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The Body in Mind: An Immersive Exploration of Embodiment in Clinical Practice
- London, 6 June 2025, Friday
The Body in Mind: An Immersive Exploration of Embodiment in Clinical Practice
Reclaiming the Body in Psychoanalytic Thought and Clinical Practice
For decades, psychoanalysis has wrestled with the paradox of the body – the original seat of experience and yet relegated to the periphery in practice. Freud’s concept of the bodily ego and early explorations of phantasy hinted at the deep entwinement of psyche and soma, but did not go beyond. However, in light of current scientific findings from affective neuroscience and developmental psychology, contemporary clinical work demands a more in-depth and nuanced understanding of the mind-body connection.
Times:
10:00 am – 4:00 pm, London UK
Venue: Broadway House, Tothill Street, London SW1H 9NQ
Important: no online streaming is available for this event
Limited seating event, please book early to avoid disappointment.
Ticket price includes attendance at London plus video recording of the whole event .
Note: Lunch is provided to delegates attending in person.
For more information on how to access handouts and video recordings please click here
There is no known commercial support for this programme.
This course does not qualify for CE credits.
Original price was: £ 159.00.£ 119.00Current price is: £ 119.00.
Receive a 5% discount if you buy more than one ticket for one course. Tell a friend!
Course Credits
Speaker(s)
Course length in hours
Location
Full course information
- How does trauma linger in bodily symptoms representing unconscious impulses?
- What unconscious identifications shape bodily experience?
- How do we understand, in psychoanalytic practice, the connection between anxiety, hypersensitivity, traumatic dreams, and trauma carried by the body?
- And how can therapists use these insights to deepen their clinical practice?
Moreover, beyond theory, clinical work demands that therapists do more than interpret the body – they must also engage with it. How do we work with somatic phantasy, dissociation, and embodied distress in real time? What role do contemplative practices like mindfulness play in fostering therapeutic attunement? As this field evolves, intersubjectivity, embodied cognition, and mindful presence are emerging as vital tools for integrating psychoanalytic insight with lived, bodily experience.
Emphasising this intersection of theory and practice, this one-day intellectually stimulating and experientially immersive workshop brings together leading psychoanalytic thinkers to reposition the body as central to unconscious life. Through rich theoretical discussion, clinical vignettes, and experiential exercises, The Body in Mind offers attendees a rare opportunity to explore somatic phantasy, trauma, and the mind-body split in psychotherapy – culminating in an exploration of how psychoanalytic mindfulness can deepen therapeutic engagement.
Key Sessions & Featured Speakers
Session 1: Freud, the Bodily Ego, and the Mind-Body Split
Speaker: Dr Jan McGregor Hepburn
“Feelings start in the body.” Freud’s famous observation reminds us that bodily experience is foundational to selfhood – yet psychoanalysis has often struggled to integrate the body into its practice. This session explores the mind-body split and its profound clinical consequences, particularly how dissociation, trauma, and unconscious defence mechanisms sever bodily awareness.
Dr Jan McGregor Hepburn, a distinguished clinician, educator, and author, will examine:
- How the mind-body split manifests in clinical work
- Ways to help clients re-engage with dissociated bodily states
- Techniques for integrating the body into psychoanalytic practice
- Clinical case examples illustrating somatic dissociation and therapeutic interventions
This session provides practical strategies for working with bodily ego states, ensuring that theory translates into meaningful, real-world clinical application.
Session 2: The Phantasy Body & Applying Freud’s Bodily Ego in Clinical Work
Speaker: Dr Trevor Pederson
What if our earliest identifications live on in the body, not just in the mind? Drawing on Freud’s concept of primary narcissism, this session explores how trauma and narcissistic injury shape the phantasy body—leading to unconscious identifications with parental imagos through bodily experience.
Dr Pederson, a specialist in Freudian theory and psychoanalytic characterology, will examine how these phantasy forms and symbols manifest in clinical work, shaping personality and self-experience. Through detailed clinical examples, he will demonstrate:
- How trauma influences unconscious bodily identifications
- The relation between narcissistic injury, identification with the aggressor, bad object, or dead object, and projective identification to induce the same narcissistic injury in others
- How therapists can work with phantasy-based dissociation and reintegrate fragmented bodily states
- Case material illustrating psychoanalytic techniques for engaging the body as a site of unconscious identification
This session offers a highly practical approach, helping therapists move beyond interpretation to active clinical application of Freud’s bodily ego.
Panel Discussion: The Body as Phantasy – Intellectual and Clinical Debates
Featuring all speakers, chaired by Dr Gwen Adshead
This session is a rare opportunity to engage in a dynamic, clinically rich dialogue led by Dr Gwen Adshead, one of the UK’s most renowned forensic psychiatrists and psychoanalysts. Known for her incisive yet deeply humane approach, Gwen has shaped contemporary conversations on trauma, violence, and the mind-body relationship. She will lead this high-level panel discussion exploring conceptualizations of the body in different psychoanalytic traditions, addressing key debates in working with embodied transference, and inviting audience participation for interactive discussion on clinical dilemmas.
Session 3: Mindfulness, Psychoanalysis, and the Embodied Self
Speaker: Dr Gwen Adshead
What happens when psychoanalysis meets mindfulness? In this culminating session, Dr. Adshead explores how embodied awareness, self-regulation, and contemplative practices can enhance psychoanalytic work. Drawing on both psychoanalytic theory and mindfulness research, she examines how therapists can engage with embodied distress, facilitate presence, and deepen self-experience – both for their clients and themselves.
With her characteristic depth and accessibility, she will guide attendees through a live mindfulness practice, illustrating how to integrate these insights into clinical work.
Extended Q&A and Clinical Application Discussion
The day will conclude with an extended discussion to ensure participants walk away with practical takeaways. This will be an opportunity to explore case-based applications, address specific clinical challenges, and engage in an open dialogue about translating psychoanalytic insights on embodiment into real-world practice.
Why Attend?
- Learn from leading voices in psychoanalysis and embodiment. Join an intimate gathering of leading psychoanalytic thinkers as they bring theory to life—where Freud’s bodily ego meets the breath, the heartbeat, and the weight of lived experience.
- Acquire actionable strategies for working with embodied trauma, somatic phantasy, and dissociation.
- Step into a space where intellect meets intuition. Share ideas, wrestle with questions, and connect with fellow clinicians who know that healing isn’t just about words—it’s about presence.
- Take part in interactive sessions, including experiential practice and dynamic discussions.
- Immerse yourself in a high-level intellectual and cultural experience, set in a stunning central London venue near St. James’s Park, Westminster Abbey, and the Houses of Parliament.
Who Should Attend?
This event is designed for psychotherapists, psychologists, psychoanalysts, and mental health professionals who want to refine their ability to work with embodied trauma, mind-body dissociation, and somatic phantasy within a psychoanalytic framework.
Reserve Your Place
Spaces are limited for this one-of-a-kind event, where theory meets practice and the body finds its place in the consulting room. Reserve your place now and join us in this rich, illuminating conversation.
© nscience UK, 2025 / 26
Location
What's included in this course
- Presented by world-class speaker(s)
- Handouts and video recording
- 5 hrs of professionally produced lessons
- 1 year access to video recorded version
- CPD Certificate
- Live event in London
Emphasising this intersection of theory and practice, this one-day intellectually stimulating and experientially immersive workshop brings together leading psychoanalytic thinkers to reposition the body as central to unconscious life. Through rich theoretical discussion, clinical vignettes, and experiential exercises, The Body in Mind offers attendees a rare opportunity to explore somatic phantasy, trauma, and the mind-body split in psychotherapy – culminating in an exploration of how psychoanalytic mindfulness can deepen therapeutic engagement.
Learning objectives
- How does trauma linger in bodily symptoms representing unconscious impulses?
- What unconscious identifications shape bodily experience?
- How do we understand, in psychoanalytic practice, the connection between anxiety, hypersensitivity, traumatic dreams, and trauma carried by the body?
- And how can therapists use these insights to deepen their clinical practice?
You'll also be able to...
Develop the ability to interpret and modulate the body’s nervous system (sensory and autonomic) to regulate arousal levels in clients and for safer trauma therapy
Identify and acquire recovery options and strategies for trauma clients inappropriate for trauma memory processing, particularly for those who don’t want to and those who decompensate or dysregulate from memory work
Also develop the ability to interpret and modulate the body’s nervous system (sensory and autonomic) to regulate arousal levels for professional self-care
Dr Gwen Adshead is a Forensic Psychiatrist and Psychotherapist. She trained at St George’s Hospital, the Institute of Psychiatry and the Institute of Group Analysis. She is trained as a group therapist and a Mindfulness-based cognitive therapist and has also trained in Mentalisation-based therapy. She worked for nearly twenty years as a Consultant Forensic Psychotherapist at Broadmoor Hospital, running psychotherapeutic groups for offenders and working with staff around relational security and organisational dynamics. Gwen also has a Masters’ Degree in Medical Law and Ethics; and has a research interest in moral reasoning, and how this links with ‘bad’ behaviour.
Gwen has published a number of books and over 100 papers, book chapters and commissioned articles on forensic psychotherapy, ethics in psychiatry, and attachment theory as applied to medicine and forensic psychiatry. She is the co-editor of Clinical topics in Personality Disorder (with Dr Jay Sarkar) which was awarded first prize in the psychiatry Section of the BMA book awards 2013; and she also co-edited Personality Disorder: the Definitive Collection with Dr Caroline Jacob. She is the co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of Forensic Psychiatry (2013) and the Oxford Handbook of Medical Psychotherapy (2016). She is also the co-editor of Munchausens’s Syndrome by Proxy: Current issues in Assessment, Treatment and Research. Her latest book, The Deluded Self: Narcissism and its Disorders (2020) is out now with nscience publishing house.
Dr Jan McGregor Hepburn has a background in Social Work Management and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy and is a trainer for the British Psychotherapy Foundation She was the Registrar of the British Psychoanalytic Council for 15 years and currently chairs the Professional Standards Committee. She is the author of several papers, most notably those published in the British Journal of Psychotherapy and European Psychotherapy Journal. She has presented papers at conferences and devised and facilitated both seminars and workshops on a variety of subjects to both management dynamics and clinical topics.
She is part of the ScopEd project which is the collaboration between BACP, UKCP and BPC to map the core competencies for clinical work. She is on the Reading Panel of the British Journal of Psychotherapy and has a doctorate from the University of Northumbria. Her latest book: Guilt and Shame, A Clinician’s Guide is out now with nscience publishing house.
Jan was awarded the BPC Lifetime Achievement Award in November 2023 in recognition of her great contributions to the profession and the BPC.
Trevor Pederson, PsyaD is a psychoanalytic counselor in private practice in Laramie, Wyoming. Dr. Pederson is on the editorial board of The International Journal of Controversial Discussions and a member of Division 39 of The American Psychological Association. He won the Gradiva Award for his first book The Economics of Libido: Psychic Bisexuality, the Superego, and the Centrality of the Oedipus Complex (2015) and most recently for his article ‘Superego, Id, and Clinical Creativity’ (2022).
Program outline
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