We’re excited to share that our 2027 Advanced Training schedule has been released! You can now explore upcoming dates and locations to begin planning your next steps.

Registration is not yet open. We anticipate registration for Advanced Trainings will begin around mid-March 2026 and will be available through the SEI portal Training Calendar page. You can access the portal home page here.

Dates and locations will be as follows: 

 

Modified Online

Faculty: Dea Parsanishi

Advanced I Feb 1-2, Mar 1-2 , Mar 30-31, 2027

Advanced II Sep 9-10, Oct 7-8, Nov 18-19, 2027

 

Chicago, IL

Faculty: Linda Stelte

Advanced I: Feb 27-March 4, 2027

Advanced II: June 25-30, 2027

 

Nashville, TN

Faculty: Mahshid Hager

Advanced I: March 7-12

Advanced II: Sept 12-17

 

 

San Fransico, CA

Faculty: Raja Selvam

Advanced I: March 11-16, 2027

Advanced II: Sept 11-16, 2027

 

 

Boston, MA

Faculty: Glyndie Nickerson

Advanced I: April 4-9, 2027

Advanced II: Nov 7-12, 2027

 

Idyllwild, CA

Faculty: Abi Blakeslee

Advanced I: May 12-17, 2027

Advanced II: Oct 6-11, 2027

 

 

Scottsdale, Arizona

Faculty: Joshua Sylvae

Advanced I: June 7-12, 2027

Advanced II: Nov 9-14, 2027

 

 

ST. Louis, MO

Faculty: Dave Berger

Advanced I: July 29-Aug 3, 2027

Advanced II: Nov 18-23, 2027

 

 

New York, NY

Faculty: Dave Berger

Advanced I: Aug 15-20, 2027

Advanced II: Jan 9-14, 2028

 

 

Atlanta, GA BIPOC

Faculty: Efu Nyaki

Online Advanced I: Sept 24-29, 2027

In person Advanced II: December 3 – 8, 2027

 

 

 

 

 

We invite you to stay connected and watch our website for the upcoming release. We look forward to supporting you in the next phase of your SE™ journey.

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Global Somatic Experiencing Community,

 

As many of you have seen, there was a recent article in the NY Times magazine regarding Somatic Experiencing entitled, “Want to Fix Your Mind, Let Your Body Talk.” I have spoken to many of you in the SE community about this article, and I wanted to write to share my thoughts about how it can impact SE generally and Somatic Experiencing International.

 

Not surprisingly, in a community this large, there has been a varied response to the article. Some folks have found it to be a wonderful way to bring SE to more people, while others feel that it misrepresented us and who we are and what SE is. Like so much in media, someone had a story they wanted to tell, and that story missed big pieces and shared some others. But, without a doubt, more people know about SE today than they did two weeks ago, and that is important.

 

From that place of new recognition, we can also tell our story. Never before have there been as many people interested in SE and other embodied modalities. Thus, more people are going to be listening when we talk about the benefits of SE. What we know from our decades of experience as an organization and as an international community made up of tens of thousands of people is that SE works for a lot of people. Not only do we all very likely have our own stories about how SE has helped us or changed us, we likely have friends, family, and clients with similar stories. This is why so many people talk about SE as though it can solve everything. It is not, however, a panacea. Nothing is. But the fact it is not a panacea does not mean that SE and the people who use it cannot make a difference in the world.

 

Many times during the past 5 years I have thought about what it means to be part of a global community dedicated to healing trauma in all the various ways it arises. I always come back to us doing it together. No single person, no single organization, no single modality even, is going to be able to do anything alone. But together, we can make an impact. Thus, from my perspective, what this recent media exposure allows us to do is to come together to tell the story we want to tell, and we can tell it with the depth and nuance and care that it deserves.

 

So, let’s tell our stories. Share them with us at SEI so we can share them with the world. Let us lift up your voices. Specific testimonials about why SE, about why this community, about why healing happens in the body can change lives. SEI is also going to continue to provide resources to the public through webinars, resources, and toolkits. SEI is going to continue to provide scholarships. SEI is going to continue to support research. As a nonprofit, our vision is to transform lives by healing trauma. We do this by coming together and sharing our mission with the world.

 

Since the day I started my SE training in 2017, I have heard the same story – everyone has the potential to benefit from SE. And how people benefit is going to look different. But the more we keep talking about the power of this work, while acknowledging it cannot solve everything, the better able we are to continue to make a difference one nervous system at a time.

 

I know there are lots of varied responses to this exposure, and in a community this large, they are all welcome. Together, we can continue to share what makes SE and our global community so strong and able to do good work. I am honored to share this journey with you, and I am honored that we can continue to do this good work together.

 

With deep gratitude,

 

Rebecca Stahl

Rmstahl@traumahealing.org

 

 

On April 2-3, 2022, the Be Ready Alliance Coordinating for Emergencies (BRACE) hosted the two-day Northwest Florida Advanced Citizens Corps Academy (NFACCA). The conference included a Diversity in Disaster panel designed to initiate a conversation between emergency responders and public health professionals from all backgrounds. The goal of the panel was to examine the past, present, and future strategies for disaster response in connection with diversity concerns for socially vulnerable populations and marginalized communities.

Amie Leigh, Director of Public Health Initiatives at Somatic Experiencing® International (SEI), and Kianna Pearson, Public Health Project Manager, facilitated the discussion with panelists Preston Cook, MPA, FPEM; Donna Pilson, Executive Director of Rebuild Bay County Inc. and US Air Force Veteran; Deion Cossio, SEI’s Systems Manager with experience in non-profit disaster relief; and Cristina Costello, case manager for the Emergency Assistance ESG Program.

 

“Diversity is everything. It’s not just the color of my skin but the language I speak. It's how much money I make, it’s how I grew up, it’s where I grew up.”

– Deion Cossio

 

A central part of the discussion was considering what diversity and inclusion mean when it comes to crisis support and the kinds of similarities and differences that need accounting for when providing aid to communities. The panel explored the concerns and needs of the people and organizations providing aid and those receiving it. The conversation offered distinct, valuable, and mission-critical perspectives that, when taken to heart and to practice, can open new channels of thought and collaboration. 

 

“One size doesn’t fit all. It’s a combination of all of these things: policies, practices, interactions, with all of the different cultures, and the resources that are needed by everyone. Until we can really understand what that looks like, we can’t achieve equity for everyone.” - Preston Cook

 

Later in the NFACCA, Amie Leigh held an additional session exploring ways for individuals to support their peers and themselves through catastrophes and life’s many crises. Amie serves as the FEMA-certified Community Emergency Response Training (CERT) trainer for Disaster Psychology in Escambria Country through BRACE. She provided the session as an advanced class on the core content for Neighbors Helping Neighbors that is implemented through the CERT program.

The session explored the complexity of the impact and aftereffects of the trauma. During the program, Amie showcased select tools and protocols drawn from the soon-to-be-launched Crisis Stabilization and Safety program (CSS), a new training program from SE International that interrupts and prevents the symptoms of stress, shock, and trauma during crisis intervention.

One focus of the CSS Program is returning choice to one's actions. After suffering trauma, helplessness can be an individual’s immediate learned response to future stressors. Understanding why our brain returns to the emotions of a previous “neurobiological injury” and actively reminding ourselves of the choices available to us can provide the opportunity to regain control.

The group did some exercises to deepen this learning experience and to increase neuroplasticity, the ability to be more flexible and capable of finding choices when they seem obscured by the crisis at hand. The talk encouraged attendees to notice and discuss their bodily responses to stress, bringing awareness to the way we respond physically to intense emotion. By exploring the “bottom-up” and “inside-out” experience of well-being under pressure, participants learned how to apply techniques to stabilize their nervous system to avoid the lasting neurological effects of trauma.

Determining the best way to make and support efforts more inclusive and culturally responsive is an important, timely, and ongoing discussion. SE International was grateful for the invitation to provide this panel, to serve the attendees, and assist in fostering the innovative solutions that can emerge from these types of conversations.

To learn more about the emerging CSS program, visit the Crisis Stabilization and Safety page on the SEI Website. 

Northern California was the first place SE trainings took place. In 1972, in his “tree house” on a hill in Berkeley, California, Peter Levine, PhD, offered the first training to a small group of clinicians. From the start, there was a realization that the impact of trauma in the world was staggering. As the training grew, the Northern California community’s assistants, organizers and SEPs were at the heart of that growth. In training after training, they realized the need for support for those who practice SE personally and professionally, a self-governing forum, and a place for SE students and SEPs to develop their vision for an SE community.

Ten years ago, a leader in the assistant community sent an email to about 20 others with a simple message: “We need a professional association.” That email sparked a decade-long engaged process of meetings, resources, agreements (and sometimes disagreements) to develop one. While there were many supportive community members, a core group of leaders continued working to build a community platform and to create opportunities for collaboration with SEI. Some of the events the NorCal Somatic Experiencing Professional Association (NorCal SEPA) group held over the years were local SE fireside chats and community gatherings, a 2017 Bay Area conference featuring Dr. Stephen Porges, support for local rapid disaster response, weekend retreats, and holiday potlucks at members’ homes.

Three years ago, the NorCal team met with Marv Tuttle, the then-interim executive director of SEI, and got SEI’s support for moving forward. “Finally, after 10 years of really hard work and perseverance we created a business plan for a 50l(c)(6) association,” says Maureen Harrington, SEP, a bodyworker in practice for more than 20 years in the Bay Area. “We have a good partner in SEI leadership and the team Marv has built.”

NorCal SEPA now has a place as the first chapter for what will be SEI’s next big step: Forming a professional association as a home for all SEPs, initially in the United States, under a 501(c)(6) legal structure that is exclusively designed to serve professional communities. In January, SEI and NorCal SEPA made it official, signing an affiliation agreement.

“The Northern California region is one of the largest and most diverse regions in the country,” says Harrington. “After years of important and challenging work we, as the temporary NorCal SEPA board, want it to be clear that we view this association as a seed for the wider NorCal community to nurture. Our mission statement is ‘to create a vibrant, diverse community and expand leadership capacity among all people trained in the Somatic Experiencing method of healing trauma.’ We are committed to centering diversity, equity, and inclusion as the chapter develops. We recognize we are currently an all-white board, which in many ways reflects past limitations in SE that are being worked on actively today. We are approaching this process with humility and are actively committed to recruiting a board that reflects the diversity of Northern California. We cover a lot of territory – 48 counties from the Bay Area up to the border with Oregon – and those of us in the Bay Area are working now to bring more of our northern counterparts in and learn about their needs so that our vision incorporates all. We’re very grateful for the support, guidance, and dedication of many community members and current SEI leadership to develop NorCal SEPA. We still have a lot of hard work ahead of us, but we’re so proud to plant this seed for a bigger association. Many times, I didn’t think we’d make it this far.”

According to SEI Executive Director Marv Tuttle, NorCal SEPA will be the pilot local group for the professional association, which is part of the 2020-2022 SEI Strategic Plan. “They will be leading the way as the first chapter of the professional association we envision. Other regional groups have expressed an interest in being an early part of this effort, which we expect to be up and running by the end of 2022. We hope to collaborate with other like-minded groups throughout the world to create the possibilities for what a global professional association could do to spread its shared core values and unique body of knowledge. We don’t even have a name yet, but we do have a vision for what this new association can be.”

The affiliation agreement lays out the purpose for the professional association:

• Unite SE professionals for the purpose of maintaining a professional association dedicated to promoting the highest professional standards of SE professionals for the optimal care of trauma patients.
• Provide opportunities for continuous professional development, to include diversified educational activities.
• Embody cultural responsiveness and humility by identifying and offering alliance to underserved and underrepresented portions of the SE community in an inclusive outreach program, including practitioners, students at all levels and the population served by local affiliates.
• Support, evaluate, and disseminate scientific evidence to improve SE trauma practice.
• Provide leadership in professional SE trauma practice to influence health care delivery locally, nationally, and internationally.
• Collaborate in a culturally responsive manner with other professional associations, health care facilities, local community leaders and organizations, universities, industries, technical societies, research organizations, and governmental agencies.
• Adopt policies and conduct programs for the improvement of the SE trauma practice.
• Support identifying and changing the structural reasons for health disparities in oppressed populations and addressing structural impacts of bigotry in healthcare and trauma treatment.

“People on the ground, so to speak, at a local level, are those who can really broaden public awareness of Somatic Experiencing therapy, develop connections and partnerships with other like-minded groups, and build a community,” says Tuttle. “We also hope to engage in advocacy on behalf of this profession, something we’re limited in doing as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, which is in its essence, a structure designed for the public benefit.”

The officers of NorCal SEPA are Harrington, President; Michael Changaris, PsyD, Secretary; Gwynne Gilson, SEP, LMFT, Board member at-large; and Andrea Gage, SEP, Treasurer.

During the next several months, SEI and NorCal SEPA will be meeting to help build the operations of this chapter and get a firm footing for the future. “We’re going to go step-by-step to build,” says Harrington. “We need to see what people in our area most want and need, whether they’re SEPs, assistants, or students. For example, the Trauma Outreach Program brought SE to survivors of Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana and we’re in an area that experiences natural disasters, so we believe there are others who have great interest in that work, which is becoming more critical. We’re going to be very intentional about bringing in their ideas on all of our proposed activities. We know we have people with passion for SE in these 48 counties in northern California – we just have to reach out and bring them in. I’m confident that won’t take another 10 years.”

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Visit NorCal SEPA's website at NorCalSEPA.com.

If you live in the Northern California area, please take the brief NorCal SEPA Launch Survey and join the NorCal SEPA Board for an Informational Meeting on Zoom:

May 20, 2022, 2PM - 3PM PDT
June 25, 2022, 10AM - 11AM PDT

THANK YOU FOR CONSIDERING AN APPLICATION FOR THE PETER A. LEVINE RESEARCH AWARDS. WE ARE GRATEFUL FOR YOUR TIME AND CREATIVITY IN SUPPORT OF SOMATIC EXPERIENCES.

The Peter Levine Somatic Experiencing Research Awards are annual awards for research into the Somatic Experiencing model. Two research awards for $1,000 will be given annually: one for dissertation or thesis research and the other for research conducted by professionals in education or practice settings.

The awards will be given to research that meets four criteria: 

Awardees will be selected via blind peer review by a group of jurors with training in the Somatic Experiencing model and significant research experience.  Each application will be reviewed by at least three independent jurors.

Please submit your application (link below) form and your research paper to research@traumahealing.org  by 6:00 PM MST, April 15, 2022.  Both the application and a research paper must be submitted for your application to be complete.

The winners for 2022 will be announced in the summer. Read about last year's winners for inspiration.

Thank you again for your energy toward research in Somatic Experiencing!  We are excited to learn more about your work.  Please contact research@traumahealing.org with any questions.

BLACK, INDIGENOUS, PEOPLE OF COLOR SCHOLARSHIP

The Black, Indigenous, People of Color Scholarship provides a partial scholarship for for Beginning, Intermediate, and Advanced trainings in the three-year Somatic Experiencing Professional Training Certificate Program to Black, Indigenous, and other students of color in the United States who provide health services to populations that have cultural and economic barriers to accessing Somatic Experiencing.

Purpose

Somatic Experiencing International recognizes the legacy of trauma, discrimination, and institutional barriers that Black, Indigenous, and other people of color face. This scholarship seeks to enable client populations in communities that face these barriers to be able to access Black, Indigenous, and other Somatic Experiencing Practitioners of color.

SEI also offers a financial-based scholarship. For information on that scholarship see the Tuition and Support page.

Scholarship Amount

Each scholarship will cover a minimum of 50% of the cost of the training program.

Eligibility

Candidates must meet the following conditions to be eligible for consideration for this scholarship:

• Identifies as Black, Indigenous, Person of Color
• Applied and accepted into an upcoming Beginning, Intermediate, or Advanced SEI training.  *if not yet accepted into the training please still submit an application for this scholarship, but note that the application will not be reviewed until applicant is accepted into the program.
• Provide SE services to diverse populations
• Submit an application (check to see if we are currently open for applications here)

Restrictions

• Enrollment space and scholarship funds are limited
• SEI reserves the right to determine candidates who are eligible to receive scholarship
• Applicants who do not meet the requirements will not be eligible for the scholarship award
• Scholarship applications are reviewed ONLY after all requisite documents and application are received and applicant has been accepted into the 3-year training program. Incomplete applications will not be reviewed.

Disclaimer

Receipt of scholarship does not reserve space in a course or training module. Each training has its own registration/application process, which is separate from the scholarship application.

It is the responsibility of applicants to request a scholarship, and all requests must be made prior to the scheduled start date indicated for the course on the SEI website. Scholarships are not applied retroactively (after the course begins).

Scholarship Application

Once the training application is submitted (or if already a participant in the training) please complete the Black, Indigenous, People of Color Scholarship application to be considered.

Scholarship applications may take up to 4 weeks to review.

In mid-October, Board Chair Rebecca Stahl and SEI Director of Legal Affairs and International Relationships Ana Paula Bastian traveled to Portugal to be guests at the European Association of Somatic Experiencing (EASE) General Assembly.

“Our role was to listen and learn – specifically, how can and should SEI and EASE work together in the future – and we did have some great discussions as well as moments of socializing to get to know each other better.

Rebecca and I arrived in Setubal, Portugal on Thursday, October 14th, before the official start of the General Assembly on Friday. That day we had lunch with the EASE board at a local cafe and a few hours later had a private meeting with the board to discuss logistics for the next day and hear about some of their current challenges. The GA had about 20 people present, including representatives from some country associations, trainers/faculty, and organizers. We all sat in circle, introduced ourselves, and heard how the democratic process of decision making would take place during the next two days. We got to sit in and observe as the group voted on two different issues. All decisions made by the group that day were unanimous, and it was interesting to watch the process and listen to the various topics and discussions.

On Saturday, Rebecca and I again sat in circle and spent about 2 hours introducing ourselves, answering questions from the group, and discussing ideas on how EASE and SEI could move forward together.

In between the working sessions, we shared meals with those in attendance and I got to meet new people we had never met before – seeing in person those I had met only virtually. We even had a treat one night during dinner as Doris Mueller, from the German association, sang a beautiful song for the group! It was wonderful to socialize in person again, to connect with the European SE community, and to get a better understanding of EASE and its composition of associations, trainers, and organizers. I came back home inspired and hopeful that wherever it is we go, we can move forward having honest discussions and listening to one other with an open heart and a collaborative spirit.” – Ana Paula Bastian

 

“The GA is where folks from EASE come together to make decisions that affect the larger collective. Two major aspects struck me as central to their mission. First there is a focus on everything happening from the bottom-up, rather than the top-down. There is an EASE board, and they do so much work in between, and at, the GA. What happened in Europe is that each country created their own association and then, together, the associations created EASE. As a result, there remains a strong decentralized focus.

Second, the GA votes through true consensus, not through a majority rule. The EASE community refers to this as ‘deep democracy. The basic tenet is that if there is going to be a vote, everyone has a chance to ask questions and discuss. Then, a first vote is taken. If everyone does not agree, more discussion happens until all questions are answered and any changes are made. If a decision cannot be reached that year, it can be held until the next year.

This work requires time. It requires listening. It requires discomfort at times. It requires connection. It requires so many of the skills and senses we learn in Somatic Experiencing. It was truly an honor to see this in action and to feel the impact of being in a literal circle as decisions get made.” – Rebecca Stahl