Center for Somatic Studies

08/21/2025

In-Person: Paris, Masterclass
March 23 – 25, 2026 English/Russian
March 27 – 29, 2026 English/French
With Jean-Marie Robine and Ruella Frank:
The Aesthetic of Contacting -> More Information www.somaticstudies.com

08/09/2025

In-person Workshop in Philadelphia
January 24 & 25, 2026
Two Days of Therapy Demonstration Sessions with Master Clinician and Teacher, Ruella Frank, PhD -> More Information www.somaticstudies.com

07/13/2025

We had a wonderful Somatic Supervision Group on July 12th. It was the first group I have taught in-person since pre-pandemic. Most of us either hadn’t ever met “in the flesh" or not for a long while. We all agreed that we will do many more in-person meetings. This photo taken at a local restaurant for lunch. It was such a pleasure to spend time with you all.

06/18/2025

This is what Democracy looks like!!! 12 000 protests throughout the United States. More than 5 million protesters. 50 000 in New York City. And protests in Paris as well.

05/19/2025

We just have completed our DSP training program, and we now add 32 capable and talented graduates to our Alumni list. It has been a pleasure, an honor really, to be in the company of a group of such dedicated learners. As I was looking forward to our final module, i found a brief story about Martin Luther, whose writings were the major catalyst for the reformation movement and the foundation of the Protestant path of faith. One of Martin Luther’s students said to him, “Martin, if the world were to end tomorrow, what would you do today?” Martin Luther simply answered, “If the world would end tomorrow, I would plant my apple tree today.” This is what we all did together on this final weekend — we planted our apple trees of compassion for ourselves, we planted our apple trees of compassion for others, and we planted our apple trees of compassion for the planet. You all have been such inspiration .. thank you!

04/20/2025

On April 18, 1775, a 40-year-old Boston silversmith named Paul Revere borrowed a horse and sped west to warn his fellow colonists. A looming threat had spurred his urgent errand. The British were coming.

Exactly 250 years later, Revere’s midnight ride still resonates for many along his 16-mile route — a symbol of enduring American values, and a reminder of the heavy costs the country’s founders were willing to pay in pursuit of freedom and autonomy.

April 19th, 2025, protests all over the U.S. and in some European countries were in support of the highest democratic values.

We will never be passive … we will RESIST.

03/20/2025

This past weekend, we completed our 7th Module of the DSP online training program. This module we understood traumatic attaching from a developmental perspective, and the inevitable traumatizing and re-traumatizing experiences of everyday life and within therapy. It was a very rich weekend as we deepened the potentiality of our lived bodily experience. We opened our “listening hearts” to each other and ourselves.

03/13/2025

September 20, 2025 Memorial for Donna Orange
Check your local time zones.

Donna Orange, PhD, PsyD, was a philosopher and relational psychoanalyst who dedicated her life to study and teach philosophy, history of psychoanalysis, and contemporary relational psychoanalysis. She had become significantly involved in dialogue with Gestalt psychotherapists.

I had the pleasure of being part of her philosophy group with other members of the New York Institute for Gestalt Therapy for some years. She will be dearly missed.

Donna Orange, was a philosopher and relational psychoanalyst, who dedicated her life to psychoanalysis and relational psychoanalysis

01/31/2025

It is hard to imagine that we already have completed Module Six of our DSP Online Training Program. In this module we emphasized gestural expressions, as you can see from the photo.

The fact that we can all freely meet and learn together is not to be taken for granted. This is not always the case in too many other parts of the world, where education is limited to only the elite, or is gender or racially biased. I believe we need to continue to educate and re-educate ourselves in defiance of those who wish us to be ignorant of what is happening around us. Let this be our profound gesture to the world.

01/09/2025

Fires continue to blaze on the Pacific Coast of the United States. So many have evacuated or have lost their homes. Many others have no power, and still millions of others must breathe dangerously toxic air which puts them at risk. We send loving prayers for our Gestalt community members, their friends and families, as well as all those who are living through this terrible devastation. I hope you stay as safe as can be.

01/01/2025

“For last year's words belong to last year's language.
And next year's words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning.”

Poem: T.S. Eliot
Photo: S. Fanshel

12/21/2024

This is the solstice, the still point

of the sun, its cusp and midnight,

the year’s threshold

and unlocking, where the past

lets go of and becomes the future;

the place of caught breath, the door

of a vanished house left ajar.

Poem by: Margaret Atwood