Announcement
PhD in Psychology, concentration in Somatic Psychology
As a result of our recent program review, we are making some updates to our curriculum, and we have a new degree name.
The core of our curriculum and the educational values that drive our program remain the same. Our focus will continue to be on the lived experience of being human, including the spiritual, exceptional, and body. We remain guided by and dedicated to offering integral education that honors intellectual excellence, perspective and practice that include spirituality and the body, and the transformative capacities of rigorous inquiry and writing.
We'll continue to offer a high quality, online PhD for students in whole-person approaches to psychology.
Integral Transpersonal Psychology and Somatic Psychology will continue to share some core writing and research courses. Our new degree name reflects our two independent tracks: Integral Transpersonal Psychology and Somatic Psychology.
We are also posting a few curriculum updates here. We look forward to talking with you about them at the CIIS Open House and our Information Meetings. We hope you'll join us.
Program Overview
CIIS’ Designated Concentration in Somatic Psychology within the Integral and Transpersonal Psychology Ph.D. is a unique online doctoral program that approaches psychology from the lived experience of being human, while incorporating scientific rigor in building a more insightful, effective psychology of the living person.
The Concentration in Somatic Psychology asks students to explore the implications for understanding human complexities that emerge from serious, prolonged cultivation of direct bodily experience: breathing, touching, sensing, moving.
Somatic Psychology is at the heart of mind-body research, and on the frontier of exploration into embodied consciousness. Here the living body is the seat of consciousness and mind is the intelligence of the whole embodied person, woven from and into the fabric of a vibrant world. Whole-person psychologies expand the horizons of psychology to include the body’s ways of knowing and moving as an expression of the interconnected living, breathing systems of community, society, and world. From this perspective, it becomes possible to ask new and compelling research questions that lie close to the heart of what it is to be human. The future of whole person psychology lies in what the body knows.
The Somatic Psychology Concentration focuses on research and systematic, scientific knowledge building. The program aims to make early inroads into investigating the results of somatic practices for various improvements in human consciousness and the wellbeing of individuals and communities. We invite our students to recognize that research in somatic psychology is entering a pioneering phase, where their work will be to challenge the difficulties of initial research and develop new methods.
Doctor of Philosophy in Integral and Transpersonal Psychology with a Designated Concentration in Somatic Psychology
Career Paths
This research-oriented degree is well suited for professionals who want to advance their education and contribute to development of somatic psychology and somatics. It is designed for scholars and practitioners who have long-established practices in a transformative body practice such as Biosynthesis, Bodynamics, Hakomi, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Somatic Experiencing, Authentic Movement, Body-Mind Centering, Craniosacral Therapy, Continuum, Feldenkrais, hatha yoga, massage, Rolfing, etc.— and who want to develop new kinds of knowledge that emerge from these practices.
The degree does not lead to clinical licensure, but does offer training for students who want to do pioneering research in embodied consciousness, mind-body practices, and many other facets of somatic psychology. Graduates will be able to contribute their enhanced expertise in areas such as:
- Somatic psychotherapy, social work, and counseling
- Teaching, writing, research, and other academic contributions
- Other fields related to personal development and social change
Questions? Contact us.
We are here to help! If you have any questions about applying to a program or registering for an Info Session, please reach out to the Admissions Office.
