Be More Playful
Guided somatic education: practice and theory.
Guaranteed Outcomes
• I play more •
• I have an overall sense of optimism for my health •
• I understand more about my anatomy and physiology; I can sense various structures, tissues, and systems in my body and I understand what they do and how they work •
• I listen to sensory information, including pain, and leverage it to accelerate my body's natural capacity to heal •
• I move more elegantly and hold postures with more balance and ease •
• I recognize when I feel safe and when I do not, and I have a greater capacity to explore what's contributing to these feelings •
• I can confidently explore my limits and develop my expressive capacity •
• I logically understand that direct-from-the source (my body) sensory information is key in my ability to self-regulate and I have the skills to access this information and make use of it •
How We Get Here
We practice sensing compassionately and curiously so we can more fully listen to and leverage the information our bodies are presenting in the here and now. Sensing guides us to healing movement patterns, postures, and beliefs about ourselves. This practice is the foundation of our healing process. We establish the knowing that the body is presenting valuable information that can be used in self-regulation. In addition to practice, we study theories that up the intrigue and appreciation for our bodies and enlist the logical mind as an ally in our sensing and healing practice.
Compassionate Sensing
Anatomy, Physiology, Kinesiology, and Evolutionary Biology
We observe anatomical models of skeleton, muscles, fascia, organs, the nervous system, the lymphatic system, the endocrine system, and more. We learn what's going on inside the body and the mechanics involved in posture, movement, sensing, and survival strategies of the organism.
Anatomical Embodiment and Listening Touch
Upon studying the inside of the body, we then couple this mental information with sensing the body compassionately. We also learn a style of listening touch that helps us amplify awareness and sensation to areas of the body to trigger self-regulation. We are now beginning to embody multiple new perspectives of the self.
Build the Map
We build our own maps of movement and postures that are more and less accessible to us. As we build these maps, we explore their limits intimately and observe how these limits change as they interact with our awareness and learning. At this point in the program, change and new experiences in the body have become a more familiar experience.
Expression
Now that we feel safe within our limits, we begin to play. Whether it's through dance, athletics, or something in-between, we leave behind apprehension and uncertainty for growth-oriented, fun physical expression. This portion of the course is custom-tailored to you: the enrolled students. As a team, we explore the movement patterns we find most interesting and leverage each others' experiences, coaching, and support to learn more fully.
Somatic Coaching
We learn to not only listen to our own bodies with a compassionate mind, but also to listen to other people and help them explore themselves with compassion and curiosity. This not only sharpens our skills in attuning to ourselves to find healing through awareness, it also signals to our psyche an abundance of health when we give this level of care and attention to others. You'll learn what to observe, coaching cues, and how to step into the healing journey of the other as part of your own journey.
Buddhist Psychology
We study Buddhist Psychology and its theory of the mind to increase awareness of our inner dialogue. The majority of our work is practicing awareness on sensation. Two things are interacting here: awareness and sensation. Like all interactions, it can take on certain qualities. For example, the interaction can be compassionate, respectful, analytical, resentful, or mindful, etc. What other qualities can you think of? Which quality of interaction is the most helpful for accessing accurate information?
What You Get
• Small Cohorts: 2-3x per week live online trainings with your coach and familiar small cohort.
• 1-on-1 Coaching: Schedule two individual somatic coaching sessions.
• 4 Months of Education: Learn and 2-8 hours per week for four months.
• Infinite Access to Materials: You'll receive secure links to all course materials and recordings of each class. This is yours forever.
• Homework: Therapeutic, interesting, and growth-oriented homework assigned and reviewed weekly.
• Multi-faceted Education and Training: Study anatomy, biology, physiology, Buddhist psychology, learn to coach, and more.
• Community: Study, sense, and move alongside other somatic explorers. Learn the theory and experience of co-regulation.
• Additional Training Modules: Get access to our Skool community with extra training modules.
How We Meet
2 hour trainings scheduled 2-3x per week
Meeting times are flexible and change based on the location and availability of cohort participants and your coaches. The current times are Monday 5:30-7:30pm and Thursday 11-1pm. Please attend at least one class per week.
1-on-1 Coaching
These are scheduled between you and your coach. You'll have one intake meeting and, at least, two individual coaching sessions during your program.
Homework and Meeting with Classmates
Some homework assignments require you to schedule practices with your classmates.
Partner Touch
You will learn to use a style of healing touch. This class requires a partner in the same physical space as you. This person does not have to pay. This training is held once per month.
Times are in US Pacific. All classes are on Zoom.
Guarantee
Experience all the Guaranteed Outcomes or we'll keep working with you until you do. You must commit to a minimum of 50 hours of live training, 80% of your homework assignments, and provide feedback on your experience.
What People Say
Massage, acupuncture, chiro, reiki, hypnotherapy, physical therapy - all helped to a degree, but I wasn't finding the right alchemy between what my brain was trying to reconcile if I wasn't addressing where I held it in my body. And that withheld emotion in my body was clearly showing up as chronic pain, worry, discomfort, anxiety. I wrote in my journal many times that I was "at war with my body and needing couples counseling with my mind and body" to try to find true healing. I was stuck - depressed - honestly pretty hopeless. So many doctors kept telling me something must have happened (car wreck, fall) to be holding on to so much chronic pain and we just couldn't figure it out. Luckily, I finally found Somatic Awareness work and immediately I knew I was on to something different, but radically familiar deep inside.
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I feel I found a secret communication channel with myself that at some point I had forgotten. It has been a very monumental experience to listen and get to know myself again.
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Suddenly I was my own steward in my overall healing, combining my talk therapy with understanding how my body was holding pain, anxiety, depression, etc. When I introduced somatic work into my routine and let my own experience dictate the way forward in my healing, my understanding of healing drastically changed. It's been the most rewarding and simultaneously profound experience of my life because I firmly believe it will impact how I view my human experience from here forward. What can be more important than that?
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My personal process was enlightening. I’m working on getting the body, mind, and soul in unison and this intro class was on step closer.
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Made me think a ton about this body of mine. As I mentioned to start the class, I've had a lot of hard feelings towards my body. It has done so many amazing things for me this life and then to be at odds the last few years has been an extremely humbling process. Dedicating three hours to hold space for the simplest of asks from the body, the thing we do first when we are born sort of, was really powerful for me.
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The teaching was good and the class was 3 hours long it didn’t feel to be that long. The breaks were put in at good times. The methods were good too, especially having us do hands on exercises to emphasize what we were taught. The teacher was 10/10, his vibe makes the class feel like a comfortable safe space to learn and explore the new things we learned. He is highly educated in the subject and when explaining finds great visual representations.
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I found it very calming and enlightening to explore myself with your guidance!
I thought overall the class was insightful. It felt really nice to disconnect and really tune into my body amongst a small group and safe space. I found myself having some different emotions come up that I've been working through and it was nice to have some quiet time to observe them and let them flow through me. You were very calm and well spoken. You articulated the process and the information very well and clearly. I also appreciated that you would explain each exercise and what's to come before we started. Every part of the process was well articulated beforehand. Thank you so much for the experience!
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I learned more detail on how we breathe and what muscles and another body parts are needed to breathe. I also learned how to be more mindful and work on listening to the dialogue my body is trying to have with me.
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Training with Kelly is exactly what I was looking for! Targeted yet fun sessions bringing together many different modalities- fitness, flexibility, strength, somatic awareness and more . Inviting in a lot of exploration, curiosity and motivation during the process!
Kelly's client focused approach made me feel that my needs and goals were fully heard and correlated to the proposed exercises. I feel safe to step over my boundaries and yet free to express what my body is telling me and allow adjustments when too challenging.
I fully recommend training with Kelly!