Association News

APPPAH is proud to announce a collaboration with In Utero filmmakers, Kathleen and Stephen Gyllenhaal, and Kindred Media and Community to create a powerful and practical In Utero Film Discussion and Resource Guide. (It's a large file so be patient!)

You are invited to read your review of the USABP's 2016 conference on Sexuality, Spirituality and the Body, as published in the International Body Psychotherapy Journal

The USABP is offering something special this summer. You can spend the 1st Wednesday of each month in June-July-August with USABP President Beth Haessig. She will close the last three months of her term by being available for this LIVE-Q & A format through the medium of a WEBINAR. Ask a Question, Have a Conversation, Share an Experience, Feel like you're part of the USABP community, through experiential exercises or real-live dialogue. Call in to interact with a real live body-centered professional, whether it's involving a personal issue or professional - they want to keep you hooked in for the summer months through their LIVE CALL-IN WEBINARS.

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! 

We recently read a fascinating article in The National Geographic,January 1, 2019 highlighting what they called a "pioneering music project". A research team at the University Hospital in Geneva, Switzerland, working with premature babies, adapted special headphones and three specific songs for the babies to hear.

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.

What is it in us that makes it possible for us to heal based on our faith in a positive outcome? Join LifeSherpa, a nonprofit whose mission is to explore mindfulness as engagement with everyday life, as participants share their experiences. Many of the people who participate in LifeSherpa/s explorations are body-oriented psychotherapists.

In 2014, the EABP Science & Research Committee (SRC) established a set of simple ‘Guidelines' for BP/SP Case Studies. We are now engaged in collecting a number of possible contributions for a soon-to-be published book on “Body Psychotherapy Case Studies” (at end 2017 / 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. We would like to invite you to help us in this project. We hope that a reasonable percentage of you will respond.

The United States Association for Body Psychotherapy announced their Fall Somatic Psychology Conference at Kripalu Institute. Open to mental-health professionals, yoga teachers, bodyworkers, and everyone who wants to experience the psychology of their bodies. Participants will learn about Hakomi, Embodied Couples Therapy, Rubenfeld Synergy and Focusing in this week long symposium.

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.