Relational Implicit & Somatic Psychotherapy

Robert J. Hedaya, M.D., A.B.P.N., D.F.A.P.A., developed the Whole Psychiatry methodology, which offers a comprehensive physiological and psychosocial approach to mental health and chronic physical illness. He evaluates and treats mind and body dysfunction by focusing on the detailed evaluation and bi-directional interactions between and among a person’s hormonal system, immune system, gastrointestinal system, nutrition, environment, socio-spiritual status, genetics, detoxification, cell signaling, life circumstance, age and gender.  As a result, Whole Psychiatry notably improves outcomes and the potential for avoiding or reducing medication. Dr. Hedaya is recipient of the Physician’s Recognition Award from the American Medical Association and has been voted Outstanding Teacher of the Year multiple times by the Georgetown University Medical Center Department of Psychiatry. He is author of Understanding Biological Psychiatry (1996), The Antidepressant Survival Program: How to Beat the Side Effects and Enhance the Benefits of Your Medication(2000), and Depression: Advancing the Treatment Paradigm (2008). See website.

Published March 2014. See printable PDF transcript.

See also Dr Hedaya’s Psycho Metabolic Health Questionnaire, which is mentioned in the conversation.

Dr Iain McGilchrist began his academic career as a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, teaching and writing about English literature.  In Against Criticism, he expressed his misgivings about the academic study of literature, especially its neglect of how individual, embodied beings encounter the unique, incarnate work of art. He studied philosophy, trained in medicine, and became a psychiatrist. He has since twice been re-elected to Fellowships at All Souls, has been a Research Fellow in Neuroimaging at Johns Hopkins, and a Consultant Psychiatrist and Clinical Director at the Bethlem & Maudsley Hospital. He works privately as a psychiatrist in London.

His latest book, The Master and his Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World, explores the different versions of the world which are made available to us by the cerebral hemispheres, and their influence on the history of ideas and of philosophy in the West.

Published: January 2014. See Printable PDF transcript.

Pawan Bareja has practiced Buddhist meditation since 2001. She is a Spirit Rock Ritual Minister and Community Dharma Leader. In her private practice as Trauma Resolution Practitioner, she works with a diverse population of clients and includes mindfulness meditation. As a senior assistant in Somatic Experiencing trainings, Pawan has offered personal sessions and case consults at all levels for the past 10 years. She now teaches mindfulness and trauma classes and daylongs in San Francisco and at Spirit Rock.

Published October 2013. See also conversation with Pawan Bareja about what sustains her.

David Wallin, PhD, is a clinical psychologist in private practice in Albany and Mill Valley, California.  A graduate of Harvard who received his doctorate from the Wright Institute in Berkeley, he has been practicing, teaching, and writing about psychotherapy for nearly three decades.  Attachment in Psychotherapy, his most recent book, is presently being translated into nine languages. He is also the co-author (with Stephen Goldbart) of Mapping the Terrain of the Heart: Passion, Tenderness, and the Capacity to Love.  A lively and engaging speaker who combines a scholarly perspective with unusual candor about his own experience as a therapist, he has lectured on attachment and psychotherapy in Australia, Europe, Canada, and throughout the United States. For further information, please visit AttachmentInPsychotherapy.com.

Published: July 2013. See: Printable PDF transcript.

Maci Daye is the creator of Passion and Presence®, a mindfulness-based sexual enrichment process for couples. Maci is a Licensed Professional Counselor, Certified Hakomi Trainer, Certified Master Career Counselor and Life Coach who lives in Atlanta, GA and Mallorca, Spain. Maci has graduate degrees in Education and Counseling from Harvard and Georgia State Universities, and completed the Somatic Experiencing training through the intermediate level. Maci has been practicing Hakomi for 25 years and teaches in the US, Europe and Australia. See: PassionAndPresence.com.

Published May 2013. See: Printable PDF transcript.

Rick Hanson, Ph.D., is a neuropsychologist and author of Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom (in 22 languages) and Just One Thing: Developing a Buddha Brain One Simple Practice at a Time (in 9 languages). Founder of the Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom and Affiliate of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley, he’s been an invited speaker at Oxford, Stanford, and Harvard, and taught in meditation centers worldwide. His work has been featured on the BBC, NPR, FoxBusiness, Consumer Reports Health, U.S. News and World Report, and O Magazine and he has several audio programs with Sounds True. His weekly e-newsletter – Just One Thing – has nearly 70,000 subscribers, and also appears on Huffington Post, Psychology Today, and other major websites. See RickHanson.net.

Published March 2013. See printable PDF transcript.

 

Serge Prengel, LMHC, is in private practice in New York City. He has been exploring embodied experience, relational mindfulness and proactive mindset. He was trained in Focusing, Core Energetics and Somatic Experiencing. His work also draws from Systems-Centered theory. Serge is a graduate of France’s Sorbonne University and HEC business school. He started and operated an ad agency in New York City for many years. In the early 1990’s, his focus shifted to exploring creativity as a tool for personal growth. Serge is the editor of Somatic Perspectives on Psychotherapy. Serge is the editor of Relational Implicit. See his website.

Published February 2013. See printable PDF transcript.

The conversation was hosted by Rae Johnson, Ph.D. It was part of the Mystery of Embodiment Online Summit organized by Meridian University’s Psychology Program, hosted by Courtney Lubell (Dec 2012).

Patti Lentz is a physical therapist, yoga therapist and SEP in Albuquerque, NM.   She also teaches physical therapists and yoga teachers internationally to recognize trauma symptoms in their clients and how to skillfully adapt treatment for them. She is insatiably curious….. about how things work, and what happens when they aren’t working so well. This curiosity is stimulated by the understanding of trauma in the SE model, and she invites this curiosity to her private clients and yoga students. Patti was part of the first SE team sent by the Foundation to Thailand after the tsunami, and to New Orleans and Baton Rouge after Katrina.  Working with individuals soon after these two events helped Patti see the benefits of  helping clients to understand their own nervous systems so they are better prepared when stressful/potentially traumatic events occur.  She has adapted this experience to working with clients prior to stressful situations. See her website.

Published February 2013.

Michael C. Heller (born in 1949) is a psychologist who works on clinical and experimental research issues related to body and mind. His knowledge on this field has been summarized in his books: The Flesh of the Soul (2001, Peter Lang), Les Psychothérapies Corporelles (2008, De Boeck) and Body Psychotherapy (2012, W.W. Norton). He has participated in the creation of several journals in the field of body psychotherapy, and has occupied key posts in the European Association of Body psychotherapy (Vice President, Chair of the Ethics Committee and Scientific Committee). He publishes and teaches internationally. He is now practicing psychotherapy in Lausanne (Switzerland). See: Aqualide.ch.

Published January 2013. See printable PDF transcript.

Judyth O. Weaver, Ph.D. in Reichian Psychology, began studying with Charlotte Selver in 1968, after returning from three years in Asia, most of them spent in a Zen Buddhist monastery. She is also certified as a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, in Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy, Gestalt Therapy, and in Prenatal and Birth Therapy. She is a Rosen Method practitioner and senior teacher; and a master teacher in T’ai Chi Ch’uan, which she has been practicing since 1968. Judyth taught at the California Institute for Integral Studies and other S.F. Bay Area graduate schools for 25 years. She co-founded Santa Barbara Graduate Institute and created its Somatic Psychology doctoral program. She has developed her own integrated manner of working with people which she calls ‘Somatic Reclaiming.’ She maintains a private practice in Seattle, Washington, and on Cortes Island, B.C., Canada in the summers, as well as teaches internationally. See: JudythWeaver.com.

December 2012. See: Printable PDF transcript. See other conversation with Judyth Weaver.