A somatic approach to therapy is one that attends to the visceral reality of the body as a point of significant influence in one’s healing process.
A somatic relational approach is one that attends to the role of interpersonal neurobiology in both the development of illness and trauma, as well as its healing.
A somatic relational approach to psychedelic therapy attends to the healing process as one of remapping one’s interpersonal neurobiology through the relational dynamic between client and therapist, assisted by the profound states of consciousness psychedelics awaken within the client.
It proposes that understanding how the nervous system incurs, holds, expresses, and heals trauma through the living dynamic of our relationships over time, and engaging that within a psychedelic session, is an essential element to healing trauma.
This is a radically different approach to the psychedelic-assisted therapy you are likely aware of–headphones, eye shades, therapist there to hold a hand if needed. This is a therapy that is fully interactive and engaged.
We feature two anonymous guests on today’s episode to talk about this somatic relational approach to psychedelic therapy. One of whom is a practicing underground therapist. The other is not a therapist or doing therapy, but a social worker and researcher specializing in somatic healing, interpersonal neurobiology, and psychedelic therapy.
Tooth Fairy has recently chosen to reveal her identity.
Rita Bozi is a multidisciplinary Somatic Relational trauma and psychedelic-informed Facilitator. With twenty-eight years experience in the healing arts, she is the director of Brilliant Healing Inc. She works with individuals, couples and groups, leading unique, experiential and creative healing retreats. She is a colleague of Dr. Gabor Maté and studied his “Compassionate Inquiry” model. She was mentored by the late Carol-Anne Bickerstaff and is currently a student of Sharon Stanley’s Somatic Transformation.
Rita has deep respect for and experience with both non-traditional and Indigenous medicines and draws from attachment-based, mindfulness and bio-psycho-social awareness in healing.
She is a retired dancer and actor but will always be a creator and performer. A published writer, she has completed her first novel, When I Was Better and is currently writing PUNK Therapy, drawing on her work with psychedelic medicine in combination with Somatic Relational practices. She documents the often painful and challenging but always deeply rewarding journey of client and medicine facilitator and their parallel journeys in healing.
Born to Hungarian refugees who fled during the 1956 Revolution, Rita honours and remembers the long line of serfs and peasants who are her ancestors. She is devoted to the work it takes to become a human, decolonizing the body.
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This is a radically different approach to the psychedelic-assisted therapy you are likely aware of–headphones, eye shades, therapist there to hold a hand if needed. This is a therapy that is fully interactive and engaged.
