NeuroAffective Touch^® Team

Dr. Aline LaPierre is the coauthor of Healing Developmental Trauma: How Early Trauma Affects Self-Regulation, Self-Image, and the Capacity for Relationship. She is the creator of NeuroAffective Touch^® and Director of the NeuroAffective Touch Institute.

Dr. LaPierre has been actively involved in the field of somatic psychology and body psychotherapy for over 35 years. She specializes in the integration of body-based approaches with relational psychodynamic psychotherapy and energy approaches. She is passionate about exploring how body and mind work together and reflect one another.

Dr. LaPierre is currently President of the United States Association of Body Psychotherapy (USABP) and Editor-in-Chief of the International Body Psychotherapy Journal (IBPJ).

For more information, please visit her Aline LaPierre extended bio page.

In addition to being our Executive Director, Victor Osaka can also be found behind the camera as videographer, producer, and editor of the Institute’s training materials and promotional videos.

Victor was first introduced to alternative healing as a child by his grandmother, a Kahuna healer in Hawaii. His mother, a practicing Buddhist, raised him with the principles of that spiritual path. Being naturally intuitive, Victor has always been called to the healing arts and has explored many modalities, including Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), craniosacral therapy, and shiatsu. He is certified in Postural Integration^® and is an accomplished martial artist. When he finds the time, he relaxes by playing his ukulele.

With Aline and Laura, Victor is cofounder of Nurture to Heal™. He uses his degree from FIDM Los Angeles and his experience in apparel design to play a significant role in the design and manufacturing of the Nurture to Heal™ Therapeutic Pillows.

A graduate of the Pierce College Addictions Studies Program, Somatic Experiencing^® Practitioner, and bodyworker, Laura has worked in stress, pain management, and self-regulation for over 25 years. She is trained in many bodywork styles, starting with her first loves, Esalen Massage^®, craniosacral therapy, and Ortho-Bionomy^®.

Laura uses Somatic Experiencing^®, bodywork, and NeuroAffective Touch^® to treat attachment and developmental trauma. Her study of Bodynamics, The NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM), and Kathy Kain's Touch Training for Therapists and Resilient Child series have deepened her understanding of developmental trauma.

Laura believes life is a course of study and the body it's textbook. In her work with clients, she finds that the road leads back to one's unique blueprint. Utilizing her somatic menu of interventions, Laura provides missing connections that support emotional, physical, and psychological stability and healing.

Laura maintains a private practice in Los Angeles, where she supports clients in the exploration of somatic awareness and helps them experience the body as home.

As a student of life, it was natural for Diane to move into the role of Student Learning Support. A Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor for 25 years, Diane is also a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner and a Teaching Assistant at many NeuroAffective Touch trainings.

Diane’s life path has brought her from a small town in Wisconsin to many years in greater Chicago and now to Los Angeles. She has studied depth psychology, using dreamwork and psychodrama as healing modalities. For many years, she worked in inpatient behavioral health settings where she created a curriculum for Spirituality Groups that gently invited adults and adolescents to experience and explore their inner worlds through practices like mindfulness, guided imagery meditation, artistic expression, and psycho-spiritual education.

Her work in private practice includes creating space for those who identify as LGBTQ+ to find safety to explore and express their identities. Diane fully believes that a felt sense of safety is the foundation for the risk-taking necessary to facilitate healing and growth. In Los Angeles, she has studied at the School of Integrative Psycho-Structural Bodywork (IPSB), expanding her knowledge of the body and understanding of bodymind healing.

Rob Gussenhoven has been with the NeuroAffective Touch Institute’s Executive Team since its inception.

An experienced leadership and brand development consultant with a global client portfolio, Rob was previously Board Chair and Interim Executive Director at Peter Levine’s Somatic Experiencing^® Trauma Institute, also known as the Foundation for Human Enrichment. He currently serves as Chair of the Board of Advisors at Warriors Live On™, a rapidly growing nonprofit that provides an integrative healing process for post-9/11 combat veterans battling the debilitating symptoms of PTSD.

A trauma survivor himself, Rob developed a passion for new approaches in psychotherapy and somatic therapy that deal with PTSD, developmental trauma, and shock trauma, and works to support these fields reach a larger audience.

Rob is a long-term student of the Diamond Approach^® to Inner Realization, a path of self-realization and human maturity based on an original synthesis of modern psychology and spiritual nature. Rob is dedicated to a life of service. His self-realization journey has become integrated into his professional work.

Born in Holland, he is happiest on a bicycle, in nature. He speaks four languages. As an explorer, he climbed in Europe and Alaska, and crossed the Greenland ice cap on skis.

Jenn Campolo joined the NeuroAffective Touch Institute in 2023 to support the Institute’s digital communications.

She has served as a copywriter and editor in the wellness and personal growth fields for nearly a decade and has additional experience in print journalism and book editing.

Jenn was first introduced to body-mind integration techniques as a young child by her father, a biofeedback pioneer who led her through body scans to help her get ready for bedtime. Since learning to meditate in her teen years, she has been an avid explorer of psycho-spiritual work and the healing arts.

She holds a BA in English from Yale and an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from the Pacific University of Oregon, where she wrote her master’s thesis on caregiving, loss, and renewal. Outside of her professional work, she enjoys swimming, reading, and spending time with her friends, her cat, and her husband.