Dr. T hosts this episode solo and has a wonderful conversation with guest Shirley Dvir, founder and lead teacher of Relational Somatic Healing. Dr. T and Shirley both started in social work but are now pursuing careers in healing and they share their views on human to human healing touch and the psychedelic field. 

Shirley talks about how she sees the nature of healing as really being about deep listening and receiving the other person. She notes how people rarely get really truly listened to and when we do listen and simply meet people as humans where they are, when we can receive people as they are, it opens up an experience for deep healing.  

Dr. T and Shirley address how part of experiencing healing is the human to human contact we crave and how we have lost the healing art of touch in our modern modalities. They acknowledge how touch is so taboo and often tied to so much trauma but that the healing touch is something we need to foster again. They discuss the need for learning on consent to touch, of knowing when to offer touch and when not to, and how the psychedelic experience can heighten either need for refusal of touch. 

“There's a lot of abuse of touch in general in the world of physical touch and sexual touch and touch can be so dangerous too. And that can be so harmful, and at the same time so medicinal when it's being done right…. The boundaries are so important and the training of the therapist is so important.” -  Shirley Dvir

Resources discussed in this episode:

• “Integral Psychedelic Therapy: The Non-Ordinary Art of Psychospiritual Healing” - Shirley Dvir’s chapter is entitled “Relational Touch in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy”

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Punk Therapy: website |email

Shirley Dvir: linkedin | website

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