Editorial

Dear Readers,

Welcome to our summer issue. We would like to invite contributions to our 2020 special issue on the theme of migration. Migration is a current topical issue that affects a growing number of people and it seems timely to dedicate a special issue to the psychological spaces associated with migration. On the one hand, migration is as intrinsic to our species as eating and sleeping, yet on the other, migration, and particularly refugees, has become a political theatre for a range of vested interests in many parts of the world, some voices even seeking to criminalise this ordinary aspect of human life. Writing, in the midst of Brexit chaos and mayhem, it is astonishing how few people seem to remember the European Union was conceived to end millennia of armed conflict in central Europe. It was founded on the principle that living and working together forges bottom-up ‘knowing’ and becoming ‘known’ relationships and thereby stabilising international relations. With our call on this topic, we invite articles about working with refugees, displaced, or trafficked people. Additionally, articles on the psychological spaces associated with migration transitions, cultural integration, the impact of social conditions, or aspects arising from re-integration in reverse-migration contexts. The deadline for submissions is 30 September 2019.

In this issue, we have an exciting range of varied and enriching articles. Firstly, Emi Kaneko, Nobuhiro Kamiya and Yuhei Hatakenaka from Japan contributed an article entitled ‘An application of Dohsa Therapy at university counselling services for student-athletes’. Dohsa therapy will already be familiar to some readers from Haruo Fujino’s (2016) case study published here. The authors describe how dosha therapy was implemented through university counselling services and contributed to the connectivity between the services and the student athletes by overcoming the barriers to psychological assistance. Mental health still holds a stigma. Consequently, students in higher education can feel isolated with their concerns, not disclosing for fear of judgement such as seen as ‘weak’ or a ‘failure’. Providing a physical intervention, in contrast to counselling or psychological services, can support students with their help-seeking behaviour. All students could benefit if offered as a whole-institution approach. The online version of this article is accompanied by three short videos; one demonstrating the therapy through an arm raising exercise, and two more showing a client raising an arm pre-therapy and post-therapy.

Theodora Bareka, Sarah Rodríguez Cigaran, and Heidrun Panhofer from Spain contribute the article ‘Refugee children and body politics: The embodied political self and dance movement therapy’ which is also an entrant to our 2019 New Researcher Award. This article explores inter-related themes of the impact of social conditions and political decisions on the construction of self, considered in the context of Greek refugee crisis, and Dance Movement Therapy as an intervention tool in such circumstances. It proposes the term ‘embodied political self’ defined as the self as an active actor, with a sense of physical cohesion and a sense of belonging in the wider social and the political environment. The article discusses how experiencing social exclusion impacts refugees’ children and how a dance movement therapy intervention encourages the re-construction of a child’s embodied political self.

The final article is by Jovahna Peña (another entrant to our 2019 New Researcher Award) from the USA with the title ‘The embodied intersubjective space: The role of clinical intuition in somatic psychotherapy’. This article explores the relationship between the somatic experiences of intuition and the field of somatic psychotherapy through an epistemological vision of providing insight and ground to a common, yet not fully understood phenomenon in clinical practice. The embodied intersubjective field, hemispheric integration, and embodiment practices are explored in this model to serve as a bridge between theory and practice and to hold the potential for transformation. This is a valuable contribution to the ongoing discourse on a complex and multi-faceted theme that informs the ways in which we think and talk about bodied experience and phenomena. Peña joins the ranks of previous authors published in this journal who explored emergent ‘non-linear’ conceptions such as Roz Carroll’s (2011) ‘In search of a vocabulary of embodiment’ for example.

We would also like to draw your attention to a conference report by Nancy Eichhorn and Wade Cockburn from the USA who reflect on their experiences at the USABP National Conference November 1–4, 2018, Santa Barbara, California, USA entitled ‘The science of connection: Honouring our somatic intelligence’.

In this issue, we have two book reviews. Déspina Granéta from Greece reviews the book ‘Dance movement psychotherapy: History, theory, methodology, tools’ by Anastasia Nikolitsa. This is the first dance movement psychotherapy handbook in the Greek language and presents a milestone for the development of dance movement psychotherapy (DMP) in Greece which will further support the recognition and establishment of DMP there.

Nava Lotan from Israel contributes our second book review, namely for the book ‘The meaning of movement: Embodied developmental, clinical, and cultural perspectives of the Kestenberg movement profile’ (2nd Edition) by Janet Kestenberg Amighi, Susan Loman, and K. Mark Sossin. While the Kestenberg Movement Profile (KMP) will be familiar to many readers, Lotan recommends the substantial expansion presented in this new edition of a classic text.

We hope you enjoy reading this issue.