We hear that the Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy Training is a transformative 2 year training program both professionally and personally. It draws therapists from across Canada who want to deepen their craft and evolve their practice. Don’t take our word for it, here’s a few comments made by therapists who completed the Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy 2-year training program in the fall of 2025. It’s heartwarming to hear how our trainings impact students both personally and professionally, time and again. Music to my ears 🙂
I struggle to put my experience into the verbal realm when attempting to capture theBBP Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy Training. The training surpassed anything I could have imagined, stretching me cognitively, creatively, viscerally, heart-ly, outwardly, and inwardly. Beyond the incredible depths of teachings and practice wisdom, Lisa and Stacy have this gift of cultivating a deeply heart-centred space imperative to integration, and which, in turn, facilitated to formation of lasting connections and consultative bonds. I am astonished by the ways this training continues to take shape in my practice and my being. I am excited to continue on this journey into the Advanced Practices group. Mischa Greig, MA
TheBBP Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy Training was an incredible experience all around. It fundamentally changed how I conceptualize and practice as a therapist, and it also fundamentally changed me as a person (for the better!). Lisa & Stacy bring an incredible amount of care and heart to their work, and it has been a gift to be on the receiving end of it. It’s hard to put into words how special the experience was, so to put it simply – I highly recommend it! Emma Clark, MA
This BBP Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy Training has been a profound and life-opening journey—one that deepened not only my clinical practice but my way of being. It rekindled a love for creating capacity, for meeting myself and others with even more presence, compassion, and curiosity. If you’re seeking a space that invites you to remember yourself more fully, to explore new edges of awareness, and to be stretched in the most human and healing of ways, this is it. The gratitude I hold for the hearts, wisdom, and relationships woven through this experience is beyond words. Danielle Morran, MC
As a new clinician entering the field, I was searching for a training that truly resonated with my values and way of working — and I’m so grateful to have found the BBP Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy Training. It has not only shaped and enriched my work with clients, but has also profoundly transformed me on a personal level. Jo Sawa, MC
The BBP Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy Training program was both personally and professionally transformative. I continue to develop sophisticated new ways of working with clients. Being able to track my own nervous system as well, helps me clinically and supports protection from burnout. The deep learning, practice and integration over two years will provide sustainability in my clinical practice. Jessie Baynham, MA
In the BBP BBP Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy Training, I gained a better understanding of how to work relationally and somatically with clients having complex trauma. This program is substantive and based on extensive research and clinical experience. Both Lisa and Stacy offered their expertise and informative content, and Lisa presented multiple demonstrations to help us understand her approach developed over the course of her career. As a clinician, I now feel more confident and competent with C-PTSD clients. Over the two years, I learned several new interventions and skills that have been helpful time and time again. Christina Niven, MA
One of the three pillars of Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy 2-year Training, and all of Bringing the Body into Practice’s clinical offerings, is the articulation and application of attachment theory, and modern attachment theory, to clinical practice. Understanding attachment and applying the theory to clinical practice is imperative for the practice of psychotherapy, as early relational experiences establish the neurophysiological and psychological template of self which typically play out across the lifespan, for better or for worse. *Note, the bolded text in the blog will link you to the content.
The Adult Attachment Interview Training
The Adult Attachment Interview remains the gold standard of attachment assessment and has specific use for therapists understanding and applying attachment theory into clinical practice. Stacy and I had the privilege of training in the Adult Attachment Interview training with Dr. Mary Main and Dr. Erik Hesse in 2015. It was this training that sophisticated and nuanced our understanding of attachment classifications, which we have then translated to clinical understanding and application to clinical practice, and teach in the Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy 2-year Training.
There’s so much more to say here, but in a nutshell, clinicians and the general public are misled to believe that self-report or cognitive tests can accurately offer information to assess attachment states. One of the brilliant aspects of the Adult Attachment Interview is that it surprises the unconscious which is necessary to elicit and showcase attachment states which are housed in the implicit and unconscious, and therefore often out awareness. This understanding is paramount to understanding how attachment wiring is out of awareness and implicitly wired in the self, which calls for right brain therapy to attend to and facilitate change. For a little more info on the AAI, here’s a link to Dr. Miriam Steelespeaking about the Adult Attachment Interview – it’s good but brief.
Attachment Theory
John Bowlby, more than 50 years ago, proposed attachment theory as a radical departure from current thinking of his day where psychoanalysts understood patient issues as arising from disturbances of internal drives. Bowlby, asserted that it was the relational bonds with the attachment figure that are the basis of the infant’s survival, whereby the attachment figure is the safe haven and a secure base from which the infant can explore. Bowlby went on to assert that it was through these early caregiving interactions that people developed internal working models, so ideas, both consciously and unconsciously held, about how one feels about themselves, how one understands relationships to work, and how one feels about the world/people (safe/dangerous). Attachment Theory teaches us that these early learnings and understandings of self and relational dynamics stay with us across the lifespan, for better or for worse. This theory was cornerstone in the emergence of attachment related therapies and relational psychoanalysis which are cornerstone to Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy.
Emerging from attachment theory and application to clinical practice, Selma Fraiberg, Edna Adelson, and Vivian Shapiro (1975) wrote the groundbreaking article, Ghosts in the Nursery: A psychoanalytic approach to the problems of impaired infant-mother relationships. This classic paper is at the bedrock of the field of infant mental health and articulated findings from their caregiver infant therapeutic work, speaking to the intergenerational transmission of trauma passed from one generation to the next through the attachment relationship, and operating outside of conscious awareness. Like Fraiberg and her colleagues, Drs. Stephen Mitchell and Jay Greenberg understood that disrupted and distorted relationships (attachment) were at the heart of the patient’s distress, and published another seminal work (1983), Object Relations in Psychoanalytic Theory, that was instrumental in bringing the relational, interpersonal psychoanalytic approach to, and beyond, the psychoanalytic world. (Incidentally, it was relational and interpersonal psychoanalysis that legitimized Ferenczi’s (1873 – 1933) work).
Modern Attachment Theory
In addition to the Adult Attachment Interview training(AAI), Stacy and I both spent many years inDr. Allan Schore’s Seattle-Vancouver Study Group. This immersion into diverse and varied components of Dr. Schore’s thinking was sophisticated and stretched our scientific minds and clinical work. Schore has been called the “American Bowlby” and has tirelessly championed clinical practice, with the support of neuroscience, to move our understanding to a two-person, relational view of therapy. With his wife Judith Schore, they have articulated a Modern Attachment Theory (2007) – link to original article here.
Modern Attachment Theory is rooted in neuroscience (developmental, affective, and social), and articulates and evidences an early right brain, implicit, non-verbal model of attachment, housed in the unconscious. It is grounded in regulation theory and centres emotion and the regulation of affect at the heart of therapeutic change and practice. This modernization of attachment theory calls for clinicians to attend to attachment injuries via right brain to right brain, body to body therapeutic connection in contrast to left brain, verbal, cognitive ways of working, and is the bedrock of Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy.
Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy Training
As a therapist educator I have a particular drive to support therapists to translate attachment theory, specifically modern attachment theory, into clinical practice. When we delve into attachment research and literature we find a range from simple to complex. As therapists, we need to have a complex and nuanced understanding not only of attachment theory and attachment assessment, but most importantly, therapists must be able to recognize and work with attachment injuries in the everyday content of clinical practice. Attachment injuries are present across multiple, perhaps most, presenting issues that bring people to therapy, and therapists need to work with both the explicit and implicit knowing or wiring of attachment in and of the self.
Clinicians need a complex and nuanced understanding of attachment: how it was formed; how it is maintained; how it continues to support or interrupt healthy relational functioning; how different dynamics of relating interface with each other, and; how to facilitate not only shifting of the patterning, but how to bring the out of awareness relational dynamics into awareness, so the patient increases their own awareness and understanding of the dynamics and profound, repetitive impact to their life.
Our attachment training is about increasing therapist’s capacity to listen for, recognize, and work with the sophisticated and subtle dynamics inherent in the formation of attachment, particularly insecure attachment, that happen out of awareness and in the everyday dynamics or relational field of a person’s relational life. It teaches up how to listen for the relational patterning both intra and inter personally that support or impede healthy functioning, and then work with it within the clinical relationship from a right brain stance to attend to the implicit, non-verbal, bodily based information and processing. Further, we will explore how therapists understand their own histories and attachment patterning and how it interfaces with their therapeutic practice.
Working clinically through an embodied attachment lens that holds affect regulation and relational process at its heart, is demanding, and rewarding. If this has piqued your interest, this is our expertise, come and train with us. Email us at – trainings (at) bringingthebody.ca
As the year comes to a close, we took the morning to reflect on 2025 in the BBP world. As we considered our year, we sat with such deep gratitude for the work we are so fortunate to do- to train amazing therapists from across Canada in an orientation that savours individual expression, creativity and relationality – more about thathere😊
In ten years of training therapists across Canada, we have had the pleasure of working with and mentoring therapists who work with diverse populations and with a broad clinical scope. Common to them all, is the capacity for generosity of the heart and commitment to advancing their craft as psychotherapists.
So, here are some of the highlights from 2025
Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy 2-year online training – 2025, graduated two cohorts. It’s always bittersweet to complete a training. The depth of learning, vulnerability, stretching, connection and integration is profound, and it is moving to witness and be a part of. We hear over and over again, “I knew this training would change my practice, I didn’t know it would change my life”. No exaggeration here – but really, how do you advertise this? Well, that’s what blogs are for – here are links to what some alumni have said 😊 first blog,second blog, and third blog.
Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy 2-year online training – 2025, began two cohorts – March and May. What can I say, it’s amazing to watch clinicians, both new to the field, and seasoned alike, fall in love with the body and bring the body into practice. To witness therapists fall into the right hemispheric work is a ride – bumpy, mucking about at first, but then, WOW, it all comes together in the second year (for our current cohorts, that comes in 2026). Beautiful to see people take the work and find their way, to take Attachment Theory and apply it to clinical practice; to understand and bring the body front and centre into clinical process, moving from mindful awareness to somatic processing (here’s a blog all about that), and to work skillfully through a Psychodynamic lens that attends to the therapeutic relationship, relational dynamics, defenses, etc, to move therapy forward. For more information, click here.
Embodying the Heart Retreat: An Online Intensive for Therapist Evolution. In November we re-launched our retreat work, this time online. And, how fun. We invited creative process into the mix of this three day online intensive for SAP students and alumni, and never mind fun, it was POWERFUL, POTENT, and PURPOSEFUL. We honed in on therapist practice and evolution, inviting therapists to process and reflect on their clinical practice, asking in essence, what is your practice asking of you and what do you need from it? We ran the retreat as a fundraiser and donated over half of the fees collected to the BC SPCA (so $5000 for the animals). We can hardly wait to run it again – slated for November 2026 – more info here.
In April, Stacy ran his Chronic Shame in Clinical Practice: An Embodied Relational Perspective online workshop for therapists. Every time Stacy offers the workshop, we reach more therapists from across Canada who want to better understand how chronic shame is part of insecure attachment and hides in plain sight. It is, what I would call, a sticky part of clinical practice where it operates, as Stacy writes, like an invisible hand that guides one’s life. This workshop didn’t disappoint – over five weeks we gathered and talked about chronic shame in clinical practice, its etiology, how it presents (and hides), how to work with it from an embodied relational perspective, read, right hemispheric vs cognitive approach (which is refractory), and perhaps most significantly, Stacy starts out the workshop with the agenda to humanize folks with chronic shame. I feel teary writing this – it’s such a powerful opening and invitation – of course, I’m taking the liberty to extend it here to you, the reader. Here’s a link to the workshop info, and I’m happy to say, Stacy is offering it again in April 2026 – more info here.
Wildfire Trauma Fundraiser – in April we offered our third lecture and fundraiser on working with Wildfire Trauma. In 2025 we expanded this presentation and invited the wider therapist community, which included therapists from across Canada (the previous two lectures/fundraisers were limited to BBP therapists). As always, the fundraiser (as part of the BC SPCA Champions for Animals program) was well attended and we raised $3350 for the BC SPCA. We have plans to offer this again spring of 2026.
As a training program, our community service fundraising is focused on animal welfare, and 2025 was an excellent year in terms of funds raised and donated. This year we donated to two organisations – the BC SPCA and to Cat’s Cradle Animal Rescue. All totaled, we raised $8350 for the BC SPCAand donated an additional $2000 to the Cat’s Cradle Animal Rescue feral cat program.
In June 2025 Lisa closed her clinical practice after twenty years. It was hard to say goodbye, not only to the people in my practice, some of them who I had walked beside for a very long time, but to close that chapter of my clinical world and work. It was a difficult decision, but one that has opened new possibilities for teaching and curriculum development and expansion.
In October, I offered the Attachment, the Body and Relational Repair: Three Pillars of Clinical Practice Workshop. Over 5 evenings online we gathered with a group of therapists from across Canada to explore how attachment trauma deeply impacts the integrity of the self, and is at the heart of insecure attachment, disrupting healthy development, and forging a neurophysiological template that endures throughout the lifespan. We brought understanding to how to apply attachment theory to clinical practice through an embodied relational lens. As always, the discussion was rich and 5 weeks felt like we were saying goodbye just as we were getting started (yes, this is a plug for the 2-year Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy Training).
Most important of all, we were able to work with therapists across Canada in meaningful and transformative ways, not only for their clinical evolution, but also for their own personal evolution. Recognizing the gift of leading 13 cohorts of therapists on this journey is difficult to quantify and articulate in terms of our feelings of privilege and gratitude.
Last week I attended a seminar offered by BCACC on SEO with Tedi Bezna, founder of Searchlight Digital.Although it was called Human-Led SEO in the Age of AI Search, I could have also personally titled it ‘The Brave New World of marketing in the AI Age’, or ‘navigating the tire fire of AI to fire proof your business’. In all seriousness, Tedi offered some real insights that I’m taking away, and attempting to put into practice.
A main takeaway that I’m going to try to address here, is that people are able to ask incredibly specific, unique questions about our trainings using Chat GPT and the like, that I had never considered possible using a simple Google search. As a thought exercise in this blog, I’m imagining a prospective student typing in something like… What is the best online somatic therapy training in Canada? So I thought that I might ask and answer this and some other possible questions…from my perspective of course 🙂
In the daily lectures, Lisa Mortimore, PhDtakes diverse and complex academic material from Somatic therapy, Attachment research, and Psychodynamic Practice, and makes it accessible through her engaging way of teaching, clinical demonstrations, lectures and discussions. Our daily practice sessions are facilitated by skilled, open hearted, generous clinicians who understand this way of working, and want to help students internalize the work. Additionally, we offer group consults between clinics, where students can present cases and get feedback in applying this way of working in their practice.
I’m a recent Master’s graduate. Is the Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy training good for me? Definitely. The Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy trainingoffers and expansive and comprehensive foundation in working with affect regulation, the body, attachment patterns, the therapeutic dyad, and trauma, in the context of psychotherapeutic practice. It takes the clinically necessary and rich areas of Somatics, Attachment, and Psychodynamic Process, and presents them in a coherent way of thinking about clinical practice, and working with clients, that clinicians at any point in their clinical career, can integrate into their practice.
I’m a seasoned clinician. Is Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy going to add enough to my practice? Absolutely. This program has a depth, breadth, sophistication and nuance to clinical practice that can meet clinicians anywhere on their career trajectory.
I just heard about Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy trainings. Are they new? Not at all. The Bringing the Body into Practice, Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy 2-year training have been offered for 10 years, and in 2026 we are starting our 14th two-year training cohort. Lisa Mortimore, PhD has been teaching and offering workshops and trainings since 2005. Stacy Jensen, MEd has been teaching since 2010.
Are Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy trainings only online? The Bringing the Body into Practice, Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy trainings are only available online. I know that some people will be turned off by this, but we have found some real benefits to working online, particularly when it comes to affordability and accessibility. Until the Covid pandemic, we taught our two-year trainings in person in Victoria BC, and we loved it, but we found that we were a regional training, with students only coming from the western Canada.
Since moving the Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy trainings online, our trainings have become truly national, which I think demonstrates the increased accessibility that our live online format offers, with both current students and alumni coming from most provinces, and including: British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Nova Scotia and the Yukon.
This is a pretty massive change for the program, which I believe is also facilitated by the relative affordability, that the online format offers, with the removal of the costs of travel, meals, accommodation, etc., that would be incurred by students who needed to travel to take our training. These changes combine to make it possible for more therapists to take the Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy training, which I believe is a great thing for students and clients alike.
I find it hard to be online all day, how do you make it easier for me? I absolutely get that being online all day is a stretch for lots of people, and I think that we have done a good job to make it work for a wide cross section of therapists. We want students to keep their camera on during the training, because it is essential for creating safety within the group, but apart from that, we want students to do what they need to do to regulate their nervous system so that they can be most present. This may include stretching, yoga, knitting, and the like, to help maintain focus while taking in the information.
I hope that you and our AI overlords enjoyed the read 🙂
Stacy
The best somatic training for therapists is gold in SEO ranking. Last week I had a meeting with our web guru, David @ Geeks on the Beach Web design and we talked about Chat GPT. Full disclosure here, I NEVER want to talk about social media, SEO, ranking, etc.…but I know it’s a valuable way to get our message out there, and David makes it easy and entertaining, so that helps 😊. So, following his advice, I sat down to write a blog merely for the SEO value – though it’s true, it’s WAY more brash and unapologetically BOLD than our regular attraction instead of promotion marketing strategy. Bear with me as I follow his sage advice.
Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy is an excellent choice as a comprehensive and depthful training program that supports therapists to incorporate the body and somatic therapy with attachment theory and relational psychodynamic practice into a clinical orientation.
Why is the Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy Training the best somatic training and why is it sought after? The Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy is an online training for Canadian therapists by Canadian educators. It meets the gold standard for training clinicians by weaving rigorous academic material into digestible and applicable clinical practice, along with live demonstrations and experiential application of clinical skills.
What is Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy and why is it the best somatic training for therapists? Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy is a clinical orientation that weaves somatic therapy, attachment theory and application to practice with psychodynamic relational practice to attend to and repair relational trauma—insecure attachment.
What does the Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy Training involve? The Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy Training offers a sophisticated and nuanced integrated understanding of diverse clinical and academic content curated into applicable understanding for practice application. Live clinical demonstrations and video sessions are used to explicate or highlight the therapeutic work. We also have daily coached practice sessions with kind, skilled facilitators who are graduates of the program. Between the clinics there are group consultations included.
Is Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy connected to other somatic training programs? No, Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy is a standalone entirely Canadian based training program for Canadian therapists with a graduate degree in a mental health discipline. The Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy training is headquartered in Victoria, BC however, we have students from across Canada, including: Vancouver, Nanaimo, Port Alberni, Comox/Courtenay, several Gulf Islands, Tofino, Prince George, Chilliwack, Fort Langley, Maple Ridge, Cloverdale, Whiterock, Surrey, North Vancouver, Kelowna, Kamloops, Revelstoke, Fort St. John, New Hazelton, Terrace, Dawson Creek, Halifax, Whitehouse, Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary, Canmore, St. Albert, Leduc, Saskatoon, Haida Gwaii, Winnipeg, Moncton, London Ontario, New Market, Sault Ste. Marie, Upper Kingsclear NB – to name a few. Check out ourreferral page by clicking here.
uniquely and boldly combines somatic therapy with attachment theory and application to practice, and relational psychodynamic practice.
is an unequalled training for the reparation of early attachment injuries, including insecure attachment.
is limited to therapists with a graduate degree in a mental health discipline therefore it allows us to depthfully and ethically teach clinical psychotherapeutic practice.
is a Canadian training and teaches therapists living in Canada.
runs on a cohort model creating small, intimate and safe learning opportunities.
offers skilled and kind feedback and coaching of your practice sessions. We work from a pedagogy of kindness.
offers 8 group consultations per calendar year included in your training fee.
is an ever-emergent curriculum that integrates current theoretical and conceptual information into a clinical practice oriented towards working relationally and with and in the body.
Who is the Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy Training for? Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy Training is for therapists anywhere in their career who are looking for a comprehensive understanding of working with trauma through the lens of the body, attachment theory and psychodynamic relational practice.
Can I talk to someone about the Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy Training before signing up? Yes, if you are interested in taking the 2-year Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy Training, and you live in Canada, and have a graduate degree in a mental health discipline and a therapy practice, reach out, we are happy to meet with you to talk about the training, the curriculum, answer questions, and make sure it’s a good fit.
Is online somatic training effective? Good question – yes. We’ve been offering our trainings fully online since spring of 2020 and have found the online format to be a highly effective way for people to learn Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy. Online somatic training allows people to be in the comfort of their environment without the time and cost of travel and accommodations.
Every moment in therapy — not just the heavy ones — is a conversation between two nervous systems. I feel it in subtle ways: a tightening in my chest, a flutter in my stomach, or a lightness I can’t quite name. My nervous system constantly attunes to the client’s, noticing the small rhythms, pauses, and cues — like the gentle shifts of wind through branches, signaling movement in the therapeutic/relational field.
Early in my work, I probably wouldn’t have recognized these cues. Now, I register them. My eyes may water, not because I’m feeling sad, but because something is moving in the field. Attending to my own system in the moment allows me to remain present, resourced, and available — a dance of co-regulation, not self-processing.
Capacity as the Ability to Bear Witness
Capacity speaks to the ability to bear witness — to ourselves and others. If we haven’t tended to our own wounds in our own therapy and reflective work, our nervous system can’t fully hold space for similar experiences in another, or even experiences that resonate on some level.
Capacity grows from knowing our own nervous system and cultivating self-attunement and regulation so that we can remain regulated, present, and responsive, moment to moment during sessions. This is always developing; and there is, and always will be, space for more capacity. This expanding capacity allows me to hold space with care, steadiness, and attuned presence — like a forest standing firm through shifting weather, providing shelter and support to the life within it.
The Body as Co-Regulatory Ally
Throughout sessions, I notice subtle bodily cues — a tightness in my chest, a flutter in my stomach, or a shift in posture — that signal to me how the material in the field is moving through both the client’s and my own nervous system. This is not about processing for myself, but about allowing the activation present in the session to be sensed, regulated, and moved in real time.
During sessions, my body helps me remain attuned to the client’s right hemispheric processes, including rhythms, pauses, and cues. Grounding through my feet, softening into my seat, or placing a hand on my heart are ways I support regulation as the work unfolds — like roots stabilizing a tree during a storm, providing resilience while still moving with the air currents around it.
These in-session practices enable me to bear witness and support clients in a way that fosters deeper, more integrated healing — a steady, embodied responsive presence that moves with the flow of the material in the therapeutic/relational field.
From Endurance to Attuned Presence
Many therapists may not fully realize the depth and importance of what holding space requires. Early in my practice, I didn’t realize that true attuned presence isn’t just about being available for the client — it requires an ongoing, intimate relationship with our own nervous systems and psyche.
My own process of learning to hold space deepened profoundly through the two-year Bringing the Body into PracticeSomatic Attachment Psychotherapy Training, which invited me to meet my nervous system and relational patterns with greater curiosity and care. It offered a living reminder that how we tend to ourselves shapes the ground we offer others. This means noticing my own activation in the moment, regulating my nervous system and responses, and continuing that work outside of sessions.
Presence is nurtured through small, somatic practices: noticing breath, posture, and tone; pausing when the client’s system shifts; or using grounding cues like rhythm through the feet or a hand on the heart. Each micro-moment of such noticing and tending strengthens the relational field and allows us to hold space for clients to be seen, felt, and cared for, without losing our own regulation — like water flowing gently around rocks, shaping a channel while continuing onward.
Relational Capacity: We Don’t Hold Alone
Therapy asks us to witness deep emotions and wounding — but capacity isn’t a solo endeavor. Connection with supervisors, peers, mentors, or even the natural world expands our nervous system’s tolerance and capacity. Holding space is inherently relational: the therapist’s system is influenced by, and influences, the client’s system, and support outside sessions builds my capacity, which ultimately strengthens both.
During a clinic in the Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy Training, Lisa Mortimore, PhD shared something that stayed with me: We don’t become therapists without wounds, and we can’t become exceptional therapists without noticing and tending to them. Her words remind me that our own healing happens outside of sessions, so that inside the session, we can remain steady, attuned, and available.
Through my training, I came to see that holding space isn’t just about being available for the client — it begins with tending to our own systems first. Our inner work becomes the soil from which attunement and repair can grow.
Our capacity is shaped not by perfection, but by our willingness to meet what lives within us in our own reflective work — so we can bear witness to clients with tenderness, regulation, and repair. Every session, every moment, is like a river carrying both sediment and water: our own regulation helps the flow move smoothly, holding space for the client’s experiences without stagnation or turbulence. It’s an invitation to stay with, to soften, to keep becoming, like soil gradually nourishing roots and life over time.
A Gentle Closing
A therapist’s capacity is never fixed — it unfolds over time, in layers, through reflection, self-attunement, and connection. As therapists, we are expanding our capacity to stay present, attuned, and steady, even as new layers of experience arise in ourselves and in our clients. This work is ongoing, tender, and deeply human.
Each session, each moment, is an invitation to continue cultivating the capacity to bear witness, with care, compassion, and curiosity. By orienting, breathing, and noticing, I support my own regulation. This helps me remain fully present. Bearing witness doesn’t require endless endurance; it requires presence, embodied awareness, and relational attunement, all things which are at the heart of the Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy Training.
Danielle Morran, MC, CCC is a relational therapist trained in Somatic Attachment Psychotherapyand embodied regulation. She supports clients in reconnecting with their body’s wisdom, cultivating awareness, regulation, and deeper connection, and fostering healing, growth, and meaningful relationships. To reach Danielle, go to her website, https://www.morrancounsellingtherapy.com/
The BBP Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy Training was an incredible experience all around. It fundamentally changed how I conceptualize and practice as a therapist, and it also fundamentally changed me as a person (for the better!). Lisa & Stacy bring an incredible amount of care and heart to their work, and it has been a gift to be on the receiving end of it. It’s hard to put into words how special the experience was, so to put it simply – I highly recommend it! Emma Clark, MA
stainability in my clinical practice. Jessie Baynham, MA
The Adult Attachment Interview remains the gold standard of attachment assessment and has specific use for therapists understanding and applying attachment theory into clinical practice. 
Emerging from attachment theory and application to clinical practice, Selma Fraiberg, Edna Adelson, and Vivian Shapiro (1975) wrote the groundbreaking article, 
As a therapist educator I have a particular drive to support therapists to translate attachment theory, specifically modern attachment theory, into clinical practice. When we delve into attachment research and literature we find a range from simple to complex. As therapists, we need to have a complex and nuanced understanding not only of attachment theory and attachment assessment, but most importantly, therapists must be able to recognize and work with attachment injuries in the everyday content of clinical practice. Attachment injuries are present across multiple, perhaps most, presenting issues that bring people to therapy, and therapists need to work with both the explicit and implicit knowing or wiring of attachment in and of the self.
