Homayoun Shahri

My interest and passion in psychology goes back to several decades ago when I was an undergraduate. I began my own (ongoing) Bioenergetic analysis in early 2000, and subsequently joined the rigorous four-year training program in the Florida Institute for Bioenergetic Analysis in 2005, and finished in 2009. I began my graduate studies in Clinical and Somatic Psychology in 2008 at the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute (now part of The Chicago School for Professional Psychology), and graduated in 2012. In my work, I listen to what the client speaks verbally and through his or her body. I pay special attention to client's unspoken words. Through empathic attunement with the client, I become aware of what he or she is experiencing in the therapeutic process, as well as in his or her past. I am also impacted by client's painful experiences and resonate with his or her feeling states. Through becoming a witness to client's painful past, the client can become free of his or her earlier experiences and can feel joy and pleasure of living, being alive, loving, and being loved. I am a Certified Bioenergetic Therapist (CBT) with over 16 years of experience and am intimately familiar with, and have had training in many modalities within the field of Somatic Psychotherapy. In my work, I also employ interventions based on psychodynamic, existential, humanistic theories and therapies. My work is deep and relational. Our psychological wounds generally occurred in our early relationships, and healing occurs in a relationship in which we are seen, heard, and felt unconditionally and non-judgmentally with respect, empathy, and love for who we truly are. The results are spontaneity, motility, benevolence, freedom, and love. I am on the peer review board of International Body Psychotherapy Journal (IBPJ), and have published many papers in the International Institute for Bioenergetic Analysis (IIBA) and International Body Psychotherapy (IBP) journals. I am a member of the International Institute for Bioenergetic Analysis (IIBA), the United States Association for Body Psychotherapy (USABP).