- Body, Trauma & Touch

Trauma held within the body can hinder a person’s ability to connect and function easily.

In this seven-day course, we’ll explore various ways to bring touch and relationship to establish a new somatic ground and coherency, allowing unconscious behavioural responses to be met and a new self-awareness to emerge.

The course will cover:

• Somatic maps of the nervous system, from micro to macro, from fluid to imprints, and their connection to our default patterning.
• Body-mind connection.
• Different types of somatic trauma bracing and developmental patterning.
• Different ways of bringing touch to the body systems, especially during activation.
• Various touch methods for each body system.
• The 5-stage process of imagining and titration, using touch and tracking for meeting and containing, mobilisation, pendulation and releasing, disengaging and re-orienting.
• Coherency.
• Introduction to presence skills applied in different ways.
• Language process practice through inner body dialogue.

Working methods include access to resourcing, tracking, pacing, slowing down, making space, core-periphery, titration and pendulation, and touch-based work that supports skill development and listening for trauma resolution.

We’ll explore ways to bring touch and relationship to establish a new somatic ground and coherency, allowing unconscious behavioural responses to be held and a new self-awareness to arise.

What does this workshop focus on?

Jane Okondo’s protocol for working hands-on with trauma comes from her background as a Biodynamic Cranial Sacral therapist, her teaching in Integrative Bodywork and Movement Therapy, and her work with Somatic Experiencing, the touch skills for trauma with Kathy Kain and Dr. Aline La Pierre with NeuroAffective Touch. 

Throughout this module, the hands-on work will focus on the nervous system and learning to identify interruptions, trauma, and dysregulation in the body and relational field. Verbal skills are crucial for this practice, providing depth and safety. This approach also supports and integrates other bodywork and hands-on practices therapists use.