Relational Implicit & Somatic Psychotherapy

This podcast would not exist if it weren’t for  the European Association for Body Psychotherapy (EABP) and the US Association for Body Psychotherapy (USABP). So we want you to know EABP & USABP. In this conversation, Chris Walling, President of USABP, talks about USABP.

Audio only:

Dr. Chris Walling, PsyD, MBA, C-IAYT, an award winning researcher and licensed clinical psychologist, has been an active leader in healthcare for nearly two decades. His work integrates the developmental, biological, and somatic aspects of the lifespan. His work in academic medicine has included the administration of multidisciplinary leadership teams in hematology-oncology, physical medicine and rehabilitation, and geriatric psychiatry. Dr. Walling is the President of the United States Association of Body Psychotherapy, the hub of somatic psychology and Associate Deputy Editor of the International Body Psychotherapy Journal.  His clinical focus in the behavioral sciences has examined the intersections of neuropsychotherapy, affect regulation, and body psychology. Dr. Walling is a Clinical Associate at the New Center for Psychoanalysis in Los Angeles, California. He is also a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, an Emotionally Focused Therapist (EFT for individuals and couples), an Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapist (AEDP), and a neuro-therapist (neurofeedback practitioner).

Published December 2018.

If you live in the USA, please join USABP.

If you live in Europe, please join EABP.

In this conversation, Alice Ladas describes a workshop focused on identifying coping strategies in a way that respects people’s humanity instead of pathologizing them.

Audio only:

While there is no transcript for this talk, there is  a write-up by Alice Ladas on the same topic, as well as the 2 lists mentioned in the talk. See:

– Workshop on coping mechanisms,

– List of the questions,

– List of ways of dealing with anxiety.

Alice K. Ladas, Ed. D., is a pioneer for body psychotherapy, educated childbirth, breastfeeding, and sexuality education.  The research she and her husband did (Women and Bioenergetic Analysis)  led to meeting her co-authors on the NY Times best seller The G Spot and Other Discoveries About Human Sexuality. Alice was chair of the research committee of the US Association for Body Psychotherapy (USABP) for many years. In 2008, the USABP honored Alice by naming its research award The Alice Kahn Ladas Research Award to honor her for her tireless efforts to further research in Somatic Psychotherapy. She is a licensed psychologist in New Mexico.

Published November 2018. See also conversation with Alice Ladas about “What Sustains Me”. 

In this conversation, we talk about the therapeutic relationship as a bodymind process between two people who are both wounded and whole. This conversation is available as a video, as well as audio only, and as a printable PDF transcript.

Audio only:

Michael Soth is an integral-relational Body Psychotherapist, trainer and supervisor (UKCP), with more than 30 years’ experience of practising and teaching from an integrative perspective. Drawing on concepts, values and ways of working from a broad-spectrum range of psychotherapeutic approaches across both psychoanalytic and humanistic traditions, he is interested in the therapeutic relationship as a bodymind process between two people who are both wounded and whole. He was Training Director at the Chiron Centre for Body Psychotherapy in London for 20 years, until its closure in 2010. He now teaches independently through INTEGRA CPD. He has written numerous articles and several book chapters and is a frequent presenter at conferences. Extracts from his published writing as well as summaries of presentations and hand-outs are available at www.integra-cpd.co.uk, or find him on Facebook and Twitter (INTEGRA_CPD). He is co-editor of the Handbook of Body Psychotherapy and Somatic Psychology, published 2015.

Published September 2018.

In this conversation, Stefan Deutsch talks about his theory of love as nourishment, the evidence for it, and how it applies to clinical practice.

Audio only:

After escaping communist Hungary with his parents, Holocaust survivors, Stefan Deutsch grew up in NYC, graduated Hunter, CUNY, then NYU for Movement Therapy. He is a certified Gestalt psychotherapist with a thriving Private Practice, and a philosopher of human development, dedicated to the prevention of any Holocausts. He originated The Continuum Theory of Human Development (see PDF on his website). Here is what else he’d like you to know about him: 1. His organization, The Human Development Company. 2. His book – “Love Decoded”. 3. His article on Thrive Global– “Why people Marry”? 4. He organized The First Symposium Toward A Unified Science of Love, 2016. 5. His theory as used in “Love2Caretrial” a clinical trial at Danbury Hospital, preventing stress and burnout among physicians, nurses, and residents, with promising results. 6. Presenting – ‘Theory of Self-Love as Psychotherapeutic’, 2018 APA conference.

Published August 2018.

In this conversation, we talk about the “space between”, i.e. the space of relationship, and how Imago therapy helps clients make sense of it and change their relationship. There is also a partial transcript as a printable PDF.

Audio only:

Harville Hendrix, Ph.D. and Helen LaKelly Hunt, Ph.D believe that how we interact with each other, in all our contexts—family, workplace, schools, etc.—is the key to our emotional, physical and economic well-being and to the well-being of our children and society. Harville and Helen co-initiated Imago Relationships International as a training institute for couples therapists, Relationships First® as a collaborative mission to change the cultural value system, and Safe Conversations® as an experiment to raise the joy index of a whole city. Their professional partnership has produced 10 books including three NYT best sellers (Getting the Love You Want, Keeping the Love You Find, and Giving the Love that Heals). Their latest book is The Space Between (2017). They are working on a new professional text on Imago theory and therapy. A 30th anniversary edition of Getting the Love You Want will launch in 2018. See their website.

Published July 2018.

This discussion takes place in the context of the current (late 2017 and early 2018) sexual harassment scandals going around many professions. Kathrin Stauffer starts her reflections on these developments by some thoughts about the nature of power and her own relationship with it.



Audio only:

Kathrin Stauffer PhD, Body and Integrative Psychotherapist (UKCP), was born and educated in Switzerland. Originally a research biochemist, she retrained at the Chiron Centre for Body Psychotherapy in London. She is the author of the book ‘Anatomy & Physiology for Psychotherapists: Connecting Body & Soul’ (W.W. Norton 2010). She works in private practice in Cambridge, England, as a body psychotherapist, EMDR therapist and supervisor. She is currently the Chair of the EABP Council of National Associations and a Board member of EABP. She has presented workshops on questions of self-confidence in the psychotherapy profession, and also on a panel of women’s issues at the 2016 EABP Congress in Athens, Greece. See website.

Published February 2018. 

In this conversation, Rae Johnson talks about how the body is implicated in social justice work, and how to engage our bodies in the process of activism. Rae’s approach incorporates key ideas from many social justice theorists and somatic practitioners, and distills them into three key areas: (1) doing your own work, (2) working for others, and (3) working with others. This conversation is available as a video, as well as audio only. There is also a printable PDF handout with additional information on the topic.

Audio only:

Rae Johnson, PhD, RSMT is a somatic scholar/practitioner working at the intersection of embodiment studies and social justice. Key themes in her work include the embodied experience of oppression, somatic approaches to research, and the poetic body. Rae is the author of the recently published book Embodied Social Justice and chair of the Somatic Studies in Depth Psychology doctoral program at Pacifica Graduate Institute. Links to Rae’s work can be found on her website.

Published January 2018. See  other conversations with are Johnson.

In this conversation, we explore how people deal with power, and the goal of mutuality in relationships. This conversation is available as a video, as well as audio only, and as a printable PDF transcript.

Audio only:

Hilary Bradbury is a scholar-practitioner focused on the human and organizational dimensions of creating healthy communities. A professor of organization studies since 1998 (Case Western, USC and OHSU), she is editor-in-chief of the international peer reviewed Action Research Journal (Sage Publications). She was named 2018 Jubilee Professor at Chalmers Institute of Technology, Sweden. Hilary was born and bred in Dublin, Ireland and educated at Trinity College after which she attended the Divinity Schools at Harvard and University of Chicago. Her PhD from Boston College focused on organizational change and transformation toward a more sustainable world. Her latest books include Eros/Power: Love in the Spirit of Inquiry (Integral Publishers, 2016, with Bill Torbert) and Cooking with Action Research (2017, with AR+ Associates). Hilary, who has served as a member of the teaching circle at Zen Center of Portland, brings an eye to integrating Eastern meditation with the work of sustainable social transformation.

Having received both his BA and his PhD in Individual and Organizational Behavior from Yale, Bill Torbert served as Director of both the War on Poverty Yale Upward Bound Program and the Theatre of Inquiry. He also taught leadership at Southern Methodist University, the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and then, from 1978-2008 at the Carroll Graduate School of Management at Boston College, winning local and national teaching awards. At BC he served as Graduate Dean (the MBA program rising from below the top 100 to #25 during his tenure). He consulted to dozens of companies, not-for-profits, and governmental agencies and has served on numerous Boards. He has also published widely, based in part on the Global Leadership Profile psychometric measure of leadership development, and articulated the Collaborative Developmental Action Inquiry paradigm of social science. In 2014 he received the Chris Argyris Career Achievement Award from the Academy of Management.

Published January 2018. 

Susan Rudnick’s comments about the sexual abuse of women by powerful men derive from Karen Horney’s formulation of the Real Self, as she articulated it in Neurosis and Human Growth. Even if we are severely alienated from that Real Self, it is still there, and we do continue to have human need for authentic connection to ourselves and others. The abuse or assault becomes a severely distorted expression of that need. And because the need is never really fulfilled, it becomes an endless hunger that needs to be repeated over and over. Power over another human being becomes a substitute for authentic relationship.

This brief conversation (5 minutes) is available as a recording (below) and a printable PDF transcript. The recording, unfortunately, picked up  the background noise, which may be a bit distracting.

Susan Rudnick,LCSW is a longtime psychotherapist in private practice in Manhattan. The three disciplines that inform her work are her Psychoananalytic Training  at the Karen Horney Institute, Focusing, and her practice of Zen Buddhism.  She is interested in the interface between spirituality and psychotherapy, and contributed a chapter to  the book Into the Mountain Stream: Psychotherapy and Buddhist Experience.  She is a haiku poet, and is about to complete a long term project of writing a memoir about growing up with her developmentally challenged sister. She serves on the board of the Focusing Institute.

Published January 2018. See also conversation about what sustains her. 

This conversation with Rae Johnson was inspired by the recent spate of accusations of sexual harassment. We talk about it as not about sex and gender, but about power. The conversation is also available as a  printable PDF transcript.

Rae Johnson, PhD, RSMT is a somatic scholar/practitioner working at the intersection of embodiment studies and social justice. Key themes in her work include the embodied experience of oppression, somatic approaches to research, and the poetic body. Rae is the author of the recently published book Embodied Social Justice and chair of the Somatic Studies in Depth Psychology doctoral program at Pacifica Graduate Institute. Links to Rae’s work can be found on her website.

Published December 2017. See other conversations with Rae Johnson on this site and on what sustains her.