Michael Soth

Michael is a therapist, supervisor, trainer and group facilitator as well as a consultant and mentor who has developed a unique integration of approaches  that helps to understand and creatively engage with the aliveness and potential of psychological process understood holistically. He is known for his attempts to take the disciplines of psychology and psychotherapy beyond their 19th century origins and 20th century limitations into a 21st century way of working that does justice both to the depth and complexity of the human psyche without getting lost in jargon and defensive theorising.

Bringing together the often contradictory ‘truths’ dispersed throughout a field known for its schisms and fragmentation, he works with the parallels between ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ realities, and between individual, organisational and collective dynamics. This approach opens possibilities for accessing and working with the ever-present changes that always are already happening, rather than having to deliberately envision, force or impose strategic change and manage it through conscious effort. By drawing on the subtleties and complexities of the whole bodymind and its spontaneous processes, we can engage with what are otherwise considered ‘unconscious’ and inaccessible forces - of joy, spontaneity and creativity, as well as the transformative potential of pain and conflict.

Michael trained and practices in the tradition of Body Psychotherapy - one of the very few holistic approaches in a field that is largely dominated by dualistic, verbal, left-brain, linear assumptions. Since its inception in the 1930's by Wilhelm Reich, a student and later colleague of Freud, Body Psychotherapy has developed into a tradition which includes a variety of different schools . They all have in common the recogition that what goes on in the body reflects and influences what goes on in the mind and vice versa. Recent revolutionary developments in neuroscience are confirming many of the intuitions and working assumptions of the Body Psychotherapy tradition regarding emotions, body, mind and psyche, and how they interlink and interweave into a complex, self-organising system.

Extensive further training has taken Michael into psychoanalytic and Jungian perspectives, as well as Process-oriented Psychology and Bert Hellinger's constellations. In the profession Michael is known for pioneering a re-integration between Body Psychotherapy and psychoanalytic and relational thinking.

Michael has this to say about psychology and business:
"Throughout all levels of social organisation, management styles and methods are still largely based on 20th century psychologies and dualistic assumptions and tend to be sufficient only when staff are co-operating with each other and are fulfilling their task-oriented goals. Then left-brain linear consciousness may get us by. However, in times of crisis or radical change - when a transformation in consciousness is called for - a 21st century depth-psychological holistic perspective may be needed to do justice to the inherent dilemmas and conflicts. One of the aspects least understood is the connection between individual psychology and organisational culture, and how they affect and reflect each other. Attending to unconscious processes and dynamics both intra-psychically and inter-personally can liberate energy and creativity which is often needlessly expended to protect, survive and hold out against the irrational forces shaping an organisation."

In his work with organisations, he draws on ideas and principles from psychoanalytic, holistic and integral approaches (self-organisation & complexity theory, Wilber’s integral business models, parallel processes & systemic thinking as well as spiral dynamics and evolutionary perspectives on organisational development.