Trauma therapy, aided by revolutionary neuroscientific understandings, has been very successful over the last 20 years or so, and has expanded enormously. New trauma therapies have proliferated, new tools, techniques and methodolgies have been developed, the reach and scope of treatable conditions has been extended and public and [...]
Book Review: “Somatic Experience in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy” by William F. Cornell (2015)
Michael - Articles & Papers2018-10-17T01:11:32+00:00This book review was written for the journal Body, Movement and Dance in Psychotherapy, and you can find the 1500-word version there. But I got so engrossed with the book and the issues it raises, I wrote a whole discussion, plus I also included lengthy key paragraphs [...]
What Supports the Sustainability of our Practice as Therapists? – Part 2 (2015)
Michael - Articles & Papers2017-04-07T02:55:21+00:00After some years of not writing very much, I have written a substantial article on this crucial topic: mainly based on years of supervision experience and seeing supervisees' practices struggle or flourish, I explore the key factors that influence how we process the 'emotional load' of our practice [...]
What Supports the Sustainability of our Practice as Therapists? – Part 3 (2015)
Michael - Articles & Papers2017-04-07T02:55:21+00:00After some years of not writing very much, I have written a substantial article on this crucial topic: mainly based on years of supervision experience and seeing supervisees' practices struggle or flourish, I explore the key factors that influence how we process the 'emotional load' of our practice [...]
Working with Sadism – an embodied relational approach (Morit Heitzler 2014)
Michael - Articles & Papers2017-04-07T02:55:15+00:00Based on a presentation at CONFER in December 2014, this paper explores the complex identifications which occur in the therapist's countertransference when working with a horrifically traumatised client who had been on the receiving end of life-threatening sadism for a prolonged period in her teenage years. Morit questions [...]
We Are All Relational, But Are Some More Relational Than Others? (2013)
Michael - Articles & Papers2017-04-07T02:54:38+00:00Discussant Paper in response to Ray Little: "The New Emerges out of the Old - An Integrated Relational Perspective on Psychological Development, Psychopathology and Therapeutic Action”. Building on Ray Little's integration of humanistic TA with both traditional and relational psychoanalysis, this paper explores both shared ideas [...]
Broken Boundaries, Invaded Territories (Morit Heitzler 2013)
Michael - Articles & Papers2017-04-07T02:55:13+00:00One of the most excruciating aspects of trauma is the invasion or collapse of boundaries, not just in the moment of trauma, but as lasting damage. Traumatised clients usually bring to therapy an ongoing background feeling of threat: both to physical and emotional survival and to their sense [...]
The Relational Turn in Body Psychotherapy (2012)
Michael - Articles & Papers2017-04-07T02:55:09+00:00Based on an interview with Nancy Eichhorn in preparation for the 2012 International Body Psychotherapy conference in Cambridge, UK - she wrote it up, included her own comments and perspective and I then helped with the editing to get it to this published version: “The term 'relational' has recently [...]
Using EMDR with Various Types of Developmental Trauma (Morit Heitzler 2011)
Michael - Articles & Papers2017-04-07T02:55:14+00:00Complex trauma is based on underlying developmental trauma. However, developmental trauma is a very broad, non-specific category. There are several typologies and classification systems of developmental trauma available, with various degrees of usefulness to EMDR practitioners. Having researched and assessed these different theories, in this workshop I will offer [...]
Book Review: “Explorations in Transactional Analysis – The Meech Lake Papers” by William F. Cornell (2011)
Michael - Articles & Papers2017-04-07T02:55:26+00:00This book review was written for the International Journal of Transactional Analysis: “Since his original psychotherapeutic trainings many decades ago in Radix and Transactional Analysis, Bill Cornell (working in Pittsburgh, US) has been at the forefront of the creative endeavour to integrate these approaches, and to bring a [...]
The Return of the Repressed Body – Not a Smooth Affair (2010)
Michael - Articles & Papers2017-04-07T02:55:21+00:00These are a few thoughts, written fairly quickly, on my misgivings with the currently fashionable attempts to (re-)include the body into psychotherapy. These attempts, strongly supported by neuroscience, are welcome and long overdue. However, how can we seriously imagine that bringing the body back after 100 years of [...]
A Response to the Claims of the ‘Human Givens’ Approach (2010)
Michael - Articles & Papers2017-04-07T02:54:37+00:00This letter, published in 'Therapy Today' under the title 'Boastful Claims', was a response to an earlier article by Julia Bueno, on 'The Rise of Human Givens'. I am suggesting that as a relatively recent approach, Human Givens is not sufficiently aware of its antecedents and - without [...]
Crowded Intimacy – Engaging Multiple Enactments in Complex Trauma Work (Morit Heitzler 2010)
Michael - Articles & Papers2017-04-07T02:55:14+00:00My aim in this paper is to introduce relational Body Psychotherapy and its relevance to working with trauma. The term 'relational' is now widely used; it has recently become fashionable and most practitioners accept that “it is the relationship that matters” (title of BACP conference 2006, London). However, [...]
Therapy Today: Questionnaire – Michael Soth (2010)
Michael - Articles & Papers2017-04-07T02:54:37+00:00The BACP Journal 'Therapy Today&' has a regular column where established practitioners get interviewed and are asked both personal and professional questions. This is the longer, online version of an interview/questionnaire published in December 2010. “Michael Soth is passionate about the possibility of a new integral and relational [...]
The processing body – integrating EMDR and Body Psychotherapy (Morit Heitzler 2008)
Michael - Articles & Papers2017-04-07T02:55:20+00:00The processing body - integrating EMDR and Body Psychotherapy: The paper presents a model for integrating EMDR with Body Psychotherapy principles and techniques. The model will be illustrated by clinical material from work with a patient who suffers from complex PTSD as a result of a recent traumatic [...]
Group Body Psychotherapy (2008)
Michael - Articles & Papers2017-04-07T02:54:44+00:00This was written as a contribution to the English version of the Handbook of Body Psychotherapy (originally published in German by Marlock and Weiss). The chapter sets out some basic principles for a bodymind approach to groups and group therapy, and gives some indications for further development in [...]
Embracing the paradigm clash between the ‘medical model’ and counselling (2007)
Michael - Articles & Papers2017-04-07T02:55:20+00:00A Response to James T. Hansen's article “Should counselling be considered a healthcare profession?” This article, published in 'Therapy Today' under the title 'Polarising or embracing?', was a response to an earlier article by James T. Hansen who - from a postmodern perspective - was challenging counselling's slow gravitation [...]
Book Review of the German version of ‘Handbook of Body Psychotherapy’ by Gustl Marlock & Halko Weiss (2007)
Michael - Articles & Papers2017-04-07T02:54:38+00:00This is a review of the ground-breaking, monumental and comprehensive first global textbook of Body Psychotherapy, giving a brief overview of its content and some important chapters as well as evaluating its strengths and also outlining some critiques.
To gain access to the full resource, please [...]
The Integrative Project within the Development from Holistic-Humanistic to Integral-Relational Body Psychotherapy (2007)
Michael - Articles & Papers2017-04-07T02:54:43+00:00This article follows on from my chapter "From Humanistic Holism via the 'Integrative Project' towards Integral-Relational Body Psychotherapy" (2007) and focusses on a specific phase in the development of Chiron Body Psychotherapy (i.e. the years between 1992 and 1998) which can suitably be called the years of [...]
The Therapist’s Implicit Relational Stance & Habitual Positions (2007)
Michael - Articles & Papers2017-04-07T02:54:38+00:00This was written quickly (it shows ...!) as a preparation for the 2007 CABP conference 'The Client and I', attempting in anticipation to clarify some important concepts within the relational debate. I suggest that there always IS an implicit relational stance and that the therapist's awareness in this [...]