Daniela F. Sieff, PhD
Author, scholar and speaker, exploring the dynamics that underlie emotional trauma, healing and well-being and illuminating how it feels to live these dynamics.
About me and my approach
For over 20 years I have been working to understand the dynamics that underlie trauma, healing and well-being, and to articulate how it feels to be living these dynamics.
I share my understanding and insights in books, talks, podcasts, webinars, articles and videos. I invite you to join me in this exploration.
My work interweaves personal experience – both my own and that of others, with formal research done by trauma psychotherapists, depth psychologists, anthropologists and evolutionary biologists.
In 2015, I published a book of interviews with leading thinkers about trauma (see below). More recently, I’ve shared what I’m learning in articles, talks and videos. I am currently writing a new series of short books.
I developed scholastic rigour as a young adult conducting research for a PhD in evolutionary anthropology at the University of Oxford. I developed a more embodied mode of investigation as an older adult tending to my own trauma. I bring both approaches to the work that I put out into the world.
I aspire to produce work which speaks to people who are exploring their own trauma, to mental health professionals, and to those who simply want to be better informed. I strive to communicate about trauma, healing and well-being in a way that is accessible, layered, and compassionate.
I hope that you will find it valuable.
Presentations & teaching
I have come to really enjoy sharing what I’ve learnt with others and am doing more teaching (whilst continuing to write news books).
The subjects I speak about include emotional trauma and its healing, healthy and toxic shame, maternal hostility, and The Archetypal Death Mother.
Some of my presentations are rooted in evolution and anthropology, others in depth psychology and Jungian approaches. Many draw on a range of perspectives. I typically have a personal interest and experience of the topics, and this also informs my approach.
My presentations are designed to be accessible to anybody with an interest in psychological dynamics and how they impact behaviour.
I have delivered keynote presentations at conferences hosted by The Royal College of Psychiatry, The Compassionate Mind Foundation, and Pacifica Graduate Institute. I have also spoken at The Royal Society of Arts, a number of Jungian groups, the Bowlby Center and the Tavistock Clinic. Additionally, I now host my own webinars.
I hope that you will join me.
Webinar Testimonials
Explore My book
Understanding and Healing Emotional Trauma
Understanding and Healing Emotional Trauma explores the forces involved in both the creation and healing of emotional trauma in a way that is accessible, engaging and vibrant.
It comprises ten conversations with leading clinicians and researchers, each of whom shares their understanding in a warm, personable and informative way. The questions addressed in these conversations include:
- What is emotional trauma?
- How is it created?
- What is it like to live with emotional trauma?
- How can we heal?
- What does it mean to be healed?
Marion Woodman, Donald Kalsched, Tina Stromsted and Bruce Lloyd offer perspectives from depth psychology, inviting us to enter the inner world of the world of the unconscious mind and body.
Allan Schore, Daniel Siegel and Ellert Nijenhuis provide neurobiological perspectives, elucidating how trauma impacts the biological systems that mediate our emotional lives.
Sarah Blaffer Hardy and Randolph Nesse and James Chisholm contribute evolutionary perspectives, framing emotional trauma within the legacy of what we have inherited from our distant ancestors.
Each interviewee’s ideas are presented in an accessible way which will resonate with the general reader, but at the same time the interviews go into sufficient depth to convey substance and nuance. I was aiming for a tone that is akin to popular science writing.
Reviews from Readers
Other Publications
Explore some of my work
How to Understand and Heal Emotional Trauma.
Royals Society of Arts Public Events Programme
The Death Mother as Nature’s Shadow.
Fostering compassion and healing through an evolutionary consciousness
