Somatic Psychotherapy Today

11/18/2025

SPT Magazine is pleased to offer Volume 15, Number 1, 2025. In this issue, we delve into breath work in psychotherapy, the living language of fascia, AI on the couch, deepening couples’ therapy, and a new perspective on our nervous system. We feature insightful articles and book reviews from clinicians and researchers that explore how the body holds stories and how we can facilitate their release and transformation.

While many of these articles ran separately over the course of this year, we know not everyone sees the individual posts. We added some new articles, too!

Our goal at SPT Magazine is to offer quality content that adds new information to the literature and advances our work in somatic psychology into the mainstream of psychotherapy. SPT Magazine is an international publication, and all of our contributors are free to be their full, individual, and talented selves.

We invite you to engage with the ideas presented here, and we welcome your feedback. Tell us what you love, what inspires you, and how we can continue to make this a valuable resource for our community.

You can download the PDF at our website, www.SomaticPsychotherapyToday.com

11/07/2025

Dirk Marivoet shared a recent interview with Hana Hniličková where he talks about "the Energetic Breath Cycle, the possibility to meet oneself on deeper level when working with fascia (connective tissue of the body) and the healing power of relational presence." He speaks slowly and softly, each word carrying meaning, making it easy to understand his words and work. We appreciate his sharing this teaching moment with our readers.

You can find his interview on our website at www.SomaticPsychotherapyToday.com

10/29/2025

We are pleased to announce that this event mentioned below includes an option to get 2 CEs. If you'd like to get the book to go with your study, get 20% off the price now. Use the following discount code: 25SMA4. Order here, https://www.routledge.com/Being-with-the-Body-in-Depth-Psychology-Development-Trauma-and-Transformation-in-the-Unspoken-Realm/Holifield/p/book/9781032286082

10/26/2025

Breathing, something everyone does who's alive, is coming to the forefront in psychotherapeutic settings. Colleagues are offering workshops and presentations on breathwork, and Norton Publications sent me Jessica Dibb's new book, Breathwork and Psychotherapy: Clinical Applications for Healing and Transformation.

When I started reading Jessica’s book, I had no idea of the depth and breadth of conscious breathwork, or the practical and essential skills and tools that Therapist-Breathworkers acquired during their training. Jessica’s personal practices, extensive studies, life experiences, and teaching history span decades, cross oceans, and dive into the inner reaches of science/neuroscience, spirituality, and psychotherapy. She offers a comprehensive compendium that’s part textbook, part training guide, part personal memoir, and part invitation to experience the life-altering existence we can achieve when we incorporate breathwork into our daily lives.

To read our review, please visit www.SomaticPsychotherapyToday

10/02/2025

Stephen W. Porges recently shared his latest paper, updating his work on the Polyvagal Theory, on LinkedIn.

For those who missed the announcement, we wanted to share his post here:

"Pleased to share my most recent paper, an update of Polyvagal Theory that covers more than 55 years of my research.
Published 'open access' in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience:"
https://lnkd.in/ggSMdE8c

Many thanks to Dr. Porges for his dedication and profound work, which has impacted so many people in myriad ways.

Polyvagal theory (PVT) offers an integrative model of autonomic regulation that accounts for the evolution, neuroanatomy, and functional organization of the ...

10/01/2025

SPT Magazine offers our remembrances of Dr. Marti Glenn.

Her amazing energy and love touched many lives, helping babies to heal and thrive, and caregivers to learn more about our entire life process.

Per AI: "She was the co-founder and Clinical Director of Ryzio Institute, and the founding president of Santa Barbara Graduate Institute. She holds degrees in prenatal, perinatal, somatic, and clinical psychology. Glenn served on the board of directors for the Association for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health (APPPAH) and chaired several of their conferences. She co-produced the documentary Trauma, Brain, and Relationship: Helping Children Heal; and has appeared in What Babies Want; What Babies Know; and Reducing Infant Mortality and Improving the Health of Babies."

I met Marti when I started my studies at the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute. Her presence, her gentle nudges, her clear questions and expectations guided me deeper into myself, enriching my life and my studies.

Thank you, Marti, for everything you created and for being so strong and grounded in what you believed to be right and true.

09/18/2025

Something essential emerges as people begin to feel their breath again, rather than controlling or manipulating it. Dirk Marivoet’s “The Energetic Breath Cycle™: Phenomenological Layers of Respiratory Experience” moves beyond static techniques, offering a pathway of being, of deep listening, of attunement.

SPT Magazine is pleased to share Dirk’s work with the Energetic Breath Cycle™. This article builds upon his earlier work on the Fascia Texture Typology™ (2025), where tissue qualities were described as diagnostic and therapeutic signposts. In a similar spirit, the Energetic Breath Cycle™ expands Reich’s or**sm formula into a more differentiated map of respiratory phases, each linked with developmental tasks, character adaptations, and relational dynamics. While empirical research in respiratory psychophysiology, polyvagal theory (Porges, 2011), and affect regulation (Schore, 2012) provides critical foundations, the clinical dimension presented in this article emphasizes what therapists directly observe and engage with in real-time.

09/12/2025

SPT Magazine honors the passing of Franklyn Sills.

Cherionna Menzam-Sills is holding a Memorial Ceremony for Franklyn on Sunday, October 5th, at 2pm - Karuna Dartmoor.

Colleagues are invited to join them. There will be time to share memories of him, offer poems and songs, spend time together, and share food.

Please RSVP by early to mid-September by emailing Katherine at admin@karunadartmoor.co.uk

If you are not able to join us in person, there will be a livestream and recording available at: https://www.youtube.com/live/1MrRhgOrL4E

The Family will be having a private funeral in September.

09/09/2025

SPT Magazine's academic review of Polyvagal perspectives: Interventions, practices, and strategies, published in Body, Movement and Dance in Psychotherapy, Volume 20 Issue 3, is now available for access via tandfonline.com.

SPT's eprint link (good for 50 online copies) is now ready to use and is:

https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/FDRZGRUEXCND23Q83ZX7/full?target=10.1080/17432979.2024.2416970

Please download and let us know what you think!

Published in Body, Movement and Dance in Psychotherapy: An International Journal for Theory, Research and Practice (Ahead of Print, 2024)

09/09/2025

Learn more about "What Sustains" Dirk Marivoet on our website. This conversation is part of Serge Prengel's Proactive Mindfulness Podcast Series, which explores the process of mindful change. The podcast features stimulating discussions with therapists, mindfulness practitioners, and other thoughtful people.

07/14/2025

SPT Magazine is pleased to share Kate White's review of Cherionna Menzam-Sills' latest book, "The Prenatal Shadow: Healing the Trauma Experienced Before and at Birth," which offers an in-depth exploration of birth shadows, providing insights on how to address and heal these aspects to fully realize our inherent potential. The Prenatal Shadow is accessible to the lay reader and satisfying for the experienced practitioner in prenatal and perinatal somatics. For the lay reader just discovering the paradigm, Menzam-Sills has a friendly, gentle, and encouraging voice born out of decades of study and experience. Her authority is evident as she weaves a narrative of early development, autonomic nervous system states, trauma-informed care, embryonic development, prenatal and perinatal dynamics, and therapeutic interventions. Her ability to access research and quote pioneers who have influenced her work lends the narrative depth, while narratives from clinical studies provide the work with breadth. Her voice also illustrates the command of someone who has deeply explored the experiences of the 'little one,' or the sentient baby. This is someone everyone can learn from. "

To read Kate's review, please visit our website at www.SomaticPsychotherapyToday.com

Kate White, MA, BCBMT, RCST®, CEIM, SEP, PPNE, PLC, is Founder and Executive Director at Prenatal and Perinatal Healing. She is an award-winning prenatal and perinatal educator and an advanced bodyworker. She is trained in somatic therapies, prenatal and perinatal health, lactation, brain development, and infant mental health. She has specialized in mother-baby dyad care, somatic therapies, prenatal and perinatal health, lactation, brain development, and infant mental health.