Integral Somatic Psychology (ISP)
Professional Training
An advanced approach to integrating more body, energy, and consciousness into any psychological process
Module One - November 16-21, 2017
Module Two - May 25-30, 2018
Tuition per module: 2200.00 (special discounts for assistants, coordinators and SE of Latin America)
Wednesday November 16, 2017 at 9:30 AM BRST
-to-
Monday November 21, 2017 at 4:00 PM BRST
Note: Wednesday through Sunday will end at 6:00 PM
What is Integral Somatic Psychology (ISP)?
Integral Somatic Psychology (ISP) considers every approach to psychotherapy as valuable and understands them all as components of a broad unifying framework built on Eastern and Western psychologies. It offers clinicians from diverse therapeutic modalities the possibility of increasing treatment efficiency through greater embodiment of all levels of the psyche.
All human experiences (perceiving, thinking, feeling, remembering, imagining, evaluating, relating, and responding) arise from our individual gross (i.e. physical) and quantum level subtle (i.e. energy) bodies that are in constant interaction with the dynamic collective gross and subtle bodies contained in an absolute collective body of pure awareness. Though valuable, the focus on the brain and to a lesser extent on the individual gross (physical) body as the beginning and end of all of our experiences has severely limited Western psychology’s comprehension of the larger domain in which human experiences originate; and has greatly diminished its ability to help those in need. Regardless of the psychotherapy approach we use in our practice, we can help our clients better with their cognitive, emotional, behavioral, relational, as well as somatic and spiritual difficulties, if we know more of the following:
a) how the three layers of the individual gross body, the five layers of the individual subtle body, the dynamic collective gross and subtle bodies, and the absolute collective body of pure awareness interact with each other to generate our experiences;
b) how the individual gross and subtle bodies can get dysregulated from difficult experiences and become disconnected from each other and from the three collective bodies and become symptomatic in many ways; and
c) how to make the individual gross and subtle bodies more available, regulated, balanced, and in better relationship with each other and with the three collective bodies while we work with our clients psychologically.
The value of ISP will be demonstrated especially through topics of current clinical interest: attachment, affect regulation, stress, and trauma.
For an interview with Raja Selvam on the theory and practice of ISP in audio or transcript form, please click on: Somatic Perspectives ISP Interview
Who can benefit the most from this training?
What is taught in the training?
General principles derived from a variety of disciplines including neuroscience and quantum physics for integrating all the bodies into any psychological approach, validated empirically in multiple clinical settings and cultures.
It offers all those who work psychologically a sophisticated body of knowledge to further increase the embodiment of body, energy, and consciousness dimensions in their work without having to change their prior clinical orientations or adopt interventions outside the norms of their professional practice. The role of body, energy, and consciousness in generating or disrupting psychological experiences in general and facilitating or hampering self and interactive regulation in particular is taught through applications in areas of widespread current clinical interest: affect regulation, attachment, stress, and trauma.
ISP offers considerable flexibility and choice in the tools used, such as awareness, movement, breath, sound, imagery, inter-personal resonance, self touch, and other touch, as appropriate to the clinical setting of the trainee.
ISP Training Outline:
Training Objectives:
1. In depth understanding how different layers of the individual gross (physical) body (in particular the muscular system governed by the somatic nervous system, the viscera governed by the autonomic nervous system, and the central nervous system) are involved in generating as well as defending against different aspects of human experience. This would include presentations on the physiology of stress, trauma, affect, and attachment in each layer.
2. Understanding how different elements (metaphorically described as ether, air, fire, water, and earth) of a quantum level body called the subtle (energy) body generate as well defend against different aspects of human experience as they flow through the different energy centers to form, inform, and regulate the individual subtle body and in turn, the individual gross body.
3. Understanding how the individual gross (physical) and subtle (energy) bodies regulate each other and interact with each other in generating as well as defending against different aspects of human experience.
4. Understanding how to work with different layers of the individual gross (physical) body, different elements of the subtle (energy) body, and with the relationships between these two individual bodies in order to: a) better access, support, tolerate, make sense of, and complete aspects of human experience that underlie an individual’s current difficulties; and b) bring about greater regulation and balance in and between the two bodies to enhance physical, energetic, and psychological health, capacity, and wellbeing in the whole person.
5. Understanding and working with inter-personal resonance and its underpinnings in individual gross (physical) and subtle (energy) bodies and the three collective bodies to increase interactive regulation between therapist and client.
6. Understanding and working with the relationship between the individual gross and subtle bodies and the dynamic collective gross and subtle bodies; and the relationship between these four bodies and the absolute collective body of pure awareness that is immanent and transcendent to all four to facilitate greater healing.
7. Understanding and working with dysfunctional patterns in awareness and attitudes on individual and collective levels that thwart healing and growth in physical, energetic, psychological, and spiritual realms.
To learn what is exactly taught in each ISP training module, please click on: ISP Learning Objectives & Course Content by Module
How is the ISP training structured?
For Brazil, the ISP professional training will be taught in two six-day modules , six months apart. Normally, ISP is taught in three four-day modules over a one-year period.. The training format consists of lectures, demonstrations, practice with fellow participants, questions & answers, and directed readings. At the end, participants will receive a certificate of completion of the Integral Somatic Psychology (ISP) Professional Training.
Participants can take the first Brazil training module (Module 1) and then decide whether to commit to the second module.
About Raja Selvam PhD, PhD
Raja Selvam, PhD, is a senior trainer in Peter Levine’s Somatic Experiencing (SE) professional trauma training programs and the developer of Integral Somatic Psychology (ISP), an advanced approach for integrating body, energy, and consciousness into any psychological process, a master training for experienced clinicians. Raja’s eclectic approach draws from bodywork systems of Postural Integration, Biodynamic Cranio-Sacral Therapy, and Polarity Therapy, body psychotherapy systems of Reichian Therapy, Bioenergetics, and Bodynamic Analysis, Jungian and Archetypal psychologies, psychoanalytic schools of Object Relations and Inter-Subjectivity, Somatic Experiencing (SE), Affective Neuroscience, Quantum Physics, Yoga, and Advaita Vedanta, a philosophical tradition from India. Raja’s article on treating trauma symptoms among Indian tsunami survivors was published in Traumatology (September 2008). Jung and Consciousness, based on his clinical psychology doctoral dissertation on Advaita Vedanta and Jungian Psychology, was published in the analytical psychology journal Spring (Fall 2013). Raja teaches in the United States, England, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Turkey, Israel, Russia, India, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, mainland China, South Africa, and Brazil. He is also currently involved in increasing trauma treatment capacity among counselors working with war victims in Northern Sri Lanka and counselors working with underprivileged communities in Mumbai, India.
Brazil ISP Professional Training Dates
Module One - November 16 - 21, 2017 (Thursday to Tuesday)
Module Two - May 25 - 30, 2018 (Friday to Wednesday)
Tuition per module: 2200.00 (special discounts for assistants, coordinators and SE of Latin America)
For logistical and training information and applicant qualification* questions, please contact:
Liane Pinto - rajanobrasil2017@gmail.com
*Applicant qualifications listed above (see 'Who can benefit most from this training?')