Ronen Stilman Psychotherapy

10/04/2026

Moving beyond what we know.

Someone is about to try something new; an exercise, a way of working, a different quality of attention and then... a pause…perhaps, a block… something in them signals this is an edge.

This response is interesting. It's the body registering something unfamiliar, uncomfortable, risky.

In somatic work, we talk about the comfort zone not as a failing but as information. The edges of what feels safe, familiar, or manageable are themselves worth exploring - slowly, and in relationship.

Not because discomfort is the goal, but because the places where we tend to hold, brace, or withdraw often carry something important about how we learned to manage the world.

What I notice is that the most significant shifts in practice come from becoming curious about our responses, in relationship. Whether that be in the room, in supervision, in ourselves. The edge isn't an obstacle. It's where learning and change are maximised.

This is part of what draws me to teaching. Watching someone recognise their own edge, and move through it, even slightly, even tentatively, is genuinely inspiring.

The Certificate in Somatic TA explores the somatic in therapeutic practice over three weekends in Edinburgh. The 2026/27 course begins in September. Find out more at ronenstilman.com/somaticta

01/04/2026

Stuckness is one of the most common experiences in the therapy room, and one of the most unsettling. For both clients and us as practitioners.

We're trained to sit with not-knowing. But stuckness can feel different. There's often a quality of effort to it - the sense that we're working hard, or that the client is, and yet something isn't shifting. Weeks pass…Sometimes months... The same patterns return. The same territory.

In my experience, one of the things that can keep us stuck is working at the level where the stuckness presents itself. If a client is stuck in a thought pattern, we think harder about it together. If they're stuck in a narrative, we look for new meanings. But sometimes the ground the pattern lives on isn't cognitive at all.
The body holds what the mind has learned to manage.

Somatic approach offers a different entry point - not replacing the verbal, relational work we do, but sitting alongside it. When I invite a client to notice what's happening physically as they describe a stuck place - a held breath, a braced jaw, a sensation somewhere they can't quite name - something can shift in the room. Not dramatically most of the time. But noticeably.

Where there is stuckness, the body is still signalling. Still trying to move through. That, for me, is where somatic awareness becomes most useful in practice - not as a technique to apply, but as a complimentary channel to engage with.

If you're curious about integrating somatic approach into your practice, the Certificate in Somatic TA runs over three weekends in Edinburgh. The 2026/27 cohort begins in September. Find out more at ronenstilman.com/somaticta

26/03/2026

To all practitioners seeking accreditation in the next couple of years, this is important ‼️
Full link here https://platform.itaaworld.com/news/boards-announce-new-rules-and-limits-for-online-oral-exams

"To our delight, the number of candidates seeking accreditation and taking their exams is rising." This positive trend signifies a growing worldwide transactional analysis (TA) community. As a result, the organizations responsible for certification are adapting to meet the increased demand and ensure the process remains robust.

In the new article by Nicole Lenner, she explains upcoming changes to oral exams developed by the European Association for Transactional Analysis's Commission of Certification (COC) and the International Transactional Analysis Association's International Board of Certification (IBOC). The update outlines a new structure for exam capacity and candidate prioritization that will take effect in the coming years.

The author states that these collaborative decisions will help manage the high volume of candidates and maintain the integrity of the accreditation process. The full article details the timeline for these changes, including new guidelines for Certified Transactional Analyst (CTA) and Teaching and Supervising Transactional Analyst (TSTA) candidates starting in 2027.

Access this and other content directly at https://www.platform.itaaworld.com. Or access the link lists available on our digital networks.

23/03/2026

There are moments in the therapeutic relationship when something shifts and the connection falters. A misattunement, a word or silence that lands differently than intended. Most of us have been trained to think about rupture and repair as something relational and verbal - we name what happened, we explore it, we work to restore trust, to repair.

But before any of that, there is usually something that happens in the body.
A pulling away that hasn't yet become worded. A tightening in the body. A change in breathing - yours or theirs - that signals something has been evoked before either of you can articulate what it is. These are not background noise. They are clinical information, often the first and most direct signals we have that the relationship has moved into difficult territory.

What interests me is what happens if we attend to that signal rather than rushing past it to the verbal repair. What if the body's response to rupture isn't just a side effect of the relational difficulty, but part of the way through it?

In my experience, slowing down at that point - noticing what is happening somatically, in ourselves and in the client - changes the quality of the repair that follows. It becomes less of a cognitive exercise and more of a lived, felt restoration.

The body doesn't just witness the reconnection. It participates in it.
This is something we explore in depth on the Certificate in Somatic TA.

Find out more: ronenstilman.com/somaticta

16/03/2026

In psychotherapy we listen for the story.
In somatic work we also listen for the body's story.

Where does the breath change?
Where does movement stop?
Where does the body hold the unsaid?

Sometimes the most important part of the narrative never reaches words.

06/03/2026

This wonderful comment from a recent participant is what the course is really about:

“It’s not just adding techniques and not just ‘including the body’. But instead offering a strong theoretical 'coathanger' - grounded in Transactional Analysis - that helps practitioners integrate somatic work with clarity, confidence and clinical depth.”

We explore how embodied awareness supports attunement, regulation and relational repair. We think together about what’s happening in the nervous system, in the transferential field, and in our own embodied countertransference. And we practise ways of bringing this into real therapeutic conversations.

If you’re curious about deepening your somatic confidence in clinical practice, you would be very welcome. Find out more via the link
https://ronenstilman.com/somaticta/

26/02/2026

This weekend on the Somatic TA Certificate, we explored flow and the erotic, and played with creative ways of incorporating embodied exercises into practice.

The erotic as aliveness — the energy that emerges when we feel safe in our bodies.

Through breath, posture, movement, and relational awareness, we were reminded that change isn’t only something we talk about.

It’s something we experience.

Curious? Why not join our next course https://ronenstilman.com/somaticta/

18/02/2026

There are moments in our work when it’s hard to describe or come to grips with what is going on and describe through words.

This somatic training is for therapists who sense that listening beyond words would support their work — particularly with anxiety, trauma, and stuckness.

🔗 Full course details via link https://ronenstilman.com/somaticta/

05/02/2026

Somatic TA is about tracking the body and attending to internal and inter-personal misalignments: bodily, emotionally and cognitively. It’s about presence, pacing, and co-regulation. Somatic TA works in conjunction with talking therapy and can be a powerful tool for change.

Now taking applications for the 2026/7 course starting in September in Edinburgh, Scotland. Find out more https://ronenstilman.com/somaticta/

29/01/2026

Current research highlights somatic psychotherapy as a powerful, evidence-supported complement to talking therapies, helping clients access and resolve experiences held beyond language—in the body itself.

26/01/2026

A poignant reminder that when expression is curtailed art remains a powerful subversive channel