Somatic Psychotherapy Today

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

The Biology of Trust and Beyond: A deepened perspective on presence, perception, and safety

We live in a time when “safety” is talked about a lot – but most often in terms of external conditions. Few people talk about what safety actually feels like. What makes us sometimes feel safe even in uncertainty, and at other times anxious, even when everything on paper looks fine? Here I want to offer a different perspective – or perhaps more accurately, a return. An understanding of safety that is not only biological, but lived: where perception, the body and conscious seeing come together in the experience of trust.

YOUTUBE VIDEOS

YouTube offers informative videos covering a wide range in the fields of Somatic Psychology and Body Psychotherapy. SPT Magazine offers videos our editorial team feels are aligned with our mission.

With over 35 years of clinical experience, Dirk Marivoet developed his own method: Core Strokes™ — an integrative approach that bridges fascia-based bodywork, psychodynamic process, and energetic transformation. His teaching emphasizes fascia, breath, emotion, character structure, and relational presence, supported by insights from trauma healing, neuroscience, and polarity dynamics. He is also the creator of the Neurofascial Transformation Process™ and the Energetic Breath Cycle™, foundational tools in the Core Strokes™ method.

In this interview with Hana Hniličková Dirk shares details about the Energetic Breath Cycle, the possibility to meet oneself on deeper level when working with fascia (connective tissue of the body) and the healing power of relational presence. He speaks with precision, which makes it easy to understand his words and work. Enjoy his grounded voice to learn more about his work and his mission. We believe you learn more also about yourself.

BODY MIND SPIRIT

The Poetics of Unnamed Emotion: From The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows to Core...

In this “lyrical essay”, Dirk Marivoet explores the kinship between John Koenig’s Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows and the somatic language of Core Strokes®. Through the meeting of word and fascia, he reveals how both poetic naming and therapeutic touch give voice to unspoken emotion. A meditation on breath, empathy, and embodiment, it invites readers to feel language as a living tissue where sorrow transforms into resonance.

SPT Magazine Volume 15, number 1, 2025

In SPT Magazine Volume 15, Number 1, 2025, we delve into breath work in psychotherapy, the living language of fascia, AI on the couch, deepening couples’ therapy, and a new perspective on our nervous system. We feature insightful articles and book reviews from clinicians and researchers that explore how the body holds stories and how we can facilitate their release and transformation.

The Energetic Breath Cycle™: Phenomenological Layers of Respiratory Experience

Breath is both a biological rhythm and a clinical language. Wilhelm Reich first identified its central role in the energetic cycle of tension, charge, discharge, and relaxation, while Jack Painter expanded this into a nine-phase Natural Cycle of Energy. The Energetic Breath Cycle™ builds on this foundation, retaining Painter’s nine phases while extending them across five phenomenological layers: physiological, fascial, energetic, relational, and soul. Each layer highlights how respiration conveys adaptation, coherence, or defensive interruption.

Somatic Resonance in Couples Therapy: An Integrative Approach to Deepening Connection with Body Psychotherapy...

In the ever-evolving landscape of intimate relationships, couples frequently encounter emotional distance, communication breakdowns, and the pressures of modern life. These stressors can lead to frustration, disconnection, and stagnation in relationships. Body Psychotherapy for Couples (BP4C) offers a unique, integrative framework that addresses these challenges not only through conversation, but also through deep listening to the body, breath, movement, and energy between partners, and a process of melting the Couple Armour (Shiraz, 2020). At the core of this approach lies a powerful yet often underappreciated concept: somatic resonance.

The Living Language of Fascia – A Clinical Typology of Tissue States in...

Dirk Marivoet introduces a clinically derived fascial texture typology—a tactile language that captures the unseen but deeply felt states of the living body. Rooted in somatic psychotherapy and trauma-informed bodywork, the typology identifies distinct patterns in fascial tone, responsiveness, and energetic presence that reflect character defenses, developmental wounds, and healing potentials.

Beyond Freeze and Flight – A New Understanding of the Nervous System’s Rhythm and...

Most of us have learned that the autonomic nervous system has three states: safety (ventral vagus), stress (sympathetic nervous system), and shutdown (dorsal vagus). This model has helped many people understand how the body responds to trauma or threat. But what if that isn’t the whole truth? What if the nervous system doesn’t function like a switchboard between fixed modes, but instead acts like a dynamic spectrum, where everything depends on presence? I see ventral presence not merely as one branch in a neural blend, but as the modulating force that determines how any sympathetic or dorsal activity is experienced.

Book Reviews

Breathwork and Psychotherapy: Clinical Applications for Healing and Transformation

Breathing, something everyone does who's alive, is coming to the forefront in psychotherapeutic settings. Colleagues are offering workshops and presentations on breathwork, and Norton Publications sent me Jessica Dibbs’ new book, Breathwork and Psychotherapy. She’s written a comprehensive compendium that’s part textbook, part training guide, part personal memoir, and part invitation to experience the life-altering existence we can achieve when we incorporate breathwork into our daily lives.

The Prenatal Shadow: Healing the Trauma Experienced Before and At Birth

Cherionna Menzam-Sills’ latest book, The Prenatal Shadow: Healing the Trauma Experienced Before and at Birth, offers an in-depth exploration of birth shadows, providing insights on how to address and heal these aspects to fully realize our inherent potential. The Prenatal Shadow is accessible to the lay reader and satisfying for the experienced practitioner in prenatal and perinatal somatics. For the lay reader just discovering the paradigm, Menzam-Sills has a friendly, gentle, and encouraging voice born out of decades of study and experience. Her authority is evident as she weaves a narrative of early development, autonomic nervous system states, trauma-informed care, embryonic development, prenatal and perinatal dynamics, and therapeutic interventions. Her ability to access research and quote pioneers who have influenced her work lends the narrative depth, while narratives from clinical studies provide the work with breadth. Her voice also illustrates the command of someone who has deeply explored the experiences of the “little one,” or the sentient baby. This is someone everyone can learn from.

The Ethical Assassin: A Vigilante’s Memoir

I don't typically review fiction books but having read and reviewed several of Dr. Ferraiolo’s books, I was curious how he wove philosophy into a fictional character’s psychological well-being. The title alone—An Ethical Assassin- caught my attention. Can killing be considered ethical?