Somatic Therapy in Action: Healing Childhood Trauma

 $447 USD $99

This course delves into the profound impact of childhood trauma, exploring somatic therapy demonstrations that reveal pathways to healing and resilience. It explores core concepts like shape and countershape, explains the use of psychodrama and ideal figures, and analyzes emotional responses through a somatic lens.

Emphasizing the creation of a safe therapeutic space, these four modules demonstrate techniques for gently exploring somatic patterns, utilizing inner resources, and titrating the intensity of trauma processing.

Ultimately, this course supports professionals with somatic approaches to support individuals in processing trauma, releasing held tension, and fostering a sense of safety and empowerment.

About the course

Childhood trauma doesn't just live in memory—it lives in the body, shaping how we move, breathe, relate, and protect ourselves decades after the original wounding. This profound four-module demonstration package delves into the lasting impact of childhood trauma, revealing pathways to healing and resilience through the wisdom of the body. Watch master clinicians work with attachment wounds, developmental trauma, and early experiences that continue to echo in the present.

The Power of Witnessing Healing:

Through four intimate somatic therapy demonstrations, you'll observe the subtle art of trauma healing as it unfolds in real time. These sessions reveal how skilled practitioners create safety for the unspeakable, work with protective patterns, and guide clients toward releasing what has been held for years—sometimes decades—in the soma. This is learning that transcends technique and enters the realm of presence, attunement, and therapeutic artistry.

What You'll Learn:

Through four comprehensive demonstration modules, you'll discover how to:

Module 1: Addressing Unmet Needs and Healing Attachment Wounds Through Psychodrama with Linda Thai

Understanding Shape and Countershape:

• Define core concepts within the Pesso Boyden System Psychomotor (PBSP)
• Understand 'shape' as an experience of distress or unmet need
• Recognize 'counter shape' as the attuned, resourcing response necessary for regulation and healing
• Analyze emotional responses through this framework

Psychodrama for Developmental Trauma:

• Witness psychodrama techniques directed by Bessel van der Kolk
• Understand role-playing and introduction of ideal figures (ideal parents, elders)
• Address missing developmental experiences through corrective emotional experiences
• Work with both "real" and "ideal" figures to process unmet needs

Clinical Application:

• Apply shape and countershape to analyze common emotional responses (using sadness as example)
• Identify societal messages that invalidate emotional experience
• Offer more attuned and supportive counter shapes in therapeutic contexts
• Externalize the internal world for processing
• Facilitate deep emotional processing and integration through somatic experiencing

Module 2: Using Somatic Experiments to Resolve a Startle Response with Dr. Albert Wong

Creating Safety for Exploration:

• Establish safe and consensual containers in somatic practice
• Prioritize client comfort and sense of presence in the therapeutic space
• Use consent and agency as foundations for trauma work

Exploring Somatic Patterns:

• Identify and gently explore somatic patterns related to past experiences
• Work with startle responses connected to childhood trauma
• Utilize verbal cues and imagined scenarios ("probes") to bring awareness to bodily sensations
• Titrate exploration to maintain safety and prevent overwhelm
• Track associated emotions as they emerge

Facilitating Inner Resources:

• Support emergence of inner resources and self-affirming statements
• Foster regulation and sense of "hereness"
• Use environmental objects (plants, photographs) as anchoring resources
• Develop phrases that support presence ("I'm here too")
• Explore possibilities for reframing through relationship (playful interactions with spouse)

Module 3: Resourcing, Parts Work, and Somatic Experiencing for Agency and Empowerment with Dr. Arielle Schwartz

Working with Sexual Abuse Trauma:

• Understand significance of therapist self-care when working with severe trauma
• Establish safety through titrated exposure to sensitive content
• Navigate the complex interplay of past experiences and present-day triggers
• Honor the long-term impact of early trauma

Resource-Based Approaches:

• Identify and utilize allies and protectors to support processing
• Call in supportive figures to create sense of protection
• Build resources before accessing overwhelming material
• Use parts work to address fragmentation

The Art of Titration:

• Apply titration principles to modulate processing intensity
• Prevent re-traumatization through deliberate pacing
• Practice pendulation from overwhelming emotional intensity to regulation
• Track capacity and adjust accordingly
• Support both access to difficult material and return to safety

Module 4: Breathwork, Vocalization, and Gentle Movement for Processing Early Trauma with Dr. Peter Levine

Somatic Experiencing in Action:

• Watch Dr. Peter Levine (developer of Somatic Experiencing®) demonstrate his approach
• Work with trauma from toxic mold exposure and family instability
• Use breathwork, vocalization, and gentle movement for trauma processing
• Understand somatic resonance and attuned presence

Following the Body's Wisdom:

• Attend to and follow bodily sensations as primary pathway to healing
• Guide clients to notice and describe physical responses
• Access and discharge stored tension through the body
• Connect with sense of safety and agency through embodied experience

Titration and Pendulation:

• Move gently between discomfort and ease to avoid overwhelming the nervous system
• Practice gradual exploration of tension
• Use back-and-forth movements to build capacity
• Honor the body's natural rhythm of approach and withdrawal

Sound, Movement, and Imagery:

• Apply techniques like the "voo" sound for vagal regulation
• Use jaw movements to release defensive patterns
• Employ imagery (protective boundaries) to promote safety and grounding
• Facilitate discharge and completion of interrupted defensive responses

Core Competencies Developed Across All Modules:

Creating Safety for the Unspeakable:

• Establish therapeutic containers strong enough for early trauma
• Build consent and agency into every intervention
• Track safety continuously throughout the work
• Know when to resource and when to explore

Understanding Developmental Wounds:

• Recognize how childhood experiences shape present-day patterns
• Work with attachment wounds and unmet developmental needs
• Address the "missing experiences" that never occurred
• Understand shape and countershape in emotional development

Somatic Approaches to Trauma:

• Follow bodily sensations as the primary pathway
• Use breathwork, vocalization, and movement for processing
• Apply titration to prevent overwhelm
• Support discharge of held tension and incomplete defensive responses
• Work with startle responses and hypervigilance patterns

Parts Work and Resource Building:

• Identify and work with protective parts
• Call in allies and ideal figures for support
• Build internal and external resources
• Support integration and wholeness

Therapeutic Presence:

• Witness how master clinicians attune to subtle shifts
• Understand somatic resonance between therapist and client
• Learn the art of pacing trauma work
• Develop capacity to hold intense emotional material

Expert Faculty:

Learn from Linda Thai, Dr. Albert Wong, Dr. Arielle Schwartz, and Dr. Peter Levine (founder of Somatic Experiencing®), with psychodrama direction by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk—each demonstrating unique approaches to healing childhood trauma through somatic methods.

The Demonstration Advantage:

These real sessions reveal what books and lectures cannot teach—the moment-to-moment decisions, the micro-adjustments in pacing, the subtle tracking of nervous system states, the art of knowing when to move forward and when to pause. You'll witness breakthrough moments, stuck places, and the skilled navigation of both.

Transformation Through the Body:

This package supports professionals in helping clients:

• Process childhood trauma through the body, not just the mind
• Release tension held for decades in muscles, breath, and posture
• Access unmet developmental needs and experience corrective responses
• Build sense of safety, agency, and empowerment
• Complete defensive patterns that were interrupted in childhood
• Integrate fragmented experiences into coherent narrative
• Heal attachment wounds through therapeutic relationship

Essential training for therapists and healing professionals working with developmental and childhood trauma who want to move beyond talk therapy into the profound healing that becomes possible when we meet trauma where it truly lives—in the body.

About the Faculty

DR. ALBERT WONG

Dr. Albert Wong is the Director of the Trauma Certificate Program at Somatopia and a leading educator and clinician in the field of somatics.  He was residential staff at the Esalen Institute for five years and served as the Director of Somatic Psychology at John F. Kennedy University. A Marshall Scholar, he has been featured on PBS, in Time Magazine, and in the book The American Soul Rush. He was educated at Princeton, Oxford, and the University of Tennessee and is the recipient of numerous national awards (Westinghouse Science Talent Scholarship, Goldwater Scholarship).  He maintains a private counseling and consulting practice centered around somatic psychotherapy and is the founder of the online somatic education platform, Somatopia: www.somatopia.com. He is the author of the recently released book, The Healing Trauma Workbook.

Website:  www.somatopia.com 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/somatopia 

Instagram: @somatopia 

Youtube: www.youtube.com/somatopia 

DR. ARIELLE SCHWARTZ

Dr. Arielle Schwartz is a clinical psychologist and leading voice in the healing of trauma. She is an internationally sought-out teacher and author of seven books including The Complex PTSD Workbook, The Post-Traumatic Growth Guidebook, EMDR Therapy and Somatic Psychology, and Applied Polyvagal Theory in Yoga. As the founder of the Center for Resilience Informed Therapy, she offers a mind-body approach to therapy for trauma and informational mental health and wellness updates through her writing, public speaking, social media presence, and blog. She believes that the journey of trauma recovery is an awakening of the spiritual heart. Learn more at www.drarielleschwartz.com and www.resilienceinformedtherapy.com 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/drarielleschwartz 

Instagram: @arielleschwartzboulder 

YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UC5LUxnXbReV7I5cEzvb46sQ  

LINDA THAI

Linda Thai LMSW (she, her) is a trauma therapist who specializes in cutting edge brain- and body-based modalities for the healing of complex developmental trauma.

As an educator and consultant, she is gifted with the capacity to contextualize, synthesize and communicate complex and nuanced issues pertaining to trauma, attachment and the nervous system, including the impact of oppressive systems upon identity, mental health and wellbeing.

Linda has worked with thousands of people from all over the world to promote mindfulness, recover from trauma, and tend to grief as a means of self care. Linda’s work centers on healing with a special focus on the historical and intergenerational contexts of adult children of refugees and immigrants.

She is passionate about breaking the cycle of historical and intergenerational trauma at the individual and community levels, and deeply believes in the healing power of coming together in community to grieve.

Born in Vietnam, raised in Australia, and now living in Alaska, Linda is a former child refugee who is not only redefining what it means to be Vietnamese, to be Australian, and to be a United States-ian....she is redefining what it means to be wounded and whole and a healer.

Website: www.linda-thai.com 

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 

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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