Book Announcement by Barbara Holifield (USA)

Holifield, B. (2025). Being with the body in depth psychotherapy: Development, trauma, and transformation in the unspoken realm. Routledge.

Being with the Body in Depth Psychotherapy: Development, Trauma, and Transformation in the Unspoken Realm  (Routledge) examines the experiential integration of the body in the practice of depth psychology, with a look at how the subjectively experienced body, when explored in the service of meaning, offers a possibility of enhancing well-being, relational experience, spiritual life, and aesthetic perception of the world.

Barbara Holifield draws from philosophical perspectives, neuroscientific and infant research, developmental theory, and trauma studies to offer a comprehensive overview of embodiment. Having synthesized somatic work into a relationally based psychoanalytic approach, she offers clinical vignettes to demonstrate the critical value of working with the bodily felt dimension of implicit relational memory with those who have suffered developmental trauma. The case studies offer a compelling account of how a clinician’s awareness of their own bodily states can be key in navigating the powerful psycho-physical forces activated in the work, as well as revealing how relational dynamics between the analyst and analysand are substantiated when grounded by the lived experience in the body. Perhaps most importantly, Holifield’s cases emphasize how bodily felt sense facilitates access to feelings which are at the heart of healing.

www.routledge.com/Being-with-the-Body-in-Depth-Psychology-Development-Trauma-and-Transformation-in-the-Unspoken-Realm/Holifield/p/book/9781032286082

Barbara Holifield, MSW, SEP, is a training analyst at the C. G. Jung Institute of San Francisco. With decades of experience in somatic psychology, including the psychophysical work with trauma known as Somatic Experiencing, she has synthesized somatic work into a relational psychoanalytic approach. A deep feeling for the body pulses through her work. For twenty years, Barbara taught Somatic Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies and continues to facilitate Authentic Movement internationally. Her published works explore the relationship of trauma, body, self, and our participation with the dream of the earth.

Barbara Holifield, MSW, MFT, SEP
San Francisco & Mill Valley, California, USA
Email Barbara Holifield
barbaraholifield.com