Expressions Through Felt Wisdom is What Heals
LEVEL 2
Integrative Somatic Therapy Practice (ISTP)™
Trauma, Emotions, and the Body
September 26th. to April 16th, 2027
627 Columbia St. New Westminster, BC
TUITION for 5 days Immersion Training $3,695 CAD
[ Accepting 10 Students for 2027 ]
REFUND POLICY: Integrative Somatic Studies Institute does not issue refund for online materials once course is purchased. All rights reserved
Certificate in Integrative Somatic Therapy Practice (ISTP)™
Wounds suffered in relationships must be healed in relationships
Healing occurs when we experience safety within relationships and foster a connection to our bodies, breath, and emotions. This process is fundamentally linked to the nervous system, which is inherently structured to support healing through relational connections. When a secure environment is established, we are more likely to express our vulnerabilities by sharing personal thoughts, fears, and insecurities, facilitating a deeper self-understanding and emotional connection. Healing comes from the wisdom we feel.
Fundamental Principles and Objectives of ISTP™
Integrative Somatic Therapy Practice (ISTP)™ promotes holistic healing by connecting mind, body, and spirit. This approach goes beyond symptom management, encouraging self-awareness and understanding how internal experiences impact well-being. ISTP™ bridges psychological and spiritual growth, integrating spiritual perspectives into trauma-informed care. Individuals can explore their beliefs and draw on spiritual resources to build resilience and support recovery.
The Body as a Doorway to the Truth:
Integrative Somatic Therapy Practice (ISTP)™ weaves the body into the process of spiritual growth, laying a grounded base for deeper connection, insight, and transformation. This approach recognizes the mind-body connection and the body’s role as a doorway to the sacred. Body-oriented practices help regulate the nervous system. This makes it easier to rest in present-moment awareness and cultivate an embodied sense of being. Present-moment awareness refers to consciously experiencing sensations, thoughts, and emotions as they arise, without judgment
ISTP™ principles and techniques help foster spiritual development and enhance sacred practices. In level two, we approach the healing of trauma from a place of wholeness and interconnectedness, honouring the full spectrum of human experience. Practitioners will develop skills to guide clients in cultivating moment-to-moment awareness of their body, breath, and emotions, supporting the release of held expressions. Held expressions are physical or emotional patterns stored in the body due to past experiences. The intent is to foster a kinder, more compassionate relationship with the body. To support this integrative process, ISTP™ incorporates nine Core Practices, each contributing a unique dimension to healing and spiritual development. These include: The present focus of Mindfulness involves attentive awareness of bodily sensations; Restorative Postures support relaxation and nervous system regulation; Touch & Bodywork facilitate release of tension and emotional blocks; Ceremony creates sacred space for transformation; Breathwork deepens connection to self; Resilience Enhancement builds inner strength; Ancestral Healing honors lineage and inherited patterns; Sound Vibration uses auditory cues for healing; Somatic Processing and Integration brings awareness to physical and emotional experiences for holistic healing. ISTP™ weaves the body into the process of spiritual growth, laying a grounded base for deeper connection, insight, and transformation. This approach recognizes the mind-body connection and the body’s role as a doorway to the sacred. Body-oriented practices helps regulate the nervous system making it easier to rest in the present-moment awareness and cultivate an embodied sense of being. The principles and inner work of ISTP is applied directly to spiritual development and sacred practice. In level 2, we approach the healing of trauma from a place of wholeness and interconnectedness, honouring the full spectrum of human experience. Practitioners will develop skills to guide clients in cultivating moment-to-moment awareness of their body, breath, and emotions, supporting the release of held expressions (physical, emotional, psychological, spiritual). The intent is to foster a kinder, more compassionate relationship with the body. ISTP weaves nine Core Practices into a cohesive whole which includes:
- the present focus of Mindfulness,
- the wisdom of Restorative Postures,
- the healing power of Touch & Bodywork,
- the sacredness of Ceremony,
- the depth of Breathwork
- the resonance of Resilience Enhancement,
- the reverence of Ancestral Healing
- the intuitive rhythm of Sound Vibration
- the insight of somatic Processing and Integration.
The Body; a Doorway to the SCARED
Personal and emotional healing can be tough, but engaging the body often makes therapy feel simpler. It’s usually the mind that tends to make things complicated!
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
- Explain the reasons and guidelines for incorporating mindfulness, breathing exercises, resourcing, restorative postures, supportive touch, ceremony, and sound healing into trauma recovery practices. This includes recognizing how each modality contributes to the facilitation of felt expression, safety, and stability in the body, as well as promoting relaxation, resilience, and the release of stress and tension
- Facilitate moment-to-moment awareness of bodily sensations, breath, emotional energy, and thoughts to support the identification and integration of traumatic memories.
- Explain how core practices in ISTP ™ support somatic processing and integration for trauma healing.
- Demonstrate effective structuring of ceremonial rhythms within a somatic therapy session.
- Apply supported postures to facilitate felt expression and promote safety and stability in the body
- Learn and use invitational language to engage the body in a relaxation response
- Utilize props such as blankets and bolsters to support the release of muscular tension, stress, and physical pain
- Learn the three fundamentals of breathing techniques and use these skills to build resilience within both the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems
- Recognize essential aspects of trauma work and apply somatic techniques to release held expressions
- Explore how the ISTP model (RARI) can be applied to align with best practices in healing trauma
- Learn to facilitate the release of held expressions by tracking physical sensations, observing emotional charge, and applying resourcing techniques during an ISTP™ session
- Cultivate a counsellor’s embodiment practice to avoid absorbing the client’s energy and emotional intensity.
- Describe the rational for incorporating ceremony into clinical practice
- Complete 50 hours of practice in ISTP with mentorship and guidance
PREREQUISITE : Completion of Level 1
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This one-year intensive certificate program includes:
Component 1 eLeaning Training (online)
- Content is designed for online education and training. This includes various formats such as text, images, and interactive interactive live webinars all accessible through an online learning platform. Materials are created to be suitable for diverse learning styles, ensuring engagement and facilitating knowledge retention.
- 2 days. online live interactive webinars
- 13 hrs. online group mentorship and clinical consultations
- 25 hours total
- TUITION 2,750 CAD
Component 2 Immersion Training (in-person)
- 6 days immersions designed to bridge theoretical knowledge and practical applications by submerging learnings in environments that replicate real world scenarios. Learners are actively engaged in tasks, tools, and processes relevant in an Integrative Somatic Therapy Practice (ISTP) sessions.. Immersion training emphasizes learning by doing thus, fostering a deeper understanding and skills retention.
- Experiential feedback gained from instructors, peers, and the environment that extends to the land; helps deepen the practice and identifying areas for improvement
- Practicum (25 documented ISTP™ sessions)
- 40 hours training
- TUITION $3,750 CAD
The 5-day immersive training is offered in Vancouver Island, BC, Canada. After completing the 5-day experiential training, students can put their knowledge into practice through a practicum with group mentorship and supervision.
Practicum documented hours can be obtained through 2 options:
- Within your training cohort (students training in your group)
- With your own clients
*** GROUP MENTORSHIP & CONSULTATION
A total of 15 hours of group consultation is offered via online to provide students with an opportunity to consult, gain feedback and support from their Clinical Supervisors during practicum. Group consultation is also an opportunity for students to gain feed back from other students, learn from one another to deepen somatic therapy skills.
Online group mentorship and clinical consultation includes various topic of discussions:
- Beginning your first ISTP™ session: Intake, assessments, informed consent, session duration/rate, liability (professional) insurance.
- Ethical Issues in Somatic Psychotherapy: Dual & multiple relationships, documentations, using touch, adequate supervision.
- Navigating internal/external resources and activation. When to stay with the resources & went to move through activation
- Exercises to restore Social Engagement when moving from activation to stage relaxation using the RARI model.
- What to do when client is activated or overactivated? How to distinguish between integrative versus eclectic practice in an ISTP™ session.
- Understanding and working with resistance. Working with transference & countertransference.
5 Days In Person Training Location @ Pacific Shores Resort & Spa
(Nanoose Bay, Vancouver Island, BC)
MINDFUL INTENTION: Due to the nature of the training, the intensity of this program may be triggering for some of our students while exploring difficult emotional states originating in childhood. This program is designed to train mental health professionals as continuing education. It is not meant to be a container for personal therapy. Due to the depth of the work, we require that all students be simultaneously engage in regular personal therapy with a therapist of their choice.
While our personal and emotional healing experience may be difficult, the therapy process should be simple. It is often the mind that keeps things complicated!
In level 2, We learn skills to encourage connection & attunement to the body using the wisdom of yoga, bodywork & breathing techniques. Our intention is to promote relaxation and reduce stress by releasing tension in the body’s soft tissues through myofascial release. This practice addresses underlying causes of pain and dysfunction, rather than just treating the symptoms.
Facilitating connections through relaxation with postures that feel safe and comfortable, allow the breath to flow to different areas of the body where trauma is stored. When we create an opportunity for the body to move safely between postures, breath flows through the body to allow unconscious memories and repressed emotions to percolate and be released from the body.
Illness is thought to be the result of blocked energy. When our natural state of ease is blocked, we develop disease. Postures and breathing practices release blockages so that vital energy can flow freely, and healthy functioning can be restored
Emotions follow body postures and physical holding patterns. Releasing physical holding patterns changes one's mental patterns as well. Change is experienced on all levels. Thoughts and emotions manifest in the body and through physical releases using restorative yoga postures, we have the potential for deep emotional releases and restructuring of mental patterns as well. New connections are created in the mind and body so that patterns of tension are negatively (literally our ruts) are replaced by new groves of relaxation and positivity.
Embodiment is the art of being in the present in the body as we experience life. In our trainings, embodiment is the practice of moment-to-moment process by which participants allow awareness to enhance the flow of sensations, feelings, thoughts, images and energies through their bodily selves. We are born into bodies that travel fluidly through an infinite range of movement and feeling. Although over time, through physical and/or emotional injuries, cultural conditionings, age, and sedentary habits, our movement expression gets narrower and narrower. We forget the physical freedom we once enjoyed,
To be embodied is:
- To be aware and awake to the sensations in our physical body, the ebb and flow of our emotions, and the movements of our mind
- To be present in our life, right here and now
- To allow life force to move through our bodies in ways both familiar and unpredictable
- To live and dance with the universal spirit, expressed in the world through our soulful, one-of-a-kind self