​INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION TO TRAIN THOUSANDS OF MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONALS TO SUPPORT VICTIMS OF THE CONFLICT IN UKRAINE

London, UK, 9 June 2023—Babette Rothschild, specialist educator in the treatment of trauma and PTSD, is partnering with the Complex Trauma Institute (CTI), in the UK and W. W. Norton & Company, the international publishing house, to bring training to 3,000 Ukrainian therapists.

“CTI is providing a platform for internationally recognised trauma specialist Babette Rothschild to hold a 3-day online event on Somatic Trauma Therapy from 28 to 30 June 2023. This event is being made freely available to Mental Health professionals in Ukraine and over 3,000 participants are expected to attend online.”

Dzmitry Karpuk—Director, the Complex Trauma Institute, York

Babette Rothschild explains: “At the time the war broke out in Ukraine, I was in regular contact with colleague and former student Hanna Kemp and was deeply concerned for her and her family’s welfare. At the same time, I was immersed in reading a book about a woman surviving in Second World War Paris. This led me to wonder what I might need if I found myself in a similar situation. Firstly, I realized I would want those outside my country to know and remember what was happening and to care. As a result, I started sending contributions to organizations that were beginning to help in the crisis. At Hanna’s request I helped spread the word about needing ‘humanitarian corridors’ so refugees could pass safely out of Ukraine.

“We began to discuss if there was anything of my professional expertise in trauma and PTSD, as well as self-care for therapists that might be useful to Ukrainian therapists and others. In July 2022, Hanna organized and gathered an all-volunteer team of translators and hosts to conduct a 12-hour professional training, held over three consecutive days, for about 200 Ukrainian therapists and other helping professionals. Following the success of this session, Hanna teamed up with Dzmitry Karpuk from the Complex Trauma Institute, again, with a team of volunteers to organize a program to be held in June 2023 where I would speak to 3,000 Ukrainian therapists.

“One of the many things I learned from Hanna about fleeing within or from a war-torn country is that saving books cannot be a priority. This knowledge inspired me to contact Pamela O’Reilly at W. W. Norton to see if they might donate professional books to those who left them behind when seeking safety. As a result, Norton is donating not just a few, but thousands of professional e-books to Ukraine therapists. To my knowledge, this level of generosity from a prominent world-wide publisher is unprecedented! That, among other things, makes me so proud to be a Norton author!”

Babette Rothschild—Master of Social Work, body-psychotherapist and specialist educator in the treatment of trauma and PTSD

“When Babette Rothschild approached W. W. Norton with the idea of running workshops directly with Ukrainian therapists, we were pleased to be able to help. Babette’s relationship with Hanna Kemp and the Complex Trauma Institute presented the perfect opportunity to create a partnership and donate a total of 5,000 copies of two of Babette’s ebooks (Help for the Helper and Revolutionizing Trauma Treatment) to participating therapists working on the ground with displaced Ukrainians.”
Julia Reidhead—President, W. W. Norton & Company, New York


Complex Trauma Institute

This event is part of a larger pioneering programme of membership services provided by CTI, with the support of the University of York, which have been made freely available to Ukrainian Mental Health professionals. Since the invasion began this programme has allowed CTI to organise regular free group supervision and to host training events for Ukrainian professionals. CTI’s 4th International Trauma conference in September 2022 was attended by around 2,000 Ukrainian colleagues. Read more about CTI at complextraumainstitute.org.

W. W. Norton & Company

W. W. Norton & Company is the largest book publishing house owned by its employees. In light of the on-going war in Ukraine, we are in a position to help, even if only in a small way. One of the core principles of W. W. Norton’s co-founders was a dedication to the dissemination of knowledge to the public, especially in times of conflict and uncertainty. This year as Norton celebrates the centenary of our company, that philosophy remains truer than ever. Read more about Norton’s 100-year celebration at wwnorton.com.

Body/mind therapist and teacher Ilana Rubenfeld passed on December 23, 2022, while residing at the Rogue Valley Manor, Medford, Oregon.

A pioneer in the body/mind movement, she created the Rubenfeld Synergy Method ® (RSM) because she came to realize that for people to understand their emotional state, they would have to learn how to listen to their bodies.

Ilana’s first love was music. After studying orchestral conducting at Julliard, she began to learn alternative methods of healing because of the physical challenges she experienced caused by conducting. She first discovered the Alexander Technique (originated by F. M. Alexander) while seeking relief for her back and shoulder pain, and as a result, Ilana was inspired to become an Alexander teacher.

At the same time, she sought out talk therapy because of triggered emotions that the Alexander teacher was not qualified to help process.

Ilana then found that the talk therapist would not use touch when she verbally expressed the memories and feelings that had emerged from her body. She longed to have a single professional to do both, and soon embarked on a journey of discovering how to become that “someone”.

In the mid-1960s Ilana met Fritz Perls at Esalen Institute. He invited her to place her Alexander-trained listening hands on his clients while they talked with him. Thus, it was while studying Gestalt Therapy with Fritz and Laura Perls that the concept of integrating physical touch with talk was born.

After Fritz Perls’ death, Ilana continued to attend Esalen, meeting many of the pioneering spirits of the day who presented their work there, including Virginia Satir, Charlotte Selver, and many others. It was here in 1972, that Ilana met and began to study with Moshe Feldenkrais. She completed his first North American Feldenkrais training in San Francisco in 1978.

Ilana started a series of classes incorporating her previous trainings in Feldenkrais, Alexander, and Gestalt and in 1977, developed the RSM Training Program. She taught her method to hundreds of students and guided thousands of participants in countless workshops in her long career.

Ilana had an instinctive knowing that “emotions and feelings are embedded in the body and in the brain, and that to reach them touch is needed – non-verbal communication – and talk.” RSM became a dynamic integration of body, mind, emotions, and spirit that combines both talk and listening touch at the same time. Ilana’s remarkable presence, her mastery in listening on many levels simultaneously, her insightful intelligence and quick humor supported life-changing results in thousands of lives over the years. She came to be referred to as the ‘Grande Dame of the body-oriented therapy movement’.

Being one of the first in her field, she influenced many other teachers who incorporated her methodology into their own practices. She traveled extensively in North & South America and Europe giving workshops, bringing emotional and physical healing to a great number of participants.

As well as teaching for many years at the Esalen Institute, Ilana taught in many other venues including the Omega Institute in NY, Rowe Conference Center in MA, and other places of study.

Her impressive life history and innovative methods were encapsulated in her book, “The Listening Hand: Self-Healing Through the Rubenfeld Synergy Method of Talk and Touch”, © 2000.

In 1994, Ilana was given the “Pathfinder Award” by the Association of Humanistic Psychology (AHP) for her outstanding contributions to Humanistic Psychology.

In 2002, Ilana received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the United States Association for Body Psychotherapy.

When Ilana moved to Ashland, OR, from New York City in 2000, she re-embraced her love of music by becoming a patron of and champion for many musical organizations in the Rogue Valley.

Ilana Rubenfeld is survived by her younger sister, Lydia Yohay of New York, NY, and Lydia’s children Leora Grace Yohay and Joseph Yohay.

A list of organizations to which donations can be made in Ilana’s name is available through contacting INARS: https://www.rubenfeldsynergy.com/.

USABP & IBPJ Forum: Integrating Trauma and Addiction Treatment

Treating Addiction, Trauma and Emotional Loss Together:
A Clinical & Historical Perspective by Gabor Maté

“Your addiction was your attempt to solve a problem. That problem was that of emotional pain, and hence my mantra...Ask not why the addiction, ask why the pain.” - Gabor Maté

Gabor Mate is a retired physician who after 20 years of family practice and palliative care experience worked for over a decade in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside with patients challenged by drug addiction and mental illness. The best-selling author of four books published in 30 languages, Gabor is an internationally renowned speaker, highly sought after for his expertise on addiction, trauma, childhood development, and the relationship of stress and illness. His book on addiction, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, received the Hubert Evans prize for literary nonfiction.  For his groundbreaking medical work and writing, he has been awarded the order of Canada, his country's highest civilian distinction, and the Civic America award from his hometown Vancouver.
_________________________________

I've worked in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside in British Columbia. In the few square blocks of Downtown Eastside, North America’s most concentrated area of drug use, we have more people injecting, inhaling, ingesting substances of all kinds than anywhere in the Western world. I was the physician at North America's first supervised injection site here in Vancouver. My patients were afflicted with mental illness, HIV, hepatitis, all the complications of addiction. 30% of them were Indigenous Canadians. Indigenous Canadians make up 5% of the general population but 30% of our jail population and 30% of the population in the Downtown Eastside, which already tells you that addiction isn't simply an accidental random event. It has to do with history, personal history, and the history of a culture.

Now, why is it that Indigenous people in Canada suffer so much? Because they happen to be the most traumatized segment of the Canadian population. For hundreds of years, they were subjugated, their culture was extirpated, their children were abducted from them, forced to be in residential schools under church guidance where they were beaten, sexually abused, emotionally abused, starved. Thousands died. They're just discovering the bodies right now. In those communities, there are high rates of suicide, high rates of addiction, high rates of mental illness, high rates of physical illness, and high rates of sexual abuse of children. And again, high rates of addiction.

In other words, historical and personal trauma has everything to do with addiction.

What is addiction?

I define addiction as a complex psycho-physiological process manifested in any behavior in which a person finds pleasure and relief and therefore craves, but suffers negative consequences without being able to give it up. So: craving, pleasure and relief in the short term, negative consequences in the long-term, and the inability or refusal to desist, that’s what addiction is. Note I have said nothing about substances, because clearly people can be addicted to drugs, nicotine, caffeine, crystal meth, heroin, alcohol, but also of course, to sex, pornography, work, power, profit, gambling, the internet, cell phones, and everything else you can think about. The issue is not the external target or the behavior — the issue is one’s internal relationship to it. If there's craving, pleasure and relief in the short term, harm and inability to give it up, that's what addiction is.

And now I simply ask all those of you who recognize that at some time or another, you had some kind of an addictive pattern in your life to please raise your hands. Thank you. Hardly anybody leaves their hand down if they're honest with themselves.

“The assumption is that people are consciously choosing to use certain substances illegally and therefore they deserve to be punished. Complete and utter scientific nonsense.”
______________________

Now, this is where the whole cultural bias about what addiction is shown to be totally false. People make two assumptions about addictions. Number one is that it's a choice people make, a failure of will, a character flaw, a deficiency of moral power. That's one assumption. In fact, that's the assumption that drives the legal system. The assumption is that people are consciously choosing to use certain substances illegally and therefore they deserve to be punished. Complete and utter scientific nonsense. I won't spend a moment trying to refute it. (I would if I had time.)

The second assumption is a little bit more interesting, a little bit more accurate, but still misleading. It’s that addiction is a disease of the brain that somehow is generated significantly by genetic factors. That's what the medical belief is. There are some elements of truth to it, but it's fundamentally inaccurate. Addiction is not a process that begins in the brain and there are no addiction genes, never have been, nobody's ever found one. Nobody will ever find any either, contrary to what you're told.

“Therefore, the treatment of addiction needs to be not simply stopping the behavior, which is only a symptom, but dealing with the underlying embodied trauma.”

So, what is the source of addiction then? For those of you who raised your hands, I'll ask you a question: Whatever your addiction process was focused on, behaviors, shopping, gambling, eating, drugs, whatever it was, the question is not what was wrong with it. You already know that. The question is: What was right about it? I'm going to ask you to put into the chat what that addiction temporarily gave you that you were looking for. What did you like about it?

So, let's just see some of these answers. What did the addiction provide for you that you appreciated? Okay. Numbness, relief, distraction. Thank you. Relief, escape, avoidance, sedation. Thank you. That's good enough.

When do people need to be numb?  When they're in pain.

What do people need distraction from? Painful internal body states, vagal states, and emotional states.

What do people need to escape from? Distress.

In other words, it gave you self-soothing, it gave you pleasure. The addiction wasn't your primary problem. Your addiction was your attempt to solve a problem—the problem was of emotional pain. And hence my mantra: Ask not why the addiction, ask why the pain.

Of course, that pain is not just mental or emotional, it's also an embodied thing. You can feel it, the tension in your neck, in your shoulders, in your belly, in your intestines, in your throat. And of course, in your mind. So, again, not why the addiction, but why the pain. Now, if you want to understand why the pain, you can't look at people's genes or choices. You have to look at their lives.

And this is where trauma comes in. I don't think I need to review for you the voluminous literature that has linked addictions to trauma, the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study, and so on. What we know without a shadow of a doubt is that addiction is rooted in childhood trauma. I don't have time to go into it, but childhood trauma not only gives you emotional pain, it also affects the body as this group would know. And it also shapes and programs the circuits of the brain that then become more prone to addiction, the natural opiate circuits, the dopamine circuits, the stress regulation circuits, the impulse regulation circuits.

So, to bring this to a close, I‘ll sum up. Addiction is a desperate and forlorn but totally understandable attempt to deal with the impact of trauma. Addictions are far more common in this toxic culture than most of us realize. Therefore, the treatment of addiction needs to be not simply stopping the behavior, which is only a symptom, but dealing with the underlying embodied trauma. And for those of you who would like to read more about this. my book on addiction is called In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction. And the same subject is also taken up in the book to be published this fall, The Myth of Normal.

With that, I will stop. Thank you.
_____________

Gabor Maté’s next book, The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture is due to be published Autumn 2022.
​
The video of the USABP/IBPJ Forum Integrating Trauma and Addiction Treatment: A Paradigm Shift is available at, https://youtu.be/bB1M6J5OQcs 

David Boadella passed away November 19, 2021.

Here is an excerpt from the International Body Psychotherapy Journal Spring/Summer 2021 Volume 20

How Biosynthesis Enriched Our Lives
Tribute from Biosynthesis Therapists

We asked the participants of the First International e-Meeting of Biosynthesis Therapists to share how Biosynthesis had enriched their lives. Here are some of their tributes. 

◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ 

Biosynthesis brought transformation, clarity, structure, understanding, calm, and wholeness to my life. And a connection among mind, soul, heart, spirit, essence, and body. It supported my journey into therapy and helped me understand the other, not only through academic knowledge but with my heart as well. Thank you, David and Sylvia, from my whole being! Antigone Oreopoulou Greece Biosynthesis brought into my life more mindfulness and centering; it became more structured, as are David’s poems. 

Diana Nikolaishvili
Georgia, Tbilisi 

◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ 

Biosynthesis has given me a very deep and global grasp of the way I function, and as a consequence, of the way other people function. It has deepened my spiritual awareness. And mainly, it has moved the tectonic plates of my psychological organization. 

Marilyn Pisante
Greece 

◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ 

Biosynthesis gave me the opportunity to feel that I belong somewhere that embraces my whole being as it is. I feel that Biosynthesis is a community that fits every human being, accepts all feelings, all thoughts, and all differentiation. The community’s field supports its members to develop themselves. 

Stavroula Sofrona
Greece

◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ 

He is a teacher – he was, in his younger years, also working with the young, learning from them and with them, while he was asked to educate, to teach, to accompany them, through and despite the hardships of their lives…

He is a dancer – he has learned from inspiring teachers himself, about movement(s) and moving, the body and its impulses, the diverse and fine qualities that come with dancing, and living itself…

He is a poet – he loves language and literature, is putting words, creating sentences in a most imaginary way, to express, reach out and touch life and all that comes with it…

He is a scholar – his intellectual scope is huge, his reading profound, his horizons are wide, the agility of his mind just impressive, opening new spaces, again and again…

He is a therapist – “ein Gramm Kontakt ist wichtiger alseine Tonne Energie,” this is what he showed us, this is what we have learned, what we can keep in mind, wherever we are going, whatever we are doing…

He is a citizen of the world – he never restricts himself to a national or social ground, he welcomes everybody from everywhere, welcomes learning from others, from other histories, other cultures, other countries.

He is just a great spirit, he is just – and he is human.

David, I am deeply grateful for all I could learn, witness and share with you. With love, Susanne.

Susanne Maurer
Germany

◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ ◼

I come from a multidisciplinary educational background. Different psychotherapy approaches led me to the Biosynthesis Centre, where early on I understood it was the missing piece of the puzzle for me, the one that made the picture whole, that made sense, that was missing from the other approaches I had known. It helped me bridge the gap between what my mind was thinking and what my body was telling me, and had told me throughout my life! I felt at home studying there, combining all the knowledge I had gained, connecting to my core truth, to benevolent colleagues, and to the higher purpose of life – that is, to give and receive help while enjoying the path in parallel. Thank you, David and Silvia, for creating this system that holds us all, excludes nothing and no one! 

Sofia Koukidou
Greece

◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ 

Biosynthesis helped to bloom the Sonia that was hidden in a tangle of standards, fear of expanding, insecurities, and lack of trust in herself. To experience a deep therapeutic process in the Biosynthesis approach, to do the training, to participate in many meetings in Heiden allowed me to further integrate my multiple layers, find my place in the world, find the meaning of my existence, make contact with my qualities, and let me express them in my personal life in my work as a psychotherapist and as a member of Centro de Biossíntese da Bahia. My deep gratitude for being a part of this family. Special thanks to Eunice, David, and Silvia. 

Sonia Souza Coutinho
Brasil

◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ 

Biosynthesis brought me to my center and saw me in my inner power as a person. It saw Me!!!! 

Supriti Zanna Mantzorou
Greece

◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ 

A dynamic trajectory that gives new perspectives and shape to life. 

Penny Zikou
Greece

◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ 

Biosynthesis gave me a profound understanding of healing and helped me personally transcend some difficult history, reaching back to prenatal and perinatal life. It enabled me to gain strength, confidence, and a deep, growing trust in my own inner ground! As David used to say, “There is always fire beneath the ashes!” 

Carine Nussbaumer
Switzerland

◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ 

Meeting David has brought my life full circle. Coming from the Elsa Gindler tradition, it was an enormous enrichment to get to know David and his work, and to unite these two paths for my own unfolding and for the benefit of my patients. I am very grateful to be part of the Biosynthesis community. 

Nimai
Germany

◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ 

Biosynthesis came into my life as a gift from heaven. It gave my life a direction, and taught me to accompany fellow humans in their journey towards healing with deep respect, gentleness, and a holistic understanding of each individual’s precious being. It has been my honor to have had the chance to meet David, feel the amazing quality of his presence, and witness his art as a therapist. 

Marina Chandoutis
Greece

◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ 

Biosynthesis has enriched my life on many levels. On the deepest level, it has helped me connect with hope, and ground in trust of life. It has helped me in my everyday life to reconnect with my own hope when patients, clients, or loved ones lose their ground. Thank you to David and Silvia and the whole community for creating and keeping alive a method that resonates with the soul of life at its deepest. 

Paz Cardín
Spain

◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ 

The Belonging…
The earth has dried, and the daisies have long since withered
on the zipper of your green cardigan.
The sun, a faded spot on the horizon,
like the look of your eyes…
The scared body lies, torn to pieces, on the altar
of genetic belonging, losing its essence,
while the naked soul seeks to find a place to live…
It seeks a united body, with rhythm and continuity,
solid and airy at the same time,
with a heart that beats fiercely and
hands that open like wings to embrace it.
It seeks belonging away from biological family toward a family that nourishes
the healthy belonging to You, as body, soul and entity.

Eudokia Katsiana
Greece

◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ 

CURIOUS COMPASSION COMPANION *
Your Trauma Narrative
Is important.
It will be
The window
You enter
In order to
Start the journey
Of recovery.
However,
This is only
The beginning.
Trauma is more about
What happened
Inside you
When you had to
Freeze,
Fawn,
Fight or Flight.
The impulses for
A healthy corrective
Experience
Are latent in
Your Body
Just waiting
For you
To show up
With a
Curious Compassion
Companion
Who has walked
Her own way
And can shine
The light
To show you reconnection.
Until,
You become your own light
You become your own regulator
You become your own saviour
You become
Free.
​
© Attracta Gill
Ireland

ABOUT
David Boadella (1931 - 2021), B.A., M.Ed., D.Sc.hon., Psychotherapist SPV, UKCP and ECP.

Studied education, psychology and literature. Trained in character- analytic vegetotherapy. Founder of Biosynthesis. Since 1985 he has undergone ongoing further training in “Psychosomatic Centering” (Robert Moore, Denmark). He has spent over 40 years in psychotherapeutic practice. He holds lectures worldwide, and is the author of numerous books and articles. In 1995 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the “Open International University of Complementary Medicine” for his pioneering work in the development and promotion of Energy & Character, as well as for his contributions to social sciences in this context.
​
A selection of David Boadella’s books: “Befreite Lebensenergie/ Lifestreams” (Kösel / Routledge), “Wilhelm Reich: The evolution of his work” (Arkana).

A new article is publication is available titled "Facilitating adaptive emotion processing and somatic reappraisal via sustained mindful interoceptive attention. " Published in Frontier in Psychology, this article by Drs. Cynthia Price and Helen Weng, is aimed at mental health professionals and highlights the role of sustained interoceptive attention for enhanced emotion regulation.  

​The non-profit Center for Mindful Body Awareness offers trainings to therapists who want to learn how to teach clients fundamental strategies to access and sustain mindful interoceptive attention to enhance client embodiment, self-awareness, and emotion regulation. Based on strategies from evidence-based approach Mindful Awareness in Body-oriented Therapy (MABT), this training is focused on fundamental skills that develop and increase client capacity for interoceptive awareness. The MABT approach is particularly helpful for clients who are disconnected from their bodies due to high stress or patterns of experiential avoidance, chronic pain, or trauma. The Liberated Body podcast interview is a great way to learn about the MABT approach and research.

The next professional training is September 12-18, 2021 at the Whidbey Institute in WA State. 

Two educational scholarships are available to therapists working in community settings with underserved populations; applications will be accepted until July 18th.

​We are grateful for the life and legacy of Anna Halprin, founder of the Tamalpa Institute - An Official USABP Independent Body-Centered Training Institute Member - Level 1. 

Few dance artists have been as influential as Anna Halprin. She has been credited to have redefined dance as a tool for healing (NPR).

In 1978 she began offering the first movement-based expressive arts therapy training and art-based, somatic movement therapy training program in the field. The Institute continues to be a center for research, collaboration, workshops, training programs, and performance. You'll find their events listed in our events calendar.
In Remembrance there will be a special online event:

Honoring Anna Halprin: Halprin Work and Legacy ~ with Janice Ross
Friday, August 20, 10-11AM PDT

​By  Amelia H. Kaplan and Laurie Schwartz, Rutgers University and New York, NY

ABSTRACT
Body-centered Psychotherapy (BcP) is a developing field of academic investigation. The present research employed the Pragmatic Case Study Method (“PCS Method”) for systematically studying how verbal and somatic interventions are combined in a single therapy in two 12-session cases seen by an experienced BcP therapist. Following the PCS Method, the cases begin with a presentation of the therapist’s theoretical approach, or “guiding conception,” and a description of how it is applied to each client. The data analyzed in each case include videotapes and transcripts of selected therapy sessions; pre- and post-therapy scores on standardized, quantitative measures; a pre- and post-treatment goal-setting interview; and a semi-structured, post-therapy, outcome interview. The results revealed substantial progress and statistically-significant quantitative changes in both clients. Additionally, distinctly different patterns of progress occurred, as the therapist tailored therapy in accordance with the needs of each client.

Body-centered Psychotherapy (BcP), also known as “Body Psychotherapy” and “Somatic Psychology,” is a developing branch of psychology based on the vital connection between psychological symptoms and physiological states. Although many non-BcP therapies attend to bodily experience, what distinguishes BcP as a unique subfield within psychology is the centrality of somatic sensory experience throughout diagnosis, formulation, and treatment (e.g., see such pioneer therapists in the field as Ferenczi, 1953; Kurtz & Prestera, 1976; Lowen, 1958; Reich, 1945). Additionally, physical touch is more often used by BcP therapists, even though many BcP therapists do not use touch or only introduce it tangentially.

The most comprehensive set of references to BcP exist on a CD-ROM Bibliography developed by the European Association of Body Psychotherapy (Young, 2002). There exists extensive literature on the healing power of touch (Field, 2001; Harlow, 1974; Montagu, 1971) and on touch in psychotherapy (Hunter & Struve, 1998; Smith, 1985; Smith, Clance, & Imes, 1998), yet Somatic Psychology has mostly been developed clinically. May (1998) conducted a comprehensive literature search over the previous 30 years and found 23 empirical BcP studies. A brief review of such studies follows.

The first major prospective clinical trial is currently underway in Germany and Switzerland (Koemeda-Lutz et al., 2003). In this study, eight major BcP outpatient clinics are measuring clients to study the effectiveness of BcP under natural conditions. Preliminary results are promising, finding that after six months of BcP treatment (n=78), small to medium effect sizes were reported across all clinical categories.

Ventling and Gerhard (2000) conducted a retrospective study of 319 former patients to study outcome and stability of the efficacy of Bioenergetic therapy with adults in a private practice setting. Drawing from the patients of sixteen certified Bioenergetic therapists, the authors collected data from former patients who had a mean of 91 sessions (modal 26-50 sessions), and who terminated therapy between 6 months and 6 years previously. The responses demonstrated that for 107 (75%) of the patients, Bioenergetic therapy proved effective to very effective and that the results had lasted from at least 6 months to 6 years.

Several studies have investigated the outcome of BcP using case study designs. Bourque (2002) collected pre and post-test data on four chronic pain clients who engaged in eight weekly “Somatics” sessions and found statistically significant decreases in pain and increases in pain-free activities in three of the four subjects. Employing a qualitative analysis of a single case, Bridges (2002) found that Bioenergetic therapy addressed the client’s “somatic defenses against affect” and significantly increased affective expression in a short-term psychodynamic treatment (McCullough et al., 2003a). Finally, also studying a single case, Price (2002) examined the effects of adding an 8-week adjunctive BcP therapy alongside an ongoing verbal psychotherapy for a woman with childhood sexual and physical abuse. The client demonstrated significant improvement on such standardized quantitative measures as the SCL-90-R (also used in the present study) in such areas as depression, anxiety, and obsessive symptoms, as well as decreases in her physical symptoms. In addition, the client qualitatively reported improvement in “feelings of safety, ability to tune in to internal processes, and ability to access emotion.”

A recent meta-analysis of massage therapy (MT) research, drawing from a wide range of sources (psychology, nursing, medicine, and kinesiology), found MT significantly effective for both physiological and psychological outcomes (Moyer, Rounds, & Hannum, 2004). Additionally, reductions in trait anxiety and depression were MT’s largest effects, similar to those found in psychotherapy meta-analyses. The authors speculate that combining massage and psychotherapy may significantly increase effectiveness more than either alone.

The present research builds on previous systematic, empirical studies to help fill the need for many more such investigations in BcP in order to create a solid scientific foundation for the field. Specifically, this investigation includes in-depth, systematic case studies involving qualitative process compared with standardized quantitative measures to examine how BcP integrates the body into psychotherapy, as seen through the work of Laurie Schwartz, M.S, L.M.T. (Licensed Massage Therapist), a widely known BcP practitioner with 25 years of practice in the field. The main questions guiding this study include: What does BcP therapy look like? What themes in BcP therapy are unique or distinguishing? And how does BcP therapy integrate talk and touch in a unified therapy? In addition, by looking at what is distinctive about a BcP approach, this study can begin to contribute to the questions of whether it is effective to combine talk and touch in a single therapy, and if so, what are the mechanisms of change in such a therapy.

​CELLULAR RESONANCE AND THE SACRED FEMININE: MARION WOODMAN’S STORY by TINA STROMSTED, PH.D.

The following is an excerpt from Dr. Stromsted's full article entitled above.

Body work is soul work.
Imagination is the bridge between body and soul.
~ Marion Woodman

Pull Quote from Excerpt below...
“I always try to grasp the metaphor at the root of an addiction. That varies. With food, it can be mother; with alcohol, spirit; with cocaine, light; with sex, union. Mother, spirit, light, union—these can be archetypal images of the soul’s search for what it needs..."
~ Marion Woodman


Excerpt on Addictions
Integrating shadow elements and working through addictions play a large role in Marion’s work.

“The trouble is that we lack basic respect for our bodies. There’s a complete denial of the sacredness of matter. And that is very much connected to any addiction. That’s certainly true of eating in our culture. It’s true of workaholics, too, because they don’t pay any attention to what they’re doing to their bodies so long as they can keep working eighteen, nineteen, twenty hours a day. … I think many of us cannot face the pain of our lives. So work is an escape, or compulsive relationship is an escape, or eating is an escape, until we weep when we look in a mirror (page 20).”

In working with addictions, Marion attends to the metaphor in the behaviors, holding a larger frame of reference in helping the addict understand the meaning of the patterns that accompany the illness.

“I always try to grasp the metaphor at the root of an addiction. That varies. With food, it can be mother; with alcohol, spirit; with cocaine, light; with sex, union. Mother, spirit, light, union—these can be archetypal images of the soul’s search for what it needs. If we fail to understand the soul’s yearning, then we concretize and become compulsively driven toward an object that cannot satisfy the soul’s longing (page 21).”

Marion feels that it is through contacting this deep soul longing and bringing it to consciousness, rather than simply treating the external symptoms, that our culture may be healed of the addictions that exist on such a massive scale. Her style in working with people is honest, direct, forceful, respectful, humorous, sometimes confrontational, and deeply supportive. Though Marion’s mother “had no sense of loving being a woman,” and Marion feels sad because she herself had no child, the mother archetype has been generously expressed through her work with thousands of students, workshop participants, and analysands—“un-mothered women” and father’s daughters who have benefited a great deal from the healing her work has provided them. Her own struggle with the death wish in anorexia is a testament to the work, which she models for women who wish to recognize and value their feminine being. Marion also models a feminine mode of leadership, working collaboratively with Mary Hamilton and Ann Skinner.

Their styles weave together naturally, as each takes turns leading elements of the work as well as supporting one another in the process, seeming like mother and daughters in one moment, while at other times like sister muses as they integrate their gifts.

Read Dr. Stromsted's full article entitled above. 

See more publications by Tina Stromsted here.

A recent high-profile  journal, Trends in Neuroscience, put out a special issue focused on interoception. The issue includes articles written by the presenters at a NIH-sponsored 2-day meeting on the science of interoception.  The article titled Interventions and Manipulations of Interoception highlights the body-psychotherapy evidence-based approach Mindful Awareness in Body-oriented Therapy (MABT), an approach designed to teach interoceptive awareness.  MABT teaches fundamental skills of interoceptive awareness and the more advanced capacity to sustain mindful interoceptive attention to somatic experience.  This approach is particularly useful for clients who are disconnected from their bodies due to high stress or patterns of experiential avoidance, chronic pain or trauma. The non-profit Center for Mindful Body Awareness offers trainings to therapists so that they can learn to integrate this approach into practice in order to enhance client embodiment, self-awareness, and emotion regulation. The next professional training is in September 2021,  click here for information and registration.