Trauma Unravelled

This seminar provides a foundation training in the field of trauma work, employing a range of skills to aid the resolution of all kinds of traumatic imprints, from early developmental and birth trauma to issues of abuse and PTSD. We will learn to recognise and engage with the embodied expressions of these experiences using relational, verbal and biodynamic cranial skills.

Since the 1990s, Peter Levine has developed his trauma resolution model based on an understanding that trauma is physiological, and must therefore be treated in the body, not the mind. In recent years our cranial community has adopted and integrated tools from Levine’s Somatic Experiencing approach, working with embodied sensation. As craniosacral therapists we have the additional ability to palpate traumatic activation in the body, allowing us to work subtly with the body memories of overwhelming experiences which often underlie anxiety states as well as chronic fatigue and depression. Craniosacral biodynamics offers a unique and highly effective method of trauma resolution, whereby these embodied memories can be met and supported to release their charge in a safe and contained way.

Over these 4 days we will explore the relationship between stress, anxiety, depression and trauma, review the stress response, including Stephen Porges’ work on the polyvagal autonomic nervous system, and take an in-depth look at how we create safety, a pre-requisite for trauma healing.
We will spend time reviewing both sympathetic and parasympathetic responses, how these might be sensed in a cranial session, and how we can engage with these dysregulated states and support their resolution and integration.

We will also look at how we as therapists can resource and self-regulate when treating clients with trauma histories. This seminar is oriented to craniosacral practice, although it is open to body workers using different modalities and will provide therapeutic skills, which can be put to use with clients straight away.

This seminar is offered as an open seminar for qualified craniosacral therapists and other body workers. The majority of the work will be applicable to a wide range of practitioners, with table sessions in the afternoons specific to biodynamic craniosacral work.

A detailed seminar handbook is included in the seminar fee.