THIS BOOK WAS INFLUENCED AND SHAPED by many individuals who supported our writing, inspired our thinking, acted as sounding boards, and mentored us over three decades of professional development. We are indebted to the Board of Advisors of the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute, many of whom regularly contribute to the development and scientific understanding of our work: David Baldwin, Emilie Conrad, Ron Kurtz, Ruth Lanius, Reo Leslie, Ian Macnaughton, Peter Melchior, Melissa Miller, Martha Stark, Clare Pain, Allan Schore, Ellert Nijenhuis, Kathy Steele, Onno Van der Hart, and Bessel van der Kolk.
In particular, Bessel van der Kolk has strongly influenced our work, and we extend to him our heartfelt appreciation for countless discussions, feedback, inspiration, and unwavering support in furthering our understanding of neuroscience and of sensorimotor theory and technique. Additionally, we are most grateful for the practical, clear theories about dissociation and action systems developed by Onno van der Hart, Kathy Steele, and Ellert Nijenhuis, and the dynamic collaboration we have enjoyed with them, which has changed the way we think about trauma and how we work with clients. We also want to thank Allan Schore, who set aside time and effort to help us understand the interface between neurological development and clinical practice, and whose work has had a profound effect on how we understand psychotherapy. And we are grateful for Ruth Lanius’s confidence in this work and in its relevance for even the most traumatized individual, and her contributions to this book, including her clarity about the possible implications of current neuroscience research for trauma treatment.
We also wish to acknowledge colleagues who have influenced our thinking over the years: Jon Allen, Betty Cannon, Rich Chefetz, Marylene Cloitre, Christine Courtois, Charles Figley, Judith Herman, Ilan Kutz, Sue Kutz, Ulrich Lanius, Rudolpho Llinas, Karlen Lyons-Ruth, Sandy McFarlane, Laurie Pearlman, Steven Porges, Pat Sable, Allen Scheflin, Judith Schore, Arieh Shalev, Dan Siegel, Marion Solomon, and David Spiegel.
Many of the somatically-oriented theories and interventions described in this book are common to body psychotherapy. The one pioneer in this field who deserves an enormous thank-you is Ron Kurtz, who for 30-plus years has been our mentor and primary inspiration in somatic psychology and whose ideas and interventions are foundational to sensorimotor psychotherapy. We are also grateful to many others in this and related fields: Susan Aposhyan, Marianne Bentzon, Bill Bowen, Christine Caldwell, Emilie Conrad, Fred Donaldson, Annie Duggan, Peter Levine, Richard Strozzi Heckler, Emmett Hutchins, Jim Kepner, Aubrey Lande, Ian Macnaughton, Lisbeth Marcher, Al Pesso, Thomas Pope, Marjorie Rand, Bert Shaw, Kevin Smith, Betta van der Kolk, and Halko Weiss. And our deep appreciation goes to Peter Melchior, who died before this book was published, for hours of brainstorming about the structure and movement of the body and for helping design the somatic resources map (in Chapter 10) during a long summer afternoon several years back.
So many people contributed directly to the writing of this book. We thank Christine Caldwell and Charles Figley, who were the first to encourage us to write, and Dan Siegel, who prompted us to submit a proposal to Norton and so generously helped us to fine-tune our terminology just before press. David Baldwin, Lana Epstein, Julian Ford, Mary Sue Moore, and Steven Porges reviewed specific chapters, and we are most appreciative of their help. We are indebted to Bonnie Mark Goldstein for giving so much valuable time, energy, and skill to this project, seeing it through to the very end. Kathy Steele deserves a special thank-you for freely offering us encouragement, expert advice, and editing par excellence when the going got rough; as does Onno van der Hart for his generous and steadfast support in the form of concept development, superb editorial help with each chapter down to the eleventh hour, and emotional encouragement. And last, this book is a better book because of Janina Fisher’s exceptional editing skills combined with her grasp of sensorimotor psychotherapy theory and technique, and we extend our gratitude to her for being our “fourth author”—reviewing, rewriting troublesome sections, and adding her input to every chapter of this book.
The founding trainers of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute, Christina Dickinson and Dan Thomas, joined more recently by senior trainers Deirdre Fay and Janina Fisher, have participated in countless brainstorming sessions, and we thank them for their continuing collaboration, wisdom, emotional support, and dedication to teaching this work. We are grateful to Jennifer Fox who so competently and cheerfully kept the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute going when Pat was immersed in writing, and Jennifer Ryder who went the extra mile to complete the references. And we are most appreciative of the people at Norton: Deborah Malmud, Andrea Costella, Michael McGandy, Casey Ruble, and Margaret Ryan for their patience and helpful advice along the way.
On a more personal note, Pat would like to thank Susan Aposhyan, Susan Melchior, Ria Moran, and Kali Rosenblum for their unflagging emotional support over the years of writing this book. Heartfelt appreciation goes to the children of all ages in her extended family for their laughter and patience: Darci Hill; her godchildren, Jovanna Stepan, Allison Joel, and Quinsen Joel; and, most especially, her son, Brennan Arnold, for his steadfast emotional and practical support. Kekuni would like to thank his family, Terrell Smith Minton and Kealoha Malie Minton, for their incredible patience and support in the writing of this book. Clare would like to thank her family and friends, especially Judy, Bill, Christine, and Josh for their sanity and humor.
Lastly, we express heartfelt appreciation to our students and clients who have challenged us, inspired us, and ultimately taught us most of what we know about psychotherapy.