Philip Bennett, Ph.D.
Philip first attended a conference at Orgonon in 1981, and has returned many times since. He first lectured on the Orgonomic Infant Research Center at a conference in 2008 in New York City, hosted by The Institute for the Study of the Work of Wilhelm Reich. Since then he has spoken on the OIRC in Mexico City in 2010 at the Annual Conference of the International Federation of Orgonomic Colleges and at the International Conference on Orgonomy in Rome, in 2013. A version of his lecture for the current Webinar was published in the Annals of the Institute for Orgonomic Science, in 2014.
Bennett is best known for his research on work democracy, about which he has lectured numerous times both at Orgonon and elsewhere. He is completing his book on Reich’s social and political thought, which is tentatively entitled From Communism to Work Democracy.
Bennett is a retired professor of philosophy. When not writing, researching and lecturing, he spends his free time gardening. He shares his home with Wendy Kohli and Willi, their Shih Tzu companion, outside of New Haven, Connecticut.
James Strick, Ph.D.
Jim originally trained in biology and microbiology. Now a PhD in history of biology and medicine (Princeton U., 1997) and a Professor at Franklin and Marshall College, he has published several books on the history of ideas and experiments about the origin of life, including Wilhelm Reich, Biologist (Harvard U. Press, 2015). He has served on the Trust’s Archives Committee since 2007, and on the Board since January 2017 and has been President since July 2018.
Renata Reich Moise, C.N.M.
Painter, Nurse Midwife, and unwitting community organizer, Renata Reich Moise lives in Hancock, Maine, across the road from the home she was born in. Wilhelm Reich’s teachings have permeated her entire life from the onset. Since Oct. 2019 she has been Secretary on the Board of the WRIT.
Thomas Harms, M.D.
Thomas Harms lives and works in Bremen, Germany and has been working in the field of body psychotherapy for over 25 years with adults, couples and infants. He founded, with his wife Karin Meyer-Harms, an outpatient clinic,the Centre for Primary Prevention and Body Psychotherapy (ZePP) and in 1993 the Crybaby Clinic in Berlin.
This was first cry outpatient clinic for parents with excessively crying babies. From this work he developed his approach which he terms “Emotional First Aid” which is a body-psychotherapeutic model of acute intervention that he teaches in Germany and across Europe.
His main focus is on working with regulatory and attachment dysfunction in the first year of life caused by trauma and also working with adults with traumatic early attachment and developmental experiences.
Angeles Guerrero, M.D.
Homeopath, Master in Education, she practices in Mexico City based in Wilhelm Reich theory since 1984, implementing practices of prevention of the armor during pregnancy and early childhood, working with families and women. She is a founding member of the Centro Reichiano de México.
Courtenay Young
Courtenay is a UK Body Psychotherapist. After being a teacher and sending his children to A.S. Neill’s Summerhill School, he trained originally with Gerda Boyesen & David Boadella, and has also worked with John Pierrakos, Stan Grof, Arnold Mindell, Bessel van der Kolk, and many other body-oriented psychotherapists. He was the General Secretary and the President of the European Association of Body Psychotherapy (EABP) and a founder member of the USABP. Currently, he lives and works near Edinburgh, Scotland. He has written and edited several books including: The Handbook of Body Psychotherapy & Somatic Psychology (North Atlantic Books, 2012) and a series of edited books in his imprimatur, ‘Body Psychotherapy Publications.’ He is also the current editor of the International Journal of Psychotherapy.
Hugh Brenner, MSN, FPNP, CRNP
Hugh is a Psychiatric nurse who trained with the late Dr. Morton Herskowitz. He treats adults, adolescents and children, many of whom have not had good experiences with treatment. He says, “Change requires commitment, honesty, and some emotional risk-taking. When I prescribe medications I do so judiciously and carefully. It takes courage to really look at yourself and change what’s not working for you, something many of us spend a lot of time and energy avoiding. Unfortunately, people also wind up avoiding living their life. Living can become dull and meaningless, or at worst, torturous. I help people experience mindfulness; here and now. I help people feel what they feel, and gradually heal.
Somatic psychotherapy goes beyond mental understanding. By directing attention to vision, breath and what your body is saying (or hiding), locked up feelings, ideas and energies are expressed. This process provides not only symptomatic relief, but a path to experience life in all its beauty, mystery, sorrow and joy.”