Dates: Dates for 2023 - 2024 to be announced
Platform: Online via Zoom
CEs: 18 CEs available for Social Workers. Attendance at all sessions required to receive CE credits.
Session 1: Grounding Theory & Exercises: Bioenergetic “Home Base”
Led by Leslie Ann Costello, PhD, bioenergetic therapist, trainer, & author of Somatic Tools for Perinatal Therapists & Adela Gorodzinsky, MEd, bioenergetic therapist & trainer.
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 the Qi! Breathe more fully!
Led by Carol Melnick, MSW, bioenergetic therapist & EMDR specialist & Adela Gorodzinsky, MEd, bioenergetic therapist & trainer.
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 Adela Gorodzinsky, MEd, bioenergetic therapist & trainer.
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: The Motion of Emotions
Led by Terry Hunt, EdD, bioenergetic therapist & trainer & Adela Gorodzinsky, MEd, bioenergetic therapist & trainer.
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 & Adela Gorodzinsky, MEd, bioenergetic therapist & trainer.
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 Susan Kanor, MA, bioenergetic therapist, IIBA International Trainer, Stephanie Shelley, LICSW, bioenergetic therapist & attachment specialist & Adela Gorodzinsky, MEd, bioenergetic therapist & trainer.
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.
“The Bio Basics program was like no other program I have experienced from an intellectual, clinical and practical standpoint. Each session was complete in that, you learned some of the theory and background behind a topic for your intellectual satisfaction, the process or skill was then explained, and you got to apply it through actual exercises and put it to the test all in one go. From my experience this rarely happens in workshops. In most workshops one sits and gets but not this one. It was transformative on all levels, intellectual, physical and experiential and even on a spiritual level for me.” Merryl N.
“Highly, highly recommended. I loved every single session and the learning, take ways and practices.” Susan C.
“This workshop really gave me a new perspective on how to pay attention and learn from my own body as well as having more compassion for others and their experiences in their bodies. Each topic was very thoughtful and evidenced based and meeting new people with similar interests was very rewarding. All facilitators were amazing!” Hadley K.
“I have never been in a zoom workshop that felt so supportive and patient! I really appreciate the flow of our conversation and easing into things at the beginning of our workshops. Really great demonstration of living out the values of bioenergetics and the body.” Marybeth L.
“I truly benefited from the movement in that we engaged at the beginning of each day. I found it beneficial personally as well as professionally. Throughout the training, I was very mindful of how I could incorporate bioenergetics in my work with clients.” Frank V.
“I especially gained useful information in the boundary workshop with Adela. As almost all of my clients have a trauma history, these activities are helpful. Additionally, our final workshop on character structure I found quite informative. It was a wonderful gift to have such a small group of authentic women led by Carol. I felt we were genuinely connected despite being on zoom. It was a pleasure for me to be part of this group.” Jane R.
$425 early registration by Oct, 30; $450 after Oct. 30
Canadians – Fee: $525 CAD early registration by Oct 30; $580 after that. Payment via Interac e-Transfer to [email protected]
Partial scholarships available based on financial need.
Refund available minus $25 administrative fee before Oct 30. No refunds after Oct. 30.
