Congratulations Dr. Rae Johnson
Chair, Somatic Studies Specialization
M.A./Ph.D. Depth Psychology
Embodied Social Justice introduces a body-centered approach to working with diversity and equity, designed for social workers, counselors, educators, and other human service professionals. Grounded in current research on the embodied experience of oppression, this integrative approach to social justice works directly with the implicit knowledge of our bodies, to address imbalances in social power.
The book offers clear descriptions of how oppression is experienced as a bodily “felt sense” and illuminates the mostly unconscious behaviors that perpetuate inequitable social relations. Consisting of a conceptual framework, case examples, and a model of practice, Embodied Social Justice integrates key findings from education, psychology, traumatology, and somatic studies while addressing critical gaps in how these fields have understood and responded to real-life issues of social justice.
Early Reviews:
“Ground-breaking and indispensable for critical and feminist theory, this book provides important new ways of thinking about how bodies are shaped, influenced and colonized within unequal societies. In a time of growing social inequality, the author offers real insights into how we might resist the social, political and cultural changes that are lived through our bodies.” – Sherry Shapiro, Professor Emerita, Meredith College, Fulbright Scholar, USA
“Oppression spares no body. The injustices we craft our lives within are both systemic and intimate, taking root in the flesh. Rather than pit the political against the body, Embodied Social Justice reveals their interpenetration, opening up mindful awareness of the life of the political within our very tissues and movements.” – Mary Watkins, co-author of Toward Psychologies of Liberation
A much needed, well written, and profoundly useful book that will help change the course of somatics and social justice work. Authored in a powerful and accessible voice, Embodied Social Justice shows us through research and first hand stories the effect of oppression on all bodies, then follows up with practical, powerful, and progressive practices that can bring us back home to ourselves. – Christine Caldwell, PhD, LPC, Author of Getting in Touch and founding Chair of the Somatic Counseling Program at Naropa University, USA
