About
BAP
About BAP
The program is grounded in eight core anchors:
1.
Phenomenological anchor —with particular emphasis on the thought of Maurice Merleau-
Ponty, as articulated in his seminal work Phenomenology of Perception.
2.
Clinical anchor
the evolution of the body in psychotherapy, from Freud to contemporary relational psychoanalytic perspectives.
3.Critical perspectives
body, language, politics, and relations of power, inspired by Michel
Foucault, Luce Irigaray, Iris Marion Young, and Jessica Benjamin, and in dialogue with contemporary feminist and critical thinkers of the body, movement, and embodiment, emphasizing the multiplicity of languages and modes of experience.
4.Body psychotherapy
from the classical traditions of body psychotherapy (Janet and
Reich) to the work of Bessel van der Kolk and contemporary neuroscience research.5.
Physiological–experiential learningunderstanding bodily processes through direct, lived experience.
6.
Embodied inquirydiverse methods of bodily and movement-based investigation.
7.
Choreographic–artistic anchor
an exploration of how creative processes, choreographic thinking, and artistic practices may generate change, transformation, and
renewed movement of experience, meaning, and relationship.8.
Performance in supervisory processesa bodily–experiential action in which the therapist brings the therapeutic experience into live enactment, as an act of re-created making. This process enables thinking, reflection, and transformation through the body, resonance, and collective presence. Supervision thus becomes a liminal space of living learning, in which clinical knowledge emerges through enactment rather than through verbal representation alone.
The uniqueness of the program is articulated through three central dimensions:
Theoretical–conceptual expansion
Participants are exposed to a broad spectrum of contemporary thinking about the body, including philosophical, choreographic, somatic, and psychoanalytic perspectives. The program encourages dialogue among these approaches and offers an entry point into a rich and evolving field of embodied clinical practice in Israel and internationally.
Somatic work within a psychodynamic framework
The program integrates practices, body-based clinical thinking, and somatically focused interventions within psychodynamic psychotherapy, with the aim of bringing the actual bodies of both therapist and patient into fuller presence in the analytic encounter and the therapeutic relationship.
Artistic collaboration and choreographic inquiry
The program includes artist workshops led by prominent choreographers from Israel and abroad. It is grounded in long-term, sustained research and dialogue between these artists and the program’s founder, with the aim of examining which aspects of choreographic thinking and practice can nourish, enrich, and transform clinical work.
This collaboration includes attendance at dance performances, artist talks, and embodied studio-based inquiry, opening a reflective space that links choreographic experience with clinical thinking.The program spans two academic years. Classes meet bi-weekly in sessions of six and a half academic hours each.
Each year includes 22 meetings, not including performances and artist talks (2–3 per year). The total scope of study is 150 academic hours per year.
The program takes place at Kelim — Center for Contemporary Choreography, in a
spacious and welcoming studio at 2 Nefaha Street, Bat Yam.Throughout the program, the group is accompanied by one or two assistants who participate in all sessions and provide continuity, containment, and additional perspectives within the learning process.
Participants are strongly encouraged to support their studies through ongoing personal therapy, appropriate to their stage of professional development and to the depth of the material studied.
In addition, the program includes separate payment for individual and group supervision, selected from a carefully curated list of supervisors who combine deep psychotherapeutic training with substantial somatic and movement-based practice. This structure is intended to ensure that the clinical integration of the work is held with both emotional rigor and embodied sensitivity.The program is intended for licensed therapists holding a master’s degree in a therapeutic discipline, with at least six years of clinical experience, who maintain an ongoing embodied practice (such as meditation, yoga, dance, or another awareness-based movement discipline).
Priority will be given to applicants who have completed a foundational psychotherapy training program.
Body-Aware
Psychotherapy Program
Integrating Somatic, Movement-Based, and Pre-Verbal Models into Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy
The Body-Aware Psychotherapy Program offers a profound, innovative, and distinctive course of study, designed to deepen therapists’ bodily awareness and to strengthen their connection to zones of aliveness and vitality. Through a wide range of embodied–experiential modes of inquiry, the program refines the physical body and the spectrum of possibilities inherent in the living body, linking psyche and consciousness to the bodily unconscious and to the multiplicity of languages that dwell within it.
Beyond personal development and the intrinsic joy of embodiment, the body holds information that is not always accessible to verbal language. Within the program, participants learn to work with somatic patterns, bodily memories, and symptoms; to extract movement–linguistic expressions; and to move back and forth between physical and psychic layers of experience. Some of this material is translated into clinical content, while other aspects are absorbed into the body as residue, continuing to reverberate across the different layers of experience.
Noa Esther
Co-founder and Program Coordinator
Body-aware Psychotherapist, accompanying individuals in personal development processes through an approach that connects the inner—mental, emotional, and embodied—world with everyday lived reality. Facilitates groups for adolescent girls. A dedicated practitioner of inner work, with a deep love for movement and embodied exploration. Has been involved in and continues to engage in a wide range of projects, including: content development and facilitation in Israeli–Palestinian women’s groups; coordination of the Body-Oriented Psychotherapy Program within the Department of Psychology at Reichman University; and management of the field of safeguarding and resilience in the Central Arava region.
Dr. (PhD) Shinar Pinkas-Samet
Founder of the BAP Program
Founder of the Body-aware Psychotherapy Program – an integrative framework incorporating bodily models into psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Bibliotherapist and body-aware psychodynamic psychotherapist; supervisor. Her research explores the interface between language, psychotherapy, movement, choreography, and creative processes. She maintains ongoing collaborations with numerous choreographers and with diverse somatic and movement-based approaches, examining what can be distilled from dance practice and from the choreographic gaze and brought into the psychotherapeutic clinic. Among the choreographers with whom she has collaborated over the years: • Saar Harari, Artistic Director of Gaga – exploring the relationship between Gaga, the movement language developed by Ohad Naharin, and body-oriented psychotherapy; • Galit Liss – her work with older adults, in collaboration with the Clinical Psychology of Aging Program at Ruppin Academic Center; • Yasmeen Godder – research on empathy; • Anat Daniali – useful choreography and embodied work as a catalyst for transformation; • Orly Portal – pelvic movement and traditional and contemporary body languages. Her collaborative research with choreographers has led to the development of methodologies that address the multiplicity of languages within analytic psychotherapy, with particular emphasis on bodily language; co-teaching practices; and ongoing embodied and theoretical research. Together, these strands have culminated in the creation of a unique, rich, and in-depth program, in which the teaching staff participates in a living, ongoing dialogue. She has been dancing from a young age, whenever possible. She writes and edits academic articles—and occasionally also indulges in writing prose.
Noa Oster
Co-founder and Program Coordinator
Body-aware Psychotherapist, accompanying individuals in personal development processes through an approach that connects the inner—mental, emotional, and embodied—world with everyday lived reality. Facilitates groups for adolescent girls. A dedicated practitioner of inner work, with a deep love for movement and embodied exploration. Has been involved in and continues to engage in a wide range of projects, including: content development and facilitation in Israeli–Palestinian women’s groups; coordination of the Body-Oriented Psychotherapy Program within the Department of Psychology at Reichman University; and management of the field of safeguarding and resilience in the Central Arava region.
Dr. (PhD) Shinar Pinkas-Samet
Founder of the BAP Program
Founder of the Body-aware Psychotherapy Program – an integrative framework incorporating bodily models into psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Bibliotherapist and body-aware psychodynamic psychotherapist; supervisor. Her research explores the interface between language, psychotherapy, movement, choreography, and creative processes. She maintains ongoing collaborations with numerous choreographers and with diverse somatic and movement-based approaches, examining what can be distilled from dance practice and from the choreographic gaze and brought into the psychotherapeutic clinic. Among the choreographers with whom she has collaborated over the years: • Saar Harari, Artistic Director of Gaga – exploring the relationship between Gaga, the movement language developed by Ohad Naharin, and body-oriented psychotherapy; • Galit Liss – her work with older adults, in collaboration with the Clinical Psychology of Aging Program at Ruppin Academic Center; • Yasmeen Godder – research on empathy; • Anat Daniali – useful choreography and embodied work as a catalyst for transformation; • Orly Portal – pelvic movement and traditional and contemporary body languages. Her collaborative research with choreographers has led to the development of methodologies that address the multiplicity of languages within analytic psychotherapy, with particular emphasis on bodily language; co-teaching practices; and ongoing embodied and theoretical research. Together, these strands have culminated in the creation of a unique, rich, and in-depth program,in which the teaching staff participates in a living, ongoing dialogue. She has been dancing from a young age, whenever possible. She writes and edits academic articles—and occasionally also indulges in writing prose.
Founder of the BAP Program
Founder of the Body-aware Psychotherapy Program – an integrative framework incorporating bodily models into psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Bibliotherapist and body-aware psychodynamic psychotherapist; supervisor. Her research explores the interface between language, psychotherapy, movement, choreography, and creative processes. She maintains ongoing collaborations with numerous choreographers and with diverse somatic and movement-based approaches, examining what can be distilled from dance practice and from the choreographic gaze and brought into the psychotherapeutic clinic. Among the choreographers with whom she has collaborated over the years: • Saar Harari, Artistic Director of Gaga – exploring the relationship between Gaga, the movement language developed by Ohad Naharin, and body-oriented psychotherapy; • Galit Liss – her work with older adults, in collaboration with the Clinical Psychology of Aging Program at Ruppin Academic Center; • Yasmeen Godder – research on empathy; • Anat Daniali – useful choreography and embodied work as a catalyst for transformation; • Orly Portal – pelvic movement and traditional and contemporary body languages. Her collaborative research with choreographers has led to the development of methodologies that address the multiplicity of languages within analytic psychotherapy, with particular emphasis on bodily language; co-teaching practices; and ongoing embodied and theoretical research. Together, these strands have culminated in the creation of a unique, rich, and in-depth program,in which the teaching staff participates in a living, ongoing dialogue. She has been dancing from a young age, whenever possible. She writes and edits academic articles—and occasionally also indulges in writing prose.
Dr. (PhD) Shinar Pinkas-Samet
Co-founder and Program Coordinator
Body-aware Psychotherapist, accompanying individuals in personal development processes through an approach that connects the inner—mental, emotional, and embodied—world with everyday lived reality. Facilitates groups for adolescent girls. A dedicated practitioner of inner work, with a deep love for movement and embodied exploration. Has been involved in and continues to engage in a wide range of projects, including: content development and facilitation in Israeli–Palestinian women’s groups; coordination of the Body-Oriented Psychotherapy Program within the Department of Psychology at Reichman University; and management of the field of safeguarding and resilience in the Central Arava region.
Noa Oster
Einat Tal
Program Cordinator
Certified social worker and licensed couple and family therapist; group facilitator and body-aware psychotherapist. Works from an integrative perspective with a relational approach. Specializes in grief and bereavement. Practices in both private clinical settings and the public sector. Engages in writing poetry and in creating connections between the worlds of psychotherapy, the body, and movement.
Dr. Tami Pollak (PhD)
BAP Senior Lecturer
Psychotherapist and supervisor working in private practice and in Shaked communication kindergartens in Holon. She teaches in the Primary Mental States track at the School of Psychotherapy, Tel Aviv University. She is the editor of the book “I’m Not Moving—Don’t Move!”, which addresses multidisciplinary interventions for young children on the autism spectrum, and the author of The Corporeal: The Primary Psychophysical Space as a Transitional Space. She has published articles in Israel and internationally
Yael Yaakovovitz-Beloh
Movement Therapist and Psychotherapist
Graduate of the Advanced Program in Psychotherapy for Primitive Mental States at the Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, and a senior supervisor in arts therapies. She has unique professional experience in child development within mental health clinics in Ramat Chen, at the “Oti” Association, and at ALUT. Currently, she supervises arts therapists at the Oti Association and in psychotherapy and movement-therapy training programs, and works in private practice.
Dr. Ram Matzliach (MD)
BAP Senior Lecturer
Resident in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry within the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services at Ziv Medical Center. In his clinical work, he integrates knowledge from the fields of the body, movement, and psychotherapy. His approach is grounded in the study of anatomy, physiology, and biomechanics, alongside somatic qualities inspired by Skinner Releasing and Butoh. He is interested in understanding relational processes through authentic movement and cultivates meditative attention based on his training in Rinzai Zen and yoga. In addition, he employs multi-layered touch inspired by integrative craniosacral therapy. He practices EMDR, accompanies communication kindergartens for children on the autism spectrum, and facilitates workshops in contact improvisation and authentic movement. Over the years, he has participated in international performance projects, including Thou Art That with The Forest Ensemble; the video work After the Watchman, directed by Ariane Lithman; the duet Home Space with Gregory Chavalier; and Circle of Creation by Iris Neis.
Nitzan Lederman
Lecturer in Somatic practices
Dancer, teacher, and independent choreographer exploring the interrelations between movement and consciousness. She is a graduate of the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance (SEAD), the Ga’aton Dance Workshop, and the Kelim Choreography Program, and holds an MA in Dance Studies from the University of Bern, Switzerland. Nitzan is a certified Axis Syllabus teacher, a graduate of the SomaticBODY Training program, and co-directs the Axis Syllabus program in Israel alongside Christine Cole.
Dr. Efrat Shaked
Integrative body psychotherapist
Dr. Shaked holds a BA in Life Sciences and MA and PhD degrees from the Gender Studies Program at Bar-Ilan University. She trained as a body psychotherapist in the Mind–Body Studies Program at Reidman College and in the Biosynthesis approach at the International Institute for Biosynthesis in Switzerland. She is a teacher of mindful movement in the Itzhak Guetta method and a supervisor in body psychotherapy. She is also certified as a women’s empowerment group facilitator by the Israel Women’s Lobby. Dr. Shaked teaches mindful running at the Wingate–Levinsky College. Her doctoral research examined the effects of mindful running on bodily narratives of women coping with childhood sexual trauma.
Shantam Zohar
BAP Senior Lecturer
Co-founder and coordinator of the Mindfulness-Based Psychotherapy Program, under the supervision of the School of Social Work at Bar-Ilan University. Leads the training program and a long-term practice group in authentic movement, and develops the Attentive Communication method. Teaching fellow in the MA program in Clinical Psychology at Tel Aviv University, and leader of a multi-year program in Milan, Italy. Holds a master’s degree, clinical training, and certification for supervision in mindfulness-based psychotherapy from the Karuna Institute and Middlesex University, UK. Practices in a private clinic and has been a meditation practitioner for approximately forty years.
Balthazar Tirosh
Lecturer in the field of brain research
One of the founders of the M.A. program at the School of Thinking at the University of Brussels, where he teaches in the area of Thinking and the Brain. He lectured for many years at the School of Dance at the Kibbutzim College. In 2023, a book on sleep and the brain, edited by him, was published. Graduated with honors from the Hadassah–Hebrew University School of Medicine.
Dr. Yaron Matzliach (PhD)
Senior BAP Lecturer
trained in child and adolescent psychotherapy at the Tavistock Clinic and in adult psychotherapy at the British Association of Psychotherapists. He taught the course The Emotional Experience of Teaching and Learning at the Tavistock Clinic and served as Head of the Psychoanalytic Group Facilitation Program in the Continuing Education Unit at the University of Haifa. He has taught at the Schools of Psychotherapy in the Department of Social Work at Bar-Ilan University; at the School of Psychotherapy at the University of Haifa; and at the School of Psychotherapy at Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa. He is a yoga and meditation teacher and a practitioner and facilitator of Authentic Movement
Smadar Elad
Body-oriented Psychotherapist and supervisor
She integrates dance into both her professional practice and her life. She dances within the Gila School and with the Kholot Ensemble, under the direction of choreographer Galit Liss, whose work explores the aging body and its presence in the public sphere. She writes short stories and is a lover of poetry.
Galit Liss
Choreographer and lecturer
Founder and artistic director of Gila School for Movement and Performing Arts for Mature Women. For over 15 years, she has been developing the Gila Language—a unique methodology for working with the mature body through an exploration of its distinctive physiological aesthetics. As part of her artistic and social agenda, Galit Liss creates works with older women who are non-dancers, aged 60–87, and her performances have been presented in Israel and internationally. Her work seeks to stretch the boundaries of stage dance beyond prevailing perceptions and social stereotypes, and to rearticulate the relevance of every body, as it is. Liss is committed to creating an artistic space for women in later life and to advancing a vision of society that enables ongoing development and self-realization within the mature body. Galit Liss is the recipient of the Rosenblum Prize for the Performing Arts (2022), awarded by the Tel Aviv–Yafo Municipality in the category of artists with promising achievements, and was selected as one of the Heroes of the Year by Keshet and Mifal HaPais in 2022. She is a member of the Choreographers’ Association, a graduate of the Artists for Social Change program at the Musrara School of Photography, Media, and New Music (2008), and holds a master’s degree from the Academy of Music and Dance.
Arie Borstein
BAP Senior Lecturer
Holds a BA from Tel Aviv University in Psychology, Anthropology, and Sociology (1978), and an MFA in Dance from Smith College, USA (1989). Trained in Gestalt therapy at the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland (GIC) in 1997, and certified as a Gestalt therapist by the European Association for Gestalt Therapy (EAGT) in 2007. Has taught movement for theatre and dance at the Kibbutzim College of Education, Technology and the Arts in Tel Aviv; at the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland in Israel and the United States (specializing in Body Process); at the Continuing Education Unit of the School of Social Work at Tel Aviv University; at Lesley College in the Dance Therapy Program; at the Shiluv Institute for Integrative Therapy; and at Ono Academic College. A co-founder of the Choreographers’ Association in Israel and the Contact Improvisation Association in Israel, and served as the first chair of both organizations. Member of the Executive Committee of the Israeli Gestalt Association. Facilitates training programs in body–mind Gestalt therapy, as well as groups and workshops focused on personal development through dance, movement, and contact improvisation in Israel and internationally. Maintains a private practice and facilitates groups for organizations, including workplaces, educators, organizational and educational consultants, therapists, managers, and advisors in various settings
Yasmeen Godder
Dancer and Choreographer
Born in Jerusalem and grew up and studied in New York. Since 1999, she has lived and created in Jaffa, where she established her own studio and manages all the activities of her company. The Yasmeen Godder Company receives annual support from the Israeli Ministry of Culture and Sport and the Tel Aviv–Yafo Municipality. Godder has created more than twenty full-length works for her company, which have been widely presented in Israel, Europe, the United States, and the Far East, in venues and frameworks including the Lincoln Center Festival in New York, the Tokyo International Festival, and the Sydney Opera House in Australia. Her works have been supported by numerous institutions, among them Masach Ramah Festival, the Israel Festival, the Petah Tikva Museum of Art, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, HAU Hebbel am Ufer in Berlin, Mousonturm Theatre in Frankfurt, and the Montpellier Festival in France. Godder has received many awards, including the Rosenblum Prizes from the Tel Aviv–Yafo Municipality, the Landau Prize from the Pais Council for Culture and Arts, awards for choreography and performance from the Ministry of Culture, the prestigious Bessie Award in New York, and recognition as a selected artist by the Foundation for Excellence in Culture. She has also been awarded the Shimon Peres Prize for the Advancement of Relations between Germany and Israel. Since 2014, the Yasmeen Godder Company has been running “Community in Motion”, a weekly dance program for people living with Parkinson’s disease. The initiative also includes integrated original productions featuring participants with and without Parkinson’s, as well as conferences focusing on diverse bodies, community, and creation
Orly Portal
Dancer and Choreographer
Dancer, choreographer, dance teacher, movement and voice therapist, and a researcher of tribal and folkloric dance. She is the developer of the Orly Portal Method—a unique movement language. The Orly Portal Method is a distinctive approach to deep embodied connection, grounded in a prolonged and intimate exploration of the pelvic basin. The method integrates anatomical and physiological knowledge with ancient wisdom drawn from Eastern and North African cultures. The encounter between these traditions and Western dance language gives rise to a contemporary practice that restores the pelvis to the center of embodied experience. The work is conceived as a living workshop, in which bones, muscles, skin, internal organs, emotions, and thoughts are gathered onto the worktable—the ground—and undergo a process of circular, repetitive kneading until they coalesce. This is a subtle and respectful energetic inquiry that allows energy to rise from the pelvic region along the spine and manifest as spontaneous movement in space, leading to a tribal and ecstatic experience. The Orly Portal Method offers tools for profound transformation of self-perception and for cultivating a sensual, intimate, and gentle connection between body, psyche, and spirit
Anat Danieli
Dancer and Choreographer
Artist, choreographer, teacher, and dancer who views the world as a choreographic performance. She organizes and gathers reality through a perspective in which everything that occurs and exists is material open to development, growth, and creation. This approach is expressed in her desire not to separate artistic creative processes from life itself. She has created works for the Batsheva Dance Company and for the Anat Danieli Dance Company, and has performed extensively in Israel and internationally. She has received numerous awards, including the Creative Award from the Ministry of Culture and Sport, the Rosenblum Prize for the Performing Arts from the Tel Aviv–Yafo Municipality, and the Landau Prize for Science and the Arts in 2022. She is a co-founder of Kelim – Body for Choreographic Work in Bat Yam, which she served as Artistic Director until 2021. Danieli creates and performs in her own works, collaborates with diverse artists, mentors creative processes, and researches and articulates the practice of “Useful Choreography.”
Tali Turgeman
Assistant (2022-24)
Tali Buchnik Turgeman is an individual therapist and group facilitator, a dynamic body-oriented psychotherapist working with body–mind integration. Her work unfolds through a subtle process grounded in presence, attentive listening, and relational connection.
Natalia Greenberg
Assistant (2024-26)
Clinical social worker and body-oriented psychotherapist. Therapist and supervisor with extensive experience in individual and group treatment in the fields of trauma, loss and bereavement, and addictions. Graduate of advanced training programs in a range of therapeutic approaches, including EMDR, Focusing, Mindfulness, and additional body–mind–based modalities.