Dr Christine Caldwell is the founder of and professor emeritus in the Somatic Counselling Program at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, where she teaches course work in somatic counselling theory and skills, and clinical neuroscience. Her work began forty years ago with studies in anthropology, dance therapy, bodywork, and Gestalt therapy, and has developed into innovations in the field of body-centred psychotherapy. She calls her work the Moving Cycle. This system goes beyond the limitations of therapy and emphasises lifelong personal and social evolution through trusting and following body states. The Moving Cycle spotlights natural play, early physical imprinting, bodily authority, and the transformational effect of fully sequenced movement processes. Her books include Getting Our Bodies Back, Getting In Touch, Oppression and the Body, and Bodyfulness.
Antonia Case: Where did your journey with somatic psychology begin?
Christine Caldwell: I got into this field quite early in many ways. I was raised in the Los Angeles area and at the time it was a very juicy place, a lot going on. I went to college there and I was getting my degree in anthropology, and I was also experimenting with a lot of what, at the time, were alternative methods. When I was in my anthropology classes, we would sometimes have films about people from different cultures. And whenever they did dance rituals in the films, I would almost fall into them. I was so amazed and smitten with this idea that you could use movement or dance rituals to heal, because a lot of these dance rituals were about healing, whether it was on a personal or community level.
And so, I decided to play with that a little bit. And I went to
