Ronald A. Alexander, Ph.D., SEP, is a licensed psychotherapist, leadership coach, and clinical trainer in the fields of Somatic Trauma Healing, Ericksonian Mind-Body Therapies, Mindfulness Meditation and Creativity. As the Executive Director of the OpenMind® Training Program, he draws upon his extensive background in Holistic Health, Behavioral Medicine, Positive Psychology, Gestalt Therapy, & Somatic Experiencing. He is the author of Core Creativity: The Mindful Way to Unlock Your Creative Self.

Dr. Urszula Klich is a clinical psychologist, speaker, and author who teaches self-regulation to maximize physical and emotional health. She is a certified meditation teacher in Cognitively-Based Compassion Training (CBCT) through Emory University and has served on various medical teams. She is board certified in biofeedback and is the president of the Southeast Biofeedback and Clinical Neuroscience Association. Her specialized program of Mindfulness-Based Biofeedback (MBB) has been published and widely applied from hospitals to classrooms based on the premise that integrating mindfulness and compassion-informed treatment with psychology fosters individuals’ healing power to improve physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. Living mindfully is advantageous and accessible to anyone who recognizes a need for a shift in their life and sets an intention to move forward. She is a sought-after workshop leader and internationally recognized speaker.

Clinical Applications of Mindfulness & Somatic Experiencing for an Integrative Approach to Cultivating Creativity, Resiliency, and Healing One’s Identity

Hall 277 Main Building

As psychotherapy has become more diverse there is a growing interest in an evolving aesthetic that focuses on senses through Somatic Experiencing, Eriksonian Mind-Body Healing and Mindfulness practices. This progressive model incorporates the importance of attention and awareness to emerging subjectivity between self and other. It is a new view that weaves a mutual co-creation in treating the whole person. This model uses a comprehensive methodology for integrating a wide range of interventions into a style that suits each person’s identity and the unique personality of the evolving therapist. This new approach allows us to experiment with, discriminate between, and assimilate ideas that enriches the ever-changing approach to modernize psychotherapy and bring new beauty to a world struggling with suffering and its identity. In this workshop participants will learn new clinical skills, discuss theory, and observe a new model for the practice of an integrative mind-body therapy that integrates Somatic Experiencing, Ericksonian Mind Body Healing and Mindfulness with traditional therapies. Participants will also learn to navigate complex issues of somatic transference and counter-transference that arise in the relational dialogue and the intersubjective field. With these tools clinicians will become more creative and resourceful when treating body symptoms, trauma, pain, and mood / somatic disorders. In addition, the workshop will address an integrative mind-body approach that utilizes the breath as a healing agent for movement of energies and emotions, emphasizing a mindful and present centred awareness.

Cornelia Hammer has been working in her own office in Kassel as psychological psychotherapist for 30 years. She is trained as bodytherapist and psychooncologist and is authorized trainer for ZAPCHEN SOMATICS. Together with Dr. Bernhard Hammer and Marlies Winkler she is founder of the ZAPCHEN TSOKPA Institut Kassel and is leading longtime trainings and courses in ZAPCHEN somatics more than 20 years.

How to find joyful stability “amidst of everything” – an introduction to ZAPCHEN SOMATICS Identity

Hall 242 Main Building

We would like to introduce you to ZAPCHEN SOMATICS. Julie Henderson of Napa, California developed this way of working. Now a group of teachers has been spreading the method through some European countries over the last nearly 20 years. ZAPCHEN SOMATICS or ZAPCHEN gives as directly as possible access to the mystery of being a body that is aware – mind that is embodied. Zapchen has its deepest roots in the Vajrayana- and the Dzogchen-Teachings of Tibetan Buddhism. Its Western roots come from relational bodywork and the Ericksonian approach to indirect communication. In the beginning, practice is of “basics” which consist of the spontaneous means of self regulation inherent in the human body (such as yawning, sighing, stretching, napping and so on). As people learn to free this body-inherent self regulation, new ways of finding stability and relaxation in the midst even of challenging situations arise spontaneously. The very simple and easy way to practice the basics even in daily life supports the integration of the practice. In the nest stage people learn to work with systems within the body, inviting the systems themselves to return gradually to best possible pulsation and cooperation. These systems include of course the cardiovascular system, the immune system, the endocrine and the nervous system. As examples: Humming through the body helps to regulate neurochemistry. The practice of wishing oneself and others well has been shown to increase generosity, compassion and self esteem. In the core of ZAPCHEN there is a deep level of understanding what it means to be human and to be in a mutual compassionate and mindful relationship with others. The invitation is to relax and trust as mind and body in an unexpected way of “being with what is”. In the workshop we will practically introduce to the “basics” and through Q&A introduce to the basic understanding of ZAPCHEN SOMATICS.

Christina Klissiouni is a second generation Contact Improvisation/Somatics dance teacher, performer and Body Psychotherapist/supervisor, from Greece with a 40year long experience. She is a recognised member of the international CI community, teaching at the most prominent festivals/venues in Europe, Asia and the USA. Her work has been profoundly influenced by her long collaboration with Suprapto Suryodarmo in Contemplative Dance. Her therapeutic practice started in mid 90’s.

Relational Intelligence, Being in Contact

Hall 40 Main Building

In this movement lab, we explore how to be present, how to connect with ourselves through movement; solo first and then in the form of the duet. We bring our attention to our listening skills through the senses, through touch that enhances self-awareness in order to relate with our duet and the environment. Questions of safety, trust and boundaries are significant in the process of relating with our authentic self and the other. After the experiential movement work, we open up the space for sharing and feedback, offering guidelines that support embodiment and clarity in expression. We work on witnessing to allow the individual to own his/her experience in the practice and avoid projections. The warm-up starts individually based on Contemplative Movement (Amerta movement) that gives emphasis on the art of listening while improvising. We practice mindfulness and relaxation in movement in order to connect with the support of the earth, grounding ourselves in stepping/stopping/yielding practices. Gradually we develop our desire for moving connection with space as we find fluidity in an expanded state. Opening up our sense of seeing and hearing, our sensorial being, we work in duets exploring exercises with hands on work and touch from Contact Improvisation, a dance improvisation practice that is based on contact within the duet form; a relational model of dance and creative expression. We work with eyes mostly open to explore our perception focusing on various forms of seeing while moving in space. After each experiential practice, we bring words to our physical and emotional practice cultivating our inner witness to support safety from the perspective of non-identification. At the end, there is time for group sharing to contain the personal feedback.. In order to participate, there is no need that someone has to have experience in dance.

Please bring your curiosity, your playfulness and wear relaxed clothes to move at ease. We practice barefoot.

Jill van der Aa (originally from New Zealand) studied history and education which she taught, before following her love of theater. After moving to The Netherlands, she established an English speaking theater group in Amsterdam and later trained in body psychotherapy. Since 2000, she has worked with the EABP in various capacities – congress organiser, board member, chair of membership and PR committees and managing editor of the IBPJ. She was given an honorary membership of EABP and is now retired, working on a history of the EABP. Recently, she authored Kunst Zoektocht Vreugde (Art Quest Joy) – interviews with local Dutch artists.

What shapes EABP?

Hall 191 Main Building

Writing, European Association for Body Psychotherapy (EABP) The First 35 Years got me questioning. How do we look at ourselves – do we, as an Association, question who we are and what is shaping our identity? Does EABP actually have an identity? 

Are we just what we do – running congresses, establishing guidelines, for ethics, membership enrollment, training standards, or running boards and committees? Is ‘connecting professionals, exchanging expertise, enabling collaboration’ just a function of that doing?

“Love, work, and knowledge are the well springs of our life. They should also govern it”. Does Reich’s statement lead us perhaps to expand and deepen our identity?  

Do they govern it? If so, how? And if not, how not? Are they reflected in the work of the Board and committees, in the COUNCIL, the National Associations, the FORUM and the Training Institutes? And in the work of our members?

In a divided, chaotic, suffering world, what contribution can we, as an Association make? Join me to ask more questions. And to consider how we, EABP, can allow ‘love, work and knowledge’ to guide us into the next 35 years. 

Freema Elbaz-Luwisch was born in Canada to Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, I now live in Israel, where I am an emerita professor in education at the University of Haifa. My research has centered on narrative method which honors the lives, stories and knowledge of teachers and other research participants. Living in a setting marked by great social, cultural, religious and ideological diversity and conflict, I have  come to value self-writing as both a mode of personal and professional growth, and as a vehicle for crossing borders, learning about ‘others’ and creating understanding and  community.  I hold a PhD in Educational Theory from the University of Toronto, and have trained and obtained a Diploma in Process-Oriented Psychology. I recently completed a year-long training in facilitation of writing workshops for women In my personal life I enjoy nature, following my dreams and the work of the imagination. In addition to writing I practice meditation, yoga and nia, and I cherish time spent with my grandchildren.   

Dancing with our Ancestors: retrieving our embodied past to transform the future

Hall 41A Main Building

This workshop will use gentle movement and dance to guide participants in eliciting embodied memories of close family members, including those who were important figures in their families but whom they may never have met. Time will then be devoted to writing about the ancestor, and sharing in dyads. The discussion will focus on the implications of this work for understanding issues of identity, particularly during times of social upheaval, immigration, trauma and rapid change. The work draws on a Jungian-inspired approach to therapy and writing (Woodman & Dickson 1996; Schiwy 1996), on process-oriented psychology (Mindell, 2010) and on conceptualizations of embodied and reflective writing ( Elbaz-Luwisch, 2010; Anderson, 2001; Halprin, 2001; CIxous 1997).