Association News

SPT Magazine offers our congratulations to Hiroki Yamaji, the 2018 winner of the Alice Ladas Research Award. His study was titled: An Efficacy Study of Somatic Psychoeducation at a Japanese University. Hiroki addressed the question of whether an 8-week somatic psychoeducation course for college students could result in students developing somatic awareness and trust in the organism, and enhance integral functioning that included general mindfulness, stress resilience, interpersonal empathy, responsibility for self-care, and generic skills.

ome years back, when Dr. Porges was talking with the director of the National Institutes of Health, he boldly told the director that “We know too much to allow medicine to be practice the way it is.” Porges elaborated that “We know too much about the body to allow treatment to continue as is - without an appreciation of bodily states and how shifts in neurophysiological states influence the effectiveness of medical treatments. Current knowledge of the body needs to be infused into both clinical practice and how we live our lives." “I guess that statement defines me as a pioneer,” he said.

Can you truly present a picture of a person, on a page, when the dimensionality of the being moves beyond the here and now, expands beyond the human container of skin and bones into the expanse of all cellular energy, where dualities shape the singular organism? No, not really, but one can share snapshots of a woman who has contributed much to the field of body psychotherapy, who has had an impact on many therapists’ lives and on countless clients’ lives. From dancer to sitter, from mother to teacher, from self to other, Judyth O. Weaver brings her essence into this life in wondrous ways.

The spring issue of the International Body Psychotherapy Journal is now online. "The papers in this issue frame our psychological abilities to look within, sense within, be within, and accept what is to be. Our contributors share their research and their explorations into: body awareness; bodily lies and deceptions that impact the quality of our lives; emotional competence through embodiment to facilitate learning; and meeting death with compassion, grace, body-to- body, soul-to-soul. As well, we share a review of biological explanatory models dealing with trauma and the human body." (Editorial Team)

The portals are ready! We can now register for the USABP Fall Conference at Pacifica Graduate Institute, at their Retreat Center. The pre-conferences on Thursday, November 1, 2018m are offered by Rae Johnson, Aline LaPierre and Lawrence Hedges. All three presenters are proven to offer excellent information and current insights in our field. The conference, entitled,The Science of Connection, is November 2-4 beginning at 8 am! 

“Letting go” has long been a central concept in the psychological process of healing. It has been cast/seen as an essential step in getting unstuck and moving forward. Over the years of working with clients through Transformative Touch, the bodies of our clients have opened us to another consideration. In order to let go of something , you first need to be holding on to something. When this is the case, “letting go” makes sense and works. However, we have found with some clients , another scenario has registered in their body- that of something having a hold of it. Letting go in this instance will not work, and will actually increase frustration and self-judgement.

Join SPT at the USABP 2018 conference November 2-4, at Pacifica Graduate Institute. The theme this year is: The Science of Connection: Honoring Somatic Intelligence. Pre registration begins March 15, 2018. Housing is available on campus.  A great time to meet the new USABP Board of Directors and connect with colleagues from across the globe. We plan to be there with a special book auction as well! See you in November! 

Imagine spending time this Fall in Berlin, Germany. September 6 to 9, 2018, our colleagues worldwide will gather to explore 'Body Psychotherapy and Challenges...

According to Serge Prengel, "The theme of the 2019 International Focusing Conference is about being human, just human. This is such a great theme. Why should we wait all this time to explore it? I suggest we just declare the conference open as of right now. And we start exploring this theme internally, in conversations with others, as well is in our communications through social media and otherwise. So, by the time of the conference, we will not be simply discovering the theme, but we will come to the conference already enriched and ready to go even deeper in our explorations."

We are now engaged in collecting a number of possible contributions for a soon-to-be published book on “Body Psychotherapy Case Studies” (early 2018) - this is part of the SRC remit to help to try and establish a reasonably good ‘scientific’ basis for body psychotherapy; - and to increase awareness of different types of valid research - case studies being one of these; - and to increase awareness of different ways of working in the field of body psychotherapy / somatic psychology; - and we are intending to use some of the ‘project’ money in our SRC budget for this purpose.