Developmental Somatic Psychotherapy

Developmental Somatic Psychotherapy emphasises the moving, feeling, sensing body as the foundation for all experience. The training explores how subtle movement interactions reveal relational and existential themes. Participants learn to recognize and work with movement patterns that develop early in life – within relational, social, and cultural contexts – and that continue to shape how we meet others and make meaning today. 

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Grounded in bodily experience, the training offers a comprehensive framework for diagnosis, formulation, and intervention, integrating phenomenological, dialogic, developmental and field-sensitive perspectives.

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Experiential learning lies at the heart of the program: theory is explored and integrated through movement experiments that help participants deepen awareness of their own bodily experience and attend to the movements of the field – the relational dynamics unfolding between therapist and client.

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Created by Ruella Frank, Ph.D., this approach draws inspiration from clinical phenomenology, developmental psychology, movement theory, and somatic education, and is centred within contemporary Gestalt therapy. Psychotherapists from all training modalities are welcome to discover how this approach can be integrated into clinical practice.

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Course Outline

 

Modules 1–2

 

These modules highlight the importance of bodily awareness and introduce key principles of DSP theory, focusing on kinesthetic resonance and the six fundamental movements. We explore yielding-with (being-with), pushing-against, and reaching-for, and their associated psychological functions, emphasising how nonverbal transactions shape lived experience.

 

* Bodily knowing: Exploring Gestalt therapy as an aesthetic and phenomenological approach

* Kinesthetic awareness: qualitative dynamics of moving

* Introducing the sequence of the six fundamental movements and their psychological functions

* Kinesthetic resonance as the basis of sociability

 

 

Modules 3–4

 

Participants deepen their understanding of the bodily roots of psychological development as expressed through movement and affect patterns within both infant–caregiver and client–therapist dyads.

 

Module 3 focuses on postural dynamics and the meanings co-created through grasping-onto, pulling-toward, and releasing-from.

 

Module 4 explores the reflexive and co-created nature of contacting, agency formation, and the influence of personal, social, and cultural contexts. The module introduces an aesthetic-phenomenological perspective on psychopathology and the concept of kinesthetic remembering —a somatic, developmental exploration of experienced time.

 

* The six fundamental movements: grasping-onto, pulling-toward, releasing-from

* Postural dynamics: bodily dimensions and their co-created meanings

* Kinesthetic remembering and experiential time

* The reflexive and co-created nature of contacting.

* Psychopathology: analysis of the emerging situation through movement

 

 

Module 5

 

The final module integrates previous learning and applies DSP theory to the bodily origins of developmental wounding, trauma, and bi-directional attachment patterns. We explore how these dynamics emerge within both infant–caregiver and client–therapist relationships, including the risk of re-traumatisation for therapists and clients.

 

* Bodily origins of developmental trauma

* Working with developmental trauma in relational contexts

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Conditions of Participation

 

* Applicants must have a minimum of two years’ experience in supervised practice (this may include supervised practice undertaken during training).

* Admission is based on a completed application form.

* Final admission requires signing a contract and payment of the registration fee within 10 days of acceptance.

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Application Process

 

Please take your time to answer the application questions. They are an important part of the application process and an opportunity to reflect on your interest in studying Developmental Somatic Psychotherapy™.

 

Once your application has been reviewed, you will receive further information regarding a Zoom interview. Final registration is confirmed upon payment of the registration fee within 10 days of receiving the acceptance letter.

 

For information: Helena.kallner@gmail.com