Retreats, Workshops, & Trainings
Retreats & Workshops
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Somatic Practices for Healing Trauma: a Live Online Workshop with Manuela Mischke-Reeds
March 13-14, 2021
10:00am-5:00pm PDT
Online Zoom Event via CIIS (California Institute of Integrated Studies)
Cost:
$200-$300 Public
$160-$240 Members
Facebook event
Mar 13-14, 2021
10:00am-5:00pm PDT
Online Zoom Event via CIIS (California Institute of Integrated Studies)
Cost:
$200-$300 Public
$160-$240 Members
Facebook Event
The body has memories of trauma that can only be understood through the language of the Soma, or the body itself. Somatic Psychotherapy provides a powerful and direct path into the body’s wisdom and our innate capacities for healing.
Trauma activates the body’s nervous system and creates dysregulated emotional states as well as body symptoms that can be debilitating. The trauma activations that are experienced can range from subtle self-aggression to self-harm, and from emotional withdrawal or avoidance to self-sabotage. Through body-oriented mindfulness practices, we can learn how to regulate trauma-activated inner states. This experiential workshop guides participants through various somatic interventions in order to learn how to safely resource and metabolize traumatic experiences.
Join Somatic Psychotherapist and co-director of the Hakomi Institute Manuela Mischke-Reeds for an exploration of the body’s wisdom and the somatic practices for healing trauma. Manuela shares gentle movement, breathing, and sensing exercises that are grounded in trauma sensitive knowledge. Manuela illuminates how the body and nervous system can be changed by trauma, how unhealed trauma continues to inflict harm on the self and others, and how trauma is an illness of the heart, mind, and body.
Trauma is not just an individual story. It is deeply interwoven into the history of our families, our communities, and the broader intergenerational collective. Manuela integrates Dharmic viewpoints into ways of perceiving trauma as interconnected—not separate from our collective wisdom.
This workshop offers a mix of lecture, demonstration, and experiential learning through personal explorations and in small group exercises. Manuela integrates her work as a therapist and teacher, drawing from Hakomi techniques, Somatic Experiencing, Continuum Movement, Dharmic embodied meditation practices, and mindfulness awareness.
This workshop is open to anyone interested in healing trauma for themselves or others.
This event will be hosted live online. Instructions on how to join will be included in your event confirmation email. If you need additional assistance finding or joining the event, please email .

Stillness in Motion: A Day of Mindfulness, Somatic Movement and Writing Practice
Saturday
November 21, 2020
8:00am-4:30pm PDT
Online Zoom Event
Cost: $150/$120/$90
This mindfulness daylong led by Manuela Mischke-Reeds is an opportunity to get quiet and draw deeply inside to discover hidden reservoirs of your soma. In these times of unpredictable change, we can cultivate places within us that are both solid and fluid. We live in times of ongoing stress and trauma with little time to settle our nervous system. Let’s come together to practice Stillness in Motion and do take time out from the stressors of our lives.
Join us in an in-depth practice day with mindfulness meditation, somatic movement explorations and writing inquiry. This daylong mindfulness day is an opportunity to get quiet and draw deeply inside to discover hidden reservoirs of your soma. In these times of unpredictable change, we can cultivate places within us that are both solid and fluid. We live in times of ongoing stress and trauma with little time to settle our nervous system.
This daylong workshop is an opportunity to slow down and practice embodied mindfulness and being in community. We will have periods of movement, writing, sitting in silence, being in nature and short discussions.
What does it mean to root deeply into our bodies? How can we find stillness in this emotionally overwhelming world? How can we find ground and deepen our roots when everything we know is upended and moving fast? Can we return to listening deeply to what is unfolding within us? This is a retreat day for your body and mind to awaken your creativity and connection with yourself.
This workshop is for beginners and advanced meditators alike and anyone who wants to learn about the path of inquiring through the mindful body into deeper wisdom of yourself. Bring an open curious mind and the commitment to experience yourself through movement, writing and meditation.
Schedule:
Session 1 (8-9am): Somatic Movement Practice & Meditation
Tea Break
Session 2: (10-12pm) Mindfulness Meditation and Writing Practice
Lunch Break
Session 3: (1-2pm) Nature Movement and Writing Practice (in Silence)
Tea Break
Session 4: (2.30-4.30pm) Mindfulness Meditation and Writing Practice and Somatic Movement
The daylong will include:
- Guided mindfulness practices to settle and soothe and prepare to listen to your inner experience. These are accessible to all bodies
- Mindful movement exploration to deepen the connection with your wisdom body
- Writing prompts that will inspire writing from your present moment experience
- Optional sharing of your writing with support and deep listening
- Short talks on how to deepen your mindfulness practice for the day
What to expect and prepare:
Please plan on committing to all three sessions. The retreat will be most beneficial if you plan this as a whole day in silence and retreat mode. Clear the schedule and commit yourself to this day in mindfulness to restore your mind and body.
Set up your space with a meditation cushion, a blanket and pillows, writing on a computer or journal. In the breaks and throughlunch, we will be in silence to maximize the retreat spirit. Wear comfortable clothes for the movement practices.
During the writing periods you will be guided into a prompt and we will write together in silence. This is an extended mindfulness period. The schedule will alternate between sitting, moving and writing.
Trainings
Innate Somatic Intelligence Trauma Training Approach (ISITTA®)
If you’re looking for in-depth transformation and new ways of working with trauma, Innate Somatic Intelligence Trauma Training Approach (ISITTA®) will provide the inner and outer tool sets for you. This unique trauma training integrates somatic trauma therapy techniques, psychobiological models of trauma in the body, and ancient wisdom.
To find out more and register for the different levels of ISITTA training, head to Embodywise.
Transforming your clients’ traumatic experiences isn’t just about savvy skills and known interventions. It requires a refined inner skill set for seeing deeply into your clients’ suffering and trusting their innate somatic intelligence.These skills require a different kind of training.
ISITTA® is based on the belief that the inside-out transformation of the therapist is essential in supporting the client’s journey towards a whole and self-sustaining life. We must make the healing journey first so we can guide our clients safely and precisely into the vast reservoir that they hold in their bodies and hearts.
Training Levels
ISITTA Foundations:
A six-module self-paced online introduction to the
Innate Somatic Intelligence Trauma Therapy Approach (ISITTA)
Starts August 22
Register at Embodywise
Level 1:
Innate Somatic Intelligence, Relational and Collective Trauma and Social Justice
Starts October 7, 2022
Register at Embodywise
Level 2:
Moving Beyond Trauma
Starts January 6, 2023
Register at Embodywise
Level 3:
Integrating Therapeutic Wisdom into Trauma Work
Starts March 31
Register at Embodywise
Because contemporary helping professionals face the complexities of multiple, intertwined traumas, we need to train differently. It’s no longer enough to just learn skills; we need to become a different kind of therapist: one that’s unafraid to sit with suffering in a deep and compassionate way. We need to become trauma change catalysts who can see beyond the stigma of trauma and support growth in our clients and the sacredness of their life journeys.
We can’t fix past traumas for our clients, but we can learn how to respond to their longing for wholeness with wisdom, skill and heart. We can support their nervous systems to regulate and help them to trust that their trauma story has deep purpose. We can learn how to ground ourselves in kindheartedness and work with our clients’ traumatic experiences as our own triggering arises. This new way of helping transcends the old paradigm of healing and delivers precise and effective tools for self-healing and transformation. ISITTA® provides a clear pathway to becoming this kind of healer.
Guiding clients through trauma processes also requires a fluid and resilient nervous system. The adaptive practitioner commits to healing their own nervous system, and uses their nervous system’s resilience to support clients towards health and new ways of being. In this training, you’ll focus on learning “from the soma up” to deepen both your cognitive and somatic understanding. In other words, you won’t just learn techniques and practices for healing trauma—you’ll learn to embody them.
Being a somatically intelligent practitioner also means understanding the current sociopolitical and societal challenges that we’re collectively facing.
We need to understand not just the client’s personal trauma, but how it intersects with intergenerational and collective trauma in a society that’s rapidly changing and evolving. We will explore who we need to become to facilitate health and wellbeing in this climate of dramatic change; this requires a new mindset that can help heal deep fractures in communities, societies and in the relational realms.
In ISITTA®, you’ll learn how to work with a variety of different traumas, including relational and developmental trauma, physical trauma, and collective and systemic trauma. To honor and support the neurodiversity of the learners in this training, we will learn through a variety of activities, including experiential guided group practice, somatic practices, movement, small practice groups, short lectures and discussions. Because of the somatic and experiential nature of this training, participants will need to be comfortable learning through movement, breath, safe, boundaried touch and mindful interpersonal exploration.
ISITTA® acknowledges a number of influences, including Hakomi Mindful Somatic Psychotherapy, Somatic Experiencing, Continuum Movement, expressive arts, Buddhism and Taoism, body-centered meditation, mindfulness and compassion practices and systems thinking. It’s designed for therapists, healers, social workers, trauma coaches and medical professionals who are willing to be changed in order to become more effective healers. This unique training requires a commitment to learning outside of your comfort zone and beyond your intellectual knowledge, and a willingness to delve into the mysteries of the body’s healing powers.
If you’re a therapist or helping professional looking for in-depth transformation and a new way of working with trauma, our ISITTA® training will provide the inner and outer tool sets for you. You can take ISITTA® Foundations as a standalone course or as the first in a series of four comprehensive trainings offering a unique somatic approach to resolving trauma.
In ISITTA® Foundations, you’ll interact in a dynamic virtual community to build a solid theoretical foundation for working with trauma and gain a deeper understanding of what trauma in the body means. You’ll also learn basic Buddhist principles and personal mindfulness and somatic practices for resourcing your work as a trauma therapist. This training provides a rich online learning environment that includes downloadable MP3 audio files, articles, contemplative exercises, and chat room conversations.
In each of the six online modules listed in the class schedule below, you’ll begin to develop a more nuanced and comprehensive understanding of the worlds of trauma. In addition to exploring the theoretical foundations of trauma, you’ll also gain an updated understanding of how trauma impacts people in our world today. You’ll also begin a personal journey of somatic meditation in your own body. Gaining this theoretical and experiential understanding lays the foundation for the skill building that takes place in our Level 1 training.
Class Schedule
ISITTA® Foundations offers six weekly modules of self-paced online learning. Each module contains 2 hours of course materials for a total of 12 hours of instructional material for the entire course. If you’re busy during a given week, you can make up that week’s course material at your own pace.
Course Material Access Dates
Online training platform will be available July 2022.
Module 1: The Inner Worlds of Trauma
Module 2: Arousal and Self-Regulation
Module 3: Intergenerational, Transgenerational and Collective Trauma
Module 4: Ground, Resource and Referencing the Sacred in Trauma Work
Module 5: The Importance of Soma
Module 6: Frontiers of Trauma Work: Posttraumatic Growth and Psychedelic-Assisted Treatments for PTSD
ISITTA® Level 1: Innate Somatic Intelligence, Relational and Collective Trauma and Social Justice
Instructors
Manuela Mischke-Reeds
Staci Hanes
Arielle Schwartz
Dates
Starts October 7, 2022
Times
Friday 1:30-5:30pm
Saturday 9:30-5:30pm
Sunday 9:30-1:30pm
Somatic intelligence is an innate inner healing capacity that we can use to support trauma clients in their journey to therapeutic recovery. ISITTA® Level 1 focuses on how to discover, embody and therapeutically intervene using the innate intelligence of our bodies.
In addition to exploring key elements for creating a trauma-informed therapeutic relationship, you’ll also learn techniques for healing a range of relational traumas, including attachment and developmental trauma, trauma systems and collective, community and historical trauma and Embodied social justice. Each weekend will be grounded in personal somatic practice, skill building, small group learning and group discussion.
Instructors
Manuela Mischke-Reeds
Mashid Hager
Macy Daye
Arielle Schwartz
Dates
Starts January 6, 2023
Times
Friday 1:30-5:30pm
Saturday 9:30-5:30pm
Sunday 9:30-1:30pm
In ISITTA® Level 2, you’ll learn trauma-informed movement techniques and interventions that allow clients to regulate their emotions and process trauma safely in the somatic nervous system. We’ll also explore gentle, trauma-sensitive micro-movement interventions that you can use to both resource your clients and somatically process their trauma memories; these intrinsic and subtle movement impulses are essential tools for supporting clients to metabolize trauma experiences in a safe and contained way. Another important focus in Level 2 is looking at ways to expand the emotional and relational capacity of both the client and trauma therapist/practitioner.
Instructors
Manuela Mischke-Reeds
Joshua Sylvae
Heather Sundberg
Jennifer Dore
Dates
Starts March 31, 2023
Times
Friday 1:30-5:30pm
Saturday 9:30-5:30pm
Sunday 9:30-1:30pm
In ISITTA® Level 3, you’ll expand your understanding of trauma healing using tools grounded in current legal psychedelic research and application. In the first weekend of this training, guest teacher Dr. Jennifer Dore will lead an exploration of somatic core techniques to use with ketamine-assisted psychotherapy. In the weekends that follow, we’ll also focus on how to support posttraumatic growth and discover through practice and discussion how trauma work can inspire wisdom, clarity and wise action when clients are supported in safe, grounded and therapeutically-boundaried ways. You’ll also learn how to support clients to use their innate somatic intelligence to develop a deeper understanding of their trauma history, including how the trauma they’ve experienced connects to collective, historical and systemic trauma and the unique growth opportunities it provides.
Additional Instructors for ISITTA®

Staci K. Haines is the developer of generative somatics. Her work emerges from the somatics tradition of Richard Strozzi Heckler integrating Polarity Therapy, Gestalt, Vipassana meditation and Aikido. Staci integrates her extensive study in personal and social change, trauma and recovery and Neuro-Linguistic Programming into this unique and powerful work. She is a senior teacher in the field of somatics and leads courses in Somatics and Leadership, Somatics and Trauma, and Somatics and Social Justice. The current focus of generative somatics is to bring the transformative power of somatics to serve the social justice movement. She has been working and teaching in the field of somatics for the last 16 years.
Since 1992 Staci has been working and organizing to prevent child sexual abuse. She is a founder of generationFIVE, a social justice organization whose mission is to end the sexual abuse of children within five generations through survivor leadership, community organizing, transformative justice approaches and movement building. Staci is committed to the intersection of personal healing and social justice work, and sees that both have to be addressed to bring the change and justice we want in the world.

Susan Harper is a Continuum Movement teacher, a heart-soul counselor, creative instigator, and inspired teacher of perceptual and movement inquiry. She teaches a wide range of skills in the fields of movement, emotions, shock and trauma resolution, dreams, perception and relationship. Susan began studying with Emilie Conrad, the founder of Continuum Movement, in 1975, and eventually became a partner in developing the organization and work of Continuum. She offers Continuum Montage events, which include Continuum Workshops, Body of Relating Trainings, Body of Perception Training, and Living Dreams seminars. She also leads seminars at Esalen Institute. Susan was profoundly shaped by her early years in Africa where she was born. She has led dozens of river trips in North America, and has also led quest trips in Thailand, Tibet, Bali, and Borneo — honoring the gifts of each culture, people, and place in resonant exchange. In addition to studying with Emilie Conrad, Susan has trained and taught with Hubert Godard (Perceptual/Movement), Chris Price (Gestalt Awareness Practice), Wendy Palmer (Intuitive Body), Gary David (Epistemics), Reggie Ray (Meditating With the Body), Caroline Conger (Dreamwork and Healing) and Peter Levine (Somatic Experiencing). Her experiential work is relevant for therapists, somatic educators, bodyworkers and anyone interested in the creative art of living.

Jennifer Dore, MD is a board certified psychiatrist specializing in psychodynamic psychotherapy and medication management for conditions such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, ADHD and addiction. She currently serves on the board of the Ketamine Research Foundation. Dr. Dore earned her MD from New York Medical College in 2007, with the highest academic distinction, Alpha Omega Alpha, and holds a BA from Amherst College where she majored in English Literature. Upon graduating, Dr. Dore trained for three years as a surgical resident at Weill Cornell/NY Presbyterian Hospital.
Dr. Dore’s training subsequently took her to Northern California where she joined the Stanford Department of Psychiatry as a resident physician. While at Stanford, Dr. Dore’s focus included the treatment of bipolar disorder, intensive individual psychotherapy, psychopharmacology, family and couples therapy, and medical decision making. Dr. Dore’s research in the area of bipolar disorder earned her recognition from the American Psychiatric Association during their 2013 Annual Meeting in San Francisco. Dr. Dore was also elected Chief Resident for her contributions as a leader and innovator.
In 2014, Dr. Dore founded Helios Psychiatry with a mission to serve the local Bay Area community and innovate across a broad spectrum of traditional and pioneering treatments, including ketamine-assisted psychotherapy. Dr. Dore has worked with hundreds of patients and published numerous research papers including, most recently, a groundbreaking study into the effects of ketamine-assisted psychotherapy published in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs.
Custom Trainings
Stress and trauma is at an all-time high due to environmental disasters, racial inequity, and global pandemic fall-out. The instability and uncertainty that each person experiences has an impact on the work culture and society. Unfortunately, many of our go-to modalities for dealing with these complex issues lack a trauma-informed lens. Even our mental health practitioners, first responders and leaders in all areas are now confronted with an unprecedented level of secondary/vicarious trauma.
Our New Challenge is Navigating Collective Trauma
It’s not enough for our therapists to simply resource; we need an entirely new model. The new vision of the therapeutic relationship is more collaborative and inclusive. This model tailors to the individual challenges within the collective mindset. There is no separation between the person’s experience and the system they are embedded in. We live in a truly interconnected world and need model of healing that reflects that.
Similarly, it’s not enough for our organizations to ignore personal or collective trauma such as team member challenges, stress, and layoffs. When a group has such disconnects, it loses its sense of belonging and purpose, resulting in lost productivity and potential.
Initiating sustainable change needs to include the whole person and how the body and mind responds to stress and trauma. There are proven therapeutic techniques that align the mind and body for a truly effective way forward.
As a master clinician and teacher with decades of experience designing some of the most sought-after trauma-somatic training in countries all over the world, my courses have helped over 20,000 practitioners and teams learn how to move from trauma and extreme stress back to their natural state: mindful, connected, content.
My trainings have been attended by various health care professionals ranging from psychotherapeutic to medical to any kind of first responders, as well as people who want genuine change. Contact me today to learn about my existing trauma-somatics-mindfulness programs or how we can create a custom program for your organization.
“STARTTS would like to sincerely thank somatic psychotherapist, Manuela Mischke-Reeds, for delivering an outstanding 2-day clinical workshop: ‘Trauma Sensitive and Somatically Savvy Clinical Tools,’ and for her skillful, inspiring, enriching and practical workshop. Close to 160 people attended the workshop, 63 STARTTS staff and 94 external Clinicians—the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.”
-Nooria Mehraby