Biography

As I move into my twilight years, I am aware that the seeds that brought forth my current work were planted over half a century ago when I had my first post in teaching philosophy at what is now Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles while participating with Carl Rogers in his research project on the efficacy of student-centered learning in the school system of the Immaculate Heart sisters from kindergarten through their university. That intersection of Rogerian humanistic psychology with the experiential tradition of Socratic and Husserlian philosophy, my long history of meditation, and my first visits to the newly born Esalen Institute, gradually shaped a comprehensive approach to the education of therapists and healers, bringing together the cutting-edge theoretical, with relevant experiential dimensions, and the intellectual aspects of developing an embodied consciousness. After studying and practicing the work of Ida Rolf, I founded the first masters degree program in Somatic Psychology and succeeded in having it authorized by license-granting state boards. I was a professor in that program for some 30 years. I am now teaching in newly launched Somatics emphasis in the doctoral program of Integral and Transpersonal Psychologies. My website has more detailed information.

Publications

Everyday Hopes, Utopian Dreams: Reflections on American Ideals. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books. 2006.

Body, Spirit and Democracy. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books. 1993

Body: Recovering our Sensual Wisdom. Boston: Beacon Press, 1983. Translated into Portuguese (Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, 1990). Paperback edition Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 1992.

The Protean Body . New York: Harper and Row, 1977. Translated into French (Paris: Retz, 1981); German (Essen: Synthesis Verlag, 1980).

Collections

Editor, The Meaning of Life in the 21st Century: Challenges to Spiritual Values Provoked by Advances in Science. New York: iUniverse Books. 2008
Introduction to the book: " Science, Knowing, and Values"

Editor with Ian J. Grand, The Body in Psychotherapy: Inquiries in Somatic Psychology. CIIS/North Atlantic Books, 1998.

Editor, Groundworks: Narratives of Embodiment. Berkeley: CIIS/North Atlantic Books, 1996.

Editor, Bone, Breath and Gesture: Practices of Embodiment. CIIS/North Atlantic Books. 1995.

Editor, Diverse Bodies, Diverse Practices: Toward an Inclusive Somatics. Berkeley, North Atlantic Books, 2018.

Articles

"The Cultivation of Children's Bodies Towards Intricate Thinking and Sensitive Behavior," in Svi Shapiro, ed., Our Children's World: New Visions for Education in the 21st Century. London: Eribaum, Routledge. 2008

"Cultivation, Ethics, and Science: Creating Shared Values in a Diverse Culture," in Science and Religion in the Age of Crisis. [in Japanese] Tokyo, Kodansha. 2007

"Slurping Soba, Twirling Spaghetti: Etiquette, Fascism, and Pleasure," in Etiquette: Reflections on Contemporary Comportment. Eds. Ron Scapp and Brian Seitz. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. 2006.

"Esalen's Role in Transforming the Theoretical and Practical Understanding of the Place of the Human Body in Consciousness." in J. Kripal, ed., On the Edge of the Future: Esalen and the Evolution of American Culture. Indiana University Press. 2005

"Der Vorrang des erfahrungsorientierten Vorgehens" ("The Primacy of Experiential Practices in Body-Psychotherapy"), in Handbuch der Körperpsychotherapie (The Handbook of Body Psychotherapy), ed. Gustl Marlock and Halko Weiss, Stuttgart: Schattauer GmbH, Verlag für Medizin und Naturwissenschaften. 2005

"Breathing, Moving, Sensing, and Feeling: Somatics and Integral Medicine." Consciousness and Healing: An Integral Approach to Mind-Body Medicine. Ed. Marilyn Schlitz, Tina Amorok, Marc Micozzi. St. Louis, MO: Elsevier/Churchill Livingstone. 2004

"Charlotte Selver as Spiritual Teacher," Bulletin of the Sensory Awareness Foundation. 2004

"Rolfing: Science and/or Transformation," International Association of Structural Integration Yearbook, ed. Marilyn Beech. The International Association of Structural Integrators. P. O. Box 8664, Missoula, MT 59807. 2004

"Body Practices and Human Inquiry: Disciplined Experiencing, Fresh Thinking, Vigorous Language," in The Body in Human Inquiry: Interdisciplinary Explorations ofEmbodiment, ed. Vincent Berdayes. The Hampton Press, 2003

"Sitting, Writing, Listening, Speaking, Yearning: Reflections on Scholar-Shaping Techniques," in Shapiro and Shapiro, editors. Body Movements: Pedagogy, Politics and Social Change. Cresskill, N. J.: The Hampton Press, 2002.

"Body Practices and Consciousness: A Neglected Link," in The Journal of the Anthropology of Consciousness. 2000.

"The Methodological Cultivation of Tactile Intricacy in Nine Schools of Integrative Bodywork: A Challenge to Research Design," in The Biological Basis for Mind-Body Interactions, ed. Emeran A. Mayer, M.D., and Clifford Saper, M.D., Ph.D. Elsevier Science Press, 1999.

"Der Weg des Leibes: Eine kurze Geschichte der somatischen Bewegung." H. Milz and M. V. von Kibed, editors, Körpererfahrungen: Anregungen zur Selbstheilung. Zurich: Walter Verlag, 1998