Dear Colleagues

It is with great regret that I have just heard the news that Christa Ventling has died. She was a female pioneer in European Bioenergetic Analysis and - most importantly - in qualitative research in Body Psychotherapy. 

She published several ‘research’ papers in various journals over a considerable time period, including a couple of excellent edited books: Body Psychotherapy in Progressive and Chronic Disorders (Karger, 2002), with 4 of her articles in it; and also Childhood Psychotherapy: A bioenergetic approach (Karger, 2001), which was translated into Italian by Livia Geloso & Vanessa Poloni, and published by FrancoAngeli. 

Her ‘ResearchGate’ entry page lists 33 items; some of them very technical in cell biology and cancer research; some in English, some in German. Her somewhat seminal article: "Efficacy of Bioenergetic Therapies and Stability of the Therapeutic Result: A Retrospective Investigation" by Christa D. Ventling, DPhil. was published in the USABP Journal Vol. 1, No. 2, 2002 and reprinted in About the Science of Body Psychotherapy, Edited by Courtenay Young (Body Psychotherapy Publications, 2012). She was incredibly concerned about and supportive of women and women having babies: another of her papers: Sensitivity training of pregnant women: A possible prevention of neurosis of the child?  was presented at the 2002, 3rd National USABP Conference in Baltimore. 

I last met with her - by arrangement - when I was going through Lausanne, in about 2015 and she had come down on the train from her home in Basel and we had lunch together in the station buffet. It was lovely, friendly and very animated. She said that she was still working with groups of women with certain issues.  

She will be missed a lot from within the Body Psychotherapy community.
Yours
Courtenay Young