Publications
Articles, Talks & Press Materials
Talks
The Joy of the Invisible – Subtle and Spiritual Aspects of Body Psychotherapy
Summary
Opening keynote at the 24th GBP Conference, October 2023
Spirituality & Therapy
On experiences at the edge of the known that enrich our lives.
n body psychotherapy, we come into contact with ourselves through our feelings. As we move deeper, essential aspects of our being are increasingly touched. In this way, the therapeutic process becomes spiritual.
In meditation, we experience dimensions beyond all boundaries while also coming into contact with the limitations of human existence. Integrating the more difficult aspects of life becomes an essential part of the journey.
The two realms inevitably touch one another. In this talk, I explore how they can enrich and illuminate each other.
Author: Bettina Specht
Articles
From Darkness into Light
Summary
Our world is shaped by visual impressions. Social media, computers and television, films and books, advertisements everywhere – all constantly draw our attention outward. Not having everything within our sight can quickly feel threatening.
Many unconscious aspects of ourselves remain hidden in the dark. It can be tempting to distract ourselves from them.
Keeping our attention constantly focused on something outside ourselves has almost become the norm. The images and the world around us seem to be rushing by, and we hurry along behind them with our attention.
And yet, closing our eyes – in sleep, during deep relaxation or while receiving a massage – can feel profoundly soothing. Trust begins to unfold. We experience what it means to be accepted. Time moves at a different pace in the darkness.
“In the stillness of darkness, you can hear the grief of your heart.”
— Ivonne Weingart (1974)
And then, sometimes unexpectedly, insights, realizations or even visions arise. Hidden within us lies a mystery worth uncovering, the mystics tell us:
“The more deeply we recognize the darkness, the more truly we reach the invisible light within it.”
— Nicholas of Cusa (1401–1464)
I myself have learned to love the darkness.
Once I spent ten days, and another time fourteen days, in complete darkness as part of a dark retreat.
This article shares exercises and experiences from a workshop in which we spent some time with our eyes closed. Together, we ventured inward and allowed the unexpected to reveal itself.
Author: Bettina Specht
Power from Silence – Meditation in the Desert
Essential Resonance Spaces of Healing
Summary – Vianova Publishing:
This article brings together Bettina Specht’s knowledge from various spiritual traditions with biodynamic psychology and psychotherapy. In therapeutic work and supportive accompaniment with the subtle dimensions of the human being, experiences may arise that require particularly sensitive guidance and a broader transpersonal understanding.
At such moments, the intellect needs to step back, allowing consciousness to come into contact with a deeper dimension – the essence of our being.
Bettina Specht draws in particular on experiences shared by participants in the “Desert Retreats” she developed. The concluding perspective turns to the return to everyday life: to the individual’s place within the Earth as a collective space of healing, to the power of the Earth, and to the connection between individual processes of transformation and healing and collective trauma work.
Author: Harald Piron for Vianova Publishing
The Primary Personality as a Source of Lived, Embodied Spirituality
Summary
“Sit contentedly” — or perhaps “Sit joyfully” — is a simple phrase from Gerda Boyesen that has stayed with me for many years.
What does it truly mean to be content? Contentment is more than acceptance. To be at peace with the moment as it is means to meet life with appreciation and gratitude, to allow what is unfolding, and to surrender into a trusting relationship with life itself.
A loving openness toward life, together with the joy of meeting and connecting with another human being, are qualities of the primary personality. This deeper, more essential self gradually opens when we begin to feel truly at home within ourselves. A gentle, relaxed and welcoming environment can support this unfolding enormously. A free and open awareness cannot flourish under stress.
Anyone who has spent time in meditation knows this quiet inner space — a field of presence that is always there, quietly waiting beneath the surface. Yet the reflex of staying constantly alert, the habit of expecting something negative, our tendency to judge, and especially the harshness with which we sometimes turn against ourselves, can carry us far away from this simple state of contentment.
And so we may forget how to simply be here — to sit, to breathe, to feel, and to meet life with an open heart.
How can we feel fulfilled and connected, even in difficult circumstances?
This workshop took place during the second lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic, giving us a unique opportunity to explore this very question together.
Author: Bettina Specht
Heart Space – A Tender Encounter with Yourself
Summary
Gentle bodywork, simple and deeply attuned to ourselves, helps us cultivate intimacy with our own being and a closer relationship with ourselves. At times, it feels almost like a meditation through the body, from which creative elements may emerge. Above all, it is a simple practice, rooted in listening inwardly. In this way, tension and habitual holding patterns in the body can begin to soften and release.
And throughout the practice, in the “corner of our attention,” awareness rests gently on the heart. In this relaxed and trusting closeness to our own heart, it begins to reveal its secrets.
This becomes fertile ground for meeting life in a true and authentic way — first ourselves, then other people, nature and life itself, and perhaps even the source and the mystery of where it all begins and ends.
Author: Bettina Specht
“The gaze drifts into the vastness”
As far as the horizon, I can see nothing but sand dunes. I sit here and simply enjoy the vastness. My gaze glides over the soft, flowing shapes of the dunes. Today, they seem almost feminine in their rounded forms.
Up ahead, one of the women who is currently on retreat is walking across the dunes. It is clear to see that she is happy. She runs up and down the sandy hills, dances, and keeps returning to a tree that seems to have become her special place for meditation.
There is something so free and alive in her movements. Her red scarf catches the wind, standing out in vivid contrast against the pale sand. It brings me joy to watch her.
The Book
Desert Light and Dark Space – Stories from the Silence
Again and again, I experience how nourishing it is for participants to turn inward and reconnect with themselves. When a world shaken by war, crises and the looming climate catastrophe seems to be coming apart at the seams, the soul needs — and offers — a sense of direction. We need to turn inward.
IIn the first part of the book, I share the story of my own experiences in the desert and in dark retreats, and the traces these experiences have left in my life.
Drawing on the wealth of experience gathered through accompanying the many people who have entrusted themselves to my guidance, the second part has become a book of practices and inspiration.
To help you unfold your own potential, you will find guidance for your personal inner journey of exploration. Inspiring experiences, texts, poems and stories from participants accompany you along the way, offering glimpses into the many ways in which we can grow and evolve.
Sensitive, vibrant people create a sensitive, vibrant world. Be part of it.