About Us
Jean Esther
MSW, LICSW
Jean is a psychotherapist with a private practice in Northampton MA, specializing in a mind-body approach in the healing of trauma. At the root of her work is over 40 years of training in meditation practice. She teaches in the Buddhist tradition at the Insight Meditation Center of Pioneer Valley in Western MA and IMS (Insight Meditation Society) in Barre, MA as well as across the US and Canada. In addition, she is a Continuing Ed faculty in the Smith College School of Social Work. Her work is also informed by training in Jungian Psychology, Somatic Experiencing, and physical theatre.
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Polly Howells
Polly Howells, LCSW, has been a psychotherapist for fifty years. She was a member of the BodySoulRhythms Leadership Training Program for a decade, from 1997 to 2007, studying with Marion Woodman and her colleagues. She took a life-changing trip to the Ecuadorian rainforest in the summer of 2007, becoming acutely aware of the precarious situation facing human life on earth. She mostly closed her therapy practice in 2009 to focus on micro- and macro- strategies to heal the earth-human relationship. She sits on two Boards: The Marion Woodman Foundation and Radical Joy for Hard Times, and is involved with numerous environmental organizations. Studying myth, folklore, and fairy tales from a very early age, she researches and develops stories to ground the learning experience in the Reclaiming Our Lives, Reclaiming Our Earth retreats. , Contact Polly
Janice Steiber-Rous
ACAT Body Therapist
Janice Stieber-Rous is the creator of Body Dialogue, an integrative therapeutic system that reorganizes the body and develops a new mental feedback process that eliminates habitual dysfunctional movement patterns. It is a form of movement re-education that draws on the wisdom of the following systems: Alexander Technique, Stough Breathing Coordination, Qi Gong, and Yoga and Body Soul Rhythms (based on Jungian psychology and the work of Marian Woodman). She teaches internationally, and has been conducting women’s retreats of this nature since 2003. Janice is a former dancer, studying with the Martha Graham company since the age of twelve. She graduated in 1972 from Sarah Lawrence College, and holds a Master’s degree from Bank Street School of Education in Arts Education and Administration. Her specialty has been arts and wellness from the inception of her private practice in 1981.
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