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
I am a scholar, writer and speaker. 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 exploration draws on three strands of information: (1) my own personal experience, (2) the personal experience of others, (3) the insights of trauma psychology, relational psychotherapy, Jungian thinking, attachment theory, evolution and anthropology.
My work emerges from weaving together these strands. In 2015, I published a book of interviews with leading thinkers about trauma (see below). During recent years I have focused on articles, talks and videos. Currently, I am writing a 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 ways of exploring to my work.
In all my work, whether written or spoken, I strive to communicate an understanding of trauma, healing and well-being that is accessible, layered, compassionate, and resonant.
I aspire to produce work which is of value to people who are exploring their own trauma, to mental health professionals, and to those who simply want to be better informed.

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
