Upcoming Events

Trauma-Worlds and their Transformation: Moving beyond a life built around fear, dissociation and shame

The Embodiment Conference – Online

Friday October 23rd, 2020.

2pm UK time live. FREE to watch for 48 hours afterwards.

ABSTRACT:

When we suffer experiences that are emotionally damaging, survival systems are activated inside of us. These systems are built around fear, dissociation, and shame. They change how we feel and think about both ourselves and others. They also change how we behave.

In the short term these changes are protective, but in the long term they create terrible suffering. Indeed, as the changes are incorporated into both our minds and bodies, we start to live from within a reality that is distorted, self-critical and dulled. I call this reality a ‘trauma-world’.

In this presentation I’ll describe trauma-worlds, the protection that they offer and the suffering that they create. I’ll then explore how we can transform our trauma-worlds, and move away from their distortions towards a more compassionate and vibrant life.

Trauma-Worlds and their Transformation

Keynote address and seminar at the conference of the Polish Association for Jungian Analysis on the theme of Jungian Psychotherapy of Traumatic Experience.

Cracow, Poland, 24-25 April, 2021

The Death Mother as Nature’s Shadow:

How an evolutionary consciousness contributes to a more nuanced understanding of maternal hostility, ambivalence and neglect.

Keynote address Royal College of Psychiatrists, Evolutionary Special Interest Group.

London, Friday October 29, 2021

Book Signing & Reading

Past Speaking Events

My animal body

The Story Party, Salisbury Literary Festival, UK.

The archetyapl Death Mother as nature’s shadow: Infanticide and the deep history of Human Kind

Public Lecture, C.G. Jung Club, London, UK.

Death Mother/Life Mother: An anthropolgoical contribution to understanding mother-infant dynamics

Clinical Forum, The Bowlby Center, London, UK.

The archetypal Death Mother as nature’s shadow

C.G. Jung Public Lecture Series, Bristol, UK.

Understanding and healing emotional trauma

Community Library Event, Kingsclere Hamshire.

Video (edited) available at http://bit.ly/Sieff_Kings2016

Transforming trauma in psyche and body

Plenary Lecture, Pacifica Graduate Institute, California, USA.
At conference, ‘Coming Home to the Body: The Legacy of Marion Woodman’.

How to understand and heal emotional trauma

Public Lecture, Royal Society of Arts (RSA), London.
Audio recording available for listening or downloading at http://bit.ly/Sieff_RSA_talk

Video (edited) available at http://bit.ly/Sieff_RSA_Vid

The nature of the archetypal Death Mother

Plenary Lecture, Cambridge (UK) Jungian Circle.

Early relational trauma, insecure attachment patterns and healing: Insights from a modern evolutionary perspective

Journal of Analytical Psychology International Conference, Boston, USA.

Maternal ambivalence, early relational trauma and insecure attachment trajectories: Insights from a modern evolutionary perspective

Scientific Meeting, Tavistock and Portman Trust, Tavistock Clinic, London, UK.

Attachment: How recent research in evolution and anthropology contributes to psychotherapy

European Association of Body Psychotherapy Conference, Cambridge, UK.

The nature of Death Mother

Marion Woodman Foundation BodySoulRythms® Conference, Chicago, USA.

Anthropological Presentations

Resources and subsistence strategies among the Datoga pastoralists of Tanzania

Department of Biological Anthropology, University of Cambridge

How does household wealth affect livestock production among the Datoga pastoralists of Tanzania?

Department of Biological Anthropology, University College London.

How does wealth influence the subsistence strategies among the Datoga pastoralists of Tanzania?

Institute of Biological Anthropology Oxford University

Sex ratio variation in human populations

American Anthropological Association, Phoenix, Arizona

Do wealthy Kel Tamasheq (Toureg) nobles of central Mali sacrifice reproductive success for the demonstration of prestige?

Evolution and Human Behavior conference, University of Michigan

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