Somatopia

presents

THE TRAUMA CERTIFICATE PROGRAM

INTRODUCING…

The Core Skills Trauma Certificate Program

With former Director of the Somatic Psychology Program at John F. Kennedy University

Dr. Albert Wong

and Guest Faculty

New 3 Month Live Video Training Starts
Tuesday, August 22, 2023

Get on the waitlist to be notified first when registration opens.  

 Working with trauma is sometimes challenging.


Trauma can stay, long after a threat is gone.
Flashbacks from the past can echo into present life.
Memories can lodge themselves into "felt experience."
Even after years of talk therapy and medication,
the effects of trauma can sometimes still linger. 
FORTUNATELY, THERE IS ANOTHER WAY.
Instead of trying
"think" our way out of trauma,
contemporary research on healing trauma
invites us to reconnect
with our fragmented aspects of self: 
 the wisdom of our body,
our lost capacity for creative self-expression.  
It invites us to become still, to listen,
and to rediscover our lost, forgotten parts.
Our "felt sense"
Our interoceptive experience.
The Unspoken Voices,
momentarily forgotten,
that still reside within.

THE TRAINING WAS AMAZING! 

It was tremendously helpful to me as a survivor of trauma and also as a clinician. I wish more trainings like this would have been a part of my graduate school training and experience. The format was great and the pace was perfect in terms of being slow enough for it to really sink in. The information was also presented in a format that could be easily understood and applied. I highly recommend this training! 

ERIN PRUETT
LICENSED MENTAL HEALTH COUNSELOR

GROUNDED IN CONTEMPORARY NEUROSCIENCE,
BACKED BY ANCIENT WISDOM...

The Trauma Certificate training program incorporates interventions backed by leading-edge discoveries in the field of trauma, including attachment theory, polyvagal theory, and interpersonal neurobiology.
More and more, we are discovering:
  • Connecting with the “felt sense” of the body can help us reintegrate previously frozen sense memories.
  • Somatic experiences of secure attachment can help us remember what it might be like to feel safe with another human being again.
  • Embodied self-expression can help us rediscover our forgotten inner voice and help us live our lives, out loud. 
Instead of working strictly from a cognitive approach, an integrative trauma treatment model uses the wisdom of all aspects of our being -- body-mind-spirit -- to help guide us out and through.  

SUCH A BEAUTIFUL AND HEALING COURSE! ā¤ļø

I have found a deep sense of being ‘back in my own life’ after watching and practicing what is taught here. My awareness grows daily, and I am learning to find new resources of ‘self nourishment’! Enriching for myself and those around me!

CLAIRE ENNEW
MANDALA ARTIST

In this program you will...


 
-1-

Discover the Brain Science behind Neurobiological Shut-Down

You'll learn how the brain processes trauma, including revolutionary new discoveries in polyvagal theory, and the specific role of the hippocampus, the amygdala and cortisol in encoding trauma memories. 

-2-

Learn How to Release Traumatic Memory Trapped in the Body

You will learn how to use interoception, the wisdom of the body and the "felt sense" to help stabilize, metabolize and integrate experiences of trauma.

-3-

Gain Practical Skills To Help Those Suffering From Trauma And Chronic Stress

Enhance your learning by practicing step-by-step skills, including tools you can use with your clients, yourself, and those you love.

PROGRAM OVERVIEW

During the Certificate Program, you will…


Learn How to Work with Trauma

from Dedicated Teachers in the Field

Take 4 foundational Core Skills courses: 

Foundations of Trauma Therapy
Holistic & Art-Based Interventions for Healing Trauma
Somatic Trauma Therapy: Cultivating Embodied Presence  
Further Techniques and Applications of Trauma Therapy

Each Week…

Get 3 hours of online course instruction plus an additional, optional 1 hour per week of structured practice time

Hone your skills by practicing with classmates in your Student Community

Learn how to work with trauma – from a whole person perspective

Earn a Core Skills Trauma Certificate from Somatopia after the completion of 10 core skills practice sessions

FIND OUT MORE

By the end of the program, you will have learned how to:

  • Use the key principles of trauma therapy to create a roadmap for healing

  • Resource and stabilize people when they are entering a flashback or other dissociative state

  • Identify and process trauma memories, through a range of somatic, arts-based and holistic approaches

  • Use Polyvagal Theory to map out trauma states

  • Develop the inner quality of Embodied Presence as a vehicle for co-regulating clients and supporting trauma healing

  • Utilize creative self-expression as a vehicle for healing trauma

  • Use symbolic thinking to discover the core "life myths" that undergird childhood wounding

  • Implement dance, movement, dreamwork, and ecotherapy interventions to help restore wholeness

    All of this with the support of dedicated faculty
    who are lifelong educators in the field.

Watch the Info Session 
Recorded Live on
Sunday, May 15, 2022

with Dr. Albert Wong, Program Director
and a cameo by Associate Faculty, Maryasha Katz, LCSW 

Register to Watch the Info Session  

No Spam.  Ever.

IN THE WORLD, THERE ARE FEW PEOPLE...

... who I label as "super co-regulators" – I view myself as good enough…. Albert, I think you could fit within the category of "super co-regulators"… Your presence and your voice… How you use your social engagement system… That's a healing property. It enables the body to become accessible.

STEPHEN PORGES
FOUNDER OF POLYVAGAL THEORY 

THE CORE SKILLS TRAUMA CERTIFICATE PROGRAM

THE CURRICULUM

Trauma 101

Foundations of Trauma Therapy

Laying the Groundwork for Understanding

This course emphasizes the theoretical foundations of trauma therapy. It outlines the nature of trauma, how it happens, and how we might heal. Foundational concepts such as titration, resourcing, polyvagal theory, the window of tolerance, finding the missing experience, overcoming the shame bind, and completing the interrupted arousal cycle will be covered.

  • The Roadmap: What is trauma and how do we navigate through?
  • The Three Phase Model of Trauma Treatment
  • SIBAM and the Five Channels of Experience
  • Dual Awareness, Oscillation, and Pendulation
  • Setting the Container: Centering and Grounding
  • Installing Resources: Somatic Resourcing, Resource Tapping & Polyvagal Mapping
  • Tracking, Attunement, and Limbic Resonance
  • Trauma as a Shame Bind and How to Work with It
  • Internal Family Systems & The Structural Dissociation Model

Trauma 102

Art-Based Approaches for Healing Trauma

Connecting with Our Creativity and the Voice that Lives Within

This course will introduce participants to a variety of multi-modal art-based interventions that can be used in individual and group settings to enhance sensory integration, organize narrative responses and find voice in art as a healing response to trauma. This experiential class will introduce a variety of art-based tools that the practitioner can use with clients who have acute, long term, developmental or attachment related traumatic histories. Teaching methods include short lecture, large and small group discussions as well as multiple experiential art activities.

  • Core Concepts of Arts-based Therapy
  • The Intersection of Art and Neuroscience
  • Ethical and Cultural Considerations in Arts-based Therapy
  • Creating a Safe Container For Creativity In-Person And Online 
  • Healing Ancestral Trauma
  • Working with Mandalas to Heal Trauma 
  • Utilizing Embodied Mindfulness to Rediscover the Inner Voice

Trauma 103

Somatic Trauma Therapy

Cultivating Embodied Presence and Essential Qualities for Healing Trauma

This course will teach students how to cultivate embodied presence and other important inner qualities that support the healing of trauma. Students will learn to track and discern their felt-experience as an entry point to presence and explore the role of embodied kindness and patience in trauma healing. They will deepen their understanding of dual awareness, curiosity and modulation. Students will learn how to attend to the felt sense of inner traumatized parts, unblend from them – and discover underlying survival impulses. Attention will also be given to working with the Inner Critic as well as how to become a beacon for trauma healing by orienting towards and transmitting a sense of embodied well-being.

  • Cultivating Patience and Somatic Discernment
  • Turning Toward What Is with Dual Awareness
  • Calming Body Memory, Unblending and Modulation
  • The Art of Slowing Down and Orienting to the Positive, to the Resource
  • Understanding the Nature of Inner Attacks and Effective Responses
  • Knowing the Felt Sense of Transmitting Well-Being

Trauma 104

Trauma Therapy: Further Techniques and Applications

Further Techniques and Applications

This course focuses on a range of further techniques and applications of trauma therapy.  This class will also include live demonstrations of trauma therapy technique, as well as additional integrative sessions to help students consolidate their learnings and bring their work back into the world. 

  • Understanding and Working with Early Childhood Wounds 
  • Completing the Arousal Cycle
  • Working with Dreams to Help Heal Trauma
  • Working with Dissociation and Fragmentation
  • Healing Trauma through the use of Embodied Expression
  • Dance Movement Approaches to Healing Trauma
  • Ecotherapy and Trauma
  • Integrative Community Practice 
  • Live Demonstrations of the Work
  • Using Community to Support Integration and Learning
  • Bringing the Work into the World

OUR FACULTY

Bringing decades of experience, with over 1,000 students trained

Camara Rajabari, LMFT

Core Faculty 

Sue Martin, MA, REAT

Core Faculty 

Bill Say, MA

Associate Faculty 

Niralli D'Costa, LMFT 

Associate Faculty 

Maryasha Katz, LCSW

Associate Faculty 

Angela Porter, LMFT 

Associate Faculty 

Sheila Rubin, LMFT, RDT/BCT

Associate Faculty 

Patricia Rojas-Zambrano, LMFT

Associate Faculty 

YOUR HOST

Dr. Albert Wong

 

Former Director of Somatic Psychology 
John F. Kennedy University

 

BLENDING ANCIENT WISDOM 
WITH MODERN SCIENCE

PROGRAM DETAILS

OVERVIEW

The program will run from May 24th to August 18, 2022.

All live sessions will be recorded so that students who cannot attend the live sessions can watch or revisit the lesson at their own convenience.

Students are welcome to either attend the live sessions or participate in the certificate program through watching the video recordings.

In order to receive the Trauma Certificate, students must complete 10 practice sessions, as well as a self-evaluation, by October 18, 2022. 

THE CURRICULUM

The program is comprised of four separate, but interlocking courses:

  • Foundations of Trauma Therapy
  • Art-based Approaches to Healing Trauma
  • Somatic Trauma Therapy: Cultivating Embodied Presence
  • Trauma Therapy: Further Techniques and Applications

Because this curriculum builds upon itself, these courses cannot be taken individually, but must be taken together as a unit as part of the integrated Core Skills Trauma Certificate Program.

 

CLASS SCHEDULE

Classes will meet twice a week during the summer session (May 24 through August 18, 2022).

All weekly classes are on:
Tuesdays & Thursdays from 1 PM-2:30 PM (Pacific Time)
+ optional after-class 30 minute practice session

Each 90-minute class will be followed by an optional 30 minute practice session for students so that they might develop and practice their skills learned during the class, as well as earn practice session credit towards their Core Skills Trauma Certificate.

Please view the calendar listed above for an overview of the schedule, with particular attention to your local time zone. 

CLASSROOM FORMAT

COURSE CONTENT: Students may participate in the training either by attending the Live Sessions on Zoom or by watching the Class Recordings which will be housed via the online learning platform, Somatopia.

REFERENCE MATERIALS: The online learning platform at Somatopia will be the repository archive for all information about the course including:

  • Orientation information
  • Student Handbook
  • Detailed class schedule
  • Instructions on how to access the live classes via Zoom
  • Class recordings of live sessions – available within 24 hours of the end of the live event.

STUDENT ORIENTATION

Student orientation will occur on the first day of class, Tuesday, May 24, 2022 at 1 PM (Pacific Time). During this time students will be oriented to the parameters of the class, how to utilize the learning platform, community agreements, and the structure of the certificate program.

A recording will be made available for students who cannot attend live.

HOMEWORK

In order to earn the Core Skills Trauma Certificate, students must complete 10 core skills practice sessions and complete a self-evaluation. These are due by October 18, 2022.

Practice sessions may be completed either with members of the class cohort, or with willing volunteer "practice clients" outside of class.

Students are welcome to schedule the practice times as best fit their (and their practice partner's) individual schedule.

CLOSING CEREMONY

Closing Ceremony will occur on the last day of class, Thursday, August 18, 2022 at 1 PM (Pacific Time).

Students will be given an opportunity to share their experience in community. 

Family, friends, and loved ones are welcome and invited to attend.

CERTIFICATE OF COMPLETION

In order to receive the Core Skills Trauma Certificate, students must:

  • Attend the live sessions and/or watch the recordings
  • Complete 10 practice sessions implementing the Core Skills techniques
  • Complete a Self-Evaluation

TUITION FEES

Our fees are sliding scale, and we make every effort to keep our trainings affordable for students.

Students may choose one of three sliding scale rates – Full Fee, Base Fee, or Reduced Fee – which range from $987 to $797 on a sliding scale basis.

ALL ARE WELCOME

DR. WONG WAS AN ABSOLUTE JOY TO WATCH...

Dr. Wong was an absolute joy to watch take us through journey of trauma healing. His voice was soothing and a authentic teacher. I’m a Family Physician who is focused on Mental Health in Men and Boy Children. My approach in therapy has always been around CBT and Positive Psychology. Referring my patients for Somatic Therapies. You gave me another technique to help my clients. The phase 3 connection part was beautiful. Somehow I found it connected to CBT. Loved it!!

DR. UNATI MAKIWANE
FAMILY PHYSICIAN 

WHO IS THIS FOR?

  • Mental Health Professionals: Psychologists, Psychotherapists, Social Workers, Counselors, Marriage And Family Therapists, Expressive Arts Therapists, Psychiatrists, etc.

  • Coaches: Leadership Trainers, Executive Coaches, Relationship Coaches, Personal Coaches

  • Medical and Alternative Medicine Professionals: Medical Doctors, Nurses And Nurse Practitioners, Occupational Therapists, Physical Therapists, Chiropractors, Emergency Medical Workers, Midwives, Acupuncturists, Naturopathic Doctors, etc.

  • Educators: Teachers, Professors, Instructors

  • Wellness Professionals: Massage Therapists and Body Workers, Yoga Therapists, Meditation Teachers, Movement Therapists, etc.

  • Students in a Mental Health or Allied Profession: Trainees, Interns, Associates
  • Anyone interested in learning how to work with trauma from an integrative, holistic perspective 
ALL ARE WELCOME

THIS COURSE WAS UNBELIEVABLE. 

This course was unbelievable. I learned so much. This will be invaluable when working with my clients. I not only use this with my clients It has helped me to understand my own trauma.

LORRAINE ROSSITER
PSYCHOTHERAPIST 

Registration for the 2022 Core Skills Training is now closed.

The program will run again starting in August 2023.

Sign up below and be the first to know about the 2023 Core Skills Trauma Certificate Program. 

I HAVE SUCH HEARTFELT GRATITUDE...

 ...for Dr. Wong and this course. I too like so many have suffered trauma in my life. And working through that trauma has led me to a career field in healing. I'm a structural integrator and I work directly with physical manifestations of trauma on a daily basis and I find this curriculum and what it can bring to my work valuable. I thoroughly enjoyed this course. And I thank you Dr. Wong, for your time and your genuine desire to share this gentle approach with all of us. I truly look forward to learning more from you in the future. Thank you so much. 

REGINA VISCONI
LICENSED MANUAL THERAPIST 

Frequently Asked Questions

 FACULTY BIOS

Sue Martin, MA, REAT 
Core Faculty

Sue Martin, MA, REAT, has over 40 years experience working in the field of trauma. In 1977 she cofounded one of the first shelters for battered women in the country and then, Futures Without Violence in 1980. Sue has taught students, professionals and community agencies for many decades. Known for her dynamic and passionate teaching, She served on the faculty of John F. Kennedy University from 2007 to 2020, teaching courses on Working with Trauma and PTSD, the Psychobioimmunology of Stress and Embodied Expressive Movement. Sue has supported hundreds of students to learn to listen to their body’s wisdom and to follow the depth of knowledge discovered therein. She is a proponent of simple practices that support embodying our essential/highest nature. Sue has a private practice in Berkeley, California and is a longtime student of the Diamond Heart School for Spiritual Development, where she is currently in the teacher-training program.

Camara Meri Rajabari, LMFT
Core Faculty

Camara Meri Rajabari (she/her) is an arts-based, somatic, ancestral psychotherapist, professor, activist practicing and living in the unceded lands of the Chochenyo and Ramaytush Ohlone peoples called Oakland, California. Her private practice specializes in anxiety, depression and intergenerational trauma experienced by Black, Indigenous and People of Color. She is also trained psychedelic-assisted psychotherapist working offering ketamine-assisted psychotherapy for clients experiencing complex ptsd. Camara’s approach is person-centered, imaginal and inclusive. Her work focuses on intergenerational trauma, ancestral resiliency and the exploration/liberation of consciousness.

Maryasha Katz, LCSW
Associate Faculty

Maryasha Katz is a Jewish Queer Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Dancer, and Life Coach. She is a member of the Adjunct Faculty in the Holistic Studies and Graduate Psychology Departments at JFK/National University and Palo Alto University. She has extensive experience working with trauma with a focus on sexual assault and domestic violence. In addition to her private practice, she provides supervision and consultation to other psychotherapists and organizations. Her skills in online course development have put her in high demand during these challenging times. She has also worked as the Counseling Department Supervisor and Sexual Assault Department Manager at Women’s Crisis Support~Defensa de Mujeres, as a Self-Defense Instructor, and as a Trainer.

Niralli D’Costa, MA, LMFT 
Associate Faculty

Niralli D’Costa, LMFT, MA, Somatic Ecotherapist, is a licensed psychotherapist, teacher and practitioner of integrative energy healing modality Syntara System. She believes that everything that we need in order to heal and awaken, is available to us in the natural world. Niralli draws upon her long-term study of yoga, meditation, and tantra to support people on their spiritual path and healing journey. She has taught at the intersections of social justice, embodied spiritual practice, and nature-based elemental healing at a range of institutions. She has served as adjunct faculty at UC Berkeley, John F. Kennedy University, Syntara System School of Energy Awareness, the Mind Body Therapy Certificate Program at Embodied Philosophy, and currently serves as affiliate faculty in the Spiritual and Depth Psychology Specialization at Antioch University. She currently practices online and in Chumash and Ohlone territories.

Patricia Rojas-Zambrano, LMFT
Associate Faculty

Patricia Rojas-Zambrano is a psychotherapist, activist, artist, and educator. She completed a B.S in Psychology at Universidad de Los Andes in her native Colombia where she worked in community-based programs. Upon relocating to the US to complete graduate studies at CIIS (EXA, 02), she focused her practice towards community mental health settings that serve immigrant and refugee communities. In her clinical practice she has specialized in the treatment of trauma using both Expressive arts and somatic approaches including focusing, movement-based, and mindfulness approaches such as Hakomi. She is the co-founder and Director of Wellness in Action at the Center for Empowering Refugees and Immigrants, a community-based training program for unserved and underserved communities and mental health practitioners of color. Ancestral knowledge, relational wisdom and embodied practices are central to this work.

Bill Say, MA
Associate Faculty

Bill Say holds an M.A. in psychology, and certification in Process Work and Core Energetics. He is an adjunct faculty member at the Wright Institute, California Institute of Integral Studies, JFK University and the Process Work Institute. He brings many years of experience to private therapeutic practice, diversity awareness training, conflict resolution and community building, with work in the US, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. Bill is Japanese Korean American, cis and male and straight identified, middle-class, spiritually oriented, socially introverted, married to Linda and parent to Gabe. His website is: http://www.billsay.com

Angela Porter, MA, LMFT
Associate Faculty

Angela Porter, MA, MFT is a somatic therapist, trauma treatment, and addictions specialist, with a primary focus in group practice, and work with other therapists and clinicians. She trained in Gestalt, body-centered, and Somatic Therapy at Esalen Institute, Counseling Psychology at The Wright Institute, and is both an instructor and practitioner of BREEMA and a practitioner of EMDR. Facilitating the connection between body and mind is the foundation of her psychotherapeutic work.  Angela also serves as adjunct faculty at JFK and CIIS graduate psychology programs, teaching courses in clinical supervision, group therapy, and somatic approaches for treating trauma. She has recently launched Blackbird Institute in Oakland CA, where she works training and offering clinical supervision to psychotherapy interns and associates interested in treating trauma through a developmental, somatic, evolutionary and transpersonal lens.

Sheila Rubin, MA, LMFT, RDT/BCT
Associate Faculty

Sheila Rubin, MA, LMFT, RDT/BCT is a leading authority on Healing Shame. She co-created the Healing Shame – Lyon/Rubin Method and has delivered talks, presentations and workshops across the country and around the world, at conferences from Canada to Romania. Sheila has been presenting Healing Shame workshops with her husband, Bret Lyon, for over 10 years; she has been presenting workshops for therapists about working with shame, eating disorders, and child and family trauma for over 25 years.

Albert Wong, PhD
Core Faculty, Program Director

Dr. Albert Wong is the former Director of Somatic Psychology at John F. Kennedy University and a leading clinician and educator in the field of somatics, healing trauma, and the body-mind connection. He served as residential staff at the Esalen Institute and as Core Faculty at the California Institute of Integral Studies, where he taught classes on Somatic Approaches to Trauma, Therapeutic Communication, and Theories and Techniques of Trauma Therapy. He has been featured on PBS, in Time Magazine, and his work has been published in titles ranging from the scientific journal Biological Cybernetics to the book anthology Radical Spirit. He is the founder of Somatopia, an online educational platform that is dedicated to creating an embodied world.

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