Clarissa Cigrand, PhD, LPC,
Clarissa Cigrand, PhD, LPC, is a Core Assistant Professor and Co-Director of Faculty and Curriculum in the Mindfulness-Based Transpersonal Counseling concentration of the MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling program. She is an educator, researcher, mental health counselor, and clinical supervisor and received her doctorate in Counselor Education and Supervision. She is passionate about the fields of transpersonal counseling, contemplative practice, contemplative pedagogy, ways of knowing, and social justice and liberation and deeply enjoys the honor of supporting bourgeoning counselors in their development.
36 Responses
Such a great session!
Could you please share some info on working with children and adolescents?
Many thanks!
Interested in this too, thank you for asking the question.
This was a really great conversation and I leant so much! Thank you Manuela for your wonderful teaching, and Clarissa for your great questions. Now I’m going to look for a Hakomi therapist in Cape Town!
Really enjoyed this, thank you so much X
Beautiful session!!!! Touched me a lot. Thank you
what a treasure trove of practical information! Danke Manuela, thank you both!
Manuela is such a gift. I love her presence and teachings. Thank you!
This video was the best one yet! Such profound advice and guidance. Thank you SO much Manuela and Clarissa!
Dear Manuela, I appreciate so much your approach to the healing process. Thank you for what you are doing.
Thank you both for this interesting session! And a so nicely and calmly explained.
This video and approach is a must for therapists who may have first been trained in the top down approach to “mental” health care. It is an unlearning of Doctor-Patient presuppositions and a brand new look at where healing is found. It is a reverence for the human experience that empowers and unites the therapist and the client at the same time. I love it. Thank you for expressing your approach so clearly, Dr. Manuela. You are appreciated.
Rebekah
Like this invite to Doctors, as a nurse I found my way into Deep Listening and Tai Chi for Wellbeing and self compassion training and discovered I lived in a body I was not able to know… huge change. All began with bereavement shake up, a legacy I needed and live to pay forward with my colleagues .. and clients
This was utterly wonderful, thank you so much. My mind and body are considering concepts in new ways. Thank you.
Yes, we need to slow down to experience life. A Busy life feels like survival mode. Thank you
I am definitely going to learn to “sit with my Soma”. Thank you Manuela. Beautifully presented.
Thank you! Beautiful session!
This was such an incredible, informative session. THANK YOU.
Understanding that we all have noticed intelligence, tuning in and listening to our bodies, experiencing what happens within us. Talking to our Somas. Really interesting this has piqued my interest in awareness and mindfulness
Really interesting
This was a wonderful presentation—–so informative and engaging. It helpd me get back to more focus on somatic approaches.
I liked it very much!!! I definitely wil read her boek and look closer to her approach to the wisdom of the body. thanks a lot!
Wow, gentle sense of reciprocal wisdom flow here, really hearing non violence in dynamic between therapist and trusting ‘soma wisdom’ co arising, lovely sense of respect and ‘whispers of the body’ resonated with me as did the “look in” in not out… I am interested in the deepening of my own soma wisdom and trauma healing as a therapist the alchemy of shadow gold in compassionate understanding 🤔 lovely demo Clarissa Manuela focus and taking in wider presencing .. 🙇♀️🌻
This is the first of the talks that I listened to. The things that resonated deeply with me…my body literally relaxing into recognition… included the practice of slowing down, going inwards, the alchemy that leaves both therapist and client changed at the end of the journey, and invitation to engage with the process rather than attach to a particular outcome or result. Thank you! this was a great start to my journey with this summit.
This talk is so real for me and grounded. The terms I hope I can hold on to: organismic, self agency, magical friend, missing experiences, “loving presence”, resistance as positive opportunity for ally-ship and body indicators (Louise Hay would love this one)
The speakers I heard so far helped me recognise something that a lot of people get swept up in: the language of somatic therapies can sound profound, but when you strip it down, it often lacks clear, functional mechanisms of change — at least ones that are distinct from good cognitive-behavioural principles.
One core concept presented — the notion of somatic experiencing as a “bottom-up” approach — appears, in my view, to lack a clear logical foundation. While it is true that physiological responses play a critical role in emotional processing, the un/conscious awareness, interpretation, and regulation of bodily sensations are fundamentally cognitive processes. There is no separate “somatic intelligence” operating independently from the mind; our perception of sensations is mediated through cognitive appraisal.
Thank you for the lively interview and practical examples.
Clarissa, can you name the book you mentioned you read from Manuela?
Thank you!
Pure resonance, like the elephants communicating over many kilometers. I hear you.
Sincere gratitude
Beautiful
I feel deeply in tune with this approach, so respectful and inspiring, also on how to cultivate a profound relationship with ourselves and towards others
Powerful information. Was mesmerized listening to her. Thank you so much for your work and time today to share your knowledge and wisdowm
Amazing presentation! thank you!
Thank you for this interview! I really appreciated the discussion about alchemy which is so true, and needs to be brought to light in the helping professions.
I am so grateful about your comment on the need to work more with attention and focus today. I think this is becoming an essential skill as we move more and more into the knowledge economy powered by digital tools and AI. Thank you for your work, Prof. Mischke-Reeds!
This was an amazing session to watch, especially at the end when you interacted with eachother and how you led the scene. Thankyou for the different breakdowns.
Wow wow wow! What an incredible lecture such deep wisdom just resonates so much, found it very fascinating and exhilarating and so keen to learn more whilst recognising those instinctual knowings within. Thank you.
Thank you for this wonderful discussion! Much appreciated 🙂