Somatic Psychotherapy Today

04/14/2026

SPT Magazine is pleased to share Dirk Marivoet's newest article entitled, Relational Pulsation: Shape, Countershape and Somatic Organization of Experience. With this article we are trying an experiment--we are offering a longer, more academic style paper. We'd love to know if this works for our magazine writers. Your feedback is appreciated.

Article Abstract

Somatic psychotherapy traditions have long emphasized the relationship between emotional life and bodily organization. Early body-oriented approaches proposed that disturbances in energetic pulsation contribute to defensive muscular patterns and restricted emotional expression (Reich, 1942/1972; Lowen, 1958). More recent developments in developmental neuroscience, interoception research, and fascia science support the view that relational experience plays a fundamental role in shaping how the body regulates itself and organizes structurally (Craig, 2009; Porges, 2011; Schleip et al., 2012; Schore, 2012; Stecco, 2015). Yet the processes through which relational interaction becomes embodied in breathing, connective tissue, and posture remain insufficiently described within somatic psychotherapy theory.

This article introduces the concept of relational pulsation as a developmental account of how relational experience becomes embodied. Building on Wilhelm Reich’s concept of biological pulsation, movements toward relationship (shape), responses from the relational environment (countershape), and defensive adaptations to relational disruption (contrashape) are proposed to influence breathing, autonomic regulation, and connective tissue organization over time. When relational movement is met with attuned response, the organism can complete a cycle of relational pulsation, supporting regulation, vitality, and engagement. When such completion repeatedly fails, defensive patterns may stabilize in breathing, tissue organization, and posture, contributing to enduring characterological adaptations.

To strengthen the biological plausibility of this account, relational pulsation is described as emerging from interacting processes of autonomic regulation, interoception, predictive processing, and tissue adaptation. Rather than proposing a linear link between relational events and bodily structure, the article presents an integrative, clinically grounded account through which repeated relational conditions may gradually shape bodily organization. In doing so, it offers a conceptual bridge between classical body psychotherapy, contemporary neuroscience, and fascia research.

To read Dirk's article, please visit our wesbite at www.SomaticPsychotherapyToday.com

04/08/2026

SPT Magazine is pleased to share Dr. Elya Steinberg’s article on client repetition and the importance of responding with compassion and curiosity. Drawing on decades of practice, she writes: when clients repeat themselves, they are not being difficult—they are signaling something essential that has not yet been fully heard or expressed.

She offers her insights into what repetition in therapy means because it’s rarely about content. Repetition, she writes, is a process-level message, a meta-communication that says, “I’m trying to reach you, and I haven’t quite gotten there yet.” Sometimes therapists miss what was said because they are distracted, preoccupied, or attuned to a different frequency. Other times, the client speaks without fully accessing the deeper meaning beneath their words. And at times, we do hear the client, but they don’t feel heard. Understanding alone is not enough; clients need acknowledgment and the felt experience that their message has truly landed.

To read her article, please visit our website at www.SomaticPsychotherapyToday.com

03/16/2026

What shifts when leadership moves beyond binary thinking?

With less than a week to go, we invite you to join the USABP Authentic Conversations Speaker Series on March 25 featuring Yi-Li Godfrey, author of Jia-Ba-Bue: Somatic Leadership Beyond the Binary.

This conversation explores how somatic leadership can expand our understanding of relational dynamics, power, and inclusion within therapy, organizations, and communities.

🗓 March 25 | 10:00–11:30 AM PDT
💻 Online via Zoom (Live + Recorded)

🎟 Register now to attend live or receive the recording:
https://usabp.org/event-6564833

This event will be recorded and available to all who register. This course will not include CEs.

✨ What does “leadership beyond the binary” bring up for you in your work or practice?

03/15/2026

The Polyvagal Institute just shared Dr. Stephen Porges' in-depth response regarding critiques of Polyvagal Theory.

Per the PVI: “Since its publication in 1994, the theory has garnered significant interest on a global level, evidenced by close to 20,000 academic citations listed on Google Scholar for Polyvagal Theory (with ~66,000 citations for Dr. Porges’ work in general). It has informed the work of leaders in the fields of psychophysiology, neuroscience, psychology, psychiatry, psychotherapy, education, medicine, developmental science, and somatics; however, there has also been criticism of various aspects of the theory, criticism which is further complicated by the breadth of the theory across so many academic disciplines.

In the following piece, Dr. Porges addresses specific critical comments made since the theory was initially published in 1994, categorizing them by academic domain and responding to each argument. To maximize the clarity of this discussion, he has used tables as well as in-depth explanations for each point of disagreement and added an annotated reference section.”

We are pleased to share Dr. Porges' work.

Polyvagal Institute is pleased to release the most recent commentary from Dr. Stephen Porges regarding his Polyvagal Theory which includes his responses to Polyvagal Theory critiques and criticism.

03/13/2026

For therapists, somatic practitioners, and facilitators exploring embodied leadership

Join us March 25 for the USABP Authentic Conversations Speaker Series featuring Yi-Li Godfrey, author of Jia-Ba-Bue: Somatic Leadership Beyond the Binary.

In this presentation, participants will explore:

• How binary narratives can appear within traditional therapeutic interventions
• The foundations of Jia-Ba-Bue and its roots in body psychotherapy and Eastern philosophy
• How embodied awareness shapes relational dynamics, power, and inclusion
…and more.

🗓 March 25 | 10:00–11:30 AM PDT
💻 Online via Zoom (Live + Recorded)
🎟 Register now to attend live or receive the recording:
https://usabp.org/event-6564833

This event will be recorded and available to all who register. This course will not include CEs.

03/10/2026

Meet Your Speaker ✨
Yi-Li Godfrey
Author of Jia-Ba-Bue: Somatic Leadership Beyond the Binary

Join us March 25 for the next USABP Authentic Conversations Speaker Series as Yi-Li shares insights on somatic leadership and embodied awareness.

🗓 March 25
📍 Online via Zoom

🎟 Register now to attend live or receive the recording.
https://usabp.org/event-6564833

03/05/2026

Tomorrow is the day you can learn from Ish*ta! Register Now! https://usabp.org/event-6565255

After completing this session, participants will be able to:

~ Analyze the psychological and physiological impact of shifting attention from individual identity ("I") to collective interdependence ("Us").

~ Identify defense patterns and behaviors that either facilitate or sever a culture of mutuality.

~ Develop practical strategies to turn social networks into communities with intention.

And so much more!

> This event will be recorded and available for members and non-members who register for this event. This course will not include CEs.

03/04/2026

Participants will learn to:

~ Recognize the mammalian drive for connection and how the "epidemic of loneliness" affects the mind-body-environment continuum.

~ Apply ancestral wisdom and storytelling as tools to reclaim a sense of belonging and bridge the gap between disconnection and community.

~ Cultivate psychological safety within networks to enhance mental, emotional, and spiritual health.

And so much more!

> This event will be recorded and available for members and non-members who register for this event. This course will not include CEs.

Register Now! https://usabp.org/event-6565255

03/02/2026

Meet our speaker for our first Authentic Conversations Speaker Series:

Authentic Conversations: Inclusion, Power, and the Practice of Belonging is a USABP community outreach dialogue series for practitioners committed to meaningful inclusion within our field.

Join Ish*ta Sharma on March 6, 10 - 11:30 AM PST - ONLINE & Recorded for "How are we in together? Relationscapes for healing our social nervous system"

Register Here: https://usabp.org/event-6565255

02/26/2026

Why we aren’t showing up, and how we can...!

✨ RELATIONSCAPES - healing our social nervous system. JOIN US March 6, 10am PST , hosted by w/speaker Ish*ta Sharma founder of

12/09/2025

SPT Magazine is pleased to share Dirk Marivoet's “lyrical essay” entitled, The Poetics of Unnamed Emotion: From The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows to Core Strokes®

Dirk playfully and skillfully explores the kinship between John Koenig’s Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows and the somatic language of Core Strokes®. Through the meeting of word and fascia, he reveals how both poetic naming and therapeutic touch give voice to unspoken emotion. A meditation on breath, empathy, and embodiment, Dirk invites readers to feel language as a living tissue where sorrow transforms into resonance.

You can read his essay on our website at www.SomaticPsychotherapyToday.com