Somatic Intuitive Healing®
Somatic Bodywork Training for Therapists & Somatic Practitioners
SIH PRACTITIONER CERTIFICATION PROGRAM
Deepen your somatic practice through touch, relationship, and embodied presence
An advanced professional training for therapists, somatic practitioners, and bodyworkers who want to expand their capacity to work with the nervous system through therapeutic touch.
Somatic Intuitive Healing® integrates the nervous system principles of Somatic Experiencing® with the listening based approach of Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy to create a relational, nervous system informed approach to somatic bodywork.
Learn to feel more deeply
Listen beyond words
Work relationally
And develop therapeutic touch as another way of supporting the body's somatic healing processes.
150 Contact Hours | 100 hour Online course + practicum 75 practicum hrs
May qualify for legal touch exemption in your state
Five In-Person Modules in Portland, Oregon
SOMATIC TOUCH AS A TOOL FOR WORKING WITH THE NERVOUS SYSTEM
There is more information available than words can tell us
There is a lot of somatic practice that can happen through dialogue.
We ask about sensation.
We notice shifts.
We track activation.
We listen for impulses and protective responses. We help clients become more aware of what is happening inside their bodies. This can be powerful work.
But the body also communicates beyond words.
Through breath.
Movement.
Stillness.
Tension.
Softening.
Rhythm.
Contact.
And the subtle ways one nervous system responds to another.
SIH expands your ability to work at this level. Building on the somatic skills you already have, the training gives you another way of listening and responding through therapeutic touch, embodied presence, co-regulation, and relationship.
NERVOUS SYSTEM INFORMED SOMATIC BODYWORK
Somatic touch is more than where you place your hands.
The quality of contact matters.
How you arrive matters.
How much effort you bring matters.
Whether you are listening or trying to make something happen matters.
And the nervous system of the practitioner matters.
In SIH, therapeutic touch is not about manipulating tissue, correcting structure, or applying a technique to the body. We learn to use contact as a way of listening. To notice how the body responds. To recognize changes in activation, settling, breath, movement, connection, and rest. And to allow touch to become part of a larger somatic process. Rather than using touch simply to relax the client, we explore how contact can support the nervous system in different ways.
Sometimes that means supporting settling.
Sometimes it means creating enough support for activation or movement to emerge.
Sometimes it means noticing an impulse.
Sometimes it means doing less.
The goal is not to make the nervous system calm. It is to develop greater capacity to recognize what is happening and respond with sensitivity, pacing, and presence.
RELATIONAL SOMATIC THERAPY AND COREGULATION
Healing happens in relationship
One of the central principles of SIH is that we cannot separate technique from relationship. Your client is not simply responding to your hands. They are responding to the entire experience of being with you.
Your pace.
Your presence.
Your attention.
Your expectations.
Your capacity to listen.
Your comfort with uncertainty.
And your ability to stay connected to yourself while remaining attuned to them.
Through the training, you will develop greater awareness of your own nervous system and explore how coregulation, attunement, and relational safety influence therapeutic contact.
The goal is not simply to become more skilled with your hands.
It is to become more skilled at being with another person with attuned connection.
BIODYNAMIC CRANIOSACRAL THERAPY AND SOMATIC TOUCH
Feel more
Do less
SIH is deeply rooted in Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy and its orientation toward inherent health. Rather than approaching the body looking for a problem to correct, we learn to listen for the health and organizing intelligence that are already present.
This requires a different quality of attention.
Less effort.
More listening.
Less imposing.
More curiosity.
Less assumption about where the body needs to go.
More capacity to perceive what is already emerging.
As practitioners develop this sensitivity, touch becomes less about applying an intervention and more about responding to the process that is already unfolding. You learn to listen beneath your hands rather than deciding in advance what the body needs.
SOMATIC TOUCH TRAINING FOR THERAPISTS AND SOMATIC PRACTITIONERS
Expand the ways you can work beyond dialogue.
You may already have training in trauma, nervous system regulation, and somatic dialogue. You know how to help clients notice sensation. You understand activation and protective responses. You may already use Somatic Experiencing or another body oriented approach in your practice. But many psychotherapy and dialogue based somatic trainings provide limited opportunities to develop skills with therapeutic touch.
SIH offers an opportunity to expand your existing somatic practice into another dimension of the work.
You will learn the foundations of nervous system informed touch while developing your ability to perceive subtle changes in the body, work relationally through contact, and remain connected to your own embodied experience while working with another person.
For practitioners who primarily work through somatic dialogue, touch becomes another way to listen.
SOMATIC BODYWORK TRAINING FOR MASSAGE THERAPISTS AND BODYWORKERS
You already know how to contact the body
Deepen what you are listening for
You may already be highly comfortable working with the body. You understand contact, anatomy, movement, structure, and tissue. SIH offers a different way of approaching what happens beneath your hands. Instead of focusing primarily on muscles, structural change, or physical symptoms, you will learn to recognize the nervous system and relational dimensions of bodywork.
How does the person respond to contact?
What changes in their breathing?
Where does activation appear?
What happens when you slow down?
What happens when you stop trying to change the tissue and begin listening to the whole person?
You will develop a more relational style of contact that integrates nervous system awareness, co-regulation, somatic dialogue, emotional process, and embodied presence.
EMBODIED PRESENCE AND COREGULATION IN SOMATIC THERAPY
The practitioner is part of the session.
We often talk about co-regulation as something that happens for the client. But co-regulation involves two nervous systems. That means your body is part of your professional practice. Throughout SIH, you will learn to notice your own responses while you work.
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When do you become effortful?
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When do you rush?
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When do you want something to change?
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When do you lose connection with yourself because you are concentrating so intensely on the client?
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Can you notice what is happening in your own body without making the session about you?
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And what becomes possible when you can remain connected to yourself while staying deeply attuned to another person?
This is part of the shift from applying somatic techniques to practicing somatically.
SIH SOMATIC BODYWORK TRAINING CURRICULUM
Five modules. One integrated practice.
The SIH Practitioner Training unfolds across five in person modules over approximately one year.
Each module develops another layer of your capacity to work through therapeutic touch, nervous system awareness, relationship, and presence.
MODULE ONE: PRESENCE
Cohort E: March 17-20, 2027
Before developing greater sensitivity to another person's body, we begin with how we arrive.
Develop foundations in Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy, therapeutic contact, nervous system awareness, embodiment, and coregulation.
Explore how the quality of your presence changes the quality of your touch.
MODULE TWO: WHOLENESS
Cohort E: May 19-22, 2027
Move from treating parts to meeting the whole person.
Deepen your contact skills while exploring whole person listening, relational healing, and collaborative rather than corrective approaches to bodywork.
MODULE THREE: RECEPTIVITY
Cohort E: July 28-31, 2027
Develop greater sensitivity beneath your hands.
Explore deeper inner and outer listening while integrating therapeutic touch, nervous system tracking, somatic dialogue, and embodied awareness.
MODULE FOUR: CONNECTION
Cohort D: September 17 - 20, 2026
Cohort E: October 6-9, 2027
Explore the relational dimensions of somatic touch.
Develop greater capacity to work with emotional content, body language, nervous system shifts, boundaries, pacing, relational safety, and experiences that emerge through contact.
MODULE FIVE: INTEGRATION
Cohort D: November 12 - 15, 2026
Cohort E: December 8-11, 2027
Bring touch, dialogue, nervous system awareness, presence, and relationship together into an integrated somatic practice.
Refine your contact skills, receive feedback, deepen your clinical reasoning, and develop greater confidence in responding to what emerges rather than relying solely on predetermined protocols.
CERTIFICATION
REQUIREMENTS
Certification requirements include 75 practice sessions, 10 receiving sessions (additional cost), a written final exam, and completion of all homework and written assignments. Upon completion each student will have 230 hours of in-person direct experience with the modality and be prepared to support their clients in somatic bodywork and healing.
EXPERIENTIAL SOMATIC TOUCH AND BODYWORK TRAINING
You learn this work by experiencing it
SIH is intentionally experiential.
You will practice.
You will receive.
You will observe.
You will feel.
You will experience different qualities of therapeutic contact from both sides of the relationship. You will also become increasingly familiar with your own nervous system in the process. You will begin noticing your tendencies as a practitioner.
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When do you try too hard?
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When do you become focused on creating an outcome?
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What happens in your body when another person becomes activated?
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Can you stay receptive without becoming passive?
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Can you offer support without taking over?
These are not skills we develop through theory alone.
Developing greater sensitivity to another person's body begins with developing greater sensitivity to your own.
REAL WORLD EXPERIENCE
SIH Student Clinic
Certification asks for 75 practicum sessions, and they are designed to move outward in stages.
The first 20–25 are with your classmates, a close, low-stakes, and the fastest way to learn. The next 20–25 are with people who are strangers to you: classmates' friends and family, past SIH students. The final 25 can be completed in our student clinic, with members of the public who booked because they want the work.
SIH Student Clinic Sessions there are $30, which covers the facility and is low enough that the community can actually reach this work and real enough that you are practicing rather than rehearsing.
You do not finish your hours alone in a spare room scrambling to find clients.
You get real practice in a working clinic.
SOMATIC BODYWORK SKILLS YOU WILL DEVELOP
Somatic Therapeutic Touch
Develop a gentle, listening based approach to contact rooted in Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy and nervous system awareness.
Coregulation
Explore how your own embodied state influences contact and develop greater capacity to remain connected to yourself while working with another person.
Working With Emotional Process
Develop greater capacity to remain present when emotional material emerges during bodywork while maintaining appropriate pacing, boundaries, scope, and referral.
Nervous System Informed Bodywork
Learn how therapeutic touch can be integrated with your understanding of activation, settling, movement, regulation, connection, and restoration.
Embodied Presence
Move away from simply performing techniques and develop the capacity to respond to what is actually happening in the moment.
Relational Attunement
Develop greater sensitivity to the subtle communication happening between practitioner and client throughout a session.
Somatic Dialogue
Integrate verbal somatic skills with therapeutic touch so that words and contact can support the same unfolding process.
WHO IS THIS SOMATIC THERAPY TRAINING FOR?
SIH is an advanced secondary professional training for practitioners who already have meaningful experience working therapeutically with people.
It may be especially supportive for:
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Somatic Experiencing Practitioners
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Therapists and counselors practicing somatically
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Clinical social workers
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Marriage and family therapists
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Craniosacral practitioners
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Massage therapists and bodyworkers
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Yoga therapists
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Physical and occupational therapists
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Acupuncturists
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Naturopathic physicians
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Nurses and other healthcare professionals
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Experienced somatic and wellness practitioners
THIS TRAINING MAY BE FOR YOU IF...
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You primarily work through somatic dialogue and want to expand your skills into therapeutic touch.
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You have Somatic Experiencing or other nervous system training and want to understand how touch can become part of your somatic practice.
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You already work with the body but want your contact to become more relational, nervous system informed, and responsive.
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You want to develop greater sensitivity to what you feel beneath your hands.
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You want to understand coregulation as something you experience and participate in, not simply something you explain.
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You want to become more aware of your own nervous system while you work.
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You want to integrate touch, dialogue, relationship, and nervous system awareness rather than treating them as separate techniques.
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You are interested in a form of bodywork that asks you to listen before deciding what needs to happen.
2027 SOMATIC BODYWORK TRAINING IN PORTLAND, OREGON
2027: SIH Practitioner Training: Cohort E
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March 17 to 20
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May 19 to 22
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July 28 to 31
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October 6 to 9
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December 8 to 11
The SIH Practitioner Training is a 350 hour professional certification completed over approximately one year.
The program includes:
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Five four day in person training modules
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Supporting online education and practices
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75 practice sessions
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10 receiving sessions
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Written assignments and integration work
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Final examination
Upon successful completion of all program requirements, graduates receive certification as Somatic Intuitive Healing® Practitioners.
EXPAND YOUR SOMATIC PRACTICE THROUGH THERAPEUTIC TOUCH
Somatic healing does not happen through technique alone.
It happens through the quality of attention we bring.
Our ability to listen.
Our capacity to stay present.
The relationship between two nervous systems.
And our willingness to meet what is actually happening rather than deciding in advance what needs to change.
SIH brings these principles into therapeutic touch.
For practitioners who work primarily through somatic dialogue, it offers another way of listening and responding to the body.
For bodyworkers, it offers another way of understanding and relating to what is happening beneath your hands.
For both, it is an opportunity to develop a deeper, more relational, and more embodied way of working with the nervous system.
In-person Practitioner Certification
SIH SCHOOL TRAINING TUITION
$7,500 paid in full
or
$1,500 x 5 due at registration & modules
Tuition includes:
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Attendance at all 5 in-person modules with a 1:4 student facilitator ratio
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Free access to SIH online course
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Free access to Somatic Verbal Skills
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25 hours of student practicum sessions at SIH Student Clinic
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Discounted Somatic Sessions with Moon Vibe Sanctuary for the duration of your training
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Training manual
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Direct support and supervision throughout the training year with teaching staff
Because SIH is an advanced professional training, prospective students must complete an application before enrollment or schedule a call with school admissions.