SBGI Research Faculty

Henry Ahlstrom, Clinical Doctoral Respecialization, Clinical Psychology, Alliant International University, 1994; PhD, Experimental Psychology, Maharishi International University, 1991
Dr. Ahlstrom serves as adjunct faculty at Antioch University and has been a private practice psychologist for the past decade. He is a certified Focusing Trainer with the Focusing Institute in New York.
Areas of Expertise: Research; Clinical Skills; Supervision

Barnaby B. Barratt, PhD, Harvard University, Personality and Developmental Studies in Psychology and Social Relations, 1976; PhD/DHS, Human Sexuality, Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality, 1995
Dr. Barratt, elected Fellow of the American Psychological Association in 1993, diplomate of the American Board of Professionals in 1996, and Fellow of the American Association for Psychoanalysis in Psychology in 1996. His previous academic positions include Postdoctoral Fellow at the Univ. of Michigan’s Neuropsychiatric Institute; Assistant Professor at the Univ. of Michigan’s Depart. of Psychology in Ann Arbor; and Professor of Family Medicine, Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences at Wayne State University in Detroit. The author of six books and over 80 scientific and professional papers, articles and reviews, he has also held positions on the editorial boards of 12 national and international scientific and professional journals. He is past president of the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors, and Therapists.

Areas of Expertise: Psychotherapy, Human Sexuality, Somatic Psychology, Psychoanalysis, Tantric Practice 

Scott Baum, PhD, Clinical Psychology, City University of New York, 1977
Dr. Baum has worked with individuals, groups, and couples in his private clinical psychology practice in NYC since 1985. In addition to a 25-year faculty position at the New York Society for Bioenergetic Analysis, he has served as a visiting faculty member in the Master of Arts Program in Creative Arts Therapy at the Pratt Institute; the Director of Psychology at the Metropolitan Hospital Center; and the Director of Psychology Training at St. Luke's/Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York City.  His publications include “Living on Shifting Sands: Grounding and Borderline Personality Organization” in the Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy and “In Evan’s Case: Reflections on the Different Bodies in Psychotherapy” in USA Body Psychotherapy.

Areas of Expertise: Bioenergetic Analysis and Therapy; Borderline Personality Disorder

Christine Caldwell, PhD, ADTR, LPC, Somatic Psychology, Union Institute, 1993; MA, Dance and Movement Therapy, UCLA, 1976
Dr. Caldwell is former Vice President of Academic Affairs at Naropa Insitute in Boulder, Colorado and the founder and director of Naropa’s Somatic Psychology Department. Her work began over twenty years ago with studies in anthropology, dance therapy, bodywork, and Gestalt therapy and has developed into innovations in the field of body-centered psychotherapy. She developed the Moving Cycle, a system that emphasizes lifelong personal and social evolution by following the wisdom of one’s body energy. She has taught at the University of Maryland and George Washington University and trains, teaches, and lectures internationally. Her books include Getting Our Bodies Back: Recovery, Healing and Transformation through Body-Centered Psychotherapy and Getting In Touch: The Guide to New Body-Centered Therapies.
Areas of Expertise: Somatic Psychotherapy; Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology

Jacqueline A. Carleton, PhD, Psychiatric Sociology and Middle East Studies, Columbia University, 1986
Dr. Carleton has been a psychotherapist in private practice for more than 25 years. She is a senior faculty member at the Institute of Core Energetics in New York City and the International Core Energetic Institutes in Germany, Switzerland, Brazil and Mexico. Dr. Carleton is the founding editor of Energy and Consciousness, the International Journal of Core Energetics. She is presently serving on the Board of Directors of the United States Association of Body Psychotherapists. She is also founding editor of its official publication, The USA Body Psychotherapy Journal. She has recently served on the faculties of the Center for Character Analytic Studies in New York City and the Snowlion Healing School in Southern France.

Areas of Expertise: Applied Clinical Neuroscience; Trauma and Somatic Experiencing; Imaginal Work; Sexuality and Intimacy; Developmental Life Span; Qualitative Research; Integrative Approaches; Cross-Cultural Research (especially in The Middle East); Attachment; Object Relations; Spirituality and Psychotherapy; Body Psychotherapy

David Chamberlain, PhD, Counseling Psychology, Boston University, 1958; MDiv, Boston University School of Theology, 1953
Dr. Chamberlain is a psychologist in private practice. He is the past president and a founding board member of the Association of Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health. Dr. Chamberlain is the author of The Mind of Your Newborn Baby and numerous professional articles as well as the founder and editor of the Association of Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health website.

Areas of Expertise: Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health; Clinical Practice;

Galen Cranz, PhD, Sociology, University of Chicago, 1971
Dr. Cranz is a Professor of Architecture at the University of California at Berkeley. Her many honors and awards include first prize in the Cityscape Design Competition for St. Paul, Minnesota awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts; first prize in the International Competition for Design of Parc de la Villette in Paris, France; U.C. Berkeley Humanities Research Fellowships (1976-1995); and a Princeton University Summer Research Grant at the School of Architecture and Urban Planning. Her numerous publications include The Chair: Rethinking Culture, Body and Design (Norton, New York, 1998); “The Alexander Technique in the World of Design: Posture and the Common Chair, Part I: The Chair as Health Hazard” and “Part II: Body-conscious Design for Chairs, Interiors and Beyond,” both of which were published in the Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies in 2000.

Areas of Expertise: Alexander Technique; Ergonomics

Eleanor Criswell, EdD, Educational Psychology, University of Florida, 1968
A psychologist in private practice, Dr. Criswell is Professor of Psychology at Sonoma State University and Director of the Novato Institute for Somatic Research and Training. She is president of the Somatics Society, editor of the Journal of Humanistic Psychology, and author of numerous articles, books, and videos. Dr. Criswell serves on the dissertation committees of doctoral candidates at the Fielding Institute, California Institute of Integral Studies and Saybrook Graduate School.

Area of Expertise: Research in Somatic Psychology

Robbie Davis-Floyd PhD, Anthropology/Folklore, University of Texas at Austin, 1986
Dr. Davis-Floyd, an internationally renowned cultural anthropologist specializing in medical, ritual, and gender studies and the anthropology of reproduction, is a Research Fellow in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Texas in Austin. In addition to numerous articles, she has published four books--Birth as an American Rite of Passage; From Doctor to Healer: The Transformative Journey; Hegemony and Heresy: Cultural Models and Women’s Birth Choices (forthcoming])and The Power of Ritual (forthcoming)--and co-edited eight collected volumes, including Childbirth and Authoritative Knowledge: Cross-Cultural Perspectives (1997); Cyborg Babies: From Techno-Sex to Techno-Tots (1998); Reconceiving Midwifery: The New Canadian Model of Care (2002); and Midwives in Mexico: Continuity, Controversy, and Change (2002). Funded by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, she has recently completed a major research project on the development of direct-entry midwifery in the U.S., the results of which will appear in Mainstreaming Midwives: The Politics of Change. Her research on midwives in Mexico and on global trends and transformations in midwifery is ongoing.

Areas of Expertise: Research in Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology; Anthropology; Midwifery

James DeMeo, PhD, Geography, University of Kansas, 1986
Dr, DeMeo served as a faculty member in Illinois State University’s and the University of Miami’s geography departments and as a former research associate at the American College of Orgonomy. He founded the Orgone Biophysical Research Lab and Greenspring Center in Ashland, Oregon and has served as its director since 1978. DeMeo has undertaken field research in the arid American Southwest, Egypt, Israel, sub-Saharan Eritrea, and Namibia, Africa. His published works include dozens of articles and compendiums and several books, including Saharasia, The Orgone Accumulator Handbook, On Wilhelm Reich and Orgonomy, and Heretic's Notebook. He is also co-editor of the German-language compendium Nach Reich and editor of the journal Pulse of the Planet.

Areas of Expertise: Orgone and Biophysics

Cynthia De Meester, MD, PhD, Molecular Biology, UCLA, 1995
Dr. De Meester is a medical doctor and researcher with a prenatal and perinatal psychological perspective. In addition to completing the Castellino Prenatal and Birth Therapist Certification in 2004, she has co-authored five articles in peer-reviewed medical journals, including the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, American Journal of Human Genetics and Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Areas of Expertise: Pediatric Primary Care; Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology; Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics; Infant Mental Health; Environmental and Nutritional Influences on Health and Behavior

Linda Filetti, PhD, Counseling Psychology, Colorado State University, 2000
Dr. Filleti, who did her post-doctoral internship at the renowned The Renfrew Center in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is in private practice in the Greater Philadephia area where she focuses on clients with eating disorders. She has presented papers on eating disorders at national and regional conferences.

Areas of Expertise: Research on Eating Disorders; Sexual Trauma; Characteristics Associated with High- and Low-Driving Anger; Somatic Psychology

Alan Fogel, PhD, Education, Univ. of Chicago, 1976; M.S., Physics, Columbia University, 1968

Alan Fogel is Professor of Psychology at the University of Utah. He has authored 12 books and more than 50 articles, mainly focusing on infancy, child development, and emotions. Dr. Fogel has served on the editorial boards of numerous journals including Infant Behavior and Development; Social Development; and Infant and Child Development.

Areas of Expertise: Development of Communication in Infants and Children; Development of Self-Awareness; Emotional Development; Sensory-motor Aspects of Autism; Psychosocial Effects of Somatic Awareness Practices

David C. Gardner, PhD, Management and Organizational Psychology, Columbia Pacific University, 1984; EdD, Educational Psychology and Special Education, Boston University, 1974

Dr. David Gardner, a board-certified, licensed psychologist, is Professor Emeritus at Boston University and the former Chairman of the Department of Business and Career Development. He has co-authored more than 100 scientific publications, including over 40 books, one of which was The Dissertation Proposal Guidebook: How to Write a Research Proposal and Get it Accepted. His most recent series of books focuses on the application of whole-brain theory to teaching technical tasks.

Areas of Expertise: Research Methods; Statistics; Personal Productivity; Program Assessment

Joely Gardner, PhD, Career Development and Research, Boston University
Dr. Joely Gardner served on the faculty of Boston University where she team-taught a doctoral research seminar. In addition to being a board-certified, licensed psychologist, she has co-authored 38 “how to” computer reference books, 15 of which were bestsellers.

Areas of Expertise: Career Development and Research; Organizational Performance Improvement; Technology Implementation

Jo Anne Geron, PhD, Clinical Psychology, Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2000; MA, Clinical Psychology, Antioch University, 1990
A psychotherapist in private practice and the former Director of Counseling at Sheltered Services for Women, Jo Anne Geron is adjunct faculty member at Antioch University and Oxnard City College.

Areas of Expertise: Drug and Alcohol Abuse; Women’s Issues; Youth Services; Psychopathology

Marti Glenn, PhD, Educational Administration (Emphasis in Counselor Education), University of Florida, 1982; MHS (Master of Health Science), Counseling, University of Florida, 1976
Dr. Glenn, SBGI co-founder with Ken Bruer, serves as the Institute’s president and academic dean. She has been a pioneering psychotherapist and educator for over 25 years. Her current research interest is in the neuroscience of psychotherapy, especially as it relates to young families, and she is currently engaged in infant brain development studies with Dr. Allan Schore. Dr. Glenn is a board member of the Association for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health and has been chair of three of their past International Congresses. She has also chaired numerous conferences, most notably Neurons to Neighborhoods: Preventing and Healing Trauma in Children and Adults, and has facilitated trainings and seminars all over the United States and in Europe. She is the founding Clinical Director of the Center for ReUniting Families, where she implemented leading-edge prenatal and perinatal therapy and trauma resolution techniques with adolescents and their families. Pacifica Graduate Institute’s founding academic dean, Dr. Glenn is a member of the Santa Barbara City College Continuing Education Advisory Council.

Areas of Expertise: Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology; Psychotherapy with Adults; Families and Children; Clinical Supervision; Group Psychotherapy

Sondra Goldstein, PhD, Clinical Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, 1971
Dr. Goldstein is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at UCLA and a clinical psychologist in private practice since 1982. She has been a member of Allan Schore’s infant/child research seminar for close to a decade. Dr. Goldstein has published numerous academic articles. Two of her most recent include co-authored articles on attachment theory, neuroscience, and couple therapy published in Psychologist-Psychoanalyst and the International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies in 2004.

Areas of Expertise: Attachment and the Developing Brain; Attachment Theory, Neuroscience, and Couples Therapy; Object Relations Psychotherapy; The Effects of Delayed Parenting; Crisis Intervention with Families

Don Hanlon Johnson, PhD, Philosophy, Yale University, 1971
Dr. Johnson founded the first graduate degree program in the field of somatics, which was housed at Antioch University before it moved to California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). He is the author of three books and several journal articles on the central role of bodily experience in providing a unique understanding of critical social, spiritual, and psychological issues. He is also the editor of a series of foundational texts in the field of somatics which are being published conjointly by CIIS and North Atlantic Books, the third and most recent of which is The Body in Psychotherapy: Inquiries in Somatic Psychology. Since 1988, he has been the director of a study group in somatics whose members include founders or protégés of late founders of nine major schools of somatics work. The aim of the group has been to improve educational quality and to further research in somatics.

Areas of Expertise: Research in Somatic Psychology

Dean Janoff, PhD, Counseling Psychology, University of California at Santa Barbara, 1981
Dr. Janoff is the Director of Masters' Programs in the School of Human and Organizational Development at Fielding Graduate University. He has also served as an adjunct professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara, Pacifica Graduate Institute, and Antioch University. His diverse research interests have led him to publish extensively on a wide variety of topics, including treatment of panic disorder and agoraphobia, attribution theory, Web-based professional training for healthcare professionals, and elementary education.

Areas of Expertise: Gestalt Psychotherapy; Group Psychotherapy; Chemical Dependency; Anxiety Disorders; Organizational Management; Clinical Supervision; Online Collaboration

Greg Johanson, PhD, Psychology and Religion, Drew Graduate School, 1999
Dr. Johanson is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Pastoral Psychotherapist with degrees in psychology, philosophy, and theology, who did a post-doctoral fellowship at the Center for the Study of Religion at Princeton University. He is Clinical Associate Professor of Marriage and Family Therapy at Central Connecticut State University and Adjunct Professor of Pastoral Counseling at Drew University. As a founding trainer of the Hakomi Institute and editor of the Hakomi Forum, he has been involved with body-centered psychotherapy for 25 years. He has served on the editorial review board of the USABP Journal and the Journal of Pastoral Care. In addition, he has written over one hundred publications in the fields of psychotherapy and pastoral theology, including (with Ron Kurtz) Grace Unfolding: Psychotherapy in the Spirit of the Tao-te Ching, which has now been translated into German, Spanish, Japanese, and Chinese.

Areas of Expertise: Integral Psychology; Hakomi; Mind-Body Interface; Philosophical, Historical, and Comparative Psychology; Science, Spirituality, and Psychology; Multi-Cultural Issues in Psychology.

Michael Kearney, MD, University of Cork Medical School, Ireland, 1977
Dr. Kearney is a doctor of palliative medicine, fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, and a visiting professor at the McGill University Medical School in Montreal, Canada. He serves as the external reviewer for Santa Barbara Graduate Institute’s Institutional Review Board, a committee which evaluates whether faculty and students proposing to conduct research with human participants have designed their studies in accord with ethical principles. Dr. Kearney is the author of Mortally Wounded: Stories of Pain, Death and Healing and A Place of Healing.

Areas of Expertise: Psychopathology; Palliative Medicine; Research

Jill Allison Kern, PhD, Organizational Behavior, Yale University, 1995
Dr. Kern is the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute’s Director of Research. The academic positions she has held include that of research associate at the Institute for Social Research in Ann Arbor, MI, teaching fellow at the Yale School of Management, instructor for the Yale University Summer and Special Programs, and assistant professor of management at Iowa State University’s College of Business. Dr. Kern has served on the editorial board of Gender & Society. She researched, wrote, and edited portions of The War for Talent (Harvard Business School Press, 2001), Legacy: Best Practices of Successful Family Companies (forthcoming), and Children of the Boat People: A Study of Educational Success (Univ. of Michigan Press, 1992). She is co-author of the Conflict Management Institute's "Mediation Skills Training Manual."

Areas of Expertise: Research Design and Methods; the Art and Craft of Scholarship; Psychoanalytic Theories; Group Dynamics; Intergroup Relations; Gender and Race Relations.

Aline LaPierre, PsyD, Clinical Psychology, Ryokan College, 2001, MA, Counseling Psychology, Pacifica Graduate Institute, 1989
Dr. LaPierre is a psychotherapist in private practice in the Los Angeles area. She weaves together psychoanalytic psychotherapy, depth psychology and somatic psychology. Her background includes extensive training in Body-Mind Centering, Somatic Experiencing, Bodynamics Analysis, EMDR, Neuromuscular Therapy, Carnio-Sacral Therapy, Zero Balancing, Jin-ShinJiutsu and Continuum. She is part of Allan Schore’s developmental psychology and neuroscience study group and has authored several articles relating neuroscience and somatic psychology.

Areas of Expertise: Somatic Psychotherapy; Clinical Supervision

Bruce Lipton, PhD, Developmental Cell Biology, University of Virginia, 1971
Dr. Lipton, scientist and lecturer, served as an Associate Professor of Anatomy in the School of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin in Madison from 1973 to 1982. He resigned his tenured position to pursue independent research integrating quantum physics with cell biology. His breakthrough studies on the cell membrane, the ¯skin˜ of the cell, revealed that the behavior and health of the cell was controlled by the environment: findings that were in direct contrast with the prevailing belief that life is controlled by genes. In 1987, Lipton returned to academia for five years as a Research Fellow at Stanford University’s School of Medicine in order to test his hypotheses. His ideas concerning environmental control were substantiated in two major scientific publications. The new research reveals the biochemical pathways connecting the mind and body and provides insight into the molecular basis of consciousness and the future of human evolution. Dr. Lipton is the author of many research articles and videos, including The Biology of Belief.

Areas of Expertise: Cell Biology; Research

Peter Levine, PhD, Psychology, International College, 1977; PhD, Interdisciplinary Physical Biology, Life Science, Neurophysiology and Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, 1976
Dr. Levine is the founding director of the Foundation for Human Enrichment which provides individual lay persons, professionals, and communities with educational curricula for healing trauma. He is the author of numerous articles and the ground-breaking book, Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma. He is the founder and international trainer of Somatic Experiencing. Among his many global contributions, he was a member of the Task Force, Institute of World Affairs, Psychologists for Social Responsibility and Presidential Initiative on Ethnopolitical Warfare. He works worldwide as consultant, faculty, and trainer in communities coping with escalating violence.

Areas of Expertise: Shock and Trauma

Bobbi Jo ("B.J.") Lyman, PhD, Clinical Psychology (Health Specialization), The Fielding Institute, 2000
Dr. Lyman is SBGI’s Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology Programs chairperson and a core faculty member. She is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Prenatal & Perinatal Psychology & Health. In 2002 she was awarded the "President’s Distinguished Instructor Award" by City University, Seattle. She is passionate about research in the area of early development and has published several articles on the topic. In addition, Dr. Lyman has presented her original research at the Association of Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health Congress and at the International Society of Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Medicine Congress. She has worked clinically with families, children, couples and adults for the last 15 years.

Areas of Expertise: Research; Child and Family Psychotherapy; Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology

Wendy Anne McCarty, PhD, Education (Emphasis in Counseling Psychology), University of Southern California, 1986; MS, Family Studies and Human Development, University of Kentucky, 1979; BS, Nursing, University of Kentucky, 1969
Dr. McCarty is the founding chairperson of the Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology Programs at SBGI. She has worked with families for 25 years as an obstetrical nurse, childbirth educator, psychotherapist, prenatal and birth therapist, educator, and consultant. Her more than two decades’ research on consciousness provides the foundation of her work which integrates mind-body-spirit. She is the author of Being with Babies: What Babies are Teaching Us and Welcoming Consciousness.

Areas of Expertise: Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology; Therapy with Infants, Children and Families; Transpersonal Psychology

Valerie Malhotra Bentz, PhD, Sociology, Southern Illinois University, 1975
Dr. Bentz is chair of the doctoral faculty of The Fielding Graduate University’s School of Human and Organizational Development and is the program’s former Associate Dean for Research. She has published three books, including the influential Mindful Inquiry in Social Research, which she co-authored with Jeremy Shapiro, and dozens of scholarly articles.

Areas of Expertise: Phenomenology, Qualitative Research, Somatic Psychology, Sociology, Feminist Scholarship, Creative Longevity

Linda Poverny, PhD, Social Work, University of Southern California, 1984
Dr. Poverny, who has had a private psychotherapy practice for nearly two decades, was on the faculty of the University of Southern California School of Social Work (USCSW) for over 15 years. As director of USCSW’s Staff/Faculty Counseling and Consultation Center, the school’s employee assistance program, she provided mental health services, substance. Dr. Poverny, who frequently presents papers at national and international conferences, has published articles on sexual orientation discrimination in the workplace, downsizing, EAP utilization issues, and curriculum development in industrial social work.

Areas of Expertise: Chemical Dependency; HIV/AIDS

Frank Price Rust III, PhD, Developmental Psychology, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1985
Dr. Rust has co-authored two statistics texts and written numerous publications on prenatal and perinatal healthcare for mothers and infants. In addition to serving as the Dissertation Coordinator for Pacifica Graduate Institute’s Psychology Program, he teaches statistics and psychology courses at California State University, Dominguez Hills and Antioch University, Santa Barbara. He has received teaching awards from CSU-Dominguez Hills and the United States Distance Learning Association.

Areas of Expertise: Statistics; Quantitative Research Design; Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology; Assessment

Stella Resnick, PhD, Psychology, Indiana University, 1966
Dr. Resnick is a psychologist in private practice in Los Angeles and the author of The Pleasure Zone: Why We Resist Good Feelings & How to Let Go and Be Happy (Conari Press). She served as an Assistant Professor of Psychology at San Diego State University and at San Jose State University. She lectures on human sexuality and runs public workshops and professional training groups and seminars on Somatic-Experiential Sex Therapy, a comprehensive approach to working with sexual concerns. Her work integrates Gestalt therapy, breath and body awareness, with a particular focus on relationship and sexual issues. She has appeared on hundreds of radio and television shows and is featured in the PBS television series Body & Soul. She is currently the president of the Western Region of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality.

Areas of Expertise: Human Sexuality; Gestalt Therapy; Clinical Supervision

William Rolfe, PhD, California Graduate Institute, Clinical Psychology, 1998
Bill Rolfe has been an adjunct faculty member at Phillips Graduate Institute in Encino, CA since 1987 and has had a private psychotherapy practice in Brentwood since 1983.

Areas of Expertise: Interpersonal Neuropsychology; Redecision Therapy; Symbolic-Experiential Family Therapy; Object Relations/Self Psychology

Allan Schore, PhD, Clinical Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, 1970
Dr. Schore is a faculty member in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the UCLA School of Medicine; the UCLA Center for Culture, Brain, and Development; the Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis; and the Southern California Psychoanalytic Institute in Los Angeles. Pioneer of the field of interpersonal neurobiology, he is the author of the ground-breaking trilogy Affect Regulation and the Repair of the Self, Affect Dysregulation and Disorders of the Self and Affect Regulation and the Origin of the Self, now in its 8th printing. He serves as editorial board member or reviewer for 18 journals, including the Journal of Neuroscience, Behavioral and Brain Sciences and Proceedings of the National Academy of Pediatrics Pediatric Update. Dr. Schore has presented his work to a wide array of international audiences, including the Fifth Annual National Head Start Research Conference, the American Academy of Pediatrics, Zero to Three, the Anna Freud Centre, the Association for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health Congress, and the United States Association for Body Psychotherapy Conference.

Areas of Expertise: Research in Psychoneurobiology; Infant Mental Health

Michael Sieck, PhD, Physiology (Specialty in Neurophysiology and Psychology), UCLA 1967
In addition to serving as a core faculty member at SBGI, Dr. Sieck is Director of Redlands Therapy Group, a certified Bioenergetic Analyst, and a supervisor for the Southern California Bioenergetic Institute. He taught graduate and undergraduate psychology courses at the University of California, Riverside and published many papers on brain-behavior relationships. Since 1974, he has been providing psychotherapy services and has published several training manuals and assessment tools. He currently combines elements of Bioenergetics, Gestalt approaches, Jungian ideas, Object Relations and Psychodrama in his practice. He also has a strong psycho-spiritual orientation and is active in Diamond Heart Work. He presents at conferences and university functions and has extensive experience leading numerous kinds of groups. For the past five years he has co-lead residential programs combining mind, body and spiritual practices in Southern California.

Areas of Expertise: Relational Somatic Psychotherapy with Emphasis on Trauma, Early Development and Characterological Transformation

Paula Thomson, PsyD, Psychology, American Behavioral Studies Institute, 1998; Diploma, Centre for Training in Psychotherapy, Psychodynamic Psychotherapist, 1997
Dr. Thomson has been a tenured faculty member since 1982 at York University’s Departments of Theatre and Graduate Studies in Toronto and a full professor position at American Behavioral Studies Institute in Orange County. In addition, she has taught at Banff School of Fine Arts, Julliard School of Music, Stratford Shakespearean Festival, and the Canadian Opera Company. Dr. Thomson has a private psychotherapy practice in Tarzana, California, where she works primarily with adolescents, adults and couples who have trauma histories, dissociative disorders and/or issues with blocked creativity. Her interest in early attachment led her to Dr. Allan Schore’s study group where she has been an active participant for over six years. She is a regular presenter at the International Society for the Study in Dissociation and has recently published several articles on the impact of trauma on creativity. In addition, she is currently undertaking research on fantasy proneness, dissociation, trauma and attachment.

Areas of Expertise: Somatic and Expressive Therapies; Prenatal and Perinatal Development; Dissociative Disorders and Early Trauma; Neurobiological Development; Psychodynamic Psychotherapy

Thomas Verny, DPsych, University of Toronto, 1964; MD, University of Toronto, 1961
Dr. Verny, a pioneer in the field of prenatal and perinatal psychology, is a psychiatrist in private practice in Toronto, Canada. He lectures around the world and has published many popular press and academic journal articles. He has co-authored several books, including Tomorrow’s Baby, The Secret Life of the Unborn Child, and Nurturing the Unborn Child. In addition, Dr. Verny edited the first English-language textbook on prenatal and perinatal psychology entitled Pre-and Perinatal Psychology: An Introduction. His contribution to the field of prenatal and perinatal psychology also includes organizing the First International Congress on Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology in Toronto in July l983, serving as founding editor of the Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology Journal, serving as president of the Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology Association of North America from 1983 to 1991, and participating on the Association’s Board of Directors.

Areas of Expertise: Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health; Research

Jenny Wade, PhD, Human Development, The Fielding Institute, 1994
Dr. Wade is a research psychologist, writer, consultant and teacher specializing in consciousness studies, especially the evolution of consciousness. Her background is in human development with a particular emphasis on consciousness at the edges of life, before birth and after death, when the cellular basis for sustaining awareness is either severely compromised or nonexistent. Her lifespan development theory appears in Changes of Mind: A Holonomic Theory of the Evolution of Consciousness. Her interests include prenatal memory and consciousness, organizational applications of consciousness studies, and paradigms and systems theory. She is the former chairperson of the Department of Psychology at the Institute for Transpersonal Psychology.

Areas of Expertise: Transpersonal Psychology; Human Development; Sexuality; Noetic Studies

Frederick Wirth, MD, Tulane University School of Medicine, 1967
Dr. Wirth, author of Prenatal Parenting and Director of the Institute for Perinatal Education, is a specialist in fetal and neonatal medicine. He has held several academic positions in medical schools, including at Tufts University School of Medicine, and has served on gubernatorial and presidential task forces on reducing our nation's high infant mortality rate. He received the American Academy of Pediatrics Young Investigator award for clinical research and served as the physician to Elizabeth Carr, America's first “test-tube” baby.

Areas of Expertise: Neonatology; Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology

Nicholas Woolf, PhD, Education, University of Iowa, 2003
Dr. Wolfe is a nationally recognized expert in qualitative data analysis. He has been hired by dozens of universities and research institutes to provide qualitative data expertise, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia; University of Wisconsin Medical School; UCLA Department of Family Medicine; Johns Hopkins University; and University of California at San Francisco. In addition, he has provided workshops in computer-assisted qualitative data analysis at well over 100 universities, such as Case Western Reserve University, Stanford University, Emory University and University of Texas.

Areas of Expertise: Qualitative Interview Research; Qualitative Data Analysis; ATLAS Software; Instructional Design