A Somatic Guide to Working with Shame

$497 USD $99

"A Somatic Guide to Working with Shame," offers a deep and nuanced exploration of shame, emphasizing its profound embodied nature and its critical role in human experience. The modules differentiate between healthy and toxic shame, revealing how the latter, often rooted in early trauma and relational ruptures, can lead to pervasive feelings of being flawed and chronic physiological dysregulation. Through the lens of somatic psychology, including Somatic Experiencing, Polyvagal Theory, and parts work models, participants will learn to identify shame's manifestations in the body, understand its protective functions, and develop practical techniques to release its grip. The program empowers both clients and clinicians to foster repair, self-compassion, and dignity, ultiMatély transforming shame from a hindering force into an opportunity for profound healing and deeper self-connection.

About this course

Shadow Work and Shame: A Somatic Approach to Transformation

Shame is one of the most pervasive yet misunderstood experiences in therapeutic work—a powerful force that can either facilitate healing through healthy repair or trap clients in cycles of unworthiness and isolation. This comprehensive five-module course offers practitioners a deep, embodied understanding of both shame and shadow work, moving beyond intellectual concepts into the somatic terrain where true transformation occurs.

The Dual Focus:

This course explores two interconnected territories: shadow work (reclaiming disowned parts of ourselves) and shame (the painful feeling of being fundamentally flawed). Led by luminaries Nkem Ndefo, Dr. Scott Lyons, Dr. Christopher Walling, Sergio Ocampo, Kai Cheng Thom, and Dr. Peter Levine (developer of Somatic Experiencing®), this training reveals how adaptive survival strategies can hinder deeper self-connection, and how understanding shame's somatic underpinnings opens pathways to healing.

Core Philosophy:

Definitions of shadow work and shame reflect our internal landscapes and are crucial for deeper self-contact and healing from trauma. Understanding the difference between healthy shame (a temporary response that facilitates repair by focusing on behavior) and toxic shame (a pervasive sense of fundamental unworthiness linked to existential threat of isolation) is essential for effective clinical work. When shame manifests without repair, it becomes embedded in the nervous system, creating postures of shutdown and patterns that obscure our deeper wisdom and potential.

What You'll Learn:

Through five comprehensive modules featuring demonstrations, somatic practices, and expert teaching, you'll discover how to:

Module 1: Introduction to Shadow Work and Shame - Foundational Concepts with Nkem Ndefo and Dr. Scott Lyons

Defining Core Concepts:

• Define shadow work as reclaiming disowned parts of self
• Define shame from multiple perspectives
• Understand how definitions reflect internal landscapes
• Explore why these concepts are crucial for deeper self-contact
• Recognize importance for healing from trauma

Adaptive Survival Strategies:

• Identify how survival strategies hinder deeper self-connection
• Understand protective functions that become problematic
• See patterns that keep us from wholeness
• Recognize when adaptation becomes limitation

Healthy vs. Toxic Shame:

• Healthy shame (or guilt): Temporary inhibitory response that facilitates repair in relationships by focusing on behavior
• Toxic shame: Pervasive experience rooted in feelings of being fundamentally flawed, associated with existential threat of isolation
• Understand how healthy shame can promote connection
• Recognize when shame becomes toxic and isolating

Manifestations of Shame:

• Through privilege (unexamined advantages creating disconnect)
• Through perfectionism (never being good enough)
• Through self-abandonment (betraying own needs)
• As means of control (wielded by self or others)
• In "shame vortexes" (spiraling cycles)

Getting Unstuck:

• Understand spread activation theory through somatic practices
• Recognize repair doesn't always need to occur with original source of rupture
• Apply practical strategies to navigate shame experiences
• Use somatic practices to move through stuck states
• Build capacity for self-connection despite shame

Module 2: Understanding Shame - A Relational and Psychological Perspective with Dr. Christopher Walling

Relational Definition:

• Define shame from relational perspective
• Understand shame as fundamentally about connection and belonging
• See shame as response to threat of social exclusion
• Recognize clinical relevance of relational frame

Psychological Perspective:

• Explore psychological underpinnings
• Understand shame's role in identity formation
• See how shame shapes self-concept
• Connect individual psychology to relational context

Roots of Shame:

• Trace developmental origins
• Identify early experiences that create shame
• Understand how attachment patterns contribute
• See intergenerational transmission

Clinical Experiences:

• Analyze experiences of individuals with chronic shame
• Recognize patterns in presenting problems
• Understand how chronic shame manifests differently than acute
• Track shame's impact across life domains

Somatic Symptoms:

• Identify bodily manifestations of shame
• Recognize physical symptoms and responses
• Track how body holds shame
• Understand physiological markers

Intersubjective Frames:

• Apply intersubjective understanding to clinical work
• See how shame operates between therapist and client
• Recognize countertransference responses to shame
• Use relationship itself as intervention

Interventions:

• Identify effective therapeutic interventions
• Support patients with history of shame
• Provide clinicians with practical tools
• Invite exploration of clinician's own shame for integration

Module 3: The Somatic and Neurological Underpinnings of Shame with Sergio Ocampo

Somatic Perspective:

• Examine shame through lens of somatic therapy
• Understand as powerful, embodied emotional experience
• Explore influence on mental processes and body
• See holistic human experience of shame

Social Function:

• Recognize shame as integral component of human social engagement
• Investigate explicit role in shaping social interaction
• Understand role in establishing social boundaries
• See how shame regulates group behavior and learning

Healthy vs. Toxic Distinction:

• Healthy shame: Followed by repair, facilitates learning within groups
• Toxic shame: Occurs when there's no repair, potentially resulting in depression
• Understand crucial difference in outcomes
• Recognize importance of repair process

Physiological Response:

• Describe distinct physiological response to toxic shame
• Understand activation of autonomic nervous system
• See how dysregulation becomes ingrained over time
• Track neurological patterns of chronic shame

Somatic Techniques:

• Introduce somatic techniques for working with shame
• Emphasize body's role in healing shame
• Use body-based interventions for regulation
• Address physiological responses through somatic work
• Support nervous system to process and transform shame

Module 4: Embodied Exploration and Parts Work for Shame with Kai Cheng Thom

Somatic Manifestation:

• Identify how shame manifests in body as sensation and shape
• Recognize potential to be experienced as physical pain or numbness
• Understand concept of "shame shape"
• Explore possible protective functions of somatic shame

Experiential Exercise:

• Practice noticing where shame lives in body
• Experience shame as embodied phenomenon
• Track sensations and their meanings
• Build capacity to be with shame somatically

Multilevel Understanding:

• Shame operates on somatic level (body sensations)
• Shame operates on emotional level (feelings)
• Shame operates on internal narrative level (stories about self)
• Understand as deeply embedded human relational experience

Survival Mechanism:

• See shame as acting to maintain connection
• Understand role in avoiding harm
• Recognize as physiological response to relational stress
• Track how it becomes emotion, then narrative of unworthiness

Parts Work Model:

• Differentiate between "shaming part" and "ashamed part"
• Understand protective intentions underlying shaming part's critical behaviors
• Apply parts work inspired by Focusing and Internal Family Systems
• Address inner conflict between parts
• Facilitate dialogue and integration

Projection Dynamics:

• Understand concept of projection in context of shame
• See how shame involves projections onto others
• Recognize dynamics in positions of power
• Work with relational aspects skillfully

Depth Psychology Model:

• Understand how shame lies beneath conscious awareness
• Recognize how it obscures deeper wisdom and potential
• See shame as surface layer over authentic self
• Work with what's hidden beneath shame

Module 5: Somatic Experiencing® (SE™) Session Demonstration with Dr. Peter Levine

Shame and Pride:

• Explore concepts of shame and pride as physiological opposites
• Focus on physiological underpinnings of each
• Understand shame as state of shutdown with incomplete responses
• See pride as expanded state of completion

Healthy vs. Toxic Shame:

• Healthy shame: Social instinct for repairing harm, promotes connection
• Toxic shame: Results from repeated humiliation, early unmet childhood needs, traumatic experiences where individuals internalize blame
• Compare distinct origins and functions
• Understand when shame serves vs. harms

Physiological Manifestations:

• Identify posture of shutdown characteristic of shame
• Recognize incomplete defensive responses
• Track body's holding patterns
• See how shame lives in physical structure

SE Techniques:

• Gentle guidance into constricted shame posture
• Followed by release and opening
• Leading to emergence of expanded posture
• Experience of pride and dignity as completion occurs
• Work with body to complete blocked responses

Specific Interventions:

• Extended "Voo" sound: Engage diaphragm and belly
• "I'm alive" statement: Explore feelings of being unwanted
• Boundary-setting gestures: Physical movements of protection
• Mindful exploration: Body sensations and emotional responses to specific words and images
• Gradual and gentle approach throughout

Framework:

• Emphasize gradual engagement with trauma
• Maintain mindful awareness throughout
• Work within window of tolerance
• Support completion rather than forcing
• Allow transformation to emerge naturally

Core Competencies Developed Across All Modules:

Understanding Shame:

• Distinguish healthy from toxic shame
• Recognize shame as relational phenomenon
• See shame's role in social boundaries and learning
• Understand physiological and neurological underpinnings
• Track developmental and intergenerational origins

Somatic Literacy:

• Identify how shame manifests in body
• Recognize "shame shapes" and postures
• Track sensation, emotion, and narrative levels
• Notice physiological markers (shutdown, incomplete responses)
• Work with autonomic nervous system responses

Parts Work:

• Differentiate shaming part from ashamed part
• Understand protective intentions of shaming behaviors
• Facilitate internal dialogue and integration
• Apply IFS and Focusing-inspired approaches
• Support reunion of fragmented self

Clinical Interventions:

• Apply effective interventions for chronic shame
• Use intersubjective frames in clinical work
• Work with somatic techniques for regulation
• Support completion of blocked responses
• Create conditions for repair and healing

Relational Dynamics:

• Recognize shame in therapeutic relationship
• Track countertransference responses
• Understand projection dynamics
• Work with power and privilege issues
• See shame's impact on connection and withdrawal

SE Techniques:

• Guide gentle movement into and out of shame postures
• Use vocalization (extended "Voo") for physiological engagement
• Apply boundary-setting gestures
• Explore body sensations mindfully
• Facilitate completion of incomplete responses
• Support emergence of pride and dignity

Getting Unstuck:

• Understand spread activation theory
• Recognize shame vortexes and how to interrupt them
• Work with possibility of repair outside original rupture
• Apply somatic practices for moving through stuck states
• Build capacity despite shame's presence

Shadow Work Integration:

• Reclaim disowned parts of self
• Understand how adaptive strategies become limitations
• See connection between shadow and shame
• Work with what's beneath conscious awareness
• Support deeper self-connection and wholeness

Expert Faculty:

Learn from world-leading practitioners: Nkem Ndefo and Dr. Scott Lyons (Module 1), Dr. Christopher Walling (Module 2), Sergio Ocampo (Module 3), Kai Cheng Thom (Module 4), and Dr. Peter Levine, developer of Somatic Experiencing® (Module 5)—each bringing decades of experience and unique perspectives on somatic approaches to shame and shadow work.

The SE Demonstration Advantage:

Module 5 offers the rare opportunity to watch Dr. Peter Levine, creator of Somatic Experiencing®, demonstrate his approach to shame work. You'll witness:

• How he identifies shutdown posture and incomplete responses
• The gentle, gradual guidance into and out of shame states
• Use of extended "Voo" sound for diaphragm engagement
• Exploration of "I'm alive" to address feelings of unwantedness
• Boundary-setting gestures that complete protective responses
• The transformation from collapsed shame to expanded pride and dignity
• The art of working within the body's tolerance
• How completion of physiological responses creates psychological shift

Multiple Perspectives, Unified Understanding:

What makes this course comprehensive is the integration of diverse approaches:

• Foundational concepts: Shadow work, healthy vs. toxic shame, repair
• Relational/psychological: Intersubjective understanding, clinical patterns
• Somatic/neurological: ANS responses, embodied experience
• Parts work: Internal dynamics, shaming vs. ashamed parts
• SE demonstration: Physiological completion, posture work

Each module builds on the others, creating a comprehensive framework that addresses shame from cognitive, emotional, relational, and somatic levels simultaneously.

The Critical Distinction:

Throughout the course, a fundamental truth emerges: healthy shame facilitates repair and learning; toxic shame results when there's no repair. This isn't just a conceptual difference—it's a physiological one:

Healthy Shame:

• Temporary inhibitory response
• Focuses on behavior, not identity
• Followed by repair
• Facilitates learning within groups
• Maintains social boundaries
• Strengthens connection when resolved

Toxic Shame:

• Pervasive and chronic
• Attacks core identity ("I am bad" not "I did bad")
• No repair occurs
• Potentially results in depression
• Activates autonomic nervous system
• Creates existential threat of isolation
• Becomes embedded as incomplete responses
• Manifests as shutdown posture

The Body Holds the Key:

Shame isn't just a feeling or a thought—it's a full-body experience with distinct physiological signatures:

• Shutdown posture (collapsed, contracted)
• Incomplete defensive responses (protection that couldn't complete)
• Autonomic nervous system dysregulation
• Specific sensation patterns ("shame shapes")
• Potential experience as physical pain or numbness
• Held tension in diaphragm, throat, chest

Understanding these somatic manifestations is essential because:

1. Shame lives primarily in the body, not just the mind
2. Cognitive approaches alone often can't reach it
3. Body-based interventions access where shame actually resides
4. Completion of physiological responses creates lasting change
5. The shift from shame posture to pride posture is transformative

Shadow Work and Shame Connection:

Shadow work involves reclaiming disowned parts of ourselves—aspects we've exiled because they weren't acceptable. Shame is often the force that created these exiles in the first place:

• Parts of self that brought shame become "not me"
• Adaptive survival strategies develop to avoid shame
• These strategies then hinder deeper self-connection
• Shadow work requires working with the shame that caused the split
• Healing shame allows reintegration of shadow material

As Kai Cheng Thom reveals, shame lies beneath conscious awareness, obscuring deeper wisdom and potential. The parts we've shamed into exile hold valuable qualities we need for wholeness. But we can't reclaim them without addressing the shame that forced them underground.

The Repair Process:

A revolutionary insight from this course: repair doesn't always need to occur with the original source of rupture. This is profoundly liberating for clients whose shame stems from:

• Parents who have died
• Abusers who are unavailable or unsafe to contact
• Communities that remain toxic
• Situations that can't be revisited

The therapeutic relationship itself can provide the missing repair. Through attuned, compassionate presence, the clinician offers what wasn't available originally. And as Sergio Ocampo emphasizes, somatic techniques can facilitate this repair by addressing the physiological dysregulation directly.

Shame Vortexes and Spread Activation:

Shame can create spiraling cycles—"shame vortexes"—where one experience of shame activates memories and sensations of past shame, creating overwhelming flooding. Understanding spread activation theory helps practitioners:

• Recognize when clients are in shame spirals
• Interrupt the cascade before full flooding
• Use somatic practices to break the pattern
• Build capacity to tolerate shame without spiraling
• Create new neural pathways that don't automatically activate shame networks

Working With Parts:

The parts work model introduced by Kai Cheng Thom offers a practical framework:

Shaming Part:

• Often sounds like inner critic
• Uses harsh, attacking language
• Has protective intentions (trying to prevent shame from others by shaming first)
• Believes it's keeping system safe
• Needs understanding, not elimination

Ashamed Part:

• Feels fundamentally flawed
• Carries burden of unworthiness
• Often younger, vulnerable
• Holds pain of original shaming experiences
• Needs compassion, validation, repair

The work isn't to get rid of the shaming part but to:

1. Understand its protective function
2. Appreciate what it's trying to prevent
3. Offer alternative ways to stay safe
4. Facilitate dialogue between parts
5. Support integration and harmony

Intersubjective Frame:

Dr. Christopher Walling's emphasis on intersubjective work is crucial. Shame isn't just happening inside the client—it's happening between client and therapist. The clinician must:

• Notice their own shame responses
• Track countertransference
• Recognize when they're inadvertently shaming
• Use their own responses as information
• Provide disconfirming relational experience
• Be the attuned presence that facilitates repair

The SE Transformation:

What makes Dr. Peter Levine's demonstration so powerful is witnessing the physiological transformation:

• From collapsed shutdown (shame) to expanded openness (pride)
• From incomplete responses to completed protective actions
• From "I'm unwanted" to "I'm alive"
• From constricted posture to dignity

This isn't metaphorical—it's actual physical reorganization. The body completes what it couldn't complete during the original shaming or traumatic experience. And with that completion comes:

• Release of held tension
• Shift in belief about self
• Emergence of pride and dignity
• Restoration of aliveness
• Reclamation of possibility

Transformation Through Understanding:

This course supports professionals in helping clients:

• Distinguish healthy from toxic shame
• Recognize shame's somatic manifestations
• Work with shame shapes in the body
• Complete incomplete defensive responses
• Facilitate repair (with or without original source)
• Navigate shame vortexes and spirals
• Integrate shaming and ashamed parts
• Reclaim shadow material exiled by shame
• Shift from shutdown to expansion
• Move from unworthiness to dignity
• Experience pride as natural state
• Build capacity for deeper self-connection

Who This Is For:

Essential training for:

• Therapists working with shame and unworthiness
• Somatic practitioners addressing embodied shame
• Clinicians using IFS or parts work
• SE practitioners wanting to deepen shame work
• Anyone working with chronic shame, perfectionism, self-attack
• Practitioners addressing privilege and power dynamics
• Therapists interested in shadow work and integration
• Clinicians wanting to understand shame's neurological basis
• Anyone seeking to integrate multiple modalities for shame work

What Makes This Course Profound:

Most shame work happens cognitively—challenging beliefs, reframing thoughts. This course teaches you to:

• Work where shame actually lives (in the body)
• Address physiological dysregulation directly
• Support completion of incomplete responses
• Facilitate actual postural shifts (shutdown to expansion)
• Work with parts carrying shame
• Understand neurological embedding of chronic shame
• Create repair through therapeutic relationship
• Honor shame's protective origins while supporting transformation

The Core Truth:

Shame is not the enemy—it's a signal. Healthy shame can facilitate repair and learning. But when shame becomes toxic—when there's no repair, when it attacks identity rather than behavior, when it triggers existential threat of isolation—it creates profound suffering and keeps us from wholeness.

The good news: shame has somatic underpinnings that can be addressed directly. The body that holds shame also holds the capacity for completion, repair, and transformation. The parts that shame and feel ashamed can come into dialogue and integration. The shadow material exiled by shame can be reclaimed.

And the physiological shift from shame posture to pride posture—from shutdown to expansion, from "I'm fundamentally flawed" to "I'm alive"—is not just possible but observable, measurable, and profoundly healing.

As Dr. Peter Levine demonstrates, when we work gently and gradually with the body's incomplete responses, when we support completion of what couldn't complete during original shaming or trauma, when we facilitate the shift from constriction to opening—pride and dignity naturally emerge. Not as concepts we try to install, but as the body's natural state when shame finally completes and releases.

This is the promise of somatic shame work: not just managing shame cognitively, but actually transforming it at the level where it lives—in the nervous system, in the posture, in the incomplete responses waiting for completion. When we work at this level, lasting transformation becomes possible.

Essential training for any practitioner ready to help clients transform shame from a source of suffering and isolation into an experience that, when met with understanding and somatic skill, can finally complete, release, and give way to the dignity and aliveness that is each person's birthright.

Join our brilliant experts for the following sessions:

NKEM NDEFO

Nkem Ndefo is the founder of Lumos Transforms and creator of The Resilience Toolkit, a model that fosters embodied self-awareness, supports stabilization from the impacts of personal and collective trauma, and nurtures adaptive capacity in the face of stress—all within an ecologically sensitive and social justice-oriented framework. She brings extensive experience as a clinician, educator, researcher, and community strategist to innovative programs that address trauma and inequity, build resilience, and catalyze liberatory change for individuals and organizations across the U.S. and globally. Nkem is especially committed to working in solidarity with people most impacted by violence and marginalization.

Nkem has lent her expertise in the embodied trauma-informed and resilience-oriented (eTIRO) approach, embodied anti-oppression, and healing justice to a wide range of projects. She served on the Los Angeles County Trauma-and Resilience-Informed Systems Change Initiative Workgroup. She led an embodied diversity, inclusion, and antiracism initiative for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services. Recently, she developed a trauma-informed program for Palestinian students of An-Najah National University in Gaza and the West Bank, as well as supported a global participatory youth-led grantmaking learning collaborative with Children’s Rights Innovation Fund. She directs the Resilience Toolkit Facilitator Certification Training Program and Tender Love Doula eTIRO Learning Community.

Websites: www.lumostransforms.com, www.theresiliencetoolkit.co 

Instagram: @nkemndefo, @lumos_transforms

Facebook: www.facebook.com/LumosTransforms 

DR. CHRISTOPHER WALLING

Dr. Chris Walling, PsyD, MBA, FABP is a licensed clinical psychologist, board-certified psychoanalyst, and an active leader in the bio-behavioral sciences. Dr. Walling is an Associate Professor in the Department of Research Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies, and the Research Chair & Past-President of the United States Association for Body Psychotherapy. He is a Fellow of the American Board of Psychoanalysis and a member of the New Center for Psychoanalysis where he serves as Faculty in the Adult Psychoanalytic Training program and serves on their Education Committee & Diversities Committee, Dr. Walling also serves on the American Psychoanalytic Association’s Committee on Gender & Sexuality.
Dr. Walling serves as a Clinical Research Fellow at the Kinsey Institute for Research on Sex, Gender and Reproduction, located at Indiana University, Bloomington. In addition, he has been honored as a Gina Ogden Curatorial Scholar for 2024 by Kinsey, where he also serves on their International Advisory Council. His clinical interests survey the fields of somatic psychotherapy, relational psychoanalysis, human sexuality, and trauma psychology. His peer-reviewed works are published in the American Psychological Association‘s Journal of Psychotherapy and the International Body Psychotherapy Journal. Dr. Walling maintains a private practice in Brentwood (Los Angeles), California.

SERGIO OCAMPO

Sergio Ocampo is co-developer and instructor of Dynamic Somatic Touch (DST), an innovative and highly effective trauma resolution approach effective in unwinding emotional overwhelm, trauma, and physical syndromes such as chronic illness and pain. Based on the core values of somatic therapies, psychotherapy and body based sciences, DST complements and accelerates healing for all phases of trauma work.

Sergio combines somatic and cognitive interventions, including Somatic Experiencing, DST, Family Systems, Generational Trauma Resolution, Dream Work, Depth and Spiritual Psychology, Spiritual Awareness, and EMDR, to deliver innovative therapeutic approaches.

Sergio serves as a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, Licensed Psychotherapist, Antioch University Adjunct faculty, and Embody Lab content contributor, while also holding leadership positions in Somatic Experiencing International and Dr. Peter Levine’s Ergos Institute of Somatic Healing. Fluent in four languages, Sergio advocates for seeing anxiety and depression as temporary. Sergio’s motto is: Emotional suffering and trauma are not a life sentence, but a temporary discomfort.

Websites: www.sergioocampo.com, www.dynamicsomatictouch.com 

BESSEL VAN DER KOLK

Bessel van der Kolk, M.D., is a pioneering clinician, researcher, and teacher in posttraumatic stress whose work integrates developmental, neurobiological, and interpersonal aspects of trauma. His bestselling book, The Body Keeps the Score, transforms our understanding of trauma, revealing how it rearranges the brain’s wiring, and highlighting innovative treatments at the forefront of psychiatry. With over 150 peer-reviewed articles, Dr. van der Kolk has studied such diverse topics as neuroimaging, self-injury, memory, neurofeedback, Developmental Trauma, yoga, theater and EMDR. He is founder of the Trauma Center (now the Trauma Research Foundation) in Boston, MA, past President of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, Professor of Psychiatry at Boston University Medical School, Principal Investigator Boston site of MAPS sponsored MDMA assisted psychotherapy study, and teaches at universities and hospitals globally. 

Websites: www.besselvanderkolk.com, www.traumaresearchfoundation.org 

KAI CHENG THOM

Kai Cheng Thom, MSW, MSc, Qualified Mediator, Certified Professional Jungian Life Coach, and Certified Somatic Sex Educator, is a coach, process facilitator, and mediator whose work focuses on the intersections of trauma healing, Transformative Justice, and social change. A noted theorist and practitioner in the field of conflict resolution, Kai Cheng has made significant contributions towards the integration and application of conflict transformation, crisis intervention, and body-based trauma healing methods in an activist context through her writing and teaching. Kai Cheng maintains a private practice as a one-on-one somatic coach, consultant, and group facilitator, drawing from extensive professional trainings in a wide variety of healing and wellness disciplines. She has also trained hundreds of embodiment and wellness professionals as Adjunct Faculty with the Institute for the Study of Somatic Sex Education and a Senior Teacher at The Embody Lab.

Books: www.kaichengthom.com/books/

Instagram: @kaichengthom

Twitter: @razorfemme  

DR. PETER LEVINE

Peter A Levine, Ph.D., is the developer of Somatic Experiencing®, a naturalistic and neurobiological approach to healing trauma, which he has developed over the past 50 years. He holds a doctorate in Biophysics from UC Berkeley and a doctorate in Psychology from International University. He is the Founder and President of the Ergos Institute for Somatic Education, dedicated to Community Outreach and Post-Advanced Somatic Experiencing® Training, and the Founder and Advisor for Somatic Experiencing International. He has taught at the University of California, Berkeley; Mills College; Antioch University; the California Institute of Integral Studies; and the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute. His work has been taught to over 30,000 therapists in over 42 countries.

Dr. Levine is the author of several best-selling books on trauma, including Waking the Tiger, Healing Trauma (published in over 29 languages); In an Unspoken Voice, How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness; and Trauma and Memory, Brain and Body in a Search for the Living Past.

In recognition of his groundbreaking therapeutic works, Dr. Levine has received Lifetime Achievement awards from Psychotherapy Networker and from the US Association for Body-Oriented Psychotherapy, an honorary award as the Reiss-Davis Chair in Los Angeles for his lifetime contribution to infant and child psychiatry, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for Training on Trauma and Attachment in Children (ATTACh) for “his lifelong commitment to healing children through research, education, and outreach.” He served as a Stress consultant for NASA in the early space shuttle development and has served on the American Psychological Association task force for responding to the trauma of large-scale disasters and ethnopolitical warfare. He is currently a Senior Fellow and consultant at The Meadows Addiction and Trauma Treatment Center in Wickenburg, Arizona, and continues to teach trauma healing workshops internationally.

Websites: www.somaticexperiencing.com, www.traumahealing.org 

DEB DANA

Deb Dana, LCSW is an author, clinician, and consultant specializing in using the lens of Polyvagal Theory to understand and resolve the impact of trauma and create ways of working that honor the role of the autonomic nervous system. She developed the Rhythm of Regulation Clinical Training Series and lectures internationally on ways Polyvagal Theory informs work with trauma survivors. She is a founding member of the Polyvagal Institute, clinical advisor to Khiron Clinics, and an advisor to Unyte.

Deb’s clinical work published with W.W. Norton includes The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy: Engaging the Rhythm of Regulation, Polyvagal Exercises for Safety and Connection: 50 Client Centered Practices, and the Polyvagal Flip Chart. She partners with Sounds True to bring her polyvagal perspective to a general audience through the audio program Befriending Your Nervous System: Looking Through the Lens of Polyvagal Theory and her forthcoming print book Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory.

To learn more, visit www.rhythmofregulation.com or www.polyvagalinstitute.org

DR. SCOTT LYONS

Dr. Scott Lyons is a licensed holistic psychologist, educator and author of the book Addicted to Drama: Healing Dependency on Crisis and Chaos in Yourself and Others, with Hachette publishing. Scott is also the host of The Gently Used Human Podcast, a delightfully depthful and often hilarious exploration of what it is to be human, to have lived life, and come out gently used.

As a renowned body-based trauma expert, Doctor of Osteopathy (Spain) and Mind-Body Medicine specialist, Scott helps people to break free from cycles of pain, limited beliefs, and trauma. Scott is an innovator in transformative wellness and trauma therapy, teaching over half a million people internationally over the past twenty years how to relieve stress and restore vitality. Scott has worked with many of the country’s top leaders and CEOs as an executive coach and wellness consultant.

Scott is the creator of The Embody Lab—the largest online learning platform for body-based trauma therapies—and developer of Somatic Stress Release™, a holistic process of restoring biological resilience, taught in over 20 countries.

Scott is a Certified Body-Mind Centering™ Teacher and Practitioner, Cranio-Sacral Therapist, Visceral Manipulation Therapist, Neuro-Developmental Therapist, Infant Developmental Movement Educator, Registered Movement Therapist and Educator, Trauma Therapist, Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, Thai Massage Practitioner, Clinical Hypnotherapist, Mindfulness-based Executive Coach, Experiential Anatomy/ Developmental Movement and Yoga Practitioner, and a 500-hour registered yoga teacher. Additionally Scott holds a BFA in Theater/Psychology, MFA in Dance/Choreography, MS in Clinical Psychology, and a PhD in Clinical Psychology and Mind-Body Medicine.

Scott has been featured in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Forbes Women, Fast Company, The Telegraph, The Guardian, INC., CNBC Make It, Fortune, Bustle, Reader’s Digest and Goop. He has also appeared on The Mel Robbins Podcast, The Jordan Harbinger Show, The We Can Do Hard Things Podcast, The Mental Illness Happy Hour, The Human Upgrade, The Genius Life, and The Chopra Well.

Websites: www.TheEmbodyLab.com, www.drscottlyons.com 

Instagram: @DrscottLyons

Book: https://www.drscottlyons.com/addicted-to-drama-book

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