Research & Insights
Exploring the intersections of neuroscience, somatic psychology, law, and the arts — and what they reveal about coherent leadership, culture, and justice.
This page gathers Dr Amar Dhall’s cross-disciplinary work — from leadership research and psychosocial-risk consulting to jurisprudence, men’s work, and music.
Across every medium the inquiry remains:
How do humans and systems stay connected under pressure?
Featured Research & Reports
The Five Biggest Mistakes Leaders Are Making in 2025
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Research with 23 senior leaders identifying psychosocial risks behind burnout and disengagement — and five correctives that build coherence.
The Psychosocial Risk Map (ISO 45003)
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How leadership behaviour maps to psychosocial-risk domains and how to convert compliance into culture.
Relational Law & Neo-Naturalism
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A relational philosophy of law and leadership — reuniting science, spirit, and story to imagine systems that serve life rather than merely govern it.
Scholarly Works & Publications
Selected scholarly and peer-reviewed works underpinning Amar Dhall’s relational and neuro-somatic frameworks.
Amar Dhall’s academic research explores the philosophical foundations of coherence — spanning law, ontology and systems thinking. His writings examine how neuroscience, trauma studies and relational philosophy can re-ground jurisprudence and leadership in connection rather than control.
Doctoral Thesis – Limited Universal Holism: A Quantum-Relational Framework for Law and Justice, University of Canberra (2015).
Grounds Amar Dhall’s later work in Relational Law and Neuro-Somatic Leadership, proposing Limited Universal Holism—a jurisprudence of coherence linking quantum mechanics, systems theory, and human rights.
Dhall, A. (2024, July). Trauma-informed leadership in law: A neuro-somatic approach to legal practice. Paper written to accompany presentation at the XXXVIIIth International Congress on Law and Mental Health, International Academy of Law and Mental Health, Barcelona, Spain.
Introduces a four-component model for trauma-wise leadership in legal systems—Embody Safety, Know Thyself, Master Group Dynamics, and Non-Zero-Sum Business—bridging neuroscience, law, and integrative leadership practice.
Dhall, Amar. “A Neuro-Somatic Approach to Trauma-Informed Lawyering: From Survival of the Fittest to Fittest for Survival.” In Trauma-Informed Law: A Primer for Practicing Lawyers and a Pathway for Resilience and Healing, edited by Helgi Maki, Marjorie Florestal, Myrna McCallum & J. Kim Wright, 42-46. Chicago: American Bar Association, 2023.
Explores how neuroscience, trauma theory, and embodied regulation can transform legal culture from survival to coherence, redefining advocacy as a relational and ethical practice.
Dhall, Amar, Torsten Wiedemann & Manav Satija. “Ayahuasca and Freedom of Religion in Australia: Entheogens in a Post-Colonial Shadow.” In Religious Freedom and the Global Regulation of Ayahuasca, edited by Beatriz Caiuby Labate and Clancy Cavnar, 122–141. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2023.
Analyses Australia’s complex drug-law and constitutional landscape governing ayahuasca’s religious use, tracing colonial biases in regulation and proposing a relational, post-colonial framework aligning human law with natural law.
Dhall, A. (2010). Neo-Naturalism: A Fresh Paradigm in International Law. World Futures, 66(5), 363–380. https://doi.org/10.1080/02604027.2010.485431
Articulates Neo-Naturalism as a relational alternative to positivism—linking quantum theory and law to propose an ontology where justice arises from interconnection rather than control.
Dhall, A. (2010). On the Philosophy and Legal Theory of Human Rights in Light of Quantum Holism. World Futures, 66(1), 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/02604020903080699
Reframes human rights as emergent relational dynamics rather than static entitlements—positioning quantum holism as a bridge between science, ethics, and jurisprudence.
Dhall, A. (2025). Neo-Naturalism and the ontological ground of law: Limited Universal Holism and the re-foundation of jurisprudence[Manuscript in preparation]. Ouroboros Industries / The Trauma & Well-Being Centre. https://orcid.org/0009-0001-4123-5928
Expands Amar Dhall’s doctoral research on Limited Universal Holism—developing Neo-Naturalism as a living jurisprudence where relation, embodiment, and moral coherence form the basis of justice.
Trauma-informed lawyer S3 E1
Dr. Amar Dhall and Myrna McCallum talk about introception, bio-hacking the nervous system, the importance of trauma-informed practice and emotional intelligence.
Integrative lawyers of the world
Dr. Amar Dhall talks trauma, conflict, power, and how we can learn from our life experiences to become fully connected leaders and helpers.
New Earth Lawyer
Dr Amar Dhall talks about his research into the deeper, quantum implications of law and his more recent work in supporting lawyers to understand their trauma responses, to make them better lawyers.
In Field: 4 day retreat, Transform your practice, Whistler, Canada 2023
Delivered with Myrna McCallum
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Day 1: ntroduction to Trauma-Informed Lawyering & Polyvagal Theory
Explored the neurophysiology of safety and threat, grounding participants in trauma-informed lawyering and polyvagal principles. Participants learned how nervous-system literacy transforms advocacy, conflict, and communication into regulation and repair.
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Day 2: Leadership & Emotional Intelligence
Focused on leadership presence, emotional regulation, and attunement. Through experiential learning, participants developed embodied awareness and practical tools for leading teams and clients with clarity, empathy, and resilience under pressure.
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Day 3: Boundaries, Flow & Self-Care
Examined boundaries as relational intelligence rather than defence. Using movement, dialogue, and reflection, participants explored how flow, rest, and recovery sustain ethical practice and long-term wellbeing.
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Day 4: Practice incubator
A collaborative day of one-on-one and group mentoring. Participants applied trauma-informed principles to their own professional contexts, receiving feedback and guidance on embedding safety, presence, and emotional literacy into everyday legal and leadership practice.
case study
Advanced Manufacturing Partner (anonymised)
An ASX-listed manufacturer transformed psychosocial-risk compliance into cultural renewal through leadership coaching, NSL training, and retreats. The result: regulation became rhythm, safety became coherence, and psychosocial wellbeing evolved into a strategic advantage across the organisation.
Articles and Essays
A Series of Four Short Essays on the Evolution of Leadership
Exploring how power, presence, and coherence are evolving in the age of complexity — from control to connection, from systems of compliance to cultures of resonance.
Essay 1 – From Control to Connection (self-regulation)
Essay 2 – The Ecology of Coherence (systems thinking)
Essay 3 – Diversity & Belonging (collective intelligence)
Essay 4 – Law as a Living System (structures and ethics that hold it all).
From Control to Connection
Explores the shift from managing people to regulating presence — how leaders move from control to attunement, transforming compliance cultures into coherent systems built on safety, trust, and embodied emotional intelligence.
The Ecology of Coherence
Reveals coherence as the organising rhythm of all living systems — from individuals to organisations — showing how trust, rhythm, and relational intelligence create cultures that self-correct, regenerate, and thrive without control.
Diversity & Belonging Through a Neuro-Somatic Lens
Examines inclusion as a physiological state, not a policy; how safety, attunement, and embodied awareness create belonging that transcends rhetoric, turning diversity into a living expression of coherence rather than a compliance exercise.
Law as a Living System
Reimagines law as a verb, not a rule, a living practice of restoring balance through relationship. This essay explores how justice, leadership, and governance evolve when systems remember that coherence, not control, sustains life.
Music & Sound
Chilling in the Blissed-Out Groove Temple
Doctor of Law and post-Jungian psychotherapist by vocation — and for more than a decade, a storyteller in sound.
Amar creates immersive chill-out journeys that weave progressive, psydub, ambient, and IDM into textured sets designed for both stillness and movement. More recently some Four on the Floor techy, housey, progressive, tribal sounds have crept in as he makes danceable grooves for the discerning-yet-maturing crowd.
His long-running mix series, Chilling in the Blissed-Out Groove Temple, first aired on Radio Q37, became a formative archive of intelligent downtempo — over one hours of music exploring the space between rhythm and reflection. Those mixes, along with Amar’s releases on Chromanova.de and his long-standing role as label DJ for Altar Records (Canada), continue to circulate among aficionados of the global chill-out scene.
“Sit back and reach into the sound — or get up and embody it. Come as you are and enjoy beautifully produced, carefully selected, intelligent music prepared with love… and always purchased, never taken.”
Amar has performed at Rainbow Serpent, Earth Freq, Regrowth, Yemaya, Dragon Dreaming, Subsonic and closed for Desert Dwellers in Sydney.
His approach to sound mirrors his philosophy of leadership and law — turning coherence into something you can feel.
Primal Intelligence
Fourth-Wave Men’s Work for the Modern Era
Primal Intelligence (PI) is a collaboration between four registered psychotherapists, counsellors, and coaches — each bringing their own depth of experience across clinical, coaching, and facilitation practice. While their individual paths differ, they are united by a shared commitment to evolve men’s work into its fourth wave — one that is trauma-informed, relationally intelligent, psychologically grounded, and mythically alive.
Men’s work is now a cultural necessity. In a time when old maps of masculinity are collapsing and new ones are still forming, it offers men a place to reconnect with meaning, accountability, and belonging. For those who have already undergone foundational or initiatory work, Primal Intelligence provides the next step: a structured, developmental continuation that deepens practice into skill and service.
Drawing on contemporary psychology and neuroscience while integrating myth, ritual, and story, PI brings together the rigour of clinical practice with the soul of initiation. Amar Dhall contributes his relational and coherence frameworks, shaping a men’s work approach that is as thoughtful as it is experiential.
Primal Intelligence’s flagship offering, the Inside-Out Practitioner Training, is a 16-week journey designed for men ready to turn growth into contribution. It trains participants to coach, facilitate, and lead with maturity — integrating power, vulnerability, and presence through a synthesis of Jungian depth psychology, somatic regulation, and archetypal practice. This program brings the mythopoetic into structure, transforming personal insight into professional capability.
Retreats, circles, and advanced mentorships extend the work beyond initiation into integration — cultivating men who are not simply self-aware but able to hold coherence in relationships, teams, and communities.
“Maturity isn’t the absence of power — it’s power that stays connected.”
Primal Intelligence represents Fourth-Wave Men’s Work: emotionally literate, mythically alive, and grounded in evidence-based practice. It is a continuation and a deepening — a place for men who have already begun the journey to refine it into mastery, coherence, and service.