Workshops

  • July 19-20, 2008
  • London, UK
  • Metanoia
  • Embodied Narrative with Michael Clemmens and Ruella Frank

DSP Two-Year Training

New York City
Woman and man sitting back to back: Yielding — “How much of myself do I give to you in this moment?"
Yielding — “How much of myself do I give to you in this moment?”
  • Location:
  • Center for Somatic Studies
  • 124 West 93rd St.,
  • New York, NY 10025
  • Suite #2C
  • To register, and for further information call:
  • +1 (212) 662 3322, or
  • send us an email

DSP Training

Mexico City
  • New Level One Starting November 2009
  • In Spanish and English
  • Location:
  • Instituto Humanista de Psicoterapia Gestalt
  • Mexico City
Miriam Muñoz and Ruella in Mexico City
Myriam Muñoz Polit, Directora General, and Ruella in Mexico City

Developmental Somatic Psychotherapy, created by Ruella Frank, Ph.D., is a relational and movement-oriented approach to psychotherapy within a gestalt therapy framework.

Inspired by the work of developmental psychologists, motor theorists, and somatic educators, Developmental Somatic Psychotherapy is a template for understanding and working with early psycho-physical blocks as they emerge in the here-and-now of the adult therapy session. more...

In session: Learning how to integrate early movement patterns within the psychotherapy session
Learning how to integrate early movement patterns within the psychotherapy session.

The Training Program:

Developmental Somatic Psychotherapy

Since the core of this training is experiential, an in-depth personal exploration of these early patterns is emphasized. Developing a distinct and cohesive experience of their own bodies teaches therapists to pay acute attention to the subtle rhythmic nonverbal patterns that continually emerge within the client and therapist relationship.

The program consists of three training modules yearly: four days in Fall, four days in Spring, and four days in Summer. more...

Early Childhood Session as part of Two-Year Training Program

From the book Creative License (Spagnuolo Lobb, Amendt-Lyon, Eds.), excerpt from Ruella Frank’s chapter “Embodying Creativity, Developing Experience: The Therapy Process and Its Developmental Foundation”

(...) I ask Michele to press her spine into the back of the chair and to wiggle around until she is sure that her spine and the back cushion are connected.

Then I ask her to lift and drop her arms and hands, one at a time, onto the chair’s arm rests. Once done, I ask Michele what she notices. “I feel my spine against the back cushion of the chair, but I don’t feel my arms or hands,” she says. more...