Profile

Marianne Bentzen

I teach professional meditation and post-education trainings in Scandinavia and Europe. Over the years I have taught in seventeen countries and presented at more than 40 international and national conferences. I have authored and co-authored a number of articles, books and chapters, many with my close colleague, psychologist Susan Hart.

I am a member of the European Association for Bodypsychotherapy and the Danish Psychotherapist Association.

Activities

  • Meditation trainings
  • Theme-focused workshops in psychotherapy trainings
  • 2-8 day post-education trainings
  • Professional supervision and development groups
  • Consultation and team trainings with organizations
  • 12-day trainings followed by certification programs

Perspective

My understanding of human consciousness and behaviour is grounded in research-based neuroaffective developmental psychology, from cradle to grave.
My theoretical and practical maps include psychomotor development, evolutionary psychology, trauma theory, body-based mentalization and system-oriented perspectives.
My work is also influenced by a spiritual approach developed through decades of spiritual training, empathic mindfulness training and meditation.

Areas of expertise

Teaching and implementing neuroaffective development as a map for psychotherapy, personal development and clinical work.
Teaching and implementing the neuroaffective systems perspective in group and team development.
Developing and deepening a meditative practice 

Empathic meditative presence as a clinical and pedagogical interaction method.

Developing a neuroaffective therory and practices that support it

Since the mid 1990’s, psychologist Susan Hart and I worked closely together to develop and implement Neuroaffective Developmental Psychology. We have written numerous books and articles, many in peer-reviewed journals. With colleagues, we have created and implemented a child group treatment program and a parent training program that can be adjusted for use with vulnerable as well as with normally functioning parents. We have developed a 15-item Personality Assessment to help professionals create interventions that target the emotional learning zone of infants, children, teenagers and adults, and have certified more than a thousand people to work with it. We are constantly updating the theory with new research and developing ways to implement it.

I have woven this theory and practice into teaching meditation for professionals, starting with implementing it in my own decades of meditative practice. 

Training background

In 1980 I was certified as a psychomotor therapist from Skolen for Kropsdynamik [the School of Body-Dynamics] in Copenhagen. This training focused on bodypsychotherapy, and from 1982 to 1997 I went on to develop the Bodynamic psychotherapy training with teachers from the original school. 

From 1982-99 I also participated in many professional workshops and trainings with international trainers and system founders in the field of bodypsychotherapy, including Ron Kurtz with Hakomi therapy, Albert Pesso with Psychomotor Therapy, David Boadella with Biosynthesis and Peter Levine with Somatic Experiencing.

From 1995 to the present I studied and practiced daily meditation and meditation retreat processes with the Danish spiritual teacher Jes Bertelsen, who has certified me to teach mindfulness.

In 2005 I was certified as a Somatic Experiencing therapist, case consultant, supervisor and Postadvanced trainer. 

From 2006 to 2022 I have studied the theory and practice of Systems-Centered Training with founder Yvonne Agazarian and her colleagues.