Somatic Perspectives on Psychotherapy

Lynn Somerstein, PhD, NCPsyA, LP, RYT, licensed psychoanalyst in private practice, is Executive Director of the Institute for Expressive Analysis. Dr. Somerstein is on the editorial board of the Psychoanalytic Review and the author of numerous articles about yoga, anxiety, attachment issues and psychotherapy. Dr. Somerstein is also an international speaker, and has presented her work in India, Turkey, China, and in the United States. She uses the wisdom she has gained as a yoga teacher, psychologist and student of Ayurveda, or Indian life knowledge, to help people reach their innermost goals. September 2012. See: Printable PDF transcript.

Cedar Barstow, M.Ed., Certified Hakomi Therapist and International Trainer is the author of “Right Use of Power: The Heart of Ethics.” The ideas and examples in this talk are taken from this book and Cedar’s training programs in right use of power. The goal of right use of power, as the largest container for ethics, is for people to increase their skill, sensitivity, and effectiveness in the use of both their personal and their professional power. The program has four aspects: Be Informed, Be Compassionate, Be Connected, Be Skillful. By focusing on learning ethics from the inside out rather than from the rule side in, the program engages people in studying and refining their impact and on cultivating right relationship and repairing harm. She lives in Boulder Colorado. August 2012. See: Printable PDF transcript.

Dr. Jack Lee Rosenberg is internationally recognized as a pioneer for his innovative approach to body psychotherapy, human sexuality, and couples counseling, teaching his approach throughout the United States, Europe and Canada He is founder and Clinical Director of the IBP Central and International Institutes. He has doctorates in dentistry and psychology. His master's thesis focused on group dynamics and industrial psychology, his doctorate on clinical psychology. As Director of Counseling at the University of the Pacific School of Dentistry, he did research on somatic medicine and taught dental psychology. He trained therapists at the Gestalt Institute in San Francisco and at the Center for the Healing Art, Los Angeles. He has conducted workshops at the Esalen Institute for more than twenty-eight years. He is in private practice in Los Angeles. He is the author of Total Orgasm, Body, Self and Soul: Sustaining Integration and co-author of The Intimate Couple. Dr. Beverly Kitaen Morse is the Executive Director of the Rosenberg-Kitaen IBP Central Institute. She is co-developer of IBP theory and practice. Dr. Morse is in charge of the international IBP Professional Training Program, which provides personal and professional development and certification for mental health and allied professionals. She entered her professional career in mid-life. While raising her four children she gained leadership training through extensive community service. She launched her study of psychology when opening her home to foster children whose needs exceeded parenting skills. She has been affiliated with IBP since 1979 and was the first trained teacher and key member of the IBP Advisory and Development Board. She is the co-author of The Intimate Couple. Dr. Morse is currently in private practice in Santa Monica, California. She leads groups, teaches and lectures at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, and throughout the United Stats, Canada, and Europe. July 2012. See: Printable PDF transcript. See also "Sustaining Constancy" PDF that is mentioned toward the end of the conversation.

Pat Ogden, Ph.D. is the founder and director of the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute, an internationally recognized school that specializes in training psychotherapists in somatic/cognitive approaches for the treatment of post traumatic stress disorder and attachment disturbances.  She is a clinician, consultant, international lecturer and trainer, co-founder of the Hakomi Institute, and has been a faculty member of The Naropa University since 1985.  Dr. Ogden is trained in a wide variety of somatic and psychotherapeutic approaches and has over 40 years of experience working with individuals and groups.  She is the first author of the groundbreaking book, Trauma and the Body: A Sensorimotor Approach to Psychotherapy, which was published in 2006 in the Interpersonal Neurobiology series of W.W. Norton, as well as numerous articles and chapters, and is currently working on two books: The Body as Resource: Sensorimotor Interventions for the Treatment of Trauma and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy for Children and Adolescents. June 2012. See: Printable PDF transcript.

Robert Hilton, Ph.D has been in private practice in Orange County, California for 45 years and has taught courses at the University of California at Irvine and San Diego, and the United States International University in La Jolla.  In 1972 he co-founded the Southern California Institute for Bioenergetic Analysis where he continues to be a senior trainer.  He is a member of the American Psychological Association, the California Association of Marriage and Family Counselors and the International Institute for Bioenergetic Analysis where as a senior faculty member emeritus he lectures at their International conferences as well as teaching throughout Europe, the United States and South America. In addition to his many publications he is the author of Relational Somantic Psychotherapy: Collected Essays of Robert M. Hilton, Michael Sieck, editor. May 2012. See: Printable PDF transcript.

A native of Geneva, Switzerland, Jean-Jacques Joris founded Twin Oaks Farm with his wife Isabelle, a center for equine-assisted psychotherapy, near Boulder, Colorado. Jean-Jacques holds a Law degree from Geneva University and an MA in Transpersonal Counseling Psychology from Naropa University in Boulder. In offering mindfulness-based psychotherapy with horses to his clients, Jean-Jacques brings together his three lifelong passions: the human body-mind, contemplative practice, and the healing power of the human-horses relationship. For fifteen years, Jean-Jacques was a diplomat with the Swiss foreign service, and worked in conflict and post-conflict environments around the world, as well as in the field of war crimes and international justice, gaining first-hand experience of individual and collective trauma. Jean-Jacques speaks several languages and is currently learning the wordless language of his 13 equine co-therapists. April 2012: See: Printable PDF transcript.

Albert Pesso, co-founder with his wife, Diane Boyden-Pesso, of PBSP, Pesso Boyden System Psychomotor and President of the Psychomotor Institute, Inc. was formerly Associate Professor and Director of the Dance Division at Emerson College, Supervisor of Psychomotor Therapy at McLean Hospital in Massachusetts and Consultant in Psychiatric Research at the Boston VA Hospital.  He has conducted training programs in PBSP in the US, Brazil, Israel and in many countries in Europe . He and his work with PBSP for the German GTZ Mission in The Democratic Republic of Congo have been featured in a documentary film, “State of Mind” distributed by Icarus Films.  He is the author of many books and articles on PBSP, and a frequent lecturer at universities, hospitals and clinics in the US and Europe. At present, he continues his intensive training schedule in Europe, and also leads programs and sees individuals in Boston, Massachusetts. Al is the recipient of the USABP’s 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award. March 2012. See: Printable PDF transcript. See also Part 1 of this conversation.

Albert Pesso, co-founder with his wife, Diane Boyden-Pesso, of PBSP, Pesso Boyden System Psychomotor and President of the Psychomotor Institute, Inc. was formerly Associate Professor and Director of the Dance Division at Emerson College, Supervisor of Psychomotor Therapy at McLean Hospital in Massachusetts and Consultant in Psychiatric Research at the Boston VA Hospital.  He has conducted training programs in PBSP in the US, Brazil, Israel and in many countries in Europe . He and his work with PBSP for the German GTZ Mission in The Democratic Republic of Congo have been featured in a documentary film, “State of Mind” distributed by Icarus Films.  He is the author of many books and articles on PBSP, and a frequent lecturer at universities, hospitals and clinics in the US and Europe. At present, he continues his intensive training schedule in Europe, and also leads programs and sees individuals in Boston, Massachusetts. Al is the recipient of the USABP’s 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award. March 2012. See: Printable PDF transcript. See also Part 2 of the conversation with Al Pesso.

Dr . Eric Wolterstorff’s specialty is social trauma, meaning the impacts of threats, disasters, deprivation and violent conflict on the capacity of societies to adapt to the world, regulate and nourish themselves, and develop. His work is based in the intersection of psychology, trauma, culture and group behavior. Wolterstorff studied body -based approaches to healing trauma and added to Peter Levine’s body of work. In his dissertation, he describes relationships between the neuropsychology of memory and trauma in individuals and groups. He has applied his methods to families and organizations impacted by trauma. Dr. Wolterstorff is currently writing a textbook on social trauma for an international relations series, and completing a proposal for a ten-year national healing project for Rwanda. Over the past fifteen years, Wolterstorff has led professional trainings and consulted in the United States and Europe. February 2012. See: Printable PDF transcript.