Cultivating Vitality: Exploring Bioenergetic Analysis

Dates: Sundays, Oct 22, Nov 19, Jan 14, Feb 25, March 10, April 14
Times: 12 - 4:15 PM Eastern/ 9 - 1:15 PM Pacific/ 1 - 5:15 PM Atlantic
Platform: Online via Zoom
CEs: We have applied for 24 CEs for social workers through the MA NASW. LMHCs can apply for CEs at the end of the program.

• Learn effective body-based techniques to use in your life and your practice, along with bioenergetic theory
• Experience advanced bioenergetic trainers from California, Canada, and the US
• Deepen your connection with yourself and colleagues in a supportive group format

This course provides a thorough introduction to the theory and practice of contemporary Bioenergetic Analysis. Each session will include both didactic and experiential learning. Taught in a group format, the course offers time for participants to explore their personal responses to the topics in some depth and to connect with the group members. Adela Gorodzinsky, RP, M.Ed, CCC, CBT (Central CA) will lead the group at all sessions. Each meeting will also feature a different bioenergetic therapist/trainer focusing on specific topics.

Session 1: Grounding Theory & Exercises: Bioenergetic “Home Base”

Led by Leslie Ann Costello, PhD, bioenergetic therapist, trainer, & author of Somatic Tools for Perinatal Therapists (Atlantic Canada).

Historically Bioenergetics was the first psychotherapy school with a foundational emphasis on physical grounding as a prerequisite for healing and trauma recovery. Traditional bioenergetic grounding has evolved along with new understandings of attachment theory and developmental and shock trauma. Learn the physical and relational Grounding skills that keep you safe and anchored and living a vital embodied life.

Session 2: Free Your Life Force!

Led by Carol Melnick, MSW, bioenergetic therapist & EMDR specialist (Atlantic Canada).

Bioenergetics works to free up the breathing and musculature for increased aliveness and health. Tight muscles decrease awareness and feeling. Freeing up those tensions increases self-awareness and the movement of energy/emotion in the body, allowing the person to breathe free. This can be life changing.

Session 3: Working with Boundaries Physically: Setting Limits & Reaching Out

Led by Vincentia Schroeter, Ph.D., CBT (Southern CA) & Adela Gorodzinsky, RP, M.Ed, CCC, CBT (Central CA).

We are born to be ourselves and, at the same time, be socialized with other humans, animals and our environment. However, many times we would like to say “No” to someone’s request, order, or implication, but fear being rejected or disliked. We long to belong to ‘X’,’ Y’ or ‘Z’, but do not ask for what we want. This workshop will aim at defining boundaries, offering an opportunity to exercise them, and glimpsing what honoring our own ‘True Self ‘feels like in our bodies.

Session 4: Breathing, Moving & Feeling

Led by Terry Hunt, EdD, bioenergetic therapist & trainer (Massachusetts).

For many of us emotions are unpleasant and feared so we suppress them. Emotions can get stuck and manifest into states such as anxiety, frustration and depression. In Bioenergetics we see emotion as the energetic sign post directing us to a deeper knowing of ourselves. We understand that resistance to feeling emotion increases suffering. In this workshop we will explore how to move the energy and experience the benevolence of fluid emotions, increase our emotional repertoire, and ground our knowing of what emotions truly are.

Session 5: A Body/Mind Journey From Depression & Anxiety to Vitality

Led by Laurie Ure, LICSW, bioenergetic therapist, trainer, author of an upcoming book on the bioenergetic approach to treating depression (Massachusetts).

Bioenergetic therapy offers an integrated body/mind/spirit/emotional/relational approach to mental health issues including anxiety and depression. The workshop will describe bioenergetic techniques and methods, along with providing an overview of the bioenergetic perspective on underlying factors contributing to chronic depression and anxiety. In the workshop will explore vitality as an aim of therapy.

Session 6: Character Structure – Reading Developmental Trauma in the Body

Led by Homayoun Shahri, Ph.D., CBT (Southern CA).

Our bodies and behavior reflect our early experiences in a similar manner that a cross section of a tree reflects its age and a lot more. There are over all ways of looking and being that we have from the best and the worst of what we experienced as children. In bioenergetics we call this Character. We will learn about this in an atmosphere of acceptance and compassion.

More information, please read here ...