The Embodiment of Madness, Wilhelm Reich Center, 17.05.2025 Madness Though I am aware that many people today self-define as mad, and that the term is widely used, madness is not a word or category I much care for as a clinician. I don’t, in general, find the distinction between sane and mad or the category … Continue reading “Vincent Stephen”

How is madness embodied in psychoanalysis? 17 May 2025 These remarks are extracted from a much longer piece entitled:  “My Body, My Psyche, My Self: An Empath’s Reflections in Being and Becoming in the World,” that is part of a special issue on Madness of the journal Psychoanalytic Inquiry. From the analysand’s perspective, when sensory … Continue reading “Claire Bien”

How are Blackness and Whiteness Embodied in the Clinical Encounter? 24 February 2025 Here are notes summarizing my opening talk: The therapeutic alliance between the therapist and the patient is an important process in making changes happen. Norwegian statistics show that people with migrant backgrounds have experienced discrimination more than the rest of the population … Continue reading “Udesh Anda”

How are Sex and Gender Embodied in the Therapeutic Relationship? December 7, 2024 Dr. Stacy Berlin’s talk delves into the fluid nature of gender, weaving personal reflections with its impact on the psychoanalytic couple. She embellishes and emphasizes gender’s relevance in relational dynamics, noting that in moments of flow, her gendered reactions are seamlessly integrated into … Continue reading “Stacy Berlin”

Wilhelm Reich Center Panel Presentation: Can Body Psychotherapies be Integrated with Psychoanalysis? September 14, 2024 Caron Harrang, LICSW, FIPA, BCPsa My background includes training as a bioenergetic therapist with the New York Society for Bionenergetic Analysis in the early 1980s and employing this model in my work with patients during the 80s and 90s. Thereafter … Continue reading “Caron Harrang”

How Does Early Development Affect the Embodiment of the Clinical Encounter? Julianne Appel-Opper In my contribution, I focus on body-body-communications in therapeutic sessions. We learn an embodied language before we learn words and we continue to communicate in this language. We tell embodied stories with rhythms of moving and breathing, and melodies of gestures and … Continue reading “Julianne Appel-Opper”

How does early development effect the embodiment of the clinical encounter? Ruella Frank, PhD I practice as a gestalt psychotherapist; my practice is phenomenological and aesthetic. I began my training in 1982. Before that time, I studied infant movements patterns for some years. I learned the work of  Bonnie Bainbridge-Cohen, who worked with developmentally delayed … Continue reading “Ruella Frank”

How Does Early Development Affect the Embodiment of the Clinical Encounter? Helena Vissing, PsyD I want to start with a statement that in the shortest – and perhaps a bit hyperbolic – way captures my take on the question of how early development affect the embodiment of the clinical encounter and the statement is this: … Continue reading “Helena Vissing”

The Wilheim Reich Center for the Study of Embodiment Feb 24, 2024 Reflections On How Trauma and Dissociation Are Embodied Heather Ferguson, LCSW I want to acknowledge the panelists’ significant contributions to the study of aesthetic, improvisational, sensorial, unconscious, and intergenerational dimensions in the therapeutic exchange. Recently, I have integrated creative imagery from clinical hypnosis, … Continue reading “Heather Ferguson”

Embodied effects of Trauma and Dissociation and a Clinical approach by Henry Markman In this limited time I’m going talk about my work with traumatized-dissociated patients, particularly those with early relational developmental trauma, and some of the ideas the guide me. We can’t talk about trauma and dissociation without talking about the body and embodiment—both … Continue reading “Henry Markman”

2nd Wilhelm Reich Center Conversation February 24, 2024 HOW ARE TRAUMA AND DISSOCIATION EMBODIED? Françoise Davoine,  “I turn to stone and my pain goes on,” said Wittgenstein, in his Philosophical Investigations. (§ 288)[1] . He had suffered from PTSD for 10 years after his return to Vienna from WWI and captivity. His embodiment of dissociation, … Continue reading “Françoise Davoine”