the mind
-body continuum, the heart of somatic studies. Drawing from clinical and basic science,

phenomenological and case studies, and literature reviews, this column is dedicated to sharing researchfrom multiple perspectives that may potentially impact the field of body psychotherapy.

Turunen, T., Haravuori, H., Punamäki, R.-L., Suomalainen, L., & Marttunen, M. (2014). The
role of attachment in recovery after a school-shooting trauma. European Journal of
Psychotraumatology, 5. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/
PMC4082197/

Why do some people suffer from trauma symptoms and others growanew?
It starts at the beginning. The attachment system is innate and built in infancy, fromwhich people learn how to regulate arousal and emotional reactions when stressed. Selfsoothing and problem solving skills become internal working models generalizing to future
relationships. With regard to attachment style, some develop a sense of security andothers one of insecurity.
As a trauma therapist, I often see clients who have difficulties coping with traumatic
experiences. Some are highly reactive, have a heightened level of arousal, or theirthought content has subtle innuendos of hopelessness. For instance, I work with a childwith attachment trauma who manages anxiety by being oppositional. Often in trouble inschool and without parental attunement, this child requires lots of co-regulation in thesession but is slowly developing some skills to self-regulate to start to feel safe andsecure.
On the other hand, I see clients grow and flourish in new areas of their lives after a
trauma experience. One individual with a tragic story, which, for this person, started at
day three when placed in an orphanage, is now a powerful executive for a Manhattanbased company. While working with how the past lives in the body, this person proudly
acknowledged an ability to access “a divine place” to seek refuge in, and which, drives thisperson’s experience of spiritual and career successes. This person actively seeks out
people to connect with to relieve distress, a characteristic of the anxious insecureattachment style.
Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 108

Exposure to trauma at later points in life
activates the internalized attachment
system. As aforementioned, the implicit
attachment patterns play a role on how one
copes and self-regulates. Mental healthissues related to trauma may or may notdevelop.
Trauma may lead to transformation orwhat is known in the literature as, posttraumatic growth (PTG). Secure attachment
is a protective factor in PTSD and PTG is
more common with the securely attached.
People may feel stronger, wiser, selfconfident, and more spiritual following a
trauma.
Attachment theory in trauma treatment
can inform us about differences among
attachment styles and differentiate newclinical applications in the real world today.
Resources to recover from the many formsof trauma (i.e., post-traumatic stressdisorder, acute stress disorder, depression,anxiety) may vary individually. Personality,
social relationships, and world-view may
contribute to resiliency – stress regulationand coping strategies when faced withtraumatic stress. In addition, severe trauma
may lead to dissociation, and is morecommon with insecure attachments.
Dissociation protects a survivor withoverwhelming fear, pain and helplessness.

School Shootings
School violence is horrific and sadly
continues to affect our communities in the
United States and throughout the world. The
present Finnish study –The role ofattachment in recovery after a schoolshooting trauma shares interesting
information about attachment and posttraumatic growth. In this longitudinal study,
the school shooting was the independent
variable and mental health outcomes, thedependent variables, were measured atthree follow-up points. While post-traumaticstress symptoms, including dissociation,
were discussed, post-traumatic growth(PTG) was as well.

University-student mental health atfour, 16 and 28 months were examinedfollowing a school-shooting incident that
occurred in Finland in 2008. The authors’
hypothesized that secure attachment was
associated with lower PTSD and dissociative
symptoms and higher levels of posttraumatic growth. Conversely, the opposite
was expected to be true of those with an
insecure attachment style. The sample
consisted of 236 students. The attrition rate
was approximately 70% at T2 and 50% at
T1. In this sample, the distribution of
attachment styles, as measured by the
Attachment Style Questionnaire (ASQ), was:
43% secure, 35% avoidant, and 22%
preoccupied (with avoidant, preoccupied
and anxious categorized as insecure).
The study measured the severity of thetrauma exposure, which was based on life
threat and losses suffered. In addition,
participants were assessed for previous andlater traumas. Posttraumatic stress wasmeasured with the Impact of Event Scale(IES) and dissociative symptoms were
measured with the Dissociative Experience
Scale (DES). The Post Traumatic Growth
Inventory (PTGI) measured growth andtransformation following trauma.
The actual results fell into two categories:
attachment style on post-traumatic anddissociative symptoms and attachment style
on post-traumatic growth. As such, thestudy found that, compared with thepreoccupied, the securely attached had
lower levels of PTSD. This result was stable
longitudinally, at four months (T1) and 16
months (T2). Those with avoidant
attachment style did not differ from thesecurely attached at T1 or T2 but did differ
at 28 months (T3) in terms of having higher
intrusive and arousal symptoms. The two
insecure attachment styles (preoccupied
and avoidant) differed in time lapse
following the trauma. In the long-term
survivors with avoidant attachment style
seem to suffer the most.

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 109

However, the study’s findings on posttraumatic growth were not so clear-cut.
those with avoidant attachment showed lessgrowth, which may be explained by theirtendency to isolate as growing following
trauma involves connecting and sharing,something the avoidant tend to avoid.

preoccupied/anxious attachment may be
open to expressing their distress, whichmakes them more easily identifiable. On theother hand, avoidant- attached students,
who do not express their distress or seek
help, may have persistent post-traumatic
symptoms.

Trauma survivors with different
attachment-styles have different coping
mechanisms, different ways to regulate
arousal, and different ways to express
emotions and seek help. As such, clinicalinterventions may be more effective when
delivered with an attachment focus.
Securely attached students fare better inthe face of adversity. Insecurely attached
are more vulnerable and may need different
kinds of help for different durations. The
authors conclude that students with

Trauma therapists, who ask about
attachment history, identify attachment
style, and adapt treatments accordingly,
may improve the clients functioning and bein a better position to facilitate posttraumatic growth. While the securely
attached may fare just well, there is aunique pattern of recovery between theinsecurely attached. To help clients connect
and share is to make growth possible
following trauma.

Dawn Bhat, LMHC is in
private practice in
Hicksville, NY. She holds
graduate degrees inGeneral Psychology andClinical Mental HealthCounseling. Dawn is a
National Certified
Counselor and a
Registered Yoga Teacher(RYT-500). Dawn has been
researching somatic
psychotherapy under theguidance of Jacqueline A.
Carleton, Ph.D. of the
USABP since 2010 and haspresented scholarly papers
and professional
workshops regionally,nationally andinternationally. Feel free tocontact her:www.dawnbhat.com

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 110

Contemplations
Diane Doheny M.Ed., coordinated the
project, which combines inspirational
quotations for contemplation and reflection
from The Heart of Mysticism by Joel Goldsmithwith illuminating nature photography from
Infinite Way students.
Diane’s passions include nature photography,
and she has donated many photographs toaccompany articles in Somatic Psychotherapy Today. She maintains a full time practice in
Exeter, New Hampshire, specializing in marital and family therapy.
According to the Acropolis
website, Contemplations is
a new 52-week, spiral-boundengagement calendar for 2016.
“The Heart of Mysticism is thecollection of monthly letters Joel
Goldsmith sent to his students
from 1955 through 1959. Eachletter was a lesson in spiritualliving and provided guidance for
applying the spiritual principles of
The Infinite Way in daily life.
Goldsmith considered his monthly
letters to be a vital link with his
students, in which he could
communicate the deepest
experiences that arose during his
ongoing class work. He once said,‘There is nothing more precious in
our entire library than the Infinite
Way Letters.’”“The selected quotations from The
Heart of Mysticism used in thecalendar are presented withbeautiful nature photographs
taken by Infinite Way students.”

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 111

Jacqueline A. Carleton, PhD
with the assistance of Dawn Bhat and the USABP Interns

experience. Students of clinicalpsychology will also especiallybenefit from the frank analysis
undertaken to explain wheretraining falls short, why, and what
to do to find greater fulfillment in
the field. Even this brief description
does not do justice to the many
topics included here. While notreally a self-help book, The
Therapist in the Real World does
seek to correct misconceptions heldby many newer practitioners andstudents, and uses a refreshingnarrative to assist.

Kottler, J. (2015). The
Therapist in the Real World:
What You Never Learn in
Graduate School But Really
Need to Know.
Reviewed by: Michael Fiorini, NewYork University
The Therapist in the Real World:
What You Never Learn in Graduate
School But Really Need to Knowfocuses on what is not covered in
graduate clinical psychology
programs relating to the practicalexperiences, challenges, andrealities faced by working
psychotherapists. This extends toinformation on developing clinicalapproaches, interpersonalconsiderations, and business andvocational hurdles. The changing
clinical and academic culture of
psychology is also considered.
Professional therapists, particularly
those newer to their practice, willfind the book highly accessible in its
writing and presentation of what toexpect in the therapeutic

The text is split into three parts.
The first part, titled More Than You
Bargained For, discusses the overt
differences with theory and practicein psychology vocationally versus
how it is presented academically.
The chapter discusses the shifts in
how therapy is practiced, theunrealistic expectations assigned totherapists both by clients andthemselves, and the need to haveto return occasionally to basic
concepts and principles when things
begin to become monotonous. Part
Two, titled Secrets and Neglected
Challenges, talks about how clientscan be our best teachers, howrelationships are almost but notalways everything, how to honor
and tell stories, and the internal
process of choosing private practiceor public service. Part Three,
Ongoing Personal and Professional
Development, talks about
upgrading your presentation
abilities, writing and publishing forpleasure, purpose, and profit,
navigating organizational politics,
and ends with a chapter onsupervision, mentoring, mastery,and creativity. There is also an
extensive reference section.

Professionals and those aspiring towork in clinical psychology will find
The Therapist in the Real World:
What You Never Learn in Graduate
School But Really Need to Know
compelling in its style ofpresentation and in the wisdom it
imparts. It is, in many ways, anopen acknowledgement of theshortcomings of advanced
professional education. For some, it
might represent a refreshingcoming-to-terms process for
disillusioned or disappointed
professionals. The book is highly
recommended for those students
and practitioners experiencing
burnout or who are otherwise
unable to receive meaningful
vocational advice from mentors. It
also is a straightforward account ofwhat skills and attitudes reallycome into play over time intherapeutic work, particularly what
it’s really like to practice in a public
or private practice. Even for thoseestablished professionals, there is afrequent call towards understandingthat psychotherapy is as much apersonal process as it is a
professional one. The bookultimately urges readers to not takethemselves so seriously and to be
as receptive to change and growth
as they expect their clients to be,
guidance that all might benefit
from.
Jeffrey Kottler, PhD, is a professor
and chair of the counselingdepartment at California State
University, Fullerton. He is aninternationally known therapist,
presenter, and keynote speaker,
and the author or coauthor of morethan 80 books about counseling,
therapy, education, advocacy, andsocial issues.

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Russell, E. (2015).
Restoring Resilience:
Discovering Your Client’s
Capacity For Healing.
Reviewed by: Djordje Modrakovic,
New York University Abu Dhabi
Restoring Resilience offers animportant reminder to cliniciansthat often gets overlooked in thefocus on pathology, which is thathumans are equipped with varying
levels of resilience that therapy
ought to foster. Althoughpathology has importance inmental health work, building
resilience helps people avoid
relapse and understand thehealthy foundation present in theirlives from which to set building
blocks towards happiness andstability. This book aims to offer
the tools to clinicians to build suchqualities in their clients.
Oftentimes people come tocounseling because they are readyto take the steps towards healing,
and clinicians have to be remindedof this so that they avoid putting
their clients back to a dark placeby re-examining and overemphasizing problems instead of
focusing on solutions. Sometimes
all a patient needs for recovery is
to be reminded of the strength heor she has and the ways theysuccessfully navigated earlier
problems. However, this is not a“fake it until you make it”
strategy. Everyone is equippedwith resilience and it is one of theroles of the therapist to bring thisquality to the surface.

This book will help therapists
identify and nurture the potential
for resilience in their clients.
Russell relies on approaches suchas interpersonal neurobiology,
affect regulation, and a number oftheoretical orientations likeAccelerated Experimental Dynamic
Psychotherapy, Focusing, andattachment theory as backgroundfor clinicians interested inresilience-building therapy.
Restoring Resilience includes
inspiring and motivational
examples from the author’s own
work with patients who havesuccessfully built resilience. In Part
1, “The Arc of Resilience,” theauthor establishes the foundation
for clinical understanding ofresilience. The premise is that
resilience is not a binary constructthat is merely present or absent,
but that it exists on a continuum.
The author reminds us that
resilience is innate and can also be
developed through practice. In
Part 2, “Resilience as Potential,”
the theoretical evidence-based
principles are elaborated and afull, annotated session transcript
presented to illustrate how to go
about resilience-focusedtreatment. Part 3, “Resilience as
Promise,” discusses the connection
between the clinician and theclient, the ways in which clinicians
can notice progress in the client,and techniques to resolve anxiety
and help the client open up and let
down their guard. In Part 4,“Resilience as Transformance/
Flourishing,” clinicians learn how
to help their clients adapt toconditions of their newly acquired
resilience, how to live a liberated
and joyful life and maintain thisstable state of mind. There is also
a section dedicated to developing
personal resilience for the clinician
because one cannot teach this skill
without embodying it him or
herself.

are contemporary issues in
psychotherapy. Once these labels
are attached, research suggeststhat clients act according to theprescribed symptoms, and one canimagine this does not benefit theircase. I have sometimes
encountered counselors whochoose an inappropriate approachin therapy, subconsciously leading
their client into a state ofperpetual vulnerability and lasting
dependence on the counselor. Thiskind of approach clearly disregards
advice clinicians can find here andis counterproductive for theclient’s recovery. Instead,
Restoring Resilience aims to help
clinicians foster the clients’ innerresourcefulness and problem
solving, making them active
agents in the road to their own
recovery, and making them more
independent in facing inevitable
life challenges. It is an important
read for all mental healthprofessionals since resilience is acompulsory element of therapy,
and one that must receive more
attention.
Eileen Russell, PhD., is a seniorfaculty member at the AEDP
Institute, a clinical instructor at
NYU Medical/Bellevue HospitalCenter, and is in private practice in
New York City and Montclair, NJ.
She received her doctorate from
Fordham University. Her research
and writing interests include thedevelopment of AEDP theory andpractice, and spirituality inpsychotherapy.

This book is a refreshing piece inthe literature on counseling forclinicians and should be included in
education of mental healthprofessionals. It reminds us about
the importance of healing andovercoming adversities overpathologizing them.
Pathologization and over-diagnosis

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Ginot, E. (2015). The
Neuropsychology of the
Unconscious: Integrating
Brain and Mind in
Psychotherapy
Reviewed by: Helen Hu, New York
University.
The unconscious poses as the
Bermuda Triangle of thepsychological field—elusive, underinvestigated, and potentiallytreacherous. Though technology
has allowed for easier studying of
unconscious processes, such
advances still aren’t enough tofully explore how they come toaffect one’s future attitudes andbehaviors. Dr. Efrat Ginot, aclinical psychologist based in New
York, has consistently emphasized
the importance of the unconscious
in a therapeutic environment. Her
recent work, The Neuropsychologyof the Unconscious: Integrating
Brain and Mind in Psychotherapy,
deals specifically with the role ofthe unconscious within mental
health from a more scientificperspective.

Organized in a total of ten
chapters, The Neuropsychology of
the Unconscious offers a“neurobiologically informed model
not only of unconscious processes,
but also of the relationshipbetween unconscious andconscious systems, as well as theunique roles of the right and left
hemispheres in what she calls ‘theconscious-unconscious
continuum’” (xiii). In other words,
Ginot’s approach to theunconscious goes beyond thetechniques of most clinicians: byintegrating modern research,
Ginot unearths connections
between biology and theunconscious patterns often
explored in psychoanalysis. She
frequently mentions her own casesin this text. Though none of them
are “easy fixer-uppers,” so to
speak, Ginot’s determination
toward uncovering the root of her
clients’ issues never wavers
regardless of how complicated theundertaking is. Indeed, Ginot is
not one to address a patient withblind optimism or quick solutions,
opting instead to take the longroad in order to fully comprehend
the mind at work.
This text is appropriate for mental
health professionals looking to
improve their practice throughharboring a greater appreciationfor one of the most mysterious
aspects of psychoanalysis. By
integrating neuroscience with theunconscious, Ginot opens the door
to her fellow clinicians, inviting
them to take their therapy to thenext level. We ought to view theunconscious realm as an iceberg ofsorts, one that allows for an evenstronger and more effective
relationship between the therapist
and the patient. The
Neuropsychology of the
Unconscious is ideal for anyone
involved in therapeutic work since,
as Ginot suggests, the realm of
the unconscious can be moretelling and impactful than what theconscious mind has to discuss.

Walker, D., Courtois, C., &Aten, J. (2015). Spiritually
Oriented Psychotherapy forTrauma
Reviewed by: Michael Fiorini, NewYork University
Spiritually Oriented Psychotherapy
for Trauma is a diverse collectionof case studies, clinical research,
and academic papers on trauma
and its relationship to spiritual
conceptions and psychotherapy.
Highly relevant to professionals
because spirituality andmindfulness are central to current
psychological discourse, the bookseeks to show through research
how religious and spiritual life tie
across the lifespan into theconstruction of self and the world.
It treats the relationship with God
as having particular attributes
affecting the healing process
following diverse traumatic
experiences. Using numerous casestudies and integrating spiritualbeliefs into known styles ofattachment dynamics, the bookdetails for therapists how to
consider spiritual conceptualization
as an intrinsic factor in
psychotherapy. Spiritually
Oriented Psychotherapy forTrauma looks at diverse
traumatized populations, giving
professionals and researchers inparticular a helpful contextual
framework. There are also
numerous practical considerations
for clinicians included here, andshould be considered equal parts
an academic/theoretical andclinical/practical examination of
spiritually oriented psychotherapy.
The focus of trauma dynamics
amongst the spiritually minded,
how it can affect the relationshipwith God, how to discussspirituality with clients, among
other things allow professionals a
wealth of effective, contemporary
knowledge pertaining to the topic.
The book first looks at the basics
of working on spiritual matterswith traumatized individuals before
discussing how spirituality,
religion, and complex
developmental trauma interact. A
chapter discussing the ethics ofattending to spiritual issues inSomatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 114

trauma treatment follows this. A
paper dedicated to explaining theprocess of religious and spiritualassessment in trauma survivors isthen included, followed by anotherdescribing how religion andspirituality affect the working
alliance. Making spiritual meaningfrom work with trauma survivors
and its implications andresponding to changes inspirituality following traumatic
events take up the next chapters.
God images in clinical work withsexual abuse survivors, providing
spiritual and emotional care in
response to disasters, addressing
intimate partner violence in a
religious context, and faith andhonor in military families follow
this. The book ends with a chapter
discussing how to respond to the
problem of evil and suffering, as
well as an afterword on reflections
and future directions of researchby the editors.
Spiritually Oriented Psychotherapy
for Trauma is, for the interested
professional clinician or
researcher, an invaluable
collection of relevant information.
The book contains case studies
and chapters of how trauma andspirituality interact in specificpopulations, allowing its central
concepts and integrative approachto spirituality to be widely
applicable in psychotherapy. As itis such an intrinsic (and often
overlooked) aspect of personal self-construction, increasing
professional awareness andcompetence in addressing
spirituality in a psychologicalframework is extremely important.
The book can assist those looking
to expand their clinical knowledgeof this topic, who can turn to therelevant included references andresearch to further theirunderstanding. The book alsoseeks to bring awareness topractitioners of their own
spirituality and how it mightintersect in their treatment ofclients, as well as how it might
affect transference andcountertransference. Spirituality is
characterized here as a facet of
psychotherapy sometimes
explicitly avoided, but which can
improve therapy outcomes,

alliances, and patientunderstanding, and is relevant
reading for practitioners.
Donald Walker, PhD, directs The
Child Trauma Institute and teaches
in the PsyD program at Regent
University, focusing on courses
involving trauma and clinical childpsychology. Christine Courtois,
PhD, ABPP, is a board-certified
counseling psychologist in
independent practice inWashington, DC, has publishedseveral books on complex trauma
and its treatment, and works for
the APA on developing treatment
guidelines for PTSD. Jamie Aten,
PhD, is the founder of the
Humanitarian Disaster Institute, isan associate professor of
psychology at Wheaton College,
and has co-edited or authoredseven books.

Harris, A. & Kuchuck S.
(2015). The Legacy of
Sandor Ferenczi: From
Ghost to Ancestor
Reviewed by: Michael Fiorini, NewYork University
The Legacy of Sandor Ferenczi:
From Ghost to Ancestor is a bookcompiling the writings ofnumerous psychologists that
discuss the life, work, andenduring legacy of Sandor
Ferenczi. Ferenczi was notable as
being one of the earliest
psychoanalysts and for his
reputation as Freud’s most gifted
student analyst (as well as being
his patient). Splitting with Freud’semphasis on detachment andemotional distancing, heincorporated a more emotionally
receptive, experimental take on
psychoanalysis, which oftentimes
resulted in dramatic transference
and countertransference. Largely
dismissed and professionally
unacknowledged in his own timeoutside of his relationship with
Freud, many practices andconcepts intrinsic to therapy andpsychological understanding today
were first posited by Ferenczi. It isbecause of this that many
therapists will find the bookimportant and interesting to read.
Illustrating for readers how the
Freud/Ferenczi split transformed
the face of psychoanalytic practiceallows readers a greaterawareness of the theoretical basisof the field itself. The differing
subject matter discussed in the
included essays allow readers abroader understanding ofFerenczi’s influences and work,
detailing what factors led to his fallfrom grace and where his legacy
endures in spite of that.
The book is split into three parts,
arranging essays by overarching
topics. The sections discuss thecontext of Ferenczi’s work, thehistorical/cultural/interpersonal
influences on his career, and thetheory and technique behind his
clinical approach. How Ferenczi’s
work is present in contemporary
psychology, his attitudes towards
academic and clinical work, andhis early prominence as a student
of Freud are covered in the‘Context’ part. ‘History’ discusses
his clinical style from theperspective of a former patient,
Georg Groddeck’s influence onhim, his problematic relationshipwith Elizabeth Severn, his work on“war neuroses,” and the influencethat being Jewish had on Ferenczi
and Freud in early 20th century
Europe. The third part, ‘Theory
and Technique,’ looks at Ferenczi’s
introjective style, his treatment of
trauma, identification with theaggressor, the therapeutic actionof love and desire, relational
psychoanalysis, amongst otherpertinent topics regarding his
ideas on the analytic experience.

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Because much of Ferenczi’s work
remained unpublished or
untranslated into English until the
mid-1980’s, there remains a wide
information gap within mainstream
psychology and psychoanalysis on
his work and theoreticalcontributions to psychology.
Several of his original ideas were
far ahead of their time and havealready crossed into mainstream
clinical frameworks through othertheorists and psychology
movements today, however it is
crucial to understand his successes
and missteps to come to greaterawareness of the topography ofthe field. The detached therapist,at once such a common archetypethat the notion of psychotherapy
in popular culture remains unable
to shake the association, contrasts
sharply with the approach Ferenczi
undertook. There is still much that
we can learn as practitioners andpsychologists within academia
from his perspectives, while also
looking towards him as a
cautionary tale of where clinicalexperiments and the personal
limitations of the therapist figure
can become problematic. The
Legacy of Sandor Ferenczi: From
Ghost to Ancestor is an excellent
summary of many of the essential
aspects of the analyst’s life,
career, ideas, enduring influence,and professional downfall.
Adrienne Harris, PhD, is faculty
and supervisor at the NYU
Postdoctoral Program in
Psychotherapy andPsychoanalysis, Faculty andTraining Analyst at thePsychoanalytic Institute ofNorthern California. She serves on
the editorial boards for
Psychoanalytic Dialogues, Studies
in Gender and Sexuality,
Psychoanalytic Perspectives, andthe Journal of the American
Psychoanalytical Association.
Steven Kuchuck, LCSW is a faculty
member, board member, anddirector of curriculum at the
National Institute for thePsychotherapies, and editor inchief of Psychoanalytic
Perspectives and associate editor
at Routeledge’s Relational
Perspectives Book Series.

Sawyer, A. (2015). Smoking
Cigarettes, Eating Glass: A
Psychologist’s Memoir
Reviewed by: Michael Fiorini, NewYork University
Smoking Cigarettes, Eating Glass:
A Psychologist’s Memoir is thefirsthand account of the author’s
battle with long term psychiatrichospitalization. The book focuseson her experience of being
diagnosed as schizophrenic, hermany misdiagnoses bypsychiatrists, and her process ofovercoming electro shock therapy
to become a psychotherapist
herself. Repressed and lost
memories, especially those later
rediscovered when looking throughher long medical records, are an
integral part of the author’s story.
Child sexual abuse andproblematic family and relationshipdynamics are similarly key to theresulting narrative. The book takes
an in-depth look into electro shock
therapy and the long term effects
stemming from it. Professional
readers will find Sawyer’s uniquestory of recovery, relapse, and self
-acceptance highly relevant totheir practice, both as a patientand psychologist herself. Theintersection of her psychology
training with the troubled past that
she often felt must stay hidden
brings to attention potentiallyproblematic aspects of academic
culture and discrimination against
the mentally ill.
Split into three distinct parts,
Smoking Cigarettes, Eating Glassis written so that different major

phases of the author’s life are
discussed separately. This is done
so that readers can get a sense of
the drastic changes she underwent
during her treatment, training, andrelapse process. The first part,Locked Up, discusses in intricate
detail the author’s experiences
being sent into a psych ward, andfollows her recurring
hospitalizations. Much of this partof the book looks at what it felt
like to be treated and diagnosed
differently by every psychologist
and psychiatrist she saw, as wellas what interacting with the inpatient community entailed. The
second part, Moving Out, follows
the author’s amnesia and recovery
period following a series of electroshock therapy sessions. It also
follows her early relationship withher husband, completion of
education, and professional
involvement in psychology andsociology. The third and final part,Lost and Found, discusses theauthor’s rediscovery of her medical
records, revisiting the person she
was while in treatment having
forgotten many of the details. It
covers the origins of the suicidal
feelings that drove her to her first
hospitalization, and represents forreaders her final, transformative
struggle towards self-acceptance.
Professional readership willappreciate Smoking Cigarettes,
Eating Glass if looking to readabout an insider’s perspective on
varied psychiatric treatment andhospitalization. It is also aparticularly captivating retelling of
spiritual and personal rebirthfollow electro shock treatment.
The author discusses her journey
into practicing as a psychologist
herself, how she juggled memories
of prior hospitalizations, and how
she was dealing with triggers
resulting from negative treatment.
There is, in general, greater detail
given to the author’s changing
interpersonal, romantic, andfamilial relationships than to her
training in practice as a
psychologist. This speaks more to
the subject matter of the initial
narrative, particularly that of apatient trying to reconcile
uncontrollable emotional affectand psychological disorganization.

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It should be noted that the
timeline of the story is also
sometimes hard to follow as there
are frequent flashbacks andintermittent “patient notes”
written by doctors about theauthor while she was hospitalized
incorporated. This emphasizes thatthe author never fully felt like she
could escape the experiences she
had and the identity she adopted
while on the psych ward. The bookblends the traditional psychologist
memoir with a patient perspective
in a way that stays true andillustrative of both, to the benefit
of interested professionals.
Annita Perez-Sawyer has worked
as a clinical psychologist for overthirty years, and has received
numerous awards for her work as
an essayist detailing her life withmental illness. She continues towork as a speaker to mental
health clinicians about her
experiences with misdiagnosis andconsequent mistreatment.

Patel, K. (2015). Be The
Space: Reflections on the
Journey
Reviewed by: Michael Fiorini, NewYork University
Be The Space: Reflections on the
Journey is Kaveri Patel’s newest
addition to her collection of selfpublished poetry books including
An Invitation (2011), The Voice(2014), and Under The Waves,(2012). Patel, a yoga practitioner
and medical doctor, examines
different aspects of life, emotion,awareness of the self, and how weinteract with the world and others.
Her poems are usually briefcontemplative pieces that analyze
the relationships between theworld and how we experience itinternally. Metaphor and symbolic
language are frequently used in all
four books. Each book covers
specific themes and discusses
existential topics that contribute tobroadening readers’ perspectives
on internal experience.
Professional readers will find that
Patel’s poetry collections, thoughsuccinct, effectively translate theprocess of mindfulness practice
into words. The author
incorporates aspects of eastern
philosophy, mysticism, and othercultural and religious references toillustrate her works. Each poem,
however brief, allows readers togive pause and self-analyze, tostep back and re-imagine how
they think, act, and behave. The
books might be useful for thosetrying to expand their use ofmindfulness techniques, expand
self-awareness, or merely torethink the underlying meanings ofcertain relationships that they
maintain with the surrounding
world.
Patel concentrates on a key rangeof topics within each book. The
poems tend to be no longer than
two pages. An Invitation contains
poems related to self-compassion,
the “Sacred Feminine,”
forgiveness, attainment, kindness,and faith. An underlying theme
throughout is to allow oneself to
not be swayed by immediate gut
reactions or emotions, and toallow greater consideration before
jumping to conclusions. The
desired goal is expanding self-loveand improving self-image.
The Voice revolves thematicallyaround the mindfulness processthat arises in yogic and meditative
practice. The voice refers to theinner voice instilled in thesepractices that encourages healing,
trust, love, and true happiness.
The poems seek to accentuate andillustrate inner thoughts andfeelings that come up in different
situations.

Under The Waves contains poems
written to instill in readers acompassionate presence,
particularly during circumstancesof adversity and when it is difficult
to balance feelings of sufferingwith feelings of joy. These poems
observe the potential for personal
growth in the wake of negative
outcomes.
Be The Space: Reflections on the
Journey is the outlier of the fourbooks as it is a spiral notebook
with mostly blank pages. Here,
while no overt theme is referred
to, the intermittent poems tend to
discuss getting in touch with innerthoughts and feelings and bringing
them to the forefront. It appears
as though it is meant to be acreative outlet for readers to pour
their thoughts into in between theencouraging poetry.
Professional readers, particularly
those interested in mindfulness,yoga, meditation, and Eastern
philosophical practices, will findthe poetic works of Kaveri Patel
relevant and engaging. Each of thepoems, though brief, tells volumes
about interpretation, symbology,
thoughtfulness, and the frequently
tumultuous internal experiences oflife. All are quite reader friendly
and do not require thoroughreading or concentration to beappreciated, making them easy topick up and put down at leisure.
For those particularly interested in
the work of Rumi and others
following eastern poetic traditions,the books follow similar patterns
and are heavily influenced bythem. For those looking for aworkbook for their creative
energies more involved than amere blank canvas, Be The Space:
Reflections on the Journey mightoffer a unique and useful medium.
For those who appreciate thepoetic musings and observationsof a mindfulness-oriented yoga
practitioner and physician inparticular, all of the books comehighly recommended.
Kaveri Patel, D.O., is a poet,mother, and healer practicing in
California. She has written fourbooks of poetry on yoga,
meditation, mindfulness, and love.

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Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 118

The Phenomenology ofDance: Fiftieth
Anniversary Edition
Written by: Maxine Sheets-Johnstone
Reviewed by: Michael Fiorini

The Phenomenology of Dance, originally written in 1966 by dance andmovement philosopher Maxine Sheets-Johnstone as her doctoral dissertation, is afoundational work on the experiential consideration of movement. In the fifty years
since it was first written and published, the book’s pioneering ideas about
movement and the existential experience of dance have become immensely
influential for dancers, therapists, and patients. The book goes into extensive
detail about what it’s like to dance and express oneself through movement. It
details movement both within the individual and, as an audience, observing it inothers. The book characterizes movement as a fundamental aspect of expression,as well as being tied intrinsically to underlying experience and the roots ofintention in dance. Although the book speaks of movement through dance, its

principle ideas can easily be applied more generally. Therapists will find the bookilluminating particularly because it illustrates, in many ways, aspects of themindset and perspective now shared by contemporary somatic psychologists. It
offers forth a philosophical perspective applicable for some professional readers intheir considerations of movement in the therapeutic setting. The 50th anniversary
edition offers a new forward that brings into consideration new findings inneuroscience related to movement and makes some slight updates on definitions,though it largely remains an unedited work.

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From the outset, readers will find that,speaking to its origins as the author’s dance
philosophy dissertation, the language usedin the book is quite academic and, oftentimes, resembles a college lecture. On the
one hand, the fine degree of detail included
here is compelling and specific in its use of
descriptive language and the outlining ofpotential relationships between types of
movement and experience. On the other
hand, the book, though not particularly
lengthy, is nonetheless exceptionally dense
and warrants a close-read to fully benefit
from its presented concepts. A late night
coffee-table book this is not. After the
updated forward and an older preface to thesecond edition, the book details theperspectives of dancers and observers being
affected differently in their experience ofdance. It then goes on to bridge dance intoa phenomenological narrative while alsodetailing the components of force.
Abstraction, expression, dynamic line,
rhythm, the imaginative space of dance, andthe educational implications of dancecomposition and dance as an art form flesh
out the author’s perspective on theembodied experience of movement. An
extensive section of notes and abibliography included in the end of the bookmight also be useful for research
applications if looking into the influences on
the original work.
To say that The Phenomenology of Dance isan important entry in the broader scope ofdetailing body awareness, movement, andsomatic experience is an understatement.
Before this book, there was little to noconceptualization of movement from a
serious philosophical standpoint. As adriving influence of further work inphenomenology, its contributions to practicein somatic psychology in particular isinvaluable. For those practitioners of bodyand somatic psychotherapy unacquainted
with the work, The Phenomenology of Danceis highly important as an early touchstone
for thinking about what it’s like toexperience movement and also what thebasic elements of movement and dance are.
In coming to a greater understanding of
movement, Phenomenology continues togive readers a working framework forunderstanding the nature of movement.
Although the book is by no means an easyread nor necessarily transparent even for
those immediately acquainted with somatic
psychology, readers will find in the book awealth of enriching perspective on the mostbasic elements of movement, both as adancer and as an observer of others. It
discusses movement in a way closely
resembling the ways somatic
psychotherapists might analyze andinterpret, for example, Reichian conceptionsof character armor. Its applications andinfluence are quite relevant today, and as acall towards a less structured interpretationof movement in how it relates to the humanexperience might, for many readers,
resonate deeply with their practice andclinical methodology.
Maxine Sheets-Johnstone, PhD, is anindependent scholar and courtesy professorof philosophy at the University of Oregon.
Before completing her doctorate, she
worked as a dancer and choreographer. In
addition to authoring articles in over seventy
art, humanities, and science journals, she
has authored nine books, including The
Roots of Thinking, The Primacy ofMovement, and The Corporeal Turn. She has
lectured around the world about dance,
movement, and on how to consider themphilosophically.

Find us digitally @ www.issuu.com/SomaticPsychotherapyToday

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 120

The Phenomenology of Dance:
Fiftieth Anniversary Edition
A conversation with Maxine Sheets-Johnstone

Editor’s Note:
I think a question on many of our colleague’s minds is, “Whydo therapists write books in the first place, and how do they
make the time?“
Maxine Sheets-Johnstone’s first book, The Phenomenology ofDance, came out in the mid 1960’s and was pioneering interms of its subject matter. Her book publications also
include the following: Illuminating Dance: Philosophical
Explorations; the “roots” trilogy–The Roots of Thinking; The
Roots of Power: Animate Form and Gendered Bodies; andThe Roots of Morality; Giving the Body Its Due; The Primacyof Movement; and The Corporeal Turn: An Interdisciplinary
Reader.
With the publication of the 50th Anniversary Edition of The
Phenomenology of Dance now available, SPT asked Michael
Fiorni to speak with Maxine to learn more about her writing
process. We begin the conversation with Maxine sharing why
she wrote The Phenomenology of Dance in the first place.

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 121

“Why did I write it? Because I was very
puzzled as to why people would define
movement as a force in time and spacewhen the experience of movement is not of
a force in time and in space. On thecontrary, any and all movement creates its
own distinctive qualitative dynamics, whichmeans that each and every movement
creates its own distinctive spatial, temporal,
and force quality of movement. The watch
word when I was studying in the sixties—
the basic idea—was that movement was aforce in time and space. You heard this as amodel explanation of movement, andanalyses of movement followed thisthinking. It was through my studies inphenomenology that I was able to open up
an entirely new mode of analysis, and thisthrough a very rigorous methodology thatallowed me to look at movement as
movement, and not from a simplistic pointof view.
In doing that, in looking at it in this newway, particularly because you started out asa dancer yourself and not necessarily
having existing work on dance
phenomenology to build upon, what wasyour writing process like?
“The writing process was challenging in theextreme, because of what I have describedas “the challenge of languaging
experience,” a challenge that, when met,takes you outside of, or beyond every day
conversational modes of description andanalysis. Oftentimes in everyday life, you
don’t describe experience in terms thatreally nail it down in precise and distinctive
ways, ways that give voice to the actual
phenomenon itself. Phenomenology was adecisive aid for me in this sense: I had torise to the challenge of putting words toexperience. There’s a whole process within
phenomenology called eidetic variation. You
sit and imagine over and over, andextensively, any and all kinds ofexperiences of the phenomenon in question.
I was concentrating on movement--justimagining all kinds of movement, whether it

was a leaf falling, or a wave crashing, or apiece of toast popping up from the toaster.
On the basis of all variations, what are thebasics? What is essential in all thoseexperiences of movement? Eidetic
variations are what allowed me to get at thecentral character of the phenomenon of
movement.
In many ways you mention that what yourbook is about is movement itself and notnecessarily dance, which speaks to its wide
applicability in different fields and sciencesin addition to dance itself. You discuss inyour book that the influence of kinesthesia
is central to what you’re talking about. How
did your experience as a dancer inform thedescriptions you used?
I was considered a heretic by the people inthe dance department because I didn’t
conform to their way of thinking or talking
about movement, or dance, for that matter.
On the other hand, I was highly esteemed
as a choreographer and I did a lot ofchoreography. What kept me alive inchoreographing was really listening to the
dynamics of the movement I was creating.
When you listen to the movement in thisway, your awareness is precisely on
movement. In other words, you don’t justdo the things that you like to do or dothings you do particularly well. Thus, in theend, when you’re dancing, you’re notmoving through a form; the form is moving
through you. The form is what is speaking.
It’s not you doing this and that.
At the end of the new preface to the 50th
edition of your book, you say that rather
than dance being a means to education,
education should be a means to dance. It
sounds like you’re arguing against the overintellectualization and rigidity of standards
and expectations of what dance should be
and how it can be expressed, though you
frame it in terms of educational values. For
our readers, how do you feel that wisdom

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might be applied to somatic psychologists,
their practices, and their patients?
You mean in terms of listening to theirpatients, listening to the movement of theirpatients, rather than just taking themthrough a series of movements that you
think, from a theoretical point of view, aregood for them. Is that what you mean?

shifts and changes in moving. Anotheraspect of the imaginative consciousness of
movement has to do with linear pattern—
the directional line or lines created by
movement, as when you do something as
simple as turn a corner. My professor was
arguing that a line was a geometrical entity.
It didn’t have anything to do with bodies, ordance, or movement.

Yes.
Yes, definitely. The ways in which you
analyze movement have a lot to do withhow deeply you grasp the movement of thepatient. I’m not deeply familiar with Laban
analysis or other modes of analyzing
movement, but I think it’s essential to be
awake to the movement itself, to its living
qualitative dynamics. The fine-grained
analysis of the movement comes afterward.
What I mean is that you do not put
everything—the patient included—into
preset categories and expectations, buthave the actual experience of how the
kinetic dynamics of the person moving
before you are being actually created andshaped by the person him or herself.
Moving forward to the book itself, it’s myunderstanding that the book came out ofyour doctoral dissertation. How much of theoriginal dissertation ended up in the book?
Just about all of it. My major professor indance, after a year and a half, said shewouldn’t work with me anymore. That was
because I had written a paper on theimaginative consciousness of movementthat has to do with body lines. If your arm isoverhead, you know whether it’s straight or
bent. That knowledge comes from an
imaginative consciousness of movement
because all you have are joint awarenesses.
What you do is elongate imaginatively thefelt angularity of a joint or joints and in thisway become aware of the linear quality ofyour body and your body in movement. Partof the imaginative consciousness of
movement is indeed the linear design of the
body and the ways in which that design

That must have been jarring to hear comingfrom your perspective.
It was incredibly jarring!
Some writers feel like having a highly
influential early work, and in this case yourfirst book, can be a challenge when trying tocome up with material and further yourideas later on. Do you feel as if that was
factor in your experience as an author? (inwhat you’ve done subsequently)
Absolutely. I’ve written nine books and close
to eighty articles for different journals, some
written in more attenuated ways, but allvery much anchored in an awareness of thecentrality of bodily life to life itself. I’ve
written about movement and emotions, forexample, and the way in which, in the run ofeveryday life, emotions and movement are
dynamically congruent. Short of thisordinary dynamic congruency, we would not
be able to feign an emotion or restrain
ourselves from an emotional expression.
I’ve written too about how our bodily life inmovement is the foundation of basic
concepts. Our early cognitions andconceptual development are rooted inmovement—of near and far, sharp andblunt, weak and strong, and so on. My initial
work influenced me a great deal--notdirectly all the time, but certainly inundercurrent ways.
The preface to the new edition of your book
discusses a great deal of contemporary workin dance, its methodology, its relation toSomatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 123

neuroscience. What were your thoughts in
producing the new edition and its revisions?
I was, and still am, very disturbed by ways
in which reductionist practices in modern
day science—particularly in brain scienceand in cognitive science—reduce things tothe brain, and then make all kinds of what I
call “experiential ascriptions” to “the brain.”
The brain “understands,” the brain“ascertains,” the brain “chooses.” It’s
deflective because it overlooks real life
experience. I was particularly concerned too
about what seemed to me to be arbitrary
divisions and diametric contrasts inphenomenological writings, divisions andcontrasts such as those between agency
and ownership, and those between body
image and body schema. Those terms seem
ready-made to me. In other words, they
don’t have real phenomenological depth tothem in the sense of penetrating to their
origins. Instead of dividing and conquering,so to speak, by means of labels, saying“this is body image, and this, in contrast, isbody schema,” for example, or “this isagency, and this, in contrast, is ownership,”thus stating that “this term stands for thisand that term stands for that,” we would dowell to ask ourselves about real-life, realtime bodily experience--how the experienceof agency, for example, comes to be. In
short, there is a need to delve in depth into
the experiential substrate of such notions asbody image and body schema and suchterms as agency and ownership.
Was there anything that you feel you didn’t
include in the new edition that you would
have liked to have included?
No, but it’s interesting that you ask thequestion because before Temple University
Press had wanted to publish the book, I’dasked the publisher of another book of mine
about her possible interest in re-publishing
The Phenomenology of Dance. That editor
wanted to republish it, but asked that I“bring it up to date.” Her request didn’t

make any sense to me, because thephenomenological analysis given in The
Phenomenology of Dance is root bottom as
far as I’m concerned. It’s not that people
can’t amend a phenomenological analysis.
They most certainly can. They canfurthermore certainly question an analysis.
Phenomenological analyses are open to
emendations, but I had no intention to
make any kinds of corrections: there were
no edits that were necessary to make. The
only thing I thought was necessary wasdone in the new Preface, which I had
initially thought of as the “Introduction,” butthe editor thought “Preface” preferable. I
was very happy to have the book itself
stand as it was, and to just say something
about the way in which present day
research and writings about movement andbodily life often enough don’t yet arrive atand understand the foundational dynamics
of bodily life, much less dance. I really dothink, however, that movement is coming to
the fore, taking over habitual recourse totalk of “behavior” and “action,” not tomention “embodiments” of all sorts.
Could you talk more about that? Them notdescribing movement according to yourvision of this concept.
Right. They’re not looking at experience inan exacting forefront way and are reallytalking more from a kind of tangential,
neuroscientific point of view. Not all of them
are reductionist, but it’s precipitous to start
off with anything less than experience first.
When one starts with experience, one canhardly write of an “embodied self” or“embodied subjectivity,” for example, muchless “embodied movement.” As I originallywrote, such packaging is a lexical Band-Aid
covering over a still suppurating 350-plusyear-old wound.
Are you surprised that the book has had asmuch an impact as it has over the last fifty
years?

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 124

“Dance is a central aspect of life thatpeople commonly overlook.”
I’m utterly astonished! When I was writing
the book, I just felt that I was getting to thebottom of things—to the bottom of aspectsof dance that I’d experienced: dynamic
line, expression, rhythm, and abstraction. I
thought that the topics and chapters mightreally offer something to people in dance. I
now feel beholden to a lot of people, people
who have taken an interest in the book andfound it insightful. I’m thankful that thebook has been meaningful.
I wanted to go back for a moment to thequote I mentioned from your preface,“rather than dance being a means to
education, education should be a means todance.” You were a dancer who decided to
study philosophy. Do you feel as if youracademic considerations of dance ultimatelychanged how you danced, or how you
perceived your experience of dance?
No, I think it only intensified my belief thatcreating forms in dance was absolutely
central to understandings of the aesthetics
of dance. I went back to the University of
Wisconsin for a secondary doctorate inevolutionary biology. I didn’t write adissertation to finish it, but I did a lot ofwork in and studies in that area. I did that,
because a lot of people central tophenomenology like Heidegger, forexample, talked about humans as if they
dropped out of the blue. My studies havealways been anchored in the dynamics oflife itself, and studies in ontogeny andphylogeny enhance understandings of thosedynamics. But studies of dance are equallycentral. They, too, are central to insights
into those dynamics. Dance is a central
aspect of life that people commonly
overlook. I think all my academic studies
enhanced my experience of dance and beinga body in the sense of intensifying invarious and complex ways my appreciations
and depth understandings of movement andthe art of choreography.
Is there anything you’d like to add thathasn’t already come up?
I think it’s truly wonderful and am very
grateful that what I have done in terms of
movement and bodily life has come to theattention of practitioners in body,
movement, and dance psychotherapy. I feel
so very grateful that it has awakened theirinterest, that it has been engaging, and thatit has been helpful in opening up lively andcontinuing conversations about, andinsights into bodies, movement, and dance.

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 125

Dr Elizabeth Boath continued from page 41
She is also an academic and has over two
decades experience of health service researchand has published widely in the field of energy
psychology. She is currently carrying two
systematic reviews of EFT for PTSD and EFT for
anxiety. She has co-authored the first two peerreviewed publications on Matrix Reimprinting
and has co-authored an evaluation of an NHS
EFT/ Matrix Reimprinting service. She has
published a number of studies on the impact of
EFT on students' presentation anxiety andcommunication skills. She has also reviewed anumber of EFT books and publications. Liz also
has particular expertise in postnatal depression(PND), clinical effectiveness and researchmethodology and is a published author with arange of academic books and publications inthese areas.
Caroline Rolling continued from page 41:
economic and social deprivation. As a mature
student, Caroline focused on health studies atUniversity and has since added Reiki,
EmoTrance and Laughter Yoga to her toolbox.
Her focus since 2008 has been in using energy
psychologies to help in individual, family andcommunity growth; she has gained expertise inusing the techniques to bring relief from theemotional effects of traumatic events. Caroline
is a director of Community Resilience Network
CIC, a non-government organization establishedto work with communities, in the UK andworldwide, teaching skills for self-regulation anddeveloping self-sustaining programmes thatbring peace, build resilience and improve qualityof life.
References
Boath, E., Stewart T., & Rolling, C. (2014). The
impact of EFT and Matrix Reimprinting on thecivilian survivors of war in Bosnia: A pilot study.
Current Research in Psychology, 5(1), 64-72. doi:
10.3844/crpsp.2014.64.72
Boath, E., & Stewart, A. (2014). The Science behind
the Matrix. In K. Dawson & K. Marillat,
Transform your beliefs, transform your life,
Appendix 1. London: Hay House.
Dawson K., & Allenby, S. (2010). Matrix Reimprinting
using EFT. London: Hay House.
Dawson K., & Marillat, K. (2014). Transform Your
Beliefs, Transform Your Life: EFT Tapping Using
Matrix Reimprinting. London: Hay House.
Stewart, A., Boath, E., Carryer, A., Walton, I., Hill, L.,& Dawson, K. (2013). Can Matrix Reimprinting beeffective in the treatment of emotional conditions
in a public health setting? Results of a U.K. Pilot
Study. Energy Psychology Journal. doi:
0.9769.EPJ.2013.5.1.AS.EB.AC.IW.LH.DP.KD.

Like SPT and keep up
with the latest
Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 126

Somatic Psychotherapy Today

Trending Somatic Practices Influencing Our Field Today
An invitation to write for us, with us, with support along the way. Your writing can contribute to and enrich the‘body’ of critical and reflective content, as well as to the clinical expertise, in the 'field' of body psychotherapy.
Whom can you write for?
We suggest that – for a professional article – you consider:
The EABP/USABP peer-reviewed International Body Psychotherapy Journal (for original work only): www.ibpj.org
The peer-reviewed journal of Body, Movement and Dance in Psychotherapy (for original work only):www.tandfonline.com/toc/tbmd20/current#.VBfpFS6wJRU
Or (for German authors) körper – tanz – bewegung: Zeitschrift für Körperpsychotherapie und Kreativtherapie:
www.reinhardt-verlag.de/de/zeitschrift/51830(You will find the necessary “instructions for authors” on their various websites.)
Or: for something a bit more conversational: Somatic Psychotherapy Today: https://
www.SomaticPsychotherapyToday.com
Or: Something for a newsletter of your particular professional association, modality association, or national association in
psychotherapy;
Or: A comment or a thread in one of the Somatic Perspectives LinkedIn group discussions, facilitated by Serge Prengel:
www.linkedin.somaticperspectives.com
Or, possibly, a chapter for an edited book, on a particular theme, possibly like one of the series being published by Body
Psychotherapy Publications (BPP): www.bodypsychotherapypublications.com.
Or: Something to be published somewhere else, at some other time, in a different medium; or for a personal internet blog;
or . . . maybe just for your personal journal.
What can you write about?
You can write about attending a recent Congress, or seminar, or about attending a different event; - or about your student
thesis; - or your experience of writing your student thesis; - or a special or particularly interesting case history; - or an
aspect of your personal therapy; - or about working with a particular client group; - or about a development of theory orpractice; or - even about your reflections on the field of Body Psychotherapy.
How to get started writing professionally?
There is an article in the journal of Body, Movement & Dance in Psychotherapy www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17432979.2010.530060#.VBfsNC6wJRU (You can also find a free copy here.)

And there are some recent guidelines about how to write a professional Body Psychotherapy Case Study: www.eabp.org/
research-case-study-guidelines.php.
There are also many articles on the Internet (in different languages) about how to write.
If you want any further assistance with where to publish, or with the process of editing, or re-editing, or with thecomplications of the publication process, the following people may be able to offer you some help. They are all professional
body psychotherapists, editors and writers:
Nancy Eichhorn: Nancy@NancyEichhorn.com

Jacqueline Carleton: jacarletonphd@gmail.com

Gill Westland: gillwestland@cbpc.org.uk

Jennifer Tantia: JFTantia@gmail.com

Courtenay Young: courtenay@courtenay-young.com
Sincerely,
EABP Publications Committee

Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2015 | Volume 5 Number 4 | page 127

INTERNATIONAL BODY PSYCHOTHERAPY JOURNAL
THE ART AND SCIENCE OF SOMATIC PRAXISINCORPORATING US ASSOCIATION FOR BODY PSYCHOTHERAPY JOURNAL
volume fourteen ● number two ● fall 2015
TABLE OF CONTENTSEDITORIAL
Jacqueline A. Carleton

POEMS
A World Apart by Marcel A. Duclos
Manuel de l'enfant trouvé—mémoire
The Foundling's Handbook—Memory by Salita S. Bryant
ARTICLES
Embodied Clinical Truths by Terry Marks-Tarlow

The Return to the Self: A Self Oriented Theory of Development and Psychotherapy
by Will Davis
Research 101 for Somatic Psychotherapists: Cultivating a Research Mind by
Christine Caldwell & Rae Johnson
Let’s Face the Music and Dance: Working with Eroticism in Relational Body
Psychotherapy: The Male Client and Female Therapist Dyad by Danielle Tanner
Relational Body Psychotherapy (Or Relational Somatic Psychology by Aline LaPierre
Held Experience: Using Mindfulness in Psychotherapy to Facilitate Deeper
Psychological Repair by Shai Lavie
Transcultural Case Study, First Interview with a Chinese Client by Ulrich Sollmann &Wentian Li and Translated by Elizabeth MarshallFelt-Work: Interview with Hilde Hendriks by Jill van der Aa
The cover image is entitled “Earth” created by Hilde Hendriks

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