Memorial Day was a big deal when I was a child. I was born 15 years after World War 2 ended and 7 years after the Korean War ended. Both, especially World War 2, were still very present in the collective memory. The Vietnam War informed my childhood and early teens. So when we gathered for Memorial Day, the shared acknowledgement of war, loss, grief, and sacrifice was palpable. It…  MORE >

I have worked with Newcomers to the United States for over 30 years. The term Newcomers reflects our (colleagues here in New Mexico) chosen language to offer respect to the variety of experiences, often traumatizing and always life-altering, that immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers, asylees, and others endure. I have witnessed many changes in the U.S.’s policies towards Newcomers, including some that were very painful to all communities involved in resettlement.…  MORE >

Erasure is one of colonization’s most effective and inhumane strategies for collective silencing and oppression. Googling an online dictionary, the definition of erasure is: the removal of all traces of something; obliteration. The recent scrubbing of Black, Brown, Indigenous, and women heroes from Department of Defense websites is a blatant attempt to obliterate the diversity that strengthens, protects, and, when necessary, defends the United States of America. Recently, important content—such…  MORE >

I became a Continuum teacher in 2006. Continuum is al ife and movement practice created over many years by somatic pioneer Emilie Conrad. When I first experienced Emilie’s teaching, I instantly recognized myself in the breath-sound-movement soundscape. It was a homecoming. Continuum pays homage to the 70% water our human bodies are. In this practice, movement is instigated through the use of breath and sound – breath made audible. Similar…  MORE >

One of my favorite Christmas presents from this recent holiday is this license plate (above). I’m going to put it on the front of my car, so it always leads. In the past, the word resistance has conjured tension in my body. It can feel stiff and unyielding. And, as I dive deeper into its meaning and place now, I realize its true meaning and the action of this meaning…  MORE >

We need the light because we are the light. And yet, we are, and need, the darkness too. Our inner landscapes exist in darkness. Visible light may enter our superficial skin layers, but our interior is shrouded in total darkness. And our organs are nourished by photons emitted through the sun’s rays. Most photons that reach us on Earth are not in the visible spectrum but in the Near Infrared…  MORE >

I just watched the movie White Bird on a flight, and even through the tiny airplane screens, I found elements of this film quite impactful. I imagine a movie critic might find some flaw in the plot or character development and consider one of the “main threads”—the link between a character’s Holocaust history and her grandson Julian’s involvement in bullying—a bit thin. Yet, through Helen Mirren’s gifted acting and the…  MORE >

In September’s newsletter I alluded to writing about Haiti and the Haitian community in this newsletter. November is always potent with its first day, the Day of the Dead, following Samhain and ending around a celebration of harvest, however flawed the story of Thanksgiving is. My intention then was to share some of the beauty of Haiti’s rich ceremonial traditions because November is one of our most important celebrations of…  MORE >

Many of my Indigenous teachers remind me to enter spaces in the natural world consciously. Whether going for an ocean swim, taking a nap in a forest or resting on a log, I have been taught to pause, connect with the space I am about to enter and therefore change, and ask permission because my presence there will have an impact. This is also a process of discernment. Discernment has…  MORE >

We all enter spaces: Walk through doorways. Jump in a pool, or the ocean. Step into a meadow. Open a fence gate and enter a garden. Daily, annually, every moment, we enter (and leave and enter, again) a space. When I teach eco-somatic movement, I invite movers to consider that every time we step onto a natural surface (earth, mud, stone, sand) there are tiny microorganisms under our feet. How…  MORE >

Every Sunday, I join a small group of Santa Feans to feed prairie dogs who live, as most now do, crammed in a triangular wedge of dry dusty land between highways. Once prevalent throughout New Mexico, the Gunnison and Black-tailed prairie dog is an icon of this state. Sadly, its reputation as “varmint” has led to it being displaced by growth, its burrow-based living space often bulldozed over for new…  MORE >

July, 2024 ~ I am writing this a few days after joining my weekly Haitian dance class for the first time in 16 months. On March 12, 2023, while in the South Pacific, I stood up to tend to something and collapsed, my left leg unable to carry me. On March 22, 2023, after a long travel home I ended up in emergent surgery. The surgeon thought he would need…  MORE >

June, 2024 ~ As I write this on June 7, 2024, it marks three years since my mother, Mary Jean Jakubowski Gray, died. My Father followed her soon after on August 26, 2021. The amount of time since their passing seems like a very, very long time ago, and, like it was only moments ago. Perhaps the death of both my parents so close together compounded the loss in a…  MORE >

May, 2024 ~ I have never really liked fruit. I think what I really didn’t like was grocery store manipulated fruit. This changed after a profound experience with cloudberries in Norway. I traveled there several times a year to teach, spending time in the Arctic Circle of Samiland. One of my friends and teachers there is a Shaman, who often invited me to accompany him to harvest the few plants…  MORE >

April, 2024 ~ Outside, Spring is so bright I can taste her. Bright. Fresh. Sweet. The sky is such a bold blue that all the other colors – migrating birds’ wings, blossoms popping, fresh leaves – are emboldened to their most potent shade. Observing, I find myself pondering how often I have actually paused long enough to smell Spring. Let scent tendrils infuse the lining of my nose. I’ve written…  MORE >

March, 2024 ~ I’ve just returned from Australia, and shortly after that, Austin, Texas, where I taught in the Embodied Neurobiology Alternate Route to Dance Therapy Program. “Sitting Alongside” is a movement observation and assessment class that centers Indigenous ways of seeing and “assessing”. Traditionally centering systems that originate in euro-centric contexts, this course weaves the brilliant work Body Mind Centering and Polyvagal -informed DMT with this Indigenous perspective.  In…  MORE >

February, 2024 ~ I’m back in Australia, my heart’s home. The immense and diverse land of this sea-surrounded continent is living, breathing history. I’ve met some of the deepest wisdom here, in First Nations friends and teachers, extraordinary wildlife, and magical landscapes, all existing for thousands and thousands of years. It was a dear Australian friend who introduced me to another friend who teaches freediving in Tonga. So this beloved…  MORE >

January 2024 ~ As we move into 2024, I have continued reflecting on place and how place relates to belonging. My relationship with the ocean, and with the ocean’s mighty whales, invokes a strong sense of place. I experience the relationship between humans and ocean as child and Mother, and I am curious how we can reconnect to our deep origins in the ocean. Without her, there is no us.…  MORE >

December, 2023 ~ Recently I was in New York City, close to where I spent my childhood, to teach my course Trauma and the Moving Body. Being back on familiar ground, I began to reflect on 2023, a year that was filled with an intense healing process while I recovered from a life-changing surgery. As a dancer and dance therapist, much of my life has revolved around movement. Having to…  MORE >

Join the PVI Community for this free Somatic Movement Practice led by Amber Gray, PHD, MPH, LPCC, BC-DMT, NCC. Amber is a licensed psychotherapist, innovative movement artist, board certified dance/movement therapist, master trainer and educator. She is also a member of Polyvagal Institute’s Editorial Board. Polyvagal-informed Dance/Movement Therapy is at the heart of Dr. Gray’s Restorative Movement Psychotherapy. The core of this work is breath, sound, and movement as a…  MORE >

Listen to Trauma Healing, Somatic Psychology, and Human Rights Advocacy with Amber Gray and Ali Mezey Join Ali and Amber, and our participating listeners, as they explore the profound lessons gleaned from working with survivors from diverse cultural backgrounds. From the complexities of dissociation to the transformative power of Restorative Movement Psychotherapy, Amber shares invaluable insights and practices for healing trauma. Gain a deeper understanding of the adaptive function of…  MORE >

Embark on a journey of connection and grounding in this beautiful Earth Body Meditation led by Amber Gray. Rooted in Amber’s dual heritage of white settler colonizer and Native American ancestry, this practice merges Native American and Vodou traditions to deepen our sense of being of the earth. Explore sensory memory as you envision placing your feet on your beloved patch of earth, sensing its textures, smells, and colors. Through…  MORE >

Listen to “Embodiment as inquiry with Amber Elizabeth Gray: How am I, in this flesh and blood and love, a part of everything?” In this conversation, Dr. Amber Elizabeth L. Gray asks a series of questions, which deepen us into the question of embodiment and its function to sensitize us to one another and cultivate respect and reciprocity within the more than human world. Dr. Gray is a Dance/Movement Therapist,…  MORE >

Listen to “TRAUMA AND THE BODY with AMBER GRAY” and The Brilliant Body Podcast with Ali Mezey. Be enriched by a thoughtfully crafted conversation where sensitive topics related to trauma, torture, and self-loathing are gently woven into a narrative that is ultimately about love. There are no graphic descriptions of torture, just some causes and effects, but we nonetheless recommend that sensitive listeners prioritize their well-being and engage at their…  MORE >

Listen to “Being Yoga podcast Ep. 24: Interview with Dr. Amber Elizabeth Gray” by Elisa Jouannet Amber is a licensed human rights psychotherapist, innovative movement artist, board-certified dance/movement therapist, master trainer and educator, Continuum teacher, and public health professional. In her father’s words, Amber was born “dancing, fighting, and has never stopped”. Her life-long commitment to social justice and planetary, animal, and human rights; her passion for the natural world…  MORE >

Listen to “Ask Herbal Health Expert Susun Weed” with Dr. Amber Gray on BlogTalkRadio.com.

Listen to “Inhabiting Your Body and Your Wildness” with Dr. Amber Gray on The Unveil Podcast.

Listen to “Cross Cultural Dance/Movement Therapy” with Dr. Amber Gray on The Creative Psychotherapist podcast.

Published in Creative Arts in Education and Therapy – Eastern and Western Perspectives – Vol. 7, Issue 2, December 2021. Click here to read the article.

Listen to Amber on The Nishant Garg Show: EPISODE HERE

Click here to listen to the interview with Dr. Amber Elizabeth Gray.

Amber is interviewed about Continuum, sacred lineage and wild spaces by her dear friend and Continuum colleague, Sylvain Meret.

Ostrolenk speaks with Dr. Amber Elizabeth Lynn Gray, an award winning dance/movement therapist and a somatic/human rights psychotherapist. Dr. Gray has worked for many years with people who have survived human rights abuses, war, and torture. Dr. Gray details how various educational and career experiences, and ultimately her time in Rwanda, drove her decision to pursue her degree in Somatic Psychology and Dance/Movement Therapy. Dr. Gray details her creation of…  MORE >

Amber shares about her Ground in the Swirl series on Sharon Weil’s Passing 4 Normal Podcast. Listen here.

Listen to Amber’s recent podcast with Kate Shannon of Creative Therapy Umbrella: Podcast Blog  

Santa Fe New Mexican article on TRI’s partnership with local wildlife relief organizations in Australia. PHOTO CREDIT: Olivia Harlow/The New Mexican

Sa nou pa we: the ever-present unseen. This concept in Vodou speaks to the existence of everything we see, and all that we do not see.  It speaks to the potent balance of light and dark, day and night, bright and shadow.  Early in the initiation process, the initiate will spend time contemplating a candles light, in a completely dark environment. Next time you see a lit candle look at…  MORE >

Day of gratitude. Beneath and beyond the mythical tradition of a Thanksgiving meal (see my post last night regarding the untold history of this time), I welcome today as a day of reflection and gratitude. My reflection begins with something that happened many times on my recent trip to Sri Lanka. Many hotels, restaurants and stores in Sri Lanka have a security person stationed there, to check your bags. I…  MORE >

From Darfur, Kosovo and Haiti to her clinic in New Mexico, Amber Elizabeth Gray has become a human rights psychotherapist, merging dance therapy and Continuum in her recovery work with refugees. Produced by Watermark Arts for the “Continuum & Creativity of Health” interview series. WATCH HERE.  

Amber’s chapter “Creative Arts Therapies with Refugees” is in Refugees and Asylum Seekers: Interdisciplinary and Collaborative Perspectives, edited by S. M. Berthold and K. R. Libal. You can find the book here.    

Amber’s chapter “Body as Voice: Restorative Dance/Movement Psychotherapy with Survivors of Relational Trauma” is in The Routledge International Handbook of Embodied Perspectives in Psychotherapy. You can find a copy here.

Listen to this podcast here.

Amber is one of the featured clinicians who writes about her polyvagal-informed movement therapy in Dr. Stephen Porges’ latest book. You can find the book here.

Let’s dig into the science behind dance/movement therapy as a highly effective & suitable treatment choice for trauma survivors. In this episode, Amber Gray talks about her collaborative work with “Distinguished University Scientist” Stephen Porges, who discovered the Polyvagal Theory.

Amber’s publication “Dancing the Wild Home”, is in the 2018 edition of Currents, the BMCA Journal.

Amber’s speech at Senator Heinrich’s Unite Event in Albuquerque makes the news.

Listen to Amber on The Embodiment Podcast. Experienced dance movement and trauma therapist Amber joins Mark to discuss humanitarian work, polyvagal theory, state sharing, self compassion and self care when you work with trauma, the new trauma rock stars, humour, and not wearing kid gloves. We also discuss simply “what works” in trauma, and offer practical trauma-related tips for any embodiment professional.

Amber’s chapter, co-authored with Dr. Stephen Porges, “Polyvagal-informed Dance Movement Therapy with Children who Shut Down”. You can find the book here.

Click here to read Amber’s publication on Polyvagal Informed Dance/Movement Therapy.

The sixty-first session of the Commission on the Status of Women took place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, from 13 to 24 March 2017. Representatives of Member States, UN entities, and ECOSOC-accredited non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from all regions of the world attended the session. The themes of this years session were: Priority Theme: Women’s economic empowerment in the changing world of work Review Theme: Challenges and achievements in the implementation of the Millennium Development…  MORE >

Amber shares her experience of meeting Emilie Conrad and discovering Continuum Movement. Watch now on YouTube.

Dear Donald Trump, You are definitely not my President, because you single-handedly just broke hearts, separated families indefinitely, shattered spirits, and undermined the values that truly once made America great. Those values of inclusivity, hospitality, and humanitarianism are omitted from this action. I spent yesterday in my refugee clinic, counseling survivors of human rights abuses from Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan. This is the work I have done for twenty years.…  MORE >

Have you felt immobilized by the results of this presidential election? Shut down? Off-balance? Somatic psychologist, Amber Gray, talks with Sharon Weil about how terror and fear affect the body, creating either a shutting down response or an impulse towards fight or flight action. She provides essential and helpful insight and tools for finding calm, restoration, and a return to mobility and social engagement after difficult events. These tools apply…  MORE >

Read Amber’s publication on Continuum Movement, Somatic Psychotherapy and Trauma in Somatic Psychotherapy Today.

Tonga, August–September, 2016 There is no word for problem in Tonga. I learned this from the spotter on the boat that took us out, daily, to swim with whales. Anything that arises, troubles, distresses, or hurts, has a solution. Or, with time and perspective, it will ease. After 11 days in Haa’pai, facilitating “Dancing the Wild Home”, a Continuum Movement and Whale Encounter Depths Retreat, and being with the humpback…  MORE >

Whales are everywhere, here: they literally punctuate the ocean with their movements. In the space of a few minutes, looking out over the horizon or around the sea our boat is gliding through, we see pairs and trios and pods of whales breaching, spy-hopping, tail slapping and diving. This is an annual pilgrimage site, for breeding and birthing. These prisms of gem-blue waters serve as a safe place for the…  MORE >

There are still places in this world where the sky is awash with stars. Tasmania is one of them. In this Australian island, just off this most ancient land, the night sky is aglow with the light that emanates from the space that still illuminates the death of these once bright cosmic bodies. To lie on the ground and look into the stars is to look into the mirror. There…  MORE >

Today marks the five-year anniversary of the Haiti earthquake. I am acknowledging it today with my fellow Continuum Movement teachers. This is our first meeting since our founder and the creator of Continuum, Emilie Conrad, died. And this is the first time I have not been in Haiti for the anniversary of the earthquake. Emilie Conrad was, and is, one of the most recognized and celebrated pioneers of somatics and…  MORE >

I am sitting in my hotel room in a lovely suburb of Beirut; for the past 24 hours I have heard sirens almost nonstop. Three bombings in 6 days; one in eastern Lebanon on Friday and then two, in Beirut, in 36 hours. A car bomb went off two blocks from the office I work in late Monday night/Tuesday morning and they arrested a dozen ISIS members in Hamra, one…  MORE >

I’m finishing a two-week trip to Australia. I taught two classes here, and after a year long run with quarterly trips to my favorite country on earth, I am somewhat numb to the reality that, trauma workshop series complete, I won’t be back for a year, give or take. Australia is under my skin. Every time I leave, I feel sad if I don’t know when I am returning. This…  MORE >

Tennant Creek is a small town situated in a vast expanse of outback.  It literally sits at the edge of the dry, red earth climate of central Australia and the tropical top end of the Northern Territories. Just a few miles south of Tennant Creek (500 kilometers north of Alice Springs, the center; 1000 kilometers south of Darwin on the coast of the top end), the landscape is suddenly different.…  MORE >

On January 12, 2013, I was in Haiti for our Trauma Resources International (TRI) Ke Ansam program. This year, we marked the 3-year anniversary of the devastating 2010 earthquake. There were several commemorations, though not to the scale of the past 2 years. This year, most Haitians spent the day with family, in quiet and deeply personal reflection and acknowledgement. I spent the day with one of “my” families there;…  MORE >

I don’t know how to begin this blog. I left my Haitian home this morning, feeling tired after 11 days of teaching stacked up onto ceremony and cultural gatherings. I felt tired and gleeful. The sun was shining (despite warnings four days ago about Tropical Storm Dorian) and Haiti, for the first time in a long time, was sparkling like a jewel. So I thought about beginning like this: Ayiti Cherie, you…  MORE >

A newly made friend, who took my Radical Freedom Continuum Movement class in Tokyo in June, just arrived for a visit. Her welcome presence reminds me that I never finished my Japan blog; so here is an updated version, based on her sharing, this morning, of a lovely healing experience initiated by Santa Fe’s magical light. This is the same light that calls so many artists to this land. Before…  MORE >

Amber’s visit to Foundation house, one of the global leaders in torture treatment and refugee well-being: View PDF Article

Beginning in October, 2013, Amber will become the ADTA’s Western Region Member-at-Large, for a two year term. http://www.adta.org/

This is my second time to Lebanon. It’s always difficult to put into words why one loves certain places with a particular fierceness. Lebanon is one of those places for me. When I left here, 3 years ago, I felt really sad that I might never come back. Despite everyone-who-cares-for-me concerns such as “Is it safe?” Why are you going to Beirut”? Isn’t Lebanon awfully close to Syria”? I couldn’t…  MORE >

Following their visit to the Zataari Refugee Camp, Colleague Daryl Byler, Regional Representative of The Mennonite Central Committee in Jordan, writes about the camp and its impact on Jordan, in Religion and Ethics. Click here to link to article.

It’s the first time in 4 days I’ve had a moment to step outside. I am in Amman, and spending some time in the camps on the Syrian border, to assist in the development of a staff care program for the many humanitarian responders working with the refugees fleeing Syria. Having been indoors for several days, I am instantly inspired by the warm sun, bird songs, and call to prayer…  MORE >

4:53 pm, 1/12/13. I am turning our car into Belvil, the quiet neighborhood, where I stay in Port au Prince. It is the precise moment when the earthquake of 2010 devastated Port au Prince 3 years ago. My friends, colleagues and I have spent most of the preceding week talking about how impossible it is that 3 years have past. As I observe the life on the streets, I see…  MORE >

I didn’t take the early flight from Miami to Port au Prince (“PaP”) today because I tend to not sleep when I have 5 am wake-up, and I had to teach the first day after my arrival. July is always a busy travel time between Miami and PaP as many Diaspora visit Haiti and many Haitians visit family in the US. It’s also the time of many important ceremonies d’…  MORE >

This is the kind of place where you can’t take the flowers for granted. Growing season is short here—and this year, “the coldest June in 12 years”, may be shorter than usual. So much of the year the ambient colors of nature vary between shades of blue, gray, black and white. When Spring comes, the green is electric in its boldness. Life announces itself with everyone blossom, berry, shoot that…  MORE >

I have not blogged in awhile, despite visits to Australia and Haiti, and an amazing Haiti-focused teaching residency at my alma mater, Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.  I’ve been retreating from the computer so as to give myself a break from the inundation of technology that has overcome so many of our lives. A friend recently told me that I should blog more; that the interactions and teachings and experiences…  MORE >

Georgia is not a place I ever thought about visiting. I knew very, very little about it, before my current trip here. Georgia is stunning. Its ancient. It has an air of mystery despite the warmth and openness to share of the people. Often thought of as a “former Soviet state”–it is actually a country with one of the oldest languages on earth (remnants of it only found here, and…  MORE >

I love Australia. Its hard to be precise in my description of why I am so enamored of this far away place; a specific example might illuminate. When I landed in Melbourne after the l-o-n-g flight, I had to go through customs/quarantine because I had revealed I was carrying food (sports bars, for the outback). This was no big deal, and I have found its always best to claim these…  MORE >

Haiti I’ve returned to provide training in somatic and creative arts approaches to my beloved friends/colleagues at Haiti’s Psycho Trauma Center. We have talked about, and dreamed about, this for years. Finally, some funds raised through my non-profit enable us doing this. Post-earthquake Haiti hasn’t changed much—still. Yes, there’s a little more rubble removed and evidence of new construction here and there. But really, not much change. Not as much…  MORE >

CHAD The airport in Chad is trees. Much of the rest of the country is desert—but landing and leaving, there are trees. A few minute after landing, and getting off the bus that transports us from the plane to the airport, one smells jasmine—on of the most divine smells there is. One jasmine tree graces the door that is both entrance to and departure from the airport. The only way…  MORE >

Just as I was beginning to write a final blog for this visit, a friend called who I hadn’t seen since the earthquake, and asked me to meet. So I hastily prepared to go out. As he was pulling in the drive way the news broke that “Baby Doc” had just returned to Haiti. This was no rumor—my friends and I got it directly from the Haitian National Police—and within…  MORE >

This morning was characteristically fresh in Port au Prince. December and January are crisp, cool months, and there tends to be an energy of hope in this Caribbean nation after the holidays. I awoke to the sound of singing, chanting prayer. Already at 6:45 am, the air was music. It is hard to delineate the mood here. Since my arrival yesterday, I have tapped into somber, sad, joyful, hopeful, tragic,…  MORE >

For a list of Amber’s older publications, click here.