George Kraus

I have been a psychologist for over 30 years and practice what I call Dynamic Integrative Somatic Psychotherapy. In my clinical practice, I have incorporated all the traditional models of psychotherapy that can aid in fostering self-learning, self-healing, and self-development--psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, humanistic, family systems, Gestalt, encounter, and other theoretical perspectives--but I also employ a somatic approach to the work, where particular emphasis is placed on how what we experience physically in our body can guide us in revolutionary new ways on our path to greater wholeness. This approach stems from my training in Peter Levine's Somatic Experiencing and in my training in Raja Selvam's Integral Somatic Psychology. Our memories of good experiences are not simply stored in the brain as thoughts or emotions but are also stored as body-memories. Those body-memories influence our posture, our impulses for physical movement, our muscle tension, muscle and joint constriction, our "bound-up" energy, our breathing patterns, our heart rate variability, our digestive processes, and our physical balance and equilibrium. An awareness of our physical self adds to our understanding of our needs and what might keep us from getting them met. Somatic psychotherapy provides a way to heighten our awareness of what is not simply thought-based or emotion-based but body-based as well, and it aids in the release of troublesome "muscle memories" in a gentle and measured way.