Core Development - Donald Marmara

28/08/2026

Donald Marmara
Emotional & Somatic Learning Facilitator

I am an 80-year-old experienced facilitator who
has never quite fitted into conventional boxes.

That’s why I created Core Development- an
experiential learning process for personal
growth and self-discovery.

If you often feel the same—alienated by rigid structures,
tired of superficial spaces, and longing for deeper,
more grounded human connection to life and relationships -

let’s talk.



Website: www.coredevelopment.com.au

Please note:

Core Development is a process of personal growth, exploration and self-discovery not psychotherapy or clinical treatment. It is not a substitute for clinical psychotherapy, psychology or medical treatment.

My focus is on facilitating Somatic and Emotional Learning not to persuade you but to invite you to reflect and come to your own understanding.

Contact Core Development if you are looking for a potentially life-changing form of emotional and somatic learning in Artarmon Sydney.

19/04/2026

Everything I say and write is my opinion. Most of it is based on my lived experience. It is not intended to persuade you but to invite you to reflect and come to your own understanding. Donald Marmara

01/04/2026

SO TRUE.......

31/01/2026

IS IT IMPORTANT TO LOVE YOURSELF? YES IT IS.

SAYING THAT YOU CANNOT LOVE OTHERS IF YOU DON'T LOVE YOURSELF, HOWEVER, IS SHEER NONSENSE.

On the contrary, If you truly love someone, then you're capable of love. You are a loving person.

Telling someone who doesn't love themselves that they cannot love others will only reinforce their belief that they are not worthy of love.

If you love someone but don't love yourself, your task is to discover what is stopping you from giving yourself the love you give others.

YOUR LOVE FOR OTHERS IS CONFIRMATION THAT YOU ARE CAPABLE OF LOVING.

23/01/2026

It's important to distinguish between a person and his or her opinions and actions. We may like someone and disagree with their actions, or dislike someone and agree with their actions.

We have every right to argue for or against someone's opinions and actions, but we do not have the right to attack them personally nor to involve their families. That is abusive and helps nobody.

If we all understand this perhaps we will have a more peaceful world. Perhaps we will have less wars.

I may disagree with someone's opinions, but that does not give me the right to attack them personally.

And it most certainly does not give me or anyone the right to attack their family.

If we want respect we must be willing to respect others.

15/01/2026

THE WAY WE TREAT CHILDREN
All too often in our society, instead of providing the most nourishing, stimulating and supportive environment for children to grow and develop into healthy adults, we assume, often with the best intentions, that we need to tell them how to grow and what to become.

This is rather like assuming that we need to teach an apple seed how to grow and what to grow into.

As a result of this unfortunate misunderstanding, many of us grow up rather like apple trees that are expected to produce oranges.

Then we feel that something is wrong with us and of course it is.
Instead of being supported in being who and what we are, we are trying to become something other than what we are meant to be.

Can you imagine an apple tree feeling such a failure because it is unable to produce oranges?

Think about this: how many of us are actually doing this today?

01/01/2026

QUOTES FROM SENECA ELDER TWYLAH NITSCH (1912 - 2007)
“The Earth Mother is changing her garments. She’s going to put on some new stuff. She is going to be dancing around. And it’s about time. She’s sick and tired of the way she’s been treated.”

Twylah repeated the importance of standing in one’s truth during the troubled times ahead: “Supposing right at this moment the Earth began to quake and up in the sky world there would be thunder and lightning and so much noise that we couldn’t think.

The best thing that we could do for our survival would be to stand in our truth. To run in panic never accomplishes anything.” 👌 🙏

31/12/2025

30/12/2025

Somatic Psychotherapy and Indigenous Wisdom
by Donald Marmara, somatic psychotherapist and educator, Core Development

My Initial Diagnosis: Clinical Anxiety and Depression

At the age of 14 I was diagnosed clinically anxious and depressed and prescribed an ever-increasing dosage of psychotropic drugs. I was told that I would be dependent upon them for the rest of my life.

I would probably have continued to be dependent on these drugs if I had tried to adjust to the values of society .

Experiencing Somatic Psychotherapy
When I was 28 I emigrated to London, and discovered a form of therapy – somatic psychotherapy based on the findings of Wilhelm Reich – that recognised that our society, often with the best of intentions, did not understand our needs.

The pioneers of somatic psychotherapy pointed out that our society made the mistake of deciding how a child should be rather than seeking to understand the child’s true nature and psychological and biological needs.

I got so much benefit from my somatic psychotherapy sessions that I was able to come off the drugs and turn my life around.

by Donald Marmara, somatic psychotherapist and educator, Core Development Sydney My Initial Diagnosis: Clinical Anxiety and Depression At the age of 14 I

29/11/2025

THE STUDENT AND THE TEACHER
AN IMPORTANT LESSON IN PSYCHOTHERAPY EDUCATION AND EMOTIONAL LEARNING.

The story goes like this. A student goes to the teacher and asks a question.
The teacher answers by pointing to the road ahead. The student grabs the teacher's finger!

This is exactly what is happening very often in psychology, psychotherapy and education today.

The symptoms of emotional distress are like the teacher's finger. They are pointing the student towards the journey they need to undertake to regain emotional balance and enrich the quality of their lives.

Just as in the story above, the majority of therapists and educators are attempting to resolve the anxiety, depression or whatever other symptoms are in play.

Instead of helping the student by joining them on a journey of exploration and discovery, they are trying to "fix or cut off the pointed finger"! - as if the finger is the problem!!

They are trying to eliminate the symptoms instead of appreciating them as healthy reactions to an unhealthy situation.

By labeling these people as mentally ill, we are not understanding their condition. We are refusing to accept responsibility as a society, as a nation, indeed as a human race, for our part in creating these “disorders”.