In-Person Workshop
Working with Suppressed Life Energy
Embodied Practices for Healing Attachment Trauma Combining
Somatic Experiencing® (SE™) and Integrated Attachment Family Therapy
Peter A Levine, PhD & Dafna Lender, LCSW
IN-PERSON OCTOBER 27th - 30th
Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health
Stockbridge, MA
16.5 CEs Available with Spiritual Competency Academy (SCA)
Do you work with kids?
Interested in working with kids in the future?
Work with distressed clients who once were kids?
Do you care for a child or plan to care for a child?
Or were you ever a kid yourself, and you are now in need of more aliveness?
If yes to any, this workshop may be for you!
About this one-of-a-kind Workshop
Attachment trauma interferes with many aspects of a person’s functioning, one of which is the capacity for joy and connection through play or energetic and “free” interactions. Many clients who experienced harsh, unsupportive, neglectful, or abusive childhoods have trauma embedded in their play history.
Imagine, for example, that a child plays too loudly or exuberantly and is then yelled at, shamed, hit, or harshly punished. If play is chronically overshadowed by this type of interpersonal trauma, a small impulse of boldness or playfulness may feel dangerous. However, play behavior for both adults and children, is crucial for the positive aspects of living a fulfilling life: being able to joke, laugh, dance, be spontaneous with others, and feel exuberance, amusement, and a sense of lightness and energy is essential to living a full life.
Learning how to tap into play energy must be a focal point in healing work because play energy is a vehicle for resolving interpersonal trauma. Harnessing the life energy of play in psychotherapy, whether with children, adults, or couples, can help clients overcome aspects of their traumatic past and re-capture their sense of “aliveness” and connection.
This workshop, with Dr. Levine and Dafna Lender, will provide tools and strategies for purposefully and mindfully using play techniques focused on the basic play principles: the social engagement system (voice, movement, touch, gestures, facial expressions, eye contact) to produce surprise, laughter, synchrony, joy, energy, and creativity. The workshop will also emphasize the importance of co-regulation, attunement, and repair between therapist and client.
During this Workshop, together we will…
Demonstrate the role of play in attachment and development of self-regulation
Discuss the psychic effects of being traumatized during play
Assess our (and our clients) play history to determine which types of play interventions are indicated
Apply embodied play techniques for enhancing connection, aliveness, and energy
Utilize play techniques for practicing self-regulation
Use natural moments of rupture and repair in play to develop resilience
Compare intensity, quality, and types of play for different client presentations
Apply working with our inner child (and that of our client) through enactment, role play, and guided meditation to release the trauma around playful energy, erotic energy, exuberance, and joy
Explain the evolutionary underpinnings of trauma, the Polyvagal theory, and flight, flight, freeze, and collapse
Demonstrate interventions to help children increase tolerance for negative bodily sensations and suppressed emotions
Discuss how these new play practices can be transferred to current relationships with children
Added bonus: A special breakout group for caregivers/parents who wish to focus on restoring or enhancing playful energy with children of all ages.
The Intersection of SE and IAFT
During this one-of-a-kind workshop, Dr. Levine will be demonstrating Somatic Experiencing® techniques for working with children, helping them to gain positive experiences in their bodies that contradict their feelings of helplessness when they arise. The workshop will also focus on the practitioner’s own childhood experiences that are stuck or holding back the practitioner from being connected to their playful, exuberant, energetic young self.
Co-teacher Dafna Lender, LCSW, the creator and trainer of Integrative Attachment Family Therapy, and her team will use attachment-focused play and embodiment techniques to heal severely dysregulated childhood experiences through physical exercises co-regulated by a loving adult.
Participants in the training will lend their nervous systems to one another in exercises that support each other’s child parts, allowing them to feel safe, show themselves, and be proud of their energy and uniqueness. They can use these tools to help heal the hurt child within themselves. Participants will also become stronger, more energetic agents of change for their clients.
Dafna’s Integrative Attachment Family Therapy (IAFT) focuses on the parent-child relationship as a vehicle to heal problems of trust, hyperarousal or hypoarousal, and connection in both children and parents. IAFT is effective in treating trauma because it focuses on building attachment relationships using joyful and energetic play-based actions as well as creating and fostering safe dialogues between children and their caregivers. Using these techniques, we can help children (or an adult’s inner child) regain their capacity for joy and restore loving connections to their peers and families.
This workshop will also address successful parent attachment work. You will learn how to identify when you, as a parent, need more focused individual work and when your own attachment issues may be impacting relationships.
“Trauma is not what happens to us. But what we hold inside in the absence of an empathetic witness.”
This Workshop Includes
Didactic lecture with Q&A
Supervised practice sessions with extensive debriefing
Private online portal with course materials
Walking paths & trails
Yoga and other healing programming - offered by the facility
Bookstore & Spa Services - offered by the facility
Wifi in designated areas
An Introduction to SE video w/ Dr Levine
A post-workshop Zoom Integration and Q&A session w/ Dafna Lender
16.5 CEs Available with Spiritual Competency Academy (SCA)(info below registration button)
Schedule (subject to evolution)
Sunday, Oct 27th
(Kripalu lodging check-in begins at 2:00 pm - all rooms ready by 4:00 pm)
(Kripalu Yoga 4:45 pm)
(Kripalu Dinner 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm)
7:00 pm - 8:30 pm Opening Gathering Session One
Monday, Oct 28th
(Kripalu Yoga 6:30 am - 7:45 am)
(Kripalu Meditation 8:00 am - 8:30 am)
(Kripalu Breakfast 7:30 am - 9:00 am)
9:30 am - 10:30 pm Session Two
10:30 am - 10:45 am Break
10:45 am - 12:00 pm Session Three
(Kripalu Yoga Dance 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm)
(Kripalu Lunch 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm)
2:30 pm - 4:15 pm Session Four
4:15 pm - 4:30 Break
4:30 pm - 6:30 pm Session Five
(Kripalu Dinner 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm)
(Kripalu Dance, Yoga, or Talk 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm)
Tuesday, Oct 29th
(Kripalu Yoga 6:30a m - 7:45 am)
(Kripalu Meditation 8:00 am - 8:30 am)
(Kripalu Breakfast 7:30 am - 9:00 am)
9:30 am - 10:30 pm Session Six
10:30 am - 10:45 am Break
10:45 am - 12:00 pm Session Seven
(Kripalu Yoga Dance 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm)
(Kripalu Lunch 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm)
2:30 pm - 4:15 pm Session Eight
4:15 pm - 4:30 Break
44:30 pm - 6:30 pm Session Nine
(Kripalu Dinner 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm)
(Kripalu Dance, Yoga, or Talk 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm)
7:30 pm - 9:30 pm Session Ten Healing Attachment Trauma in our Children (optional bonus session for parents/child caregivers)
Wednesday, Oct 30th
(Kripalu Yoga 6:30 am - 7:45 am)
(Kripalu Meditation 8:00 am - 8:30 am)
(Kripalu Breakfast 7:30 am - 9:00 am)
(Kripalu lodging check-out 10:00 am)
9:30 am - 10:30 pm Session Eleven
10:30 am - 10:45 am Break
10:45 am - 12:00 pm Session Twelve
(Kripalu Yoga Dance 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm)
(Kripalu Lunch 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm)
(Depart campus by 2:00 pm)
Guest Instructor Bio
Dafna Lender, LCSW is a family therapy expert and attachment specialist. Dafna is an international trainer and supervisor for practitioners who work with children and families. She is a certified trainer and supervisor/consultant in both Theraplay and Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP), as well as an EMDR therapist. Dafna’s expertise is drawn from 29 years of working with families in many settings: at-risk after-school programs, therapeutic foster care, in-home crisis stabilization, residential care, and private practice. Dafna’s style, whether as a therapist or teacher, combines the light-hearted with the profound by bringing a playful, intense, and passionate presence to every encounter.
Dafna is the author of Integrative Attachment Family Therapy (2023) and the co-author of Theraplay: The Practitioner’s Guide (2020). She teaches and supervises clinicians in 15 countries in four languages: English, Hebrew, French, and Spanish.
Prerequisite
This program is designed for psychotherapists, social workers, teachers, medical and foster care providers, clergy, and more.
Mandatory read prior to attending: Read this handout
Communications
Communications will be sent from info@somaticexperiencing.com. The evening before the class, you will receive an email with a LINK and PASSCODE to the PRIVATE PORTAL for this program. Please save this information to access the PROGRAM ANNOUNCEMENTS, SLIDES, HANDOUTS, DETAILED SCHEDULE, CERTIFICATE, and MORE.
Please read the Agreements in Registration.
Location & Lodging
Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health
Stockbridge, MA
Guest & Student Arrival Information
INFORMATION & REQUIREMENTS FOR ARRIVAL
WHAT TO PACK
BOOK SPA APPOINTMENTS & SERVICES
WHAT TO EXPECT DURING YOUR STAY
*Ergos tuition does not include lodging and meals. Please book directly with the venue.
Registration & Payment
Ergos Tuition:
$1,095 USD
This workshop is nearly full. We are working with the venue to open more spots. If inventory runs out, please join the waitlist.
Payment Plans are no longer available within 2 weeks of the program.
Partial-Scholarships:
There are limited financial need partial scholarships available to BIPOC students and/or those working primarily with underserved populations (clinics, reservations, volunteer, etc.). For submission, please email info@somaticexperiencing.com.
Refunds:
The last day to request a program refund, minus a processing fee, is September 27th, 2024.
For registration issues or other inquiries, please contact info@somaticexperiencing.com.
There is no conflict of interest or commercial support.
The Ergos Institute of Somatic Education is managing this workshop.
Come play with us! We hope to see you there!
〰️
Come play with us! We hope to see you there! 〰️
Total CE Credits: 16.5
Information on Continuing Education Credit for Health Professionals
• CE credits for psychologists are provided by the Spiritual Competency Academy (SCA)
which is co-sponsoring this program. The Spiritual Competency Academy is approved by the
American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists.
Spiritual Competency Academy maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
• The California Board of Behavioral Sciences accepts CE credits for LCSW, LPCC, LEP, and
LMFT license renewal for programs offered by approved sponsors of CE by the American
Psychological Association.
• LCSW, LPCC, LEP, and LMFTs, and other mental health professionals from states other
than California need to check with their state licensing board as to whether or not they
accept programs offered by approved sponsors of CE by the American Psychological
Association.
• SCA is approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing (BRN Provider CEP16887)
for licensed nurses in California. RNs must retain their certificate of attendance for 4 years
after the course concludes.
• For questions about receiving your Certificate of Attendance, contact the Ergos Institute at
• For questions about CE, contact Spiritual Competency Academy at