Jaap van der Wal PhD is medical doctor and works nowadays as associate professor in Anatomy and Embryology at the University of Maastricht, Holland. Since his medical education in 1973 he became specialized in the functional anatomy and development of the locomotor apparatus, in particular regarding proprioception i.e. the sense for the perception of locomotion and body position. Gradually he developed into being a teacher in Philosophy of Science and in Medical Anthropology. “My passion however was and still is human embryology. The human body is a process, developing and functioning …

Ruth Lanius, MD, Ph.D., Professor of Psychiatry is the director of the posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) research unit at the University of Western Ontario. She established the Traumatic Stress Service and the Traumatic Stress Service Workplace Program, services that specialize in the treatment and research of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and related comorbid disorders. She currently holds the Harris-Woodman Chair in Mind-Body Medicine at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Western Ontario.
Her research interests focus on studying the …

Darrell Sanchez, PhD, LPC is a licensed somatic psychotherapist, Certified Advanced Rolfer™, Rolf Movement Practitioner, Craniosacral Therapist, Certified Somatic Experiencing™ Practitioner and former trainer, and professional dance instructor and performer.He has been studying, practicing, teaching, and performing in the movement and healing arts since 1974. The common thread woven through all of Darrell’s work is the facilitation of creative transformation (

Stephen W. Porges, Ph.D. is Distinguished University Scientist at Indiana University, where he directs the Trauma Research Center within the Kinsey Institute. He holds the position of Professor of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina and Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago where he directed the Brain-Body Center. Dr. Porges is also Professor Emeritus at the University of Maryland where served as Chair of the Department of Human Development and Director of the Institute for Child Study. He is a former president of the Society for Psychophysiological …

Marianne Bentzen is a somatic psychotherapist and author. She has also taught and supervised mental health professionals internationally since 1982. She has presented at more than forty international and national conferences and written numerous articles and books.
Since the early 1990s, she has developed the theory of Neuroaffective Developmental Psychology (NADP), which bridges personality development, brain development, trauma theory and evolutionary psychology as well as emotional training programs and assessment tools with her friend and colleague, psychologist Susan Hart. A …

Sônia Gomes is known worldwide at the international SE – Somatic Experiencing´s community for her love and caring, the mastery of SE and body therapies, her wonders in demos and personal sessions. Clinical Psychologist/Advanced Structural Rolfer, Movement Teacher. She is among the few qualified to teach Advanced SE. She adopts a multidimensional integrative approach to her teaching, therapy and clinical practice. Fundamental also, is her commitment to the relief of suffering resulting from trauma and somatic experiencing as a means to enhance personal development

Nicole Münch has been working intensively with the human voice and its relationship to the body and psyche for 20 years. At the beginning, her motives were purely artistic (singing), later also strongly from a therapeutic point of view. Born in Zürich, she completed her training as a voice teacher from 1998-2001 at the "Lichtenberger Institut für angewandte Stimmphysiologie" and received her teaching diploma from Gisela Rohmert. 2007 she received her diploma as a Somatic Experiencing (SE) Practitioner.
She is a visiting lecturer at various universities in Switzerland and offers courses …

Peter A. Levine, Ph.D. (USA) is the originator and developer of Somatic Experiencing® and the President of the Foundation for Human Enrichment. He holds doctorate degrees in both Medical Biophysics and Psychology. During his forty plus year study of stress and trauma, Dr. Levine has contributed to a variety of scientific, medical, and popular publications. His best selling book, Waking the Tiger; Healing Trauma, is available in 24 languages. He is author of "It Won't Hurt Forever", a guide to the prevention and healing of trauma with children. Together with Maggie Kline he published: …

Michael Mokrus has been working as a freelancer in his own practice since 1989. As a trainer, lecturer and supervisor he teaches various mindfulness-based body-, psycho- and trauma-therapeutic approaches for people in therapeutic professions.
Since 2003 he is continuously in the supervision team of SOMATIC EXPERIENCING (SE), since 2012 in the teaching team of NARM and ISP. Michael is currently teaching NARM training throughout Europe. His trainings and courses are characterized by his own longstanding mindfulness practice. Michael Mokrus is married and lives in Cologne. Homepage:

Claudia Studer-Wild has accompanied people in her practice in Winterthur for 30 years. She is inspired by personal encounters and nature. As an experienced family woman, she has developed her quality and experience in working with families, children and adults in various training and further education courses: Kinesiology (specialising in brain, LEAP) with EMR recognition according to Dr. Charles Krebs (D), Neurofeedback with Peter van Deusen, HANDLE with Judith Bluestone, SOMATIC EXPERIENCING with Steve Hoskinson and SOMA EMBODIMENT with Sônia Gomes and Marcelo Muniz.
With kinesiology …

C. Sue Carter, PhD is Professor of Psychiatry and Co-Director of The Brain Body Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Dr. Carter studies the neurobiology of socio-emotional behaviors, including social bonds and parental behavior. Research by Dr. Carter and her colleagues established the prairie vole as a model for examining the neurobiology of monogamy. Her work also led to the discovery that oxytocin and vasopressin can program the developing nervous system with life-long consequences for brain and behavior. She is currently involved in collaborative research examining the …

Her professional career took Emmanuelle Rosa from physiotherapy to acupuncture and then to Peter Levine's SOMATIC EXPERIENCING (SE) - trained by Steve Hoskinson and Dominique Dégranges. There she developed into an experienced Senior Assistant who imparts the SE knowledge in courses, supervision and intensive individual work. She has extensive experience in bodywork and also teaches courses in stress management and burnout prevention. She has her own practice in Lausanne and Sion.

Dr. phil. Urs Honauer Urs (CH) is the director of the Polarity Center and the Center for Inner Ecology in Zürich, Switzerland. He is also the founder of the Learning Festival in Weggis and the originator of the communication model AUTHENTIC COMMUNICATION (AK) which he also teaches himself. He has long been involved in adult education and has taught among others in trainings like Somatic Experiencing (SE), Polarity, and TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine). In his private practice he works with people of all ages (from infants to senior citizens). He holds a Master’s degree in …

Ale Duarte is a somatic educator who travels around the world offering training to professionals who work in the fields of psychology, education and body-oriented therapy. His specialty is experience in child trauma, and the inherent ability of a child’s body to recover from trauma impact, through highly tuned somatic consciousness within the therapeutic relation.As part of his professional career, Ale provided logistic support to professionals in areas of natural disasters and conflicts in many countries, such as the tsunami in Asia in 2005, Hurricane Katrina in 2006, the earthquake in …

Jim Feil, MA, DC, RPP, RCST has been in the field of complementary health care since 1970. He began his career in the healing arts by studying with Dr. Randolph Stone, founder of Polarity Therapy, from 1970 to 1973. He began practicing Polarity Therapy in California in 1973, and started teaching and training therapists in 1976. He was one of the founding directors of the American Polarity Therapy Association and has also served on the Spanish Polarity Therapy Association. He developed one of the first full training programs to be taught worldwide based on the APTA Standards for …

Paki E. Heisserer was born in Germany and is living in Zürich since 1980. She is self employed in her own practice as a Bodypsychotherapist since 1985. She works as a Traumatherapist with Somatic Experiencing (and is also teaching SE since 2019). Her backgroung is the Process-Oriented Psychology of Arni Mindel (POP), Polarity Therapy, Cranio Sacral Therapy, Chinese Medicine, and Prenatal and Birthtraumawork of Ray Castellino.She is practising and teaching Qi Gong, Tai Qi and Tao Yoga since 35 years.Her wish is to go along the human process on all levels which will be shown. According to the …

Prof. Dr. Isabelle Mansuy, a french national, studied at the Université Louis Pasteur (ULP), Strasbourg, France and at the École Superieure de Biotechnologie de Strasbourg where she got degrees in Biotechnology Engineering and Molecular Biology. She has been promoted to a Full Professor of Neuroepigenetics (dual professorship with the University of Zurich) in 2013. She started working as an Assistant Professor in Cellular Neurobiology at the Institute of Cell Biology in 1998. Since 1 April 2005 she was Associate Professor for Molecular and Cognitive Neurosciences at the …