Torstein Svergja

Founder of Arctic Soulcraft

Arctic Soulcraft is developed as an integration of psychology, nature and lived experience.

Background

Torstein Svergja is a specialist in clinical psychology and a certified Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP), with broad experience across mental health services. He helped establish one of Norway’s first outpatient clinics for Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), and has since worked in organisational development, leadership and vocational rehabilitation. Today he is a senior clinical advisor at a district psychiatric centre.

Throughout his career, developing and teaching methods has been central, with an emphasis on integration and functionality rather than uniformity and exclusivity.

An Emerging Insight

Much of the work in mental health focuses on thoughts, feelings and behaviour. Over time it became clear how much of finding calm and direction is tied to the body, and to how experience is organised in the nervous system. Processes of change can therefore benefit from insight and reflection, while the body serves as a central arena for experience and adaptation over time.

The Mountains

Over several winters he lived in a simple cabin in the high mountains with Greenland dogs. He now lives in Røros, a historic mountain town in Norway. Close to the mountains, it became clear how regulation, orientation and presence develop and are sustained in the interplay between body, surroundings and living conditions.

Arctic Soulcraft has grown from this meeting of professional work and lived experience, and is rooted in a wish to raise awareness of our dependence on nature and of the importance of preserving Arctic ecosystems.