Integrative Somatic Therapy Practice

Integrative Somatic Therapy Practice

You Can Only Build as High as Your Foundation is Deep

Foundation Of Counselling & Psychotherapy

We have exciting news to share with our ISTP™community. Beginning January 2025, Integrative Somatic Studies Institute will be offering Foundational Courses in Counselling and Psychotherapy to deepened practices in ISTP™. 

We recognized that our ISTP™ community of professionals come with diverse backgrounds, life experiences and healing practices in yoga, reiki, coaching, massage, nursing, psychotherapy,, social worker, energy healing and more. The challenge is that, unless one has had the opportunity to engage in higher education (Degree or Diploma) in counselling or psychotherapy, one may be missing pertinent foundational skills necessary for effective practice. 

The research is evident that the NUMBER ONE factor promoting healing outcomes in therapy is the rapport and relationship between the professional and client. This means the professional is skilled and competent in creating a safe and trusting relationship for effective therapy. That we are not only attuned to client feeling heard, seen,, and understood, but also learning skills to deepen the emotional and psychological processing for the client.

For example, did you know there are advanced levels of empathy skills that invite the client into an emotional experience? Do you know how to assess the client’s issues through an intersectional lens? In other words, paying attention to how their gender/race/culture/religion/sexuality are informing their suffering?

In this 9-course study series, students will have the opportunity to develop foundational skills needed to enhance their practice.

Foundational course in Counselling & Psychotherapy is available to anyone who needs it; all healing professionals. Our intention is promote accessibility for effective therapy in trauma recovery. Course content is created and Taught by Ratha Chek and ISTP Faculties. 

Who is This Course For?

  • Students without a degree/diploma in Counselling who is registered or have completed Level 2 and/or Level 3
  • Students without a degree/diploma in Counselling who have not yet registered for Level 2
  • Students with a degree/diploma who have completed Level 2, Level 3 and Bodywork who wish to deepened counselling theory and practice

*Note: Starting January 2025, those without a Degree or Diploma in Counselling will be required to take Foundations in Counselling & Psychotherapy as a prerequisite for Level 2 ISTP Training. 

 

How Much Does Each Course Costs?

$300.00 CAD for each Course Topic (Total 12 hrs. of live webinar interactive learning).

A Total of 10 Courses on Foundations of Counselling & Psychotherapy is offered starting January 2025

*Note: Completion of all courses is required in order to receive a certificate of completion in of Counselling and Psychotherapy

What is the Course Method of Delivery?

All webinars are LIVE and cannot be made up afterwards. This is to ensure that skills are strengthened from group interactions & dyad practices.  

Live Webinar
1. PowerPoint & Handouts
2. Dyad Skills practices / Group Discussions
3. Video Skills Demonstrations / Case Study Examples
4. Q&A 

Registration Opens September 2024

Class Starts: Sunday January 12, 2025 @ 8:00 am PDT

Please Note: To promote the integrity of small group learning, class size is set at a minimum of 10 to a maximum of 20 students. You may wish to confirm your space this year by contacting us, Click Here 

2025 Course Curriculum

COURSE 1: Issues Facing Beginning Therapists (Taught by Ratha Chek)

  1. Managing and Working Through our Anxieties
  2. Being & Disclosing Ourselves
  3. Avoiding Perfectionism
  4. Being Honest About our Limitations
  5. Understanding Silence
  6. Working With Demands from Clients
  7. Working With Clients Who lack Commitment
  8. Tolerating Ambiguity
  9. Avoiding Losing Ourselves in Our Clients
  10. Developing a Sense of Humour
  11. Sharing Responsibility with the Client
  12. Declining to give advice
  13. Developing your role as a Counsellor
  14. Learning to use Techniques Appropriately
  15. Developing Your Own Counselling Style
  16. Staying grounded as Person and as Profession
  17. Personal Characteristics of Effective Counsellors

COURSE 2: Understanding & Working with Resistance (Taught by Ratha Chek)

  1. Understanding the Dynamics of Resistance
  2. Respecting & Reframing Resistance
  3. Becoming the Client Experiencing Resistance in Yourself
  4. Understanding Mary’s Resistance (case study)
    • Borrowing from a Psychoanalytic View
    • Drawing on Other Approaches
  5. Guidelines for Dealing with Resistance in Clients

WORKING WITH TRANSFERENCE & COUNTERTRANSFERENCE

  1. Contrasting Views of Transference
  2. The Connection Between Transference & Countertransference
  3. Working With Transference Therapeutically
  4. Addressing Countertransference Issues
  5. Self-Disclosure in the Therapeutic Relationship
  6. Working with Transference & Countertransference with Mary (case study)

COURSE 3. The Therapeutic Relationship (Taught by Ratha Chek)

  1. Developing a Working Relationship
  2. Becoming the Client Sharing in a Collaborative Partnership
    • Therapy as a Collaborative Venture
    • The Relationship During the Early Stage of Counselling
  3. Your Role as a Counsellor in Creating a Working Relationship
    • Establishing the Relationship
    • Helping Clients Gain a Focus
  4. The integrative Approach with John (case study)
    • The Relationship as the Cornerstone of Therapy
    • Our Second Session
    • Listening to John’s Story
    • Helping Ruth Externalize Her Problem

ESTABLISHING THERAPEUTIC GOALS

  1. Becoming the Client: Establishing Counselling Goals
    • Various Types of Therapeutic Goals
  2. Goal-Directed Behaviour & Goal Setting
  3. Clarifying Counselling Goals with John (case study)

EVALUATION & DISCHARGE

  1. Guidelines for Effective Ending
  2. Becoming the Client: Taking Credit for Your Changes
  3. Evaluating Mary Therapy Experience (case study)
  4. The Future of Psychotherapy Integration
  5. Designing Your Personal Integrative Approach

COURSE 4: Understanding How the Past Influences the Present (Taught by Ratha Chek)

  1. Understanding How the Past, Present, & Future Are Intertwined
  2. Becoming the Client: Examining Your Past, Present, & Future
  3. Working with Mary’s Past, Present, & Future (case study)
    • Working with the Past in an Integrative Style
    • Working with the Present in an Integrative Style
    • Dealing with the Future in an Integrative Style

WORKING TOWARD DECSION & BEHAVIOUR CHANGE

  1. Understanding Redecision Therapy
    • Injunctions & Early Decisions
    • Understanding the Influence of Your Family
  2. Applying Redecision Therapy to Behaviour Changes
  3. Becoming the Client: Experiencing the Redecision Process
  4. Working Toward Redecision with Mary (case study)

COURSE 5: Beginning of Counselling (Taught by Arshdeep Sandhu)

  1. An Integrative Theoretical Approach: An Overview
  2. Put yourself in the Shoes of the Client
    • The Initial Counselling Session
    • Informed Consent
    • Assessment & Diagnosis
    • Therapy is a Time-Sensitive Process
  3. Introduction to the Case of John
  4. Drawing on Theories as Applied to the Case of John

COURSE 6: Cognitive Focusing in Counselling (Taught by Arshdeep Sandhu)

  1. Benefits and Limitations of a Cognitive Focus
  2. Becoming the Client: Experiencing Cognitive Behavioural Techniques
    • Paying Attention to Your Thinking
    • Doing Homework Assignments
    • The Therapeutic Process
    • Drawing on Adlerian Concepts
  3. Applications:
    • Therapeutic Techniques and Procedures
    • Aaron Beck’s Cognitive Therapy
    • Donald Meichenbaum’s Cognitive Behaviour Modification
    • Cognitive Behaviour Therapy From a Multicultural Perspective
    • Working with John from A Cognitive Perspective (case study)
  4.  Recommended Supplementary Readings
  5. References and Suggested Readings

Topic 7: Becoming an Effective Multicultural Counsellor (Taught by Daniel Martinez)

  1. Acquiring Competencies in Multicultural Counselling
  2. Incorporating Culture Into Counselling Practice
  3. Welcoming Diversity: Understanding & Addressing Diversity
  4. Multicultural Concerns
  5. Diversity as Central in the Counselling Process
  6. Theories Applied to Understanding Diversity Perspectives
  7. Recognizing the Spiritual Domain
    • Assessing Your Own Spirituality
  8. Multicultural Guide
  9. Understanding Fizza From a Diversity Perspective

THE COUNSELLOR’S VALUES & THERAPEUTIC PROCESS 

  1. The Role of Value in Counselling
  2. The Role of values in Developing Therapeutic Goals
  3. Establishing Therapeutic Goals
  4. Personal Counselling for the Counsellor

Topic 8: Behavioural Focus in Counselling (Taught by Arshdeep Sandhu)

  1. Benefits & Limitations of a Behavioural Focus
  2. Understanding the Seven Modality of Human Functioning
  3. The Therapeutic Process
  4. Application
    • Therapeutic Techniques and Procedures
    • Behaviour Therapy from a Multicultural Perspective
    • Working with John from a Behavioural Therapy Perspective (case study)
    • Developing a Behavioural Contract
  5. Recommended Supplementary Readings
  6. References and Suggested Readings

Topic 9: Ethical Issues in Counselling Practice (Taught by Sun Lee)

  1. Putting Clients’ Needs Before Your Own
  2. Ethical Decision Making
  3. The Right Informed Consent
  4. Dimensions of Confidentiality
  5. Ethical Issues in a Multicultural Perspective
  6. Ethical Issue sin the Assessment Process
  7. Dual & Multiple relationships in Counselling practice
  8. Recommended Supplementary Readings
  9. References and Suggested Readings

Topic 10: An Integrative Perspective (Taught by Ratha Chek)

  1. Searching for Common Denominators Across Therapy Schools
  2. The Foundation of Ratha Chek’s Integrative Approach to Somatic Therapy
    • Humanistic Therapy Model as a Philosophical based (focuses on free will, human potential, & self discovery)
    • Gestalt Therapy: A Holistic Perspective
    • Feminist and Systemic Therapies: From a Contextual & Intersectional Lens 
    • Somatic Psychotherapies: A focus on processing & Integration through felt sense
    • Movement Therapy: Eastern & Western Mindful Movement-Based Practice to Treat Mind, Body, & Spirit Concurrently 
    • De -Armouring Practice as an Intervention for Releasing Physical Tension (body contraction) Held in the Body
  3. Drawing on The Action -Oriented Therapies
    • Behavioural Therapy
    • Multimodal Therapy
    • Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
    • Reality Therapy | Choice Therapy
    • Solution-Focused Therapy
    • Adlerian Therapy
  4. Working with Mary in Cognitive, Emotive and Behavioural Ways 
  5. Study to Study one Core Primary Therapy and Learn how to Integrate Various Therapies
  6. Benefits & Limitations of Integration

Course Start Date January 2025
...

Note: First class starts Sunday January 12th. (8:00 am – 11:00 am PDT) 

 

COURSE 1: ISSUES FACING BEGINING THERAPISTS  

  • 2 consecutive Sundays (January 12th. &  19th.) 
  • 8:00 am to 12:30 pm PDT (Total 9 hrs.)
  • Complete REGISTRATION, HERE
  • Complete PAYMENT, HERE
COURSE 2: UNDERSTANDING & WORKING WITH RESISTANCE 
  • 2 Consecutive Sundays (February 9th. & 16th.)
  • 8:00 am to 12:30 am PDT (Total 9 hrs.)
  • Complete REGISTRATION Form, HERE
  • Complete PAYMENT, HERE

COURSE 3: THE THERAPEUTIC RELATIONSHIP

  • 2 Consecutive Sundays (March 2nd. &  9th.)
  • 8:00 am to 12:30 am PDT (Total 9 hrs.)
  • Complete REGISTRATION Form, HERE
  • Complete PAYMENT, HERE

COURSE 4: UNDERSTANDING HOW THE PAST INFLUENCES THE PRESENT

  • 2 Consecutive Sundays (May 5th. & 12th)
  • 8:00 am to 12:30 am PDT (Total 9 hrs.)
  • Complete REGISTRATION Form, HERE
  • Complete PAYMENT, HERE
COURSE 5: BEGGINING OF COUNSELLING 
  • Two consecutive Sundays (May 19th. & 26th.)
  • 8:00 am 12:30 pm (Total 9 hrs..)
  • Complete REGISTRATION, HERE
  • REGISTER HERE
COURSE 6: Cognitive Focusing in Counselling
  • Two consecutive Sundays (Sunday June 2nd. 9th.)
  • 8:00 am 12:30 pm (Total 9 hrs..)
  • Complete REGISTRATION, HERE
  • REGISTER HERE
COURSE 7 BECOMING AN EFFECTIVE MULTICULTURAL COUNSELLOR
  • Two consecutive Sundays (June 23rd. & 30th.)
  • 8:00 am 12:30 pm (Total 9 hrs..)
  • Complete REGISTRATION, HERE
  • REGISTER HERE
 

ADDITIONAL COURSES AND DATES WILL BE ADDED SOON.

Course Presenters

Ratha Chek, MC, RCC | Training Director

Arshdeep Sandhu, MCP, RSW

Daniele Martinez, MA, RCC 

Contact

© 2024 Integrative Somatic Studies Institute ™ | Al Rights Reserve

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Integrative Somatic Studies Institute acknowledges that we operate on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples–Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations.