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Healing Trauma: Working with Somatic Wounds


 

Healing Trauma:
Working with Somatic Wounds

With Peter A. Levine, PHD

THIS 10HR MASTER WORKSHOP IS AVAILABLE ON-DEMAND

 

This class can be attended via the on-demand recordings.

 

YOUR BONUS OFFER!

4 HOURS OF PRE-RECORDED VIDEO SESSIONS


INCLUDED WITH YOUR WORKSHOP REGISTRATION:
• Unpacking Hope with Dr. Levine, Dr. Sará King & Dr. Scott Lyons
• Evolution of Somatic Trauma Therapy with Dr. Levine
• Healing Intergenerational & Attachment Trauma with Dr. Levine



ABOUT THIS WORKSHOP

FEATURING PETER A. LEVINE, PHD, DEVELOPER OF SOMATIC EXPERIENCING®

 

“I have come to the conclusion that human beings are born with an innate capacity to triumph over trauma. I believe not only that trauma is curable, but that the healing process can be a catalyst for profound awakening—a portal opening to emotional and genuine spiritual transformation.”


PETER A. LEVINE, PhD

 

Join Peter A Levine, PhD, the Developer and Founder of Somatic Experiencing (SE™), a naturalistic and neurobiological approach to healing trauma, in this four-part workshop series exploring how SE integrates simple and proven somatic techniques to aid in calming the nervous system, release stored trauma, and promote healing.

Somatic Experiencing is a body-oriented therapeutic model applied in multiple professions and professional settings—psychotherapy, medicine, coaching, teaching, and physical therapy—for healing trauma and other stress disorders. It is based on a multidisciplinary intersection of physiology, psychology, ethology, biology, neuroscience, indigenous healing practices, and medical biophysics and has been helping individuals find release and healing from trauma & stress for more than four decades.

Somatic Wounds and Complex Trauma

Complex trauma refers to repeated exposure to traumatic events, often starting from an early age, and typically involves multiple forms of abuse, neglect, or violence. Somatic wounds are the physical manifestations or bodily sensations that arise from this complex trauma. These experiences can disrupt long-term physical, emotional, and psychological well-being. 

Complex trauma can have a profound impact on the nervous system and disrupt the body's natural ability to regulate stress. This dysregulation can lead to the development of somatic wounds, which may include chronic pain, somatic dissociation, hypervigilance, gastrointestinal issues, and a range of other physical symptoms. These somatic wounds serve as tangible reminders of the trauma and can contribute to ongoing distress and dysfunction.

Complex trauma encompasses a wide range of experiences, including early exposure to neglect, abuse, or violence. These experiences can have a profound impact on long-term physical, emotional, and psychological well-being. 

The journey towards healing somatic wounds is not always a straightforward path. Progress often takes twists and turns, and traditional therapy approaches sometimes fall short. Rather than solely relying on the recollection and retelling of painful events, it is essential to embrace a more holistic approach.

About this Workshop

In this transformative four-part series, Dr. Levine will demonstrate a deep understanding of how complex trauma originates––and how somatic-based therapy can help clients address, process, and begin healing more quickly and effectively.

Through four 90-minute recorded sessions, Dr. Levine will personally guide you through client demonstration videos. At every step, he will pause to explain his approach and techniques, generously sharing his wisdom. By immersing yourself in this experience, you will gain insight into a method that can be immediately integrated into your practice, enabling you to access the power of somatics to heal trauma and restore a sense of wholeness, peace and wellbeing.

What you will learn:

  • Conduct a physical way of releasing complex trauma from the body

  • Differentiate what unfolds organically in the body versus focusing on the story content

  • Evaluate the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system for signs that indicate dysregulation

  • Define the Ventral Vagal state of vitality and well-being

  • Adjust bracing patterns created from overactivity in the sympathetic nervous system

  • Demonstrate somatic skills that allow your client to more comfortably express difficult emotions, facilitate release, and increase resiliency

  • Practice the skill of Pendulation, Dr. Levine’s process of expanding and contracting to release trauma held in the body

  • Utilize sound and movement as a way to shift a nervous system state from a freeze response to presence 

  • Address complex trauma by reinforcing choice and curiosity

  • Apply body-based therapeutic techniques during an online session with a client

What’s included in your registration?

  • Four recorded 90-minute sessions with Dr. Levine, including client session video debriefs to identify SE techniques and explain the work in action.

  • Lifetime access to video, audio, transcripts, & additional course resources. 

  • Every session is recorded and available to you in your online content library. Learn at your own pace and revisit the material at any time.

  • 4 BONUS hours of pre-recorded video sessions with Dr. Levine.

 

 

PRICING

These deep-dive training experiences are offered with an exclusive discount for all Embody Lab Members. This means that if you attend regularly, your membership fees could well be covered! 

If you would like to take advantage of this discount, become a member here before registering for this course.

 
 

$215

NON-MEMBER
PRICING

$195

EXCLUSIVE
MEMBER PRICING

 

PLEASE NOTE: These sessions are a workshop series and are not available to be purchased individually.

 

 

SCHEDULE

This Master Workshop consists of four 1.5 hour sessions,
PLUS 4 hours of BONUS pre-recorded content.


This workshop is now available to watch at your own pace via the on-demand recordings.
You will receive clear instructions on how to access the class upon registration.

 

 

WHO IS THIS COURSE FOR

This course is designed for mental health professionals, bodyworkers, yoga devotees, mindfulness practitioners, coaches, and anyone seeking to find a greater sense of internal harmony, acceptance, confidence, calmness, wisdom, compassion, and connectedness.

 

 

EACH SESSION IN DETAIL



SESSION ONE: Working with Minimization & Critical Self Judgement: Awareness & Exploration


Dr. Levine works with a middle-aged female who experienced neglect, instability, and exposure to a war zone at an early age. Her trauma history includes a large earthquake; multiple surgeries and dental work; seven major car accidents; and severe postpartum anxiety that developed into PTSD symptoms after the birth of her daughter. She struggles with general long-term anxiety, syndromes and autoimmune diseases, and scoliosis/poor posture.

During Session Review One, you will learn how to:

• Discuss the implications of a complex trauma response, including shut-down, as a set of defensive bodily reactions

• Define perceptual skills and practical tools to create more presence, rhythm, and connection with our clients

• Analyze the Window of Tolerance/Range of Resiliency utilizing body-based tools

• Identify self-compassion as an anecdote for critical judgments and bracing responses

• Apply micro-movements to facilitate the expansion of the shame response/collapse



SESSION TWO: Working with Emotional Trauma & the Inner Child: Recognizing Expansion & Contraction & Even More Expansion


Dr. Levine works with a Type A middle-aged male who suffers from psoriatic arthritis, muscle spasms, and weakness. He struggles with spontaneous jerky movements and chronic stiffness. For 6 years he was the caretaker to his elderly bi-polar mother. He suffered a windsurfing back strain a few years before the session and numerous falls and injuries in early childhood, including motorcycle/head injuries. After a prolonged 3-month period of intense stress (attempting an unsuccessful business merger that felt like an inescapable attack), he developed chronic and increasing muscle spasms and muscle weakness. He tends to override fatigue.

During Session Review Two, you will learn how to:

• Distinguish how to be more aware of unresolved trauma in the body

• Detect how to precisely track autonomic nervous system shifts

• Engage in working with the inner child to heal developmental emotional needs

• Define the functional nature of symptoms through psycho-education

• Describe tools to work with Chronic Pain & Syndromal Clients who suffer from developmental trauma

• Demonstrate working with complex trauma through imagination, sound, movement, and diaphragms

• Practice how to implement exercises geared towards increasing your client’s capacity to engage in life



SESSION THREE: Utilizing Somatic Tools to Increase Flow: Developmental Trauma, Chronic Pain, and Covid-19


Dr. Levine works with a middle-aged woman who experienced a tremendous amount of early childhood and young adult physical, psychological, and sexual abuse and neglect; including an attempted strangelation. She struggles with grief and rage over her past. She suffers from fibromyalgia and arthritis. She became very sick and was hospitalized with Covid-19 in December 2020 where she was isolated, too sick to move, and coded. This review includes multiple online sessions.

During Session Review Three, you will learn how to:

• Define how complex trauma connected with severe illness can advance Chronic Pain

• Discuss how early abuse and neglect can hinder healing from illness

• Differentiate how various symptoms of Syndromes and Chronic Pain manifest in the body

• Demonstrate various somatic techniques to aid with soothing and self-regulation

• Identify methods to manage triggered and reactive trauma to avoid long-term bodily damage



SESSION FOUR: Medical Trauma & Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy: Support through Regulation & Embodiment


Dr. Levine explores a young woman’s Medical trauma from a Munchausen by Proxy upbringing. As a child and young adult she was over-medicated and received invasive medical care by her mother who was a nurse, which caused a lot of physical and emotional pain and fear. She missed school a lot, had no voice or protector in her home, experienced tween bullying, teen boyfriend sexual abuse, and sexual harassment in the workplace as an adult. She also suffers from Ehlers Danlos Syndrome and is unresponsive to local anesthesia, twilight, morphine, Vicodin, etc. which has made her many surgeries and medical testing, extremely painful.

During Session Review Four, you will learn how to:

• Analyze how trauma associated with an ongoing traumatic event can lead to long-term chronic physical ailments

• Explain how early attachment wounds can create an inability to have healthy boundaries in life

• Define the principles of Somatic Experiencing® Bodywork

• Identify the functional mind-body pathways mediated by the Polyvagal system

• Adjust autonomic vegetative states through regulation and embodiment

 

 

FREE PREREQUISITE:
Somatic Experiencing® Handout

Please note, the one prerequisite for this workshop is the following Somatic Experiencing® PDF. Please use the button below to access the PDF. You may download it directly to your computer or print the PDF from the button link.

 

YOUR BONUS OFFER!

4 HOURS OF PRE-RECORDED VIDEO SESSIONS


INCLUDED WITH YOUR WORKSHOP REGISTRATION:
• Unpacking Hope with Dr. Levine, Dr. Sará King & Dr. Scott Lyons
• Evolution of Somatic Trauma Therapy with Dr. Levine
• Healing Intergenerational & Attachment Trauma with Dr. Levine


 

 

ABOUT YOUR TEACHER

PETER A. LEVINE, PHD
Developer of Somatic Experiencing® (SE™)


Peter A Levine, Ph.D., is the developer of Somatic Experiencing®, a naturalistic and neurobiological approach to healing trauma. He holds doctorates in both Biophysics and Psychology. He is the Founder and President of the Ergos Institute for Somatic Education and the Founder and Advisor for Somatic Experiencing® International. 

Dr. Levine is the author of several best-selling books on trauma, including Waking the Tiger, Healing Trauma (published in over 29 languages). He has received multiple Lifetime Achievement awards, including from Psychotherapy Networker and from the US Association for Body-Oriented Psychotherapy. His work has been taught to over 50,000 practitioners in over 42 countries. 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. To learn more visit somaticexperiencing.com.

 

 
 

PRICING

These deep-dive training experiences are offered with an exclusive discount for all Embody Lab Members. This means that if you attend regularly, your membership fees could well be covered! 

If you would like to take advantage of this discount, become a member here before registering for this course.

 
 

$215

NON-MEMBER
PRICING

$195

EXCLUSIVE
MEMBER PRICING

 

PLEASE NOTE: These sessions are a workshop series and are not available to be purchased individually.

 

INTEGRATIVE SOMATIC TRAUMA THERAPY CERTIFICATE

This workshop series is included in your registration for the Integrative Somatic Trauma Therapy Certificate Program. Participants who have registered for this certificate program will automatically be registered for this workshop absolutely free of charge.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE CERTIFICATE PROGRAM HERE


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