By Pavini Moray Ph.D. Many of my clients sometimes feel unhappy or unsatisfied with their work. Their professional lives are mired in the daily grind. There are continual fires to put out. Their boss is unfeeling. Their colleagues are manipulative. They feel belittled and beleaguered by the system in charge. They can feel stuck or trapped, needing the money, but their ‘real’ life happens after work. This happens even when they are in leadership, maybe even more so. They look at me with inquiring eyes and ask, “What can I do to fix…” followed by stories of people not living up to their “poten ..read more

SPT Magazine is pleased to announce the release of Volume 12, Number 1, 2022. If you missed any of our articles this year, you can now access the entire year in one downloadable PDF on our website. In this issue, Raja Selvam, PhD shares his experience writing his book, The Practice of Embodying Emotions: A Guide for Improving Cognitive, Emotional, and Behavioral Outcomes. John Baron shares his perspective on “The Voice as a Mask,” and I write about my experiences with Darrel Sanchez’s Tuning Board. Dr. Genovino Ferri explores contemporary Reichian analysis and character-analytical vegetothera ..read more

The ‘New’ Collected Papers of Biodynamic Psychology, Massage & Psychotherapy: 2022 Edited by Courtenay Young Gerda Boyesen’s ‘genius’ shines through the writings of herself, various family members, colleagues and trainers, students, practitioners and even clients and supervisees in this new book edited by Courtenay Young. According to Young, “As one reads these articles, one gets a sense of the breadth and depth of Gerda Boyesen’s Biodynamic works, and gets occasional glimpses of its brilliant heights, as well.  Nearly all aspects of theoretical, clinical and practical work in this f ..read more

By Genovino Ferri PART 1 About Contemporary Reichian Analysis Contemporary Reichian Analysis represents a model for Analytical, Clinical and Body Psychotherapy that has been developing, uninterruptedly, along the arrow of time since 1933. It has always moved on, passing in continuity, from Wilhelm Reich to Ola Raknes and to Federico Navarro, until reaching me, and I still have the honor of sharing it today, in 2022. It is a model which reads the body in psychoanalysis and reads psychoanalysis in the body, connecting and implementing data from the neurosciences, which have been validated over ..read more

Written by Peter Sedlmeier Reviewed by Nancy Eichhorn The word ‘meditation’ has been part of my lexicon for over two decades. The act? A continual struggle. I know meditation “works.” Clinical studies have shown the mental, physical, and spiritual benefits of daily meditation practice. But what exactly counts as meditation? Is it mindfulness? Focusing on mantras? Detaching from your body and drifting into some unknown energy field? What outcomes can you expect? Is it to awaken? Liberate oneself? Reach a state of enlightenment? Does it lead you down a spiritual path to discover the meaning of ..read more

By Nancy Eichhorn Ph.D. Gravity matters. Not simply to keep us physically grounded here on Earth, but, at a fundamental level, our relationship with gravity affects our lives from start to finish. We start life floating in amniotic fluids. It’s easy to assume a sense of buoyancy, free from gravity’s impact. Yet, gravity is necessary for our physiological development during the second half of our lives in the womb (Sekulic’, Lukac, and Naumovic, 2005). We sense gravity’s force from birth forward as we experience our verticality. Standing upright, we learn to manage the polarity of motion and ..read more

  By Nancy Eichhorn, Ph.D. My inner editor smiles (envision a Cheshire Cat grin) when reviewing a new book and its layout includes all the necessary guideposts. Boundary Boss: The Essential Guide to Talk True, Be Seen, and (Finally) Live Free by Terri Cole is a well-written, well-thought-out, and laid-out guide for people wanting to address their lack of boundaries and learn how to create healthy ones to benefit their lives. The text is designed to inform, educate, and support readers as they confront what is and consider what may be.   The book is divided into two parts: Connecti ..read more

A Conversation with Genovino Ferri, PhD By Nancy Eichhorn, PhD I focus my reviews on prepublication manuscripts and “hot-off-the-press” texts. Because I’m a small niche publication, I try to offer readers material they cannot get elsewhere. But I started to wonder about revised and second editions. All things considered, it can take years for people to write and publish their work. The time, the turmoil, the tears. It takes a toll. Combine joy, release, and celebration to that mix? You just might create a tsunami of emotional and/or physical impact on one’s body and soul. The question nudging ..read more

By Raja Selvam, PhD. One thing I have learned about myself is that I am intuitive. An idea appears to spring forth from the depth of my unconscious, without much form but with enough felt sense conviction to pursue it. It acquires shape and clarity and is reality tested in the process of expressing it, teaching it, or writing about it. It is not unlike the process that a painter might undergo in bringing an inspired image in one’s mind’s eye to the canvas. I now understand and accept this as my creative process. I am sure that others have their own ways of creating. It would indeed be very od ..read more

  Feelings were not allowed in my childhood home. We learned how to numb out, to banish emotions to the realms of distancing and dissociation. Peppermint fudge ice cream and chocolate chip cookies soothed pain-filled tears that quivered but never came to pass. We lived a bland life, no salt, no pepper, spices made my mother’s fingers swell. No highs. No lows. Pure and simple neutrality. Not in the state that Buddhists reach for to end self-inflicted suffering but rather a state of nonexistence. Writing today, I still struggle at times to sit with my emotions, or perhaps it’s more accura ..read more