With regret we share the recent news of Christa D. Ventling’s passing. According to Courtenay Young, she was a female pioneer in European Bioenergetic Analysis and in qualitative research in body psychotherapy.
Dr. Ventling received a M.Sc. at the University of Lausanne (Switzerland), followed by a DPhil at the University of Oxford. She held research and teaching positions at Iowa City, Johns Hopkins, and Maryland University. She studied psychology at the University of Basel, Switzerland, graduating with a Masters and honors. She was certified in 1995 as a bioenergetic therapist and was an active member of the Swiss Society of
Bioenergetic Analysis and Therapy (SGBAT) where she headed the science and research section. She was a First Prize winner for Outstanding Research in Body Psychotherapy, which was awarded at the United States Association for Body Psychotherapy conference in Baltimore, MD, June, 2002.
Her professional publishing vitae includes well over 50 research papers published in both English and in German, some of which were considerably technical in cell biology and cancer research. Her article entitled: Efficacy of Bioenergetic Therapies and Stability of the Therapeutic Result: A Retrospective Investigation, was published in the International Body Psychotherapy Journal 1(2) 2002 and reprinted in About the Science of Body Psychotherapy, Edited by Courtenay Young (Body Psychotherapy Publications, 2012).
Dr. Ventling also edited several books in which she contributed chapters and/or essays, including: Body Psychotherapy in Progressive and Chronic Disorders (Karger, 2002) and Childhood Psychotherapy: A Bioenergetic Approach (Karger, 2001), translated into Italian by Livia Geloso & Vanessa Poloni, and published by FrancoAngeli.
She was deeply concerned about and supportive of women and women having babies. So much so, she presented her paper, entitled: Sensitivity training of pregnant women: A possible prevention of neurosis of the child? at the Third National United States Association for Body Psychotherapy Conference in Baltimore, 2002.
With sincere appreciation for her contributions to our field and with sorrow we honor her passing.
