Publications & Intellectual Contributions
An Invitation to Think Alongside
I have found that the best way to truly master your subject is through writing and teaching. New questions, answers and thoughts consistently arise whenever I am sharing my interests with students or readers. Something new always catches my attention when I consider ideas from a different perspective.
Among the topics that have brought me so much pleasure are the nature of self-experience, the conditions that support growth, the interface between psyche and spirit, the connection between grief and love, quantum phenomena, the dynamics of relational trauma, altered states of consciousness, and the nonlinear processes through which real change unfolds. I hope you find
something here that ignites in you new ways of celebrating the complexity and richness of the human experience.
Recently Published…
Excerpt from “Life is the Classroom” from The Heart of Success:
When I began my career as a psychologist I adhered to the firmly sanctioned syllabus of the time. Science was acceptable in psychology. Spirituality was not.
Working with altered states, imagery, and intuition was permissible, but only if you characterized it as purely psychological. We spoke of hypnotherapy as “the relaxation response,” and never as consonant with meditation or prayer. We didn’t speak of spirit or God. We certainly didn’t speak of transcendence.
So, I cloistered my relationship with Source and spoke the languages of psychodynamic and systems theories. I showed up as my professional self, competent, grounded, credible. My internal, private self, deeply aware of another reality, was relegated to relative silence.
Looking back, I see those years as early schooling, providing necessary structure. As I worked my career path, I learned how to hold space, how to listen, how to regulate emotion, and help clients connect to meaning.
But I also became increasingly adept at hiding parts of myself in service of credibility and belonging. Essential as that was, I sacrificed authenticity in favor of compliance.
Compliance is not the royal road to wisdom…
Watch: Dr. Vanderheide in Conversation
In this interview with Jack Canfield, Dr. Vanderheide discusses the central ideas of their book — the relationship between psychology and spirituality, the myths that keep them artificially separated, and what becomes possible when both are brought to bear on the work of healing. It is the clearest window into her thinking available in a single sitting.
Publications
Canfield, J. and Vanderheide, N. (2026) Life is the Classroom. In The Heart of Success – Living, Loving and
Leading with Purpose. Success Books.
VanDerHeide, N. (2012). The Art of Regulation: Therapeutic Action in the Shared Implicit Relationship. International Journal of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology, 7, 29–44.
VanDerHeide, N. (2012). Can You Hear Me Now? Twinship Failure and Chronic Loneliness. International Journal of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology, 7, 369–393.
VanDerHeide, N. (2011). Reflections on Mirroring. International Journal of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology, 6, 46–49.
VanDerHeide, N. (2009). One Case, Four Theories, Finding Matthew. In N. VanDerHeide and W.J. Coburn (Eds.), Self and Systems: Explorations in Contemporary Self Psychology. New York Academy of Sciences, New York.
VanDerHeide, N. (2009). Mirroring Revisited: A Relational, Non-linear Dynamic Systems View of Mirroring and its Role in the Attachment Process. International Journal of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology (Fall 2009).
VanDerHeide, N. (2009). Commentary on Livingston's 'Dreams, The Forward Edge, and the Intersubjective Context.' International Journal of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology (Summer 2009).
VanDerHeide, N. (2008). Review of Awakening the Dreamer. International Journal of Psychodynamic Self Psychology, Vol. 3, No. 4.
VanDerHeide, N. (2007). Authenticity and Psychoanalytic Technique: A Reconsideration. International Journal of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology, Vol. 2, No. 3.
VanDerHeide, N. (2007). Forms and Transformations of Narcissism, Panel Review of Carlo Strenger and Frank Lachmann. Self Psychology News, Vol. 1, No. 5.
VanDerHeide, N. (2005). Interview with Howard Bacal. Self Psychology News, Vol. 1, No. 3.
VanDerHeide, N. (2004). Sexualization in an Analytic Case. In W. Coburn (Ed.), Progress in Self Psychology. Analytic Press, New Jersey/London.
VanDerHeide, N. (2004). Enmeshment, Enactments, and Engagement: Reply to Discussion. In W. Coburn (Ed.), Progress in Self Psychology. Analytic Press, New Jersey/London.
Alexander, R. and VanDerHeide, N. (2002). Rage and Aggression in Couples Therapy. In M. Solomon (Ed.), Countertransference in Couples Therapy.
VanDerHeide, N. and Alexander, R. (1997). Treating Shame in Adolescents. In Marks and Incorvaia (Eds.), The Handbook of Infant, Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy: New Directions in the Integration of Therapeutic Approaches.
