Sunday Evening Opening Session
The Power of Presence
Beth L. Haessig
The extent to which we are present in our bodies is the extent to which we reside in reality. Using the techniques of various somatic modalities, Beth L. Haessig opens the conference by exploring the experience of presence as the critical ground that supports the holding of clients in their own bodies.
Monday
Contacting Brilliance: An Introduction to the Hakomi Method of Experiential Psychotherapy
Jaci Hull
The Hakomi Method is a potent, deep, and holistic modality, and a uniquely effective approach to therapy. It nourishes both client and therapist with embodied self-awareness techniques and a deeply attuned healing relationship.
Learn simple techniques that are powerful, effective, and supported by current neuroscience research in a workshop that teaches how
- Loving presence exponentially enhances the success of therapy
- Mindfulness becomes an effective therapeutic intervention
- Mindful, body-centered techniques uncover unconscious events that impact current beliefs and behaviors
- Embodied integration leads to profound changes in life and relationships
- The Hakomi Method supports the reclamation of inner wisdom, organicity, and brilliance.
Experience Hakomi and learn new skills that can be integrated with many healing modalities.
Recommended reading Ron Kurtz, Body-Centered Psychotherapy: The Hakomi Method; Greg Johanson and Ron Kurtz, Grace Unfolding: Psychotherapy in the Spirit of the Tao Te Ching.
Tuesday
Focusing in Clinical Practice: The Essence of Change
Ann Weiser Cornell
Focusing is a body-based process that has been linked with successful outcomes in psychotherapy. Focusing allows breakthrough moments to occur that integrate the emotional brain and body in the present moment. Learn to facilitate Focusing sessions that help your clients connect with hope and possibility.
This workshop is designed to help you
- Distinguish felt senses when they occur naturally
- Learn the difference between a felt sense and an emotion
- Construct an empathic prompt to help clients stay with a felt sense
- Facilitate felt sensing in clients who intellectualize, tell stories, and have trouble feeling their bodies.
Recommended reading Ann Weiser Cornell, Focusing in Clinical Practice: The Essence of Change.
Wednesday
Embodied Couples Therapy
Brian and Marcia Gleason
Working with couples can be daunting. In this workshop, Brian and Marcia Gleason introduce an exciting and novel approach to engaging committed couples in an embodied context. Through presentations and a variety of hands-on experiences, you learn how to
- Understand and work with the shared energy field
- Discern the four levels of interactive consciousness (reactive, reflective, mindful, and embodied)
- Use somatic interventions including Leading by Following and Catalyzing
- Break the reactive styles of couple interactions when each partner is in sympathetic arousal
- Explore the energetic use of self in couples work.
Return home with practical tools for helping couples break free of deadening habits and work with the powerful emotional reactions that committed partners inevitably encounter.
Thursday
Rubenfeld Synergy Method: The Healing Synergy of Talk and Touch
Joe Weldon
The healing power of the Rubenfeld Synergy Method (RSM) lies in its use of gentle touch and vibrant talk. This unique combination helps clients heal from the pain of trauma as well as the pains of everyday existence. Through the synergy of talk and touch, RSM explores the connection between what’s going on in your client’s body and what’s happening in their life. Gentle touch allows access to the body’s story and vibrant talk illuminates its meaning.
This workshop teaches you to
- Guide clients in listening to body wisdom
- Identify ways your client’s body can be a resource for healing
- Explore body phrases that elucidate client challenges and issues
- Recognize how intention informs touch.
Through experiential exercises and hands-on demonstrations, discover how to listen to the body and feel the power of this work in your hands.
Recommended reading Ilana Rubenfeld, The Listening Hand.
Friday Morning
Integration and Grounding
Beth L. Haessig
After experiencing four different modalities in four days, this is a rich time to process all that you have learned. The closing session involves breaking up into groups for integration and self-inquiry so you can return home grounded in the power of presence and the power of the body.
