SATTI – Somatic Art Therapy Trauma Institute

The Mission of the Somatic Art Therapy Trauma Institute (SATTI) is to enlighten, educate and train professionals in the principles and practices of Somatic Art Therapy.  The trainings are designed to revitalize and re-energize private practice and agencies by integrating a Somatics and Expressive Arts component that will expand and transform current therapy practices.

SATTI offers two levels of training and a certification process that includes practice, a minimum of 10 hours of group supervision and demonstration of proficiency in the model (via DVD or observation).  A certificate will be given upon completion of the two-year training and requirements.

The training is available to therapists, nurses, doctors, body workers, teachers, artists, students and anyone interested in exploring the connection between the body, creativity and healing.

Level 1: The Spiral of Healing, Awakening Body Wisdom through Art & Movement

Supporting your journey of awakening to health and wholeness in a fun, enlivening and creative way, is the intention of this 12-day somatic and expressive arts training. You will learn to walk the Spiral of Healing, access resources, create safety and build boundaries and protection. You will also learn to prepare and strengthen your awareness of and relationship with your body, journey through your chakras or energy centers, and retrieve and re-member aspects of yourself.

This is an opportunity to witness your “inner cast of characters” in a safe, nonjudgmental and sacred environment. The 12 days of the training are on weekends throughout the year. The 12 days of training are in weekend modules.

Also available as a Home Study Course

Use the principles and processes from  the book and companion CD: The Spiral of Healing: A Journey through the Chakras to Awaken Creativity and Body Wisdom.

Go at your own pace and have 12 Skype sessions to enhance your own exploration.  This home study counts as a prerequisite to the second year of training called Moving into Joy,
which takes place in community and sacred space.

INTRODUCTION TO FIRST YEAR

The Spiral of Healing training began as my personal journey of discovery and healing from trauma. It has evolved into a dynamic practice of “Embodiment as a Spiritual Path.”

For all those longing to heal and deepen their connection to self, other and Earth, this training offers insight and practical tools. Through a unique blend of somatic and creative arts practices we travel into our bodies, minds, hearts and spirits, and rediscover the relationship between ourselves and the world in which we live.

In these high-stress and fearful times, our biggest resource is our connection to bodily wisdom. In learning to understand its feeling language and to follow its sensate guidance, we can reclaim our personal power. Then, we will live the lives we were born to live, in love and gratitude.

Methodologies include Ritual, Movement and body awareness exercises, Art process including clay, painting, drawing, assemblage and collage, Sounding, Writing exercises
and Instruction.

Explorations take place in sacred and safe space created by the facilitator and participants.

Objectives of the training are to:

• Learn the language of the body and how thoughts, feelings and memories impact our daily experience
• Learn how trauma is stored in, and released from, the nervous system
• Gain understanding and direct experience of the chakras
• Identify and reclaim archetypal energies and awaken and utilize your creative self for healing and transformation.
• Develop a reciprocal working relationship with your essential self.

Course Description

Introduction: Building a Healthy Relationship with our Body

• Introducing the Chakras
• Resourcing as a Foundation for Healing and Transformation

First Chakra:  Laying the Foundation: Re-examining the Past, Retrieving the Healthy Child

• Examining issues of safety, boundaries, nurturance and beliefs
• Reclaiming exiled parts

Second Chakra:  Entering the Fruitful Dark: Finding Our Way with Creativity, Sexuality and Work

• Exploring our sensual body: passion and intimate relationships
• Work as personal and social value; artist and lover archetypes

Third Chakra:  Take Me to My Leader: Discovering Identify and Personal Power

• Retrieving self-esteem, personal power, warrior archetype
• Balancing self-worth and the self-critic

Fourth Chakra:  Home Is Where the Heart Is: Loving and Nurturing Self

• Love and Forgiveness
• Self-acceptance and self-care
• Grief and Letting Go

Fifth Chakra:  Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace: Reclaiming Authentic Voice

• Communication and self-expression; sounding
• Development of will and choice
• Learning through projection

Sixth Chakra:  Mindful Vision: Seeing What Was, What Is and What Could Be

• Core beliefs and the power of thought
• Using the intellect for healing
• Finding Authentic mindful action; visionary archetype

Seventh Chakra: And Then There was Light: Mysticism and the Embodiment of Sovereignty

• Finding guidance and acting on it
• Owning your inner wisdom; the organizing principle
• Discovering sovereignty; the archetype of ruler/elder

Coming Full Circle: Integrating Body, Mind and Spirit

• Interconnecting system of chakras; energies of manifestation and release
• Integrating archetypal energy
• Completing the first spiral; review and reflection
• Taking the Next Step

Level 2: Moving Into Joy: Practical Applications for Healing Trauma

Prerequisite: Spiral of Healing group or Spiral of Healing Home Study Course

INTRODUCTION

In these high stress times of both personal and cultural trauma, our biggest resource is our connection to bodily wisdom. By listening to its unique language, we can reclaim our personal power, transform our experiences and live the lives we were born to live, in love and gratitude.

We all know someone or are someone who has been through a traumatic experience, whether it be an accident, medical intervention, deep loss or abuse. Why do some people more easily heal from their experiences while others seem unable to move forward in their lives?

In this 12 day training, we will focus on the physiology of trauma, with emphasis on the autonomic nervous system, and its resolution using the creative arts therapies and body wisdom. We will explore our bodies as the repositories for both wounding and healing, guiding us from blocks into breakthroughs and pain into wellness. We will address both shock and developmental trauma, and how to work with each. And all that we do will support our moving into our joy.

During each day of the training we will work with ritual, body-based awareness exercises, art process, working in dyads, and group discussion. The information will be presented sequentially and each aspect will be touched upon in every process. Special emphasis will be placed on developing conscious awareness of one’s individual process.

Training Concepts

The training will consist of the following basic building blocks or concepts:

1. Safety – learning about containment, boundaries, grounding and centering, braking and accelerating the healing process, foundation for healing

2. Building Resources – using art processes and media to discover and support, learning how to enlarge one’s container for self and other

3. Tracking skills – following one’s sensations through pendulation and titration; over/under coupling; flight/fight/freeze responses

4. SIBAM model – in depth understanding of the five aspects of healing – sensations, images, behavior or movement patterns, affect and meaning

5. Increasing resonance – distinguishing from counter-transference

6. Gaining skills in Art processes – learning about media that enhance
awareness of one’s sensations, learning how to follow the image and
sensation.

7. Joy Practices – awakening to the sensations of joy as both the path to, and embodiment of sacred unity.

8. Sacred Unity – the foundation of the training; awakening an awareness of our interconnectivity with all life.

Training Objectives

The objectives of this training will allow participants to:

1. Understand the physiology of the autonomic nervous system as the basis for healing the aftereffects of trauma including isolation, disconnection, helplessness, constriction and hypervigilence.

2. Enhance one’s understanding of the seven chakras and their relationship to the storage and release of trauma from the body.

3. Understand via direct experience of one’s own body messages (sensations and symptoms), using creativity and guided visualization, how one can connect to the sources and sensations of trauma and transform them.

4. Understand how the theories of the SIBAM model, resourcing, safety,
boundaries and the techniques of pendulation, titration, braking and exceleration aid in the resolution of trauma.

5. Gain a beginning knowledge of how art process and trauma resolution theory and technique combine to enhance effectiveness.

6. Gain knowledge in the proper use of art materials
with different populations and different trauma responses.

7. Gain an embodied experience of sacred unity using movement, art
process, sounding, and practices that enhance one’s experience of joy.

8. Create a personal, daily gratitude practice using art, movement,
sounding or in writing which enhances one’s experience of joy.

Modes of Instruction

1. Slide Shows of client work;

2. Lecture and discussion of how the creative arts and imagery interact with the neurochemical systems of the body to activate shifts in symptomatology and causal factors of pain and dis-ease;

3. Handouts of various concepts and techniques to supplement lectures;

4. Creative arts experientials including movement, guided visualization chanting or sounding and art process;

5. Writing and journal keeping of personal process;

6. Recommended reading material;

7. Private Somatic Experiencing© sessions with instructor (Optional, additional cost);

8. Group supervision for certification.

Course Description

1. Trauma as Initiation: Identifying Traumas; Introducing Resources; Trauma as threshold experience; neurophysiology of trauma, SIBAM, joy practices, art and writing processes.

2. Tracking Skills: Defensive Orienting Responses; trauma after-effects; pendulation, titration, braking and accelerating process; cycle of expansion and contraction; focusing on sensation; Following the Image, joy practices, art and writing processes.

3. Introducing Trauma Techniques: Pendulation, Opposite Image; revisiting early childhood experiences; cycle of trauma release, joy practices; art and writing processes.

4. Coupling Dynamics – Relationship of SIBAM channels; Undercoupling and dissociation; Overcoupling and Enmeshment; Spaciousness and Connection; art and writing processes; joy practices.

5. Inner Cast of Characters – Identifying Parts and The Internal Family System; developing the Inner Witness; working with polarizations of parts; Inner Critic; art and writing processes; joy practices.

6. Relaxing into Joy – Review and Integration of Model; joy practices shared; art and writing processes; Taking the next step towards certification.