Relational Implicit & Somatic Psychotherapy

Dr. Linda Carlson holds the Enbridge Research Chair in Psychosocial Oncology and is Full Professor in Psychosocial Oncology in the Department of Oncology, Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary. She has published over 150 research papers and book chapters in the area of psycho-oncology. In 2010, she published a patient manual with Michael Speca, Mindfulness-Based Cancer Recovery. She received the Kawano New Investigator Award from the International Psycho-Oncology Society in 2006; the William E. Rawls Prize in cancer control from the National Cancer Institute of Canada/Canadian Cancer Society in 2007; a New Investigator Award from the Canadian Psychological Association Health Section in 2009, the inaugural Research Excellence award from the Canadian Association of Psychosocial Oncology in 2010, the Arete Award for Research Excellence from the Department of Oncology at the University of Calgary in 2012.

See also: Expectancy and the healing relationship

Published December 2015

In this conversation, we explore what it is that predisposes us to experiencing a sense of shared connection in a group, and relate it to the mammalian brain, and the synchronization of mammals.

About Roberto Larios Aguilar: Originally he was a Medical Doctor in the area of General Surgery, he quit and, as he began to feel the ‘lack of connection’ with other people, that reason and his own struggles made him began a Masters degree in Psychotherapy. There he was immediately attracted to the experiential theory of E. Gendlin. He is a certified Focusing Trainer and Wholebody Focusing coordinator. He loves mountain climbing and long remote trekkings. Actually he devotes his time to the clinical practice in the area of experiential psychotherapy, and recently very interesed in exploring “the shared Field” and the role of Wholebody Focusing, Touch and Consciousness in healing physical and emotional issues.

Published November 2015

How can we hear the ineffable, for instance in poetry? Certainly not by analyzing the words, trying very hard to make sense of them. We let ourselves experience whatever resonance the melody and words have for us. It touches something in us, and the experience we have of it is very personal.

At a conference, several of us presented a panel. We wanted to communicate experientially what we called “Shared Field”. So we started with a song – Suzanne, by Leonard Cohen.

Now, it is on this web page you’re reading (recording by Bruce Nayowith). As you listen to it, you may remember that we put it there to give you a sense of what me mean by “shared field”. Or you may be carried away by your own associations with the music and the words. Or…

In other words, what happens here is not perfectly clear communication, in the sense that copying a digital file is a way to perfectly transfer information from one support to another. The implicit field where this communication takes place is more nebulous, at the same time inefficient in achieving perfect clarity, and amazingly enriched by each experience.

Now Suzanne takes your hand and she leads you to the river,

She is wearing rags and feathers from Salvation Army counters

And the sun pours down like honey on our lady of the harbor,

And she shows you where to look among the garbage and the flowers,

There are heroes in the seaweed, there are children in the morning,

They are leaning out for love and they will lean that way forever,

While Suzanne holds the mirror.

And you want to travel with her,

And you want to travel blind,

And you know that you can trust her,

For she’s touched your perfect body with her mind.

Marti Glenn, PhD, Co-Director, Quest Institute, offering intensive retreats for healing early trauma. She is founding President of Santa Barbara Graduate Institute with graduate degrees in somatic psychology, prenatal-perinatal psychology and clinical psychology. A pioneering psychotherapist and trainer for three decades, she was also professor of clinical psychology, integrating body psychotherapy with affective neuroscience, attachment, and trauma. Dr. Glenn serves on several non-profit boards and has chaired numerous professional conferences, including APPPAH and Neurons to Neighborhoods: Preventing and Healing Trauma. She co-produced the broadcast quality documentary, Trauma, Brain, and Relationship and has appeared in such documentary films as What Babies Want; What Babies Know; Reducing Infant Mortality and Improving the Health of Babies. She continues to train mental health professionals with a focus on relationship and the experienced body, weaving neuroscience, polyvagal theory, epigenetics, trauma and attachment into clinical practices. She is a frequent speaker at conferences world-wide. See website.

Published July 2015. See printable PDF transcript.

Dr. Wager is a Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience and a faculty member in the Institute for Cognitive Science at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in cognitive psychology in 2003, and served as an Assistant and Associate Professor at Columbia University from 2004-2009. Since 2010, he has directed Boulder’s Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience laboratory. He has a deep interest in how thinking influences affective experiences, affective learning, and brain-body communication. His laboratory also focuses on the development and deployment of analytic methods, and has developed several publicly available software toolboxes for fMRI analysis.

Unfortunately, the quality of the recording is not very good. You may want to read the transcript (below) as you listen to the audio. 

Published May 2015. See printable PDF transcript.

See also: Expectancy: The placebo effect and the healing relationship

Lorena Monda, MS, DOM, LPCC, is a practicing psychotherapist (since 1979), a Doctor of Oriental Medicine, and a certified qigong teacher. She is a trainer for the Hakomi Institute and on the faculty of the AOMA Graduate School of Integrative Medicine in Austin, Texas, where she teaches courses in clinical communication integrating Hakomi skills. Lorena is the author of The Practice of Wholeness: Spiritual Transformation in Everyday Life and a coeditor of I Have Arrived, I Am Home: Celebrating 20 Years of Plum Village Life and Hakomi Mindfulness Centered Somatic Psychotherapy: A Comprehensive Guide to Theory and Practice (Norton, May 2015). She is currently working on a book called Mindfulness, Qi, and Transformation. Lorena is in private practice in New Mexico and teaches in the US and internationally.

Published March 2015. See printable PDF transcript.

Gregory Hickok, Ph.D. is Professor of Cognitive Sciences at UC Irvine, Founder, Director Emeritus, and current Fellow of the UCI Center for Cognitive Neuroscience & Engineering, Founder and Director of the Center for Language Science, Fellow of the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning & Memory and the Center for Hearing Research, and past Chair of the Research Imaging Center’s Imaging Steering Committee. Beyond UCI he is the founding President of the Society for the Neurobiology of Language, Editor-in-Chief of Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, and author of The Myth of Mirror Neurons: The Real Neuroscience of Communication and Cognition.

Published January 2015. See printable PDF transcript.

Dr. Michael Picucci, PhD, MAC, SEP, brings decades of investigation and experience to his practice of Psychotherapy, Focalizing and Consulting. His professional expertise spans a wide-range of disciplines as a Psychologist, Licensed Psychotherapist, Master Addictions Counselor, Sexologist, Somatic Experiencing Practitioner and Organizational Consultant.

Recipient of the National Institutes on Health “Outstanding Leadership in Research Award,” the last 30 years of Dr. Picucci’s exploration in Social Sciences, Organizational Development and Energy Psychology has focused on addictions, trauma healing, sexuality, and interpersonal and group dynamics. During this time he has been observing and creating rituals for sane, healthy living for individual clients, couples, groups and organizations.

The story of this journey and his discoveries is told in Dr. Picucci’s books which can be found at http://www.theinstitute.org/books/ as well as in all his other published works on healing and wholeness for individuals and communities: www.focalizing.com

Published November 2014. See printable PDF transcript.

Pierre Morin, MD, PhD, is president of the International Association of Process Oriented Psychology (IAPOP) and a founding faculty member at the Process Work Institute Graduate School in Portland, OR. He was a clinical director of Switzerland’s leading rehabilitation clinic for brain and spinal injuries. After moving to Portland, OR, he studied health psychology and rehabilitation psychology. He currently works as a clinical director and supervisor in an outpatient mental health program and in private practice. Dr. Morin is a co-author of Inside Coma and author of Health in Sickness – Sickness in Health. He has written several articles on mind-body medicine and community health. See website.

Published September 2014. See printable PDF transcript.

Dr. Moss is currently working with the Bon Secours Health System in Greenville, SC. He will be joining the Washington Medical Group in Washington, DC, this fall. He is board certified in clinical psychology (ABPP) and neuropsychology (ABN). He had over 20 years in private practice in addition to academic positions, the last of which was as an Associate Professor. He has published 49 professional articles and presented at a number of papers at local, national, and international conferences. He is the joint editor-in-chief of the new AIMS Neuroscience journal. He is ranked in the top 5% of all scientists on Research Gate. Copies of recent articles are available at ResearchGate.net, Academia.edu, and on his website Emotionalrestructuring.com.

Published: May 2014. See: Printable PDF transcript.