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Dr. Sharon Stanley has educated thousands of psychotherapists in Canada, the USA and Israel in the principles and practices of somatic psychotherapy.  Sharon has served on graduate level faculties including the University of Victoria and the Foundation for Human Enrichment, developing curriculum and teaching mental health professionals.  Building on her doctoral research on empathy with traumatized youth, Sharon founded Somatic Transformation, a trauma model and educational curriculum guiding practitioners in treating physiological, psychological and spiritual dynamics of relational trauma. Sharon’s work with indigenous people, the study of Afro-Brazilian healing practices and  phenomenological research has led to a convergence of neuroscience, somatic therapy and cross cultural wisdom to heal “soul wounds”.   Sharon has a private clinical practice on Bainbridge Island, Washington. See: Somatic-Transformation.org.

February 2011. See: Printable PDF transcript

Greg Johanson, Ph.D. has a background in therapy as well as theology.  He is a member of both the American Psychological Association and American Association of Pastoral Counselors.  In the field of somatic psychotherapy he is a Founding Trainer of the Hakomi Institute and editor of the Hakomi Forum.  He has served on the Board of Directors of the USABP for many years, and on the editorial board of the Journal of the USABP.  Greg has been active in writing, publishing over 150 items in the field of pastoral theology and psychotherapy, including (with Ron Kurtz) Grace Unfolding:  Psychotherapy in the Spirit of the Tao-te ching. He has taught adjunct in a number of graduate schools, currently as Research Faculty of the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute of the Chicago School of Professional Psychology. See: GregJohanson.net.

January 2011. See: Printable PDF transcript

Barnaby B. Barratt, PhD, DHS, is a radical psychoanalyst, sexuality educator, sex therapist, somatic psychologist and facilitator of tantric meditation.  Raised in England and earning his first doctorate from Harvard University, he has taught at universities all over the country and chaired graduate programs in somatic and clinical psychology.  For a major portion of his career he was Professor Family Medicine, Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences at Wayne State University (Detroit).  His books include Psychoanalysis and the Postmodern Impulse (1993), Sexual Health and Erotic Freedom (2005), What is Tantric Practice? (2006), Liberating Eros (2009), and The Emergence of Somatic Psychology and Bodymind Therapy (2010).  He is currently Visiting Professor at the University of Cape Town and has a private practice of psychodynamic bodymind therapy and psychoanalysis in Johannesburg (South Africa).

December 2010. See: Printable PDF transcript. See also other conversations with Barnaby Barratt, about male sexuality and about what sustains him.

J. Tyler Carpenter, Ph.D., FAACP, is a board certified clinical, and research, forensic, and academic psychologist, with over 25-years of experience treating seriously disturbed individuals, and teaching and consulting to the professionals who work with them, in assessment, treatment, institutional, and systems settings. He utilizes the full-spectrum of personal, group, educational, and internet-based tools, to treat and consult regarding both research and applied understanding and specialized knowledge. He has published, presented, served on boards and a commission, with respect to his expertise in the integration of treatment approaches, correctional, and disability populations. He works as a clinician and consultant in the Greater Boston area.

Published November 2010. See printable PDF transcript.

Christine Caldwell, Ph.D., LPC, ADTR – Founder and former director of the Somatic Counseling Psychology Department at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, where she currently teaches. Her work began twenty years ago with studies in anthropology, dance therapy, bodywork and Gestalt therapy, and has developed into innovations in the field of body-centered psychotherapy. She calls her work the Moving Cycle. This system goes beyond the limitations of therapy and emphasizes lifelong personal and social evolution through trusting and following body states. She has authored two books: Getting Our Bodies Back, and Getting In Touch. She offers trainings in somatic psychotherapy (the Moving Cycle), with specializations in addictions, play, movement sequencing, therapist training, scientific inquiry, and birth and death.

Ryan Kennedy, LPC, LMFT, RN, CACIII, BC-DMT, CLMA is the Chair of the Somatic Counseling Psychology Department at Naropa University and also serves as the Director of the Body Psychotherapy Program. In addition, he serves on the faculties of Prescott College, University of Colorado Denver, and Front Range Community College. His clinical background includes extensive work with chronic and persistent mental illness, trauma and dissociative disorders, addiction and recovery, domestic/family violence, and living with life-threatening illnesses. He use an integrative approach that draws from his expertise in trauma recovery, addiction treatment, couple and family therapy, human sexuality, domestic violence prevention/intervention, Gestalt psychotherapy, Jungian analysis, contemplative practice, existential psychotherapy, expressive arts therapies, and movement-oriented, body-based psychotherapy.

Tara Topper has a master’s degree in Somatic Counseling Psychology, with a concentration in Dance/Movement Therapy, from Naropa University and a BA in Psychology and Sociology from UCLA. She is a Registered Dance/Movement Therapist (R-DMT) and has a systemic, somatic (body-centered), and person-centered approach to counseling people. This means that she believes understanding your relationship to yourself and others, how you move or inhabit your body, and how you discover your innate wisdom will be essential to building the therapeutic relationship. Her specialties include trauma processing, individual and couples therapy, and experiential play therapy.

November 2010. See: Printable PDF transcript