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Biography
Roz Carroll MA Cantab, UKCP registered psychotherapist, I work as a body psychotherapist in private practice and as a supervisor of psychotherapists with an interest in integration. I am a trainer at the Chiron Centre for Body Psychotherapy, the Minster Centre for Integrative Psychotherapy the Centre for Attachment-based Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (www.johnbowlbycentre.org.uk) and at Terapia training in Integrative Child Psychotherapy (www.terapia.co.uk). I teach a seminar series called The New Anatomy, one Friday evening a month, November-April at Chiron in London. I also lecture regularly for Confer (www.confer.uk.com), an organisation running seminars and conferences on psychotherapy, medicine and culture. I offer talks, and tailor-made short courses in for training organisations. (Many of these are available on this site See Index of papers In the past couple of years I have given lectures, informal talks, and training days in a variety of psychotherapy and medical contexts on the theme of the body. In my writing and teaching I have focussed on developing an integrated model of psychotherapy which incorporates some of the new developments in neuroscience. Body psychotherapy as a tradition has always drawn on the insights of scientific research about the body and the brain. It therefore provides a useful bridge between psychotherapy and contemporary developments in neuroscience because the implications of working with an embodied process (and essentially neuroscience is pointing increasingly to the holistic embodied nature of all psychological phenomena) have always been at its theoretical and practical core. I trained as a body psychotherapist at Chiron during a phase when it was rapidly evolving. This was evident in a more thorough critique of Reich, and interest in object relations; a move from idealisation of the body (and its wisdom) to appreciation of complexity, splitting and holding as bodily phenomena; an increasing interest in the manifestation of transference and countertransference in the body. In reflecting on my own work in private practice, I am always exploring what it means to "work with the body" in the complex context of psychotherapy. An academic background supports and facilitates my commitment to integration and understanding of the theory of embodied experience. Originally I studied English Literature at Cambridge. I went on to do research for a PhD at Yale on writing as a form of psychological processing. The interest in poetry and language has informed my listening for somatic metaphor. My subject, H.D., was an analys and of Freud and later Schmideberg (Melanie Klein's son-in-law). This stimulated my intensive study of psychoanalytic texts. Concurrently my interest in body psychotherapy grew and eventually became the main focus of my professional life. As a body psychotherapist and a trainer, I have wrestled with the issue of how to reconcile the sophistication of the object relations emphasis on transference and countertransference with the immediacy of a phenomenological approach - ie. exploring the experience of contact, movement, touch, sensory imagery etc. I am aware that the current countertransference revolution opens up the potential for integrating these two psychotherapeutic emphases. In particular the writings of Christopher Bollas, Susie Orbach and the Jungian Nathan Schwarz-Salant have inspired me. In recent years I have returned to writing and have appreciated being able to weave across disciplines and keep a broad range of reference. This includes an active interest in developments at the frontiers of neuroscience, - Trevarthen, Panksepp, Solms, Damasio and particularly the work of Allan Schore. It also includes an interest in thinkers like Bateson and Lakoff. Relevant to all these dynamic new fields of enquiry is the overarching metaphor and metamodel provided by complexity theory. My fascination with the body in process has been nourished by my
engagement in dance and movement therapy over twenty years. I have explored
many avenues of dance, especially in the context of process and group work,
including studying Authentic Movement with Anne Herbert Smith in the
For articles on this site See Index of papers
Resources and Links
Creative arts based/Gestalt therapy with children, adolescents and children, contact Jon Blend, London <life-changes@ntlworld.com> Jon Blend runs short training course in Working with children and adolescence - www.gestaltcentre.co.uk/training/shortcourses.htm
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email Roz Carroll |
