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Course Information

BODYWORK & SOMATIC EDUCATION (BASE™) 1 Training: Polyvagal Structures, Viscera and the Autonomic Nervous System

Basic BASE™ Training

Bodywork and Somatic Education™ (BASE™) is clinical, body-oriented approach to help clients overcome the emotional, relational and and physical effects of trauma. BASE™ provides psychotherapists and somatic practitioners with a versatile toolkit to use with individuals, couples, and families dealing with symptoms of trauma. The training is designed to: a) clear relational attunement b) help psychotherapists develop clinically and ethically appropriate hands-on touch skills, and c) to help bodyworkers and movement educators refine and expand their hands-on skills with a paradigm that focuses on expanding a client’s capacity without triggering cathartic overwhelm.

The body’s holding of psychological trauma and its importance as the vehicle for healing are now broadly recognized in academic, clinical and research settings. Physical and relational dysregulation, including persistent high arousal and dissociation, go hand in hand with developmental wounding, illness and shock trauma. When our interoceptive (internal state of the body) systems are signaling discomfort, pain or distress, we are in a self-perpetuating feedback loop that fuels dysregulation. This persistent state of high arousal causes both intrapersonal and interpersonal difficulties, such as feeling detached from the self and the world, relationship and work issues, learning problems, chronic pain, headaches, gastrointestinal problems, sleep issues, anxiety, PTSD and other challenges.

BASE™ brings two aspects of somatic work together:

  1. Somatic education: learning from the inside through the kinesthetic sense of self.

  2. Skilled touch: how to use ethically appropriate touch to facilitate and enable increased regulation in body tissues, organs and structures.

BASE™ teaches the use of non-touch somatic awareness strategies as an important tool for clinical attunement, assessing trauma and working with a client’s internal state. The training is designed to support psychotherapists interested in adding touch work to their practices to become skilled in somatic therapy. Students learn movement and somatically-oriented interventions, as well as assessing how and when it is appropriate to use touch to support clients. BASE™ students develop a highly refined attunement to clients’ internal, non-verbal states, enabling them to track health and dysregulation by observing a) what is happening physiologically (i.e. anxiety, shutdown/dissociation, etc), b) how it is manifesting (i.e. constriction, etc) and c) where the dysregulation is located in the body. Participants will learn how to help clients release internal freeze/shutdown states and facilitate expansion, capacity and ease. The approach gives clients new ‘interoceptive’ experiences that provides critical, regulating information to the brain, enabling them to experience greater resilience and choice—the opposite of a trauma response. In turn, this improves relational or interpersonal dynamics.

This workshop offers 24 CE hours.

There is no conflict of interest or commercial support for this program.

‘If you would like to be added to a Wait List… please email karen@rcassidy.com’

 

Presenter


Dave Berger, MA, MFT, LCMHC, PT, SEP
Dave Berger, MFT, PT, LCMHC, MA, SEP is a physical therapist and somatic psychotherapist. Dave is also a consultant and teacher of Somatic Experiencing®, a neurobehavioral intervention for recovery from the effects of emotional and physical trauma. Dave’s own BASE™: Bodywork and Somatic Education Training for trauma therapists is an integration of his life’s clinical work. As a therapist, teacher, consultant and mentor, Dave’s passion and commitment to deep healing guide his work. Click here to learn more about Dave.
 

Target Audience:

Psychologists (Introductory Level), Psychoanalysts, Psychiatrists, Social Workers (Beginning Level), MFTs, Counselors, Substance Abuse Counselors, Occupational Therapists, Nurses, Dentists

 

Course Objectives:

- Describe different types of touch
- Identify appropriate and ethical types of touch for trauma healing
- Identify anxiety or chronic distress postures
- Develop clear intention to enhance the use of appropriate touch
- Address the ethics of including touch in practice
- List basic principles of Bodywork and Somatic Education to shift from trauma to ease
- Describe phases of threat/survival response cycle
- Describe the relationship between the gastrointestinal biome and system, emotions and affect regulation
- Describe Polyvagal Theory and name structures of the polyvagal system
- Describe the bodyphores (body metaphors) of several visceral organs
- Discover structures innervated by the dorsal vagus nerve
- Describe the function the HPA axis and of kidney-adrenal complex in traumatic stress and anxiety
- Deduce the relationship between the polyvagal theory and the abdominal cavity
- Identify the esophagus
- Describe the bodyphore of the esophagus
- Demonstrate strategies to release the esophagus
- Identify structures innervated by the ventral vagus nerve
- Identify structures involved with breathing
- Describe the bodyphores of the thoracic cavity
- Describe the role of social engagement in trauma renegotiation
- Demonstrate strategies to affect structures of social engagement
- Discover the relationship between therapeutic attunement, attachment and bonding, and physiology

 

Agenda

Day 1 9:30-5:30  (6 hours)

1.5 hour 9:30-11 Lecture, Experiential Exercises and Demo: Basic Concepts of BASE, Ethics of Touch, Types of Touch. Therapeutic and Developmental Attunement, What is trauma? Coupling (Association) dynamics and trauma. Polyvagal Theory, HPA axis.

11-11:15 Break

1.25 hour 11:15-12:30 Practice Time:  Polyvagal exercises

12:30-2 Lunch

1.5 hour 2-3:30 Lecture, Experiential Exercises and Demo: Threat/Survival Response cycle, PTSD, neuroception and HPA axis: psychology, anatomy, psychophysiology.

3:30- 3:45 Break

1.5 hour 3:45-5:15 Practice Time: Dorsal Vagal tone and strategies to support autonomic regulation.

.25 hour 5:15-5:30 Q & A, wrap up, review

 

Day 2 9:30-5:30  (6 hours)

1.5 hour 9:30-11 Lecture, Experiential Exercises and Demo. Attunement as a physiological process developmentally and clinically, Interoception, Dorsal Vagal/Abdominal Structures, human biome and autonomic regulation: psychology, anatomy, psychophysiology.

11-11:15 Break

1.25 hour 11:15-12:30 Practice Time:  Touch readiness, dorsal vagal strategies continued

12:30-2 Lunch

1.5 hour 2-3:30 Lecture, Experiential Exercises and Demo: Understanding digestion as it relates to emotions and affect regulation, GI track anatomy and processes: psychology, anatomy, psychophysiology.

3:30-3:45 Break

1.5 hour 3:45-5:15 Practice Time: Attunement and strategies related to the GI tract

.25 hour 5:15-5:30 Q & A, wrap up, review

 

Day 3 9:30-5:30  (6 hours)

1.5 hour 9:30-11 Lecture, Experiential Exercises and Demo: Functions and strategies of the GI system in autonomic regulation (continued); Psychology, anatomy, psychophysiology.

11-11:15 Break

1.25 hour 11:15-12:30 Practice Time: Strategies related to the GI tract and therapeutic attunement

12:30-2 Lunch

1.5 hour 2-3:30 Lecture, Experiential Exercises and Demo: Introduction to breathing, autonomic regulation and affect; psychology, anatomy, psychophysiology.

3:30-3:45 Break

1.5 hour 3:45- 5:15Practice Time: touch and non-touch strategies to regulate breathing, Respiratory diaphragm.

.25 hour 5:15-5:30 Q & A, wrap up, review

 

Day 4 9:30-5:30  (6 hours)

 

1.5 hour 9:30-11 Lecture, Experiential Exercises and Demo: The role of the esophagus in relational development and in affect regulation; psychology, anatomy, psychophysiology

11-11:15 Break

1.25 hour 11:15-12:30 Practice Time: strategies to affect the esophagus and regulation of the GI system

12:30-2 Lunch

1.5 hour 2-3:30 Lecture, Experiential Exercises and Demo: Breathing Continued. Introduction to Ventral Vagus and Social Engagement System.

3:30-3:45 Break

1.5 hour 3:45-5:15 Practice Time: Strategies to affect social engagement (part 1).

.25 hour 5:15-5:30 Q & A, wrap up, review.

 

Cancellation Policy

Cancellation Policy

If cancellation is 30 or more days prior to start date of a module or workshop there is a full refund less $50; 15-30 days prior to start date there will be 50% refund less $50. Less than 15 days prior to start date there is no refund. Payment can be by check, cash or online as specified on registration and information materials. Refunds need to be request by from Cassidy Seminars, 866-992-9399 X105.