EP 244: Sound, Somatics, and Rehabilitation: Caroline Georgiou on Healing Inside Prison
Release Date: 07/07/2026
The Criminologist
What does it take to move evidence-based corrections across cultures — and make reform survive the real world? In this episode of The Criminologist Podcast, Joseph Arvidson sits down with Chilean psychologist and correctional reform specialist Carolina Báez Hernández for a wide-ranging conversation about evidence-based practice, Risk-Need-Responsivity, implementation, culture, leadership, and the realities of correctional reform. Joe and Carolina first met in Barcelona at the International Training School on Core Correctional Skills, where Joe was an instructor and Carolina was a...
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Why are we so fascinated by high-profile crime—and when does that fascination cross the line from understanding into entertainment? In Episode 246 of The Criminologist Podcast, Joseph Arvidson welcomes criminologist, professor, author, media contributor, and host Dr. Debbie Goodman for a wide-ranging conversation about crime, justice, and public understanding. Dr. Goodman explores the difference between consuming true crime and examining crime through a criminological lens. She discusses how victims and survivors are represented in the media, why complex acts of violence resist simple...
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In this episode of The Criminologist Podcast, host Joseph Arvidson welcomes Dianna Kalandros, Director of the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council in Coconino County, Arizona, for a conversation about collaboration, innovation, and what it means to humanize the justice system in practical ways. Dianna discusses the role of Criminal Justice Coordinating Councils, the importance of bringing stakeholders together, and how local systems can respond to long-standing challenges in probation, courts, corrections, and community justice through creativity and collaboration. A central theme of the...
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n this episode of The Criminologist Podcast, host Joseph Arvidson welcomes Caroline Georgiou for a conversation unlike any we have had on the show before. Caroline is a trauma-trained counsellor, somatic movement therapist, clinical supervisor, and one of the world’s leading innerdance facilitators and trainers. Her work explores the relationship between sound, trauma, the nervous system, emotional regulation, identity, inner awareness, and human transformation — including within prison settings. Together, Joe and Caroline explore what happens when rehabilitation moves beneath words. In...
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In this episode of The Criminologist Podcast, we continue Part Two of my conversation with Stephen Pitts and Imants Mozers, authors of The Missing Story: Probation, Legitimacy, and the Battle for Public Understanding. If you have not yet listened to Part One, released as Episode 241, I encourage you to go back and begin there. This second part picks up the conversation by going deeper into probation’s identity, public legitimacy, leadership, and the stories the field tells — or fails to tell — about itself. Stephen and Imants challenge us to think about why probation cannot simply assume...
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In this episode of The Criminologist Podcast, we welcome back Dr. Jerrod Brown for a fascinating conversation on LEGO®-based interventions with justice-involved populations. At first glance, LEGO® bricks may not seem like an obvious tool for probation, corrections, forensic mental health, or human services. But as Dr. Brown explains, structured LEGO®-based activities can provide a powerful, hands-on way to engage individuals who may struggle with traditional talk-based interventions. This conversation explores the intersection of neurodisability, responsivity, trauma-informed practice, and...
info_outlineThe Criminologist
In this episode of The Criminologist Podcast, we welcome back Dr. Jerrod Brown for a fascinating conversation on LEGO®-based interventions with justice-involved populations. At first glance, LEGO® bricks may not seem like an obvious tool for probation, corrections, forensic mental health, or human services. But as Dr. Brown explains, structured LEGO®-based activities can provide a powerful, hands-on way to engage individuals who may struggle with traditional talk-based interventions. This conversation explores the intersection of neurodisability, responsivity, trauma-informed practice, and...
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🎙️ Episode Show Notes — Part One The Missing Story of Probation with Stephen Pitts & Imants Mozers What is the story probation tells about itself? And perhaps just as importantly… What happens when probation does not tell that story clearly? In this episode of The Criminologist Podcast, we begin a powerful two-part conversation with Stephen Pitts and Imants Mozers, co-authors of the new book: 📘 The Missing Story: Probation, Legitimacy and the Battle for Public Understanding This conversation was so rich, timely, and engaging that we decided to release it as a...
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What if the people you supervise aren’t one fixed version of themselves… but multiple possible versions—each shaped by what gets reinforced over time? In this episode, I introduce a practical way to think about behavior change in supervision—what I’ve been developing as Quantum Desistance. This isn’t about physics. It’s a lens. A way to understand how change actually unfolds—not through one intervention, but through patterns that repeat, stabilize, and eventually become identity. We build from what you already know: The Risk-Need-Responsivity (RNR) model Desistance theory and...
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In this episode of The Criminologist Podcast, host Joseph Arvidson is joined by Paul Doke, PhD candidate at Liverpool John Moores University, to explore one of the most overlooked questions in our field: What does it take not just to desist from crime—but to stay desisting over time? Building on Shadd Maruna’s groundbreaking Liverpool Desistance Study, Paul’s research—“Made Good and Stayed Good”—examines identity, recovery, and belonging among long-term members of Narcotics Anonymous who have sustained desistance from crime and substance use for 5, 10, even 40 years. Together,...
info_outlinen this episode of The Criminologist Podcast, host Joseph Arvidson welcomes Caroline Georgiou for a conversation unlike any we have had on the show before.
Caroline is a trauma-trained counsellor, somatic movement therapist, clinical supervisor, and one of the world’s leading innerdance facilitators and trainers. Her work explores the relationship between sound, trauma, the nervous system, emotional regulation, identity, inner awareness, and human transformation — including within prison settings.
Together, Joe and Caroline explore what happens when rehabilitation moves beneath words. In corrections, probation, parole, and treatment, so much of the work is built around conversation: interviews, assessments, groups, case plans, accountability, motivation, and behavior change. But Caroline invites us to consider the role of the body, the central nervous system, sound, somatic awareness, safety, connection, dysregulation, co-regulation, and identity in the change process.
The conversation also connects with themes familiar to those interested in trauma-informed practice and the TIDES Supervision Model, including polyvagal theory, nervous system regulation, the importance of feeling safe and connected, and the role of identity in meaningful change.
Caroline discusses how sound and music affect the body, mood, emotion, and behavior — and how this knowledge has long been used in other parts of society, from film directors shaping emotional experience to casinos creating environments that influence attention and behavior. That raises an important question for criminal justice professionals: if sound can be used to heighten emotion or shape behavior, how might it also be used ethically and intentionally to support reflection, regulation, healing, and rehabilitation?
Joe and Caroline also discuss her work bringing sound-led transformation into prison settings, her vision for prison radio and sound-based wellbeing programs, and the intriguing possibility of developing a custom TIDES soundscape.
Listeners will also hear selected samples from Caroline’s free soundscape, available through her website, The Sound of Dreams.
Learn more about Caroline Georgiou and access her resources here:
https://www.thesoundofdreams.com/
This episode invites us to consider a powerful question:
What if rehabilitation is not only about the conversations we have, but also about the environments we create?