Dylan Lott, PhD, LMT

About Dylan

As an anthropologist, I am interested in the development of subjectivity and spirituality both
beyond and at the limits of what is formed at the intersection of medicine, technology, and the
state. My doctoral dissertation (From Interiority to Inner Territory: Tibetan Buddhism,

Neuroscience and the Politics of Representation, 2016) explored the parallel developments of
scientific research on meditation and the introduction of science education to Tibetan
monasteries in India. From 2016-2020, I was project lead and researcher on “The Field Study of
Long-term Meditation Practitioners” (Center for Healthy Minds, UW-Madison). There, I
combined ethnographic and psychophysiological methods in the study of the effects of long-term
meditative practice on the peri- and postmortem processes of Tibetan Buddhist practitioners in
India. I also explored the impact of cultural beliefs about such practices on the exile and research
community’s personal and cultural experience of grieving and dying.
Throughout all of this, I have developed a deeper understanding and appreciation of the limits of
what can be said or expressed. For many of us, it is not easy to find the words to say what is most
important to us, to express what we may feel or intimate – whether painful or pleasurable – at the
limits of our experience. Grief, loss, and change challenge us to renegotiate – in our bodies, in
our thoughts – earlier and similar transformations in our lives. This process stirs up emotions,
thoughts, images, and bodily experiences that those around us – and often ourselves – have
difficulty receiving, much less considering. In our work together, I will attend with presence and
integrity to whatever expressions of body, mind, and heart that arise; there is no need to
prematurely parse and diagnose expressions fundamental to our shared human experience. From
there, we will together create a space in which to discover those things that enter our attention
from just beyond the limits of the language we feel available to us. To speak of what has never or
could never be said, we will attend to dreams, bodily experiences, fantasies, images and silences.
As you speak freely about whatever enters your mind, I will listen attentively as you discover
and connect the elements of your own history, desires, associations, and a genuine – even
transformative – sense of humor in the service of your own psychological, spiritual, and
embodied personal transformation.
In addition to my practice at Chicago Clinical Associates, I am the Clinical Massage Therapist at
The University of Chicago’s Comer Children’s Hospital, working with pediatric patients and
their families in the NICU and PICU. There, I also specialize in working with patients with
sickle cell disease, cancer, body/ gender dysphoria, and trauma and teach classes in Infant
Massage for new parents through the Family Birth Center. Additionally, as a bodyworker and
massage therapist with over 25 years’ experience, I practice at the Claret Center in Hyde Park.
There, I offer a 12-Session Structural Integration/Bodywork program I developed that can be
undertaken as a stand-alone embodiment practice, or as a focused, intensive adjunct to ongoing
psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, or spiritual direction.

I specialize in work with children, adolescents, and adults dealing with grief, loss, life-
transforming (e.g., adoption, gender discernment), and life-limiting conditions (e.g., cancer,
sickle cell disease). I also welcome those in the process of spiritual discernment within (or
without) any religious or spiritual tradition. I also work with those struggling with difficulties
related to meditative practice or psychedelic experiences. Additionally, veterans, healthcare
professionals and frontline workers find it helpful at times to talk with those who already know
something of what it is like to be in those settings.

What I’m Like as a therapist:

My approach, grounded in Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis, is tempered and informed by
my training as an anthropologist and over 25 years of experience as a massage
therapist/bodyworker in clinical and hospital settings and, most recently, as a chaplain in adult
and pediatric inpatient and ER settings. Patients often find that they can bring and work through,
without shame or judgement, emotions and fears and fantasies which they have had difficulty,
until now, admitting to even themselves. Sometimes, they themselves are surprised by what,
after a time, newly emerges in them and permits a renewed connection and engagement with the
life they are creating.