Relational Implicit & Somatic Psychotherapy

Is biology destiny? Freud asked this question in the context of discussing women’s abilities and roles. Now, in the wake of a seemingly endless streak of abuse scandals involving prominent men, it may be legitimate to ask whether male sexuality is inherently aggressive. This is the starting point for this conversation with Barnaby B. Barratt.

Dr Barnaby B Barratt is a radical psychoanalyst, somatic psychologist, sexuality consultant and practitioner of tantric meditation. He has published widely on in the areas of psychodynamics, bodymind healing, sexuality, human rights and related philosophical issues. Having lived in Europe, the USA and Asia, he currently maintains a private practice in South Africa, where he is Senior Research Associate at the University of Witwatersrand. Dr Barratt is Director of Studies at the Parkmore Institute, which is developing high‑quality, non‑residential doctoral programs in cutting‑edge fields such as bodymind healing, human sexuality, psychoanalytic studies and psychosocial intervention. See Parkmore Institute website.

Published December 2017. See also other conversations with Barnaby Barratt about somatic psychology & bodymind therapy  and about what sustains him.

In therapy, we deal with embodied experience. Shouldn’t research also have an embodied approach? This conversation is available as a video, as well as audio only, and as a printable PDF transcript.

Audio only:

Jennifer Frank Tantia, PhD, MS, BC-DMT, LCAT is a somatic psychologist and dance/movement psychotherapist, specializing in trauma and medically unexplained symptoms. She teaches research and evaluation in the Expressive Therapies graduate program at Lesley University and specializes in embodied research. Dr. Tantia is former chair of the United States Association for Body Psychotherapy research committee and currently serves on the board of the American Dance Therapy Association as chair of Research and Practice. She is a peer-reviewer for several academic journals and is an associate editor of the international journal, Body, Movement and Dance in Psychotherapy. Dr. Tantia presents and teaches internationally and has authored several publications in both dance/movement therapy and somatic psychology. Her forthcoming co-edited book, Embodied Perspectives in Psychotherapy will be published by Routledge in Spring, 2018. She has a full-time private practice in Manhattan.

Published November 2017

Marjorie Schuman is a psychoanalyst who has practiced Buddhist mindfulness meditation and relational psychotherapy for over three decades. She says: “Early on in my practice, I realized the profound truth that this very moment is the perfect teacher, as Buddhist teacher Pema Chodron famously said.  I knew intuitively that there was wisdom in problems and opportunities for growth contained within them.  My recent book, “Inquiring Deeply” grew out of my compelling personal desire to understand more deeply how the two practices could best be blended into an integrated approach to working with psychological problems.” In this conversation, we explore how this is reflected in her work.

At some points in the recording, there are some distracting noises from outside. We apologize for that, but we elected to keep the recording, as opposed to redoing it, to keep its spontaneous character.

Marjorie Schuman, PhD is a licensed clinical psychologist with expertise both in relational psychoanalysis and Buddhist mindfulness practice. She co-founded The Center for Mindfulness in Psychotherapy in Santa Monica, CA in 1995 where she taught a certificate program in Contemplative Relational Psychotherapy. Currently, Marjorie is faculty at the Los Angeles Institute and Society for Psychoanalytic Studies and is in private practice in Santa Barbara, CA. She is the author of the recent book “Mindfulness-Informed Relational Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis: Inquiring Deeply” (Routledge Press, 2017). See her website.

Published October 2017.

In this conversation, we explore ethics and embodiment.

This conversation is available as a video, as well as audio only, and as a printable PDF transcript.

Audio only:

Dirk Marivoet is the director of the Institute for Bodymind Integration in Ghent (Belgium). He studied Core-Energetics under John C. Pierrakos, MD; Postural Integration®, Energetic Integration and Pelvic-Heart Integration under Jack Painter, PhD (and has been a certified trainer/supervisor since 1999). He has also worked extensively with native shamanism both in Europe and North America. Earlier in the 80s and 90s he was adjunct faculty Psychomotor Therapy at Leuven University, where he still teaches.

Published May 2017. See also conversation with Dirk Marivoet about Bodymind Integration and about what sustains him.

In this conversation, we explore constructivism, modern physics, and the conceptualization and process of psychotherapy. Psychotherapy can be viewed as a “destabilizing dance” between a therapy and patient who are part of an unstable interactional system. It seems to operate within a constructed world of “meaning making” and focuses on “stories” or “attributes” of “things” rather than “things” from a Newtonian or medical model perspective. Constructivism, as a meta-theory, as well as 20th century physics, have significant implications for how to define problems, conceptualize psychotherapy, and intervene with clients who experience the limitations of their own models of reality.

Kjell Erik Rudestam is a teacher, researcher, consultant, and practicing clinical psychologist. After graduating from the University of Oregon with a Ph.D. in psychology he served as an Associate Professor at Miami of Ohio and a Professor of Psychology at York University in Toronto. Currently he is on the faculty of Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara, where he has also served as Associate Dean and Director of Clinical Training. Kjell is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (Division 12) and a Diplomate of the American Board of Examiners in Psychology (Clinical) and holds an Honorary Doctorate of Science. He is the author of nine academic texts and numerous journal articles on psychotherapy and the process of change, group and family therapy, crisis and suicide, and research methodology. Most recent publications are Your Statistical Consultant (2014, 2nd ed.) and Surviving Your Dissertation (2015, 4th ed.), co-authored by Rae Newton.

Published May 2016

In this interview, Dr Charlson talks about her work with mindfulness interventions to improve outcome in chronic illness. While these situations are obviously more extreme than the situations many of us are faced with in everyday life, her work suggests that some mindful practices may improve our ability to make the difficult changes we need, or to deal with extremely difficult situations in our own lives:

– For cardiovascular patients, a daily practice of paying attention to what feels good in their life is associated with an increased and sustained ability to make the lifestyle changes they need, and hence an ability to stay healthy. When we try to make difficult changes, we usually focus on the drama of fighting bad habits. It might help to spend some time taking stock of the potential we have to take care of ourselves and to enjoy whatever good there is in our life.

– The ability of cancer patients to make peace with their condition is improved by a combination of basic mindfulness skills, and a reframing of their experience in terms of the inevitability of human suffering. Hence the working hypothesis to explore in our everyday life: When we deal with overwhelming situations, it may help to focus on mindfully regulating our natural reactivity, were it only to improve our ability to process a reframing of the situation.

Mary Charlson, MD, is the William T. Foley Distinguished Professor of Medicine, Director of the Center for Integrative Medicine and Chief of the Division of Clinical Epidemiology and Evaluative Sciences Research, at Weill Cornell Medical College. Dr. Charlson received her medical degree from Yale University School of Medicine. After completing her residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital, she was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at Yale.

As a clinical epidemiologist, her work has focused on developing interventions targeted at improving outcomes in chronic illness. She has developed the widely used Charlson Comorbidity Index. She has a long track record of successful RCTs among patients with chronic illness. Over the last fifteen years, a major focus has been on developing interventions that help patients change behavior and reduce stress to improve their overall health. She also has been the PI on 8 separate NHLBI funded RCTS involving 2,725 patients.

See also: Expectancy and the healing relationship

Published May 2016

In this conversation, we talk about ‘Contemplative Thinking’: How it differs from what we usually describe as ‘thinking’, and how it fosters creativity.

Three phases are described:

– Pause: Unless we pause, we tend to keep going on the same track with our blinders on. Think about the cartoon situation of the character walking off the edge of the cliff, not realizing they’re no longer on firm ground.

– Orienting: We make a deliberate effort to pay attention to our body, not just to thoughts. Not that thoughts are bad… But we’re depriving ourselves of much of our processing ability if we cut off our body.

– Getting out of our own way: Instead of trying very  hard, as if we were trying to squeeze ideas out of a tube, we gently allow ‘felt sense’ information (e.g. intuition, hunch, insight) to come up from inside.

‘Contemplative Thinking’ occurs naturally. What helps us get better at it is to observe it when it happens, so that we become more aware of it.

In case you want to come back to specific explanations of this process after listening to the podcast as a whole, see:

– Description of the 3 phases: From 18’45” to 20’50”

– How this is not just a shift in intentionality, it is a different body experience that allows fresh thinking: From 21’00” to 25’30”

– How this applies to real life, in real time: From 25’30” to 34’00”

By the way, this recorded conversation is an instance of creative thinking fostered by an environment that is safe and stimulating. David’s presence and his way of holding the space made it possible for me to go further into the concepts than I had before, with a sense of effortlessness, as if I was observing their unfolding and describing it,

David I. Rome is the developer of Mindful Focusing, an integration of Eugene Gendlin’s Felt-Sense Focusing and Buddhist mindfulness-awareness practices (http://www.mindfulfocusing.com). He is the author of Your Body Knows the Answer; Using Your Felt Sense to Solve Problems, Effect Change, and Liberate Creativity (Shambhala Publications, 2014). David currently serves as board president for the Focusing Institute. Earlier in his career, David studied Buddhism and trained in meditation and other contemplative practices with Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, whom he also served as private secretary for many years.

Published April 2016. See also conversation on Mindful Focusing.

The starting point for this conversation was an article about a situation where therapy had unintended consequences. This led us to find a moment to discuss what it is that we know, and how we can act on it, not just as therapists, but also as human beings.

Leslie Becker-Phelps, PhD is a licensed psychologist who treats individuals and couples in her private practice in Basking Ridge, NJ and presents nationally to lay and professional audiences on relationship problems and self-criticism. She is the relationships expert on WebMD’s Relationships and Coping Community; writes for WebMD’s “Relationships” blog; and writes another blog called “Making Change” for Psychology Today. She is the author of Insecure in Love: How Anxious Attachment Can Make You Feel Jealous, Needy, and Worried and What You Can Do About It (New Harbinger Publications), which was released in May 2014. She was also the consulting psychologist for the book Love: The Psychology of Attachment (DK Publishing, 2016). Read more at www.drbecker-phelps.com

Published March 2016

Greg Madison, PhD, is an existential psychologist and psychotherapist active in various academic and professional communities across Europe and internationally. He has written the books, The End of Belonging and Existential Migration and co-edited three books on Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy and Existential Therapy. He continues to write articles on contemporary topics related to experiential-existential psychotherapy, participatory democracy, psychology and society. He founded The London Focusing Institute and is co-editor of Existential Analysis.

See: www.gregmadison.net and www.londonfocusing.com

Published: January 2016. See printable PDF transcript.

Modernity has been structured around fracture lines, like the mind-body problem, the nature nurture problem, free will versus determinism, and secularism or faith. We explore these issues with George Makari.

Historian and psychiatrist George Makari is the author of the widely acclaimed Revolution in Mind: the Creation of Psychoanalysis, which received the Gradiva Prize and was called the best history of its kind by Harold Bloom. The book has received over eighty reviews worldwide and has been the focus of numerous international conferences. His second book, Soul Machine: The Invention of the Modern Mind, was just published in November and was called “brilliant, compendious…essential reading” in the Wall Street Journal.

Director of the DeWitt Wallace Institute for the History of Psychiatry, Dr. Makari is Professor of Psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College and Adjunct Professor at Rockefeller University and the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research. His essays have won numerous honors and have appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Time, and The Lancet. For more information, go to GeorgeMakari.com.

Published January 2016