Niamh Harnett
Resources
These resources reflect ideas and thinkers that have influenced my approach and ongoing study. I share them for anyone wishing to explore similar themes, not as recommendations or endorsements, but as a glimpse into the wider conversations that shape my work.
If you’re curious to learn more about Internal Family Systems (IFS) or Focusing, you’ll find books, teachers, and podcasts here that can help you explore these approaches in your own way.
This list will continue to evolve as I learn and unlearn. Each of these voices, in different ways, informs how I think about healing, embodiment, and our collective relationship with the living world.
Psychotherapy & Embodiment/Somatics
Eugene Gendlin – Focusing (1981)
Philosopher and psychotherapist who developed Focusing, a body-oriented method for accessing inner knowing through the felt sense.
Richard Schwartz – Internal Family Systems Therapy (1995)
Founder of IFS, a compassionate model for understanding the mind as an inner system of parts led by a core Self.
Richard Schwartz – No Bad Parts (2021)
A practical, reader-friendly introduction to IFS, offering tools for meeting inner experiences with compassion and curiosity.
Susan McConnell – Somatic Internal Family Systems Therapy: Awareness, Breath, Resonance, Movement, and Touch (2020)
Explores how somatic awareness and body-based practices deepen IFS work, integrating movement, breath, and embodied presence.
David L. Rome – Your Body Knows the Answer (2014)
Brings Focusing together with mindfulness and leadership, emphasising embodied insight in everyday decision-making.
Stephen Porges – The Polyvagal Theory (2011)
Explores how our nervous system responds to safety and threat, forming the basis of trauma-informed and somatic therapies.
Staci K. Haines – The Politics of Trauma (2019)
Connects somatic healing with social justice, showing how body-based practice supports collective change.
Jan Winhall – Treating Trauma and Addiction with the Felt Sense Polyvagal Model (2021)
Integrates Focusing with polyvagal theory to create a compassionate, body-based framework for trauma recovery.
Bessel van der Kolk – The Body Keeps the Score (2014)
Seminal work on how trauma is held in the body and how awareness, movement, and connection can restore regulation.
Marshall Rosenberg – Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life (1999)
A model for empathy-based communication and conflict transformation grounded in compassion and human needs.
Systems, Activism & Culture
Steffie Bednarek – Climate, Psychology and Change: Reimagining Psychotherapy in an Era of Global Disruption and Climate Anxiety (2023)
An interdisciplinary exploration of how psychotherapy must respond to climate breakdown and systemic disruption, foregrounding ecological grief, social context, and the limits of individualised models of mental health in times of collective crisis.
Francis Weller – The Wild Edge of Sorrow; In the Absence of the Ordinary
Weller weaves Western psychology, indigenous wisdom, myth and ritual to explore grief, loss and ecological grief as essential gateways to healing — offering a soulful map for navigating personal and collective sorrow in unsettled times.
Adrienne Maree Brown – Emergent Strategy (2017); Holding Change (2021)
Writings on collective care, adaptation, and social transformation inspired by nature and complexity science.
Prentis Hemphill
Somatic teacher and writer exploring embodiment, belonging, and justice through the Finding Our Way podcast and essays.
Staci K. Haines – The Politics of Trauma
(Also listed above) connecting individual and systemic healing through somatics and activism.
Jem Bendell – Deep Adaptation: Navigating the Realities of Climate Chaos (2020)
A framework for facing societal and ecological collapse with honesty, community, and care.
Rebecca Solnit – Hope in the Dark (2004)
A luminous meditation on resilience, imagination, and the quiet power of collective action in uncertain times.
Sarah Wilson – This One Wild and Precious Life (2020)/Collapse Substack Series (2025)
A personal and philosophical exploration of purpose, activism, and mindful living in uncertain times.
Podcasts & Ongoing Conversations
Therapy & Inner Work
IFS Talks – Interviews and teachings exploring Internal Family Systems therapy.
Interviews with Experiential Practitioners – From The Focusing Institute, featuring conversations on Focusing and experiential therapy.
focusing.org
Going Inside – Explorations of internal parts work, embodiment, and consciousness. (Various hosts and episodes.)
Meaning, Culture & Activism
On Being – with Krista Tippett. Conversations on meaning, ethics, and spiritual life.
The Nature Of – with Willow Defebaugh
Exploring what the natural world can teach us about creativity, connection, and change. Hosted by the editor-in-chief of Atmos, it features conversations with artists, scientists, and cultural voices reflecting on how we can live in deeper relationship with the Earth.
How to Survive the End of the World – with adrienne maree brown & Autumn Brown. A podcast on resilience, apocalypse, and transformation.
Green Dreamer – with Kamea Chayne. Conversations on ecology, culture, and regenerative futures.