SOMA helps restore balance to the body and mind after single traumatic events, chronic trauma, or developmental trauma.
SOMA-Embodiment® is an advanced method developed specifically for professionals in trauma treatment, based on body psychotherapy approaches and advanced healing techniques.
Through SOMA, emotional and physiological blockages can be released from the nervous system, brain, and body. The use of kinesthetic communication (Hapticity) creates a deep sensory experience that enhances body awareness and spatial orientation, encouraging the body’s systems to activate natural healing processes. The combination of touch and focused movement in this method helps patients establish self-regulation, rebuild a sense of security and healthy boundaries, and restore the body connection often damaged by trauma.
SOMA-Embodiment® provides therapists with innovative tools for focused, effective work, contributing to the ongoing improvement of patients’ lives by enhancing both their physical and emotional functioning.
About Dr. Sonia Gomez
Dr. Sonia Gomez, clinical psychologist (Ph.D.), is the founder and developer of the SOMA Embodiment – Hapticity & Movement for Emotional Regulation in Trauma Therapy. She learned directly from masters Peter Levine, Stephen Porges, and Hubert Godard, and, inspired by their teachings, developed SOMA – an innovative and effective tool for trauma work that consistently yields practical results. Sonia also holds the designations of Rolfer® and Rolfing® Movement Practitioner.
She is a senior teacher and international faculty member of the Somatic Experiencing™ (SE) professional training program and leads SE, resonance, and SOMA training in Brazil, Europe, the USA, South Africa, and Asia. With over 40 years of clinical experience, Sonia specializes in trauma, body-based psychotherapy, and psychology.
The Sources of SOMA-Embodiment®
The SOMA-Embodiment® Method draws on key influences from movement, psychology, and physiology. Among its primary sources are Ida Rolfe’s principles of structural and movement integration and Hubert Godard’s analysis of functions and movement. The method also integrates a deep understanding of the autonomic nervous system, as outlined in Stephen Porges’ polyvagal theory, along with insights from leading thinkers in attachment theory and muscle tone development, such as Henri Wallon, Donald Winnicott, and André Bollinger.
Another significant influence is James Gibson’s ecological psychology, which reconstructs the ontological understanding of human haptic perception. This concept, a crucial component of SOMA, asserts that we inherit innate sensory abilities that allow us to adapt and function in our physical environment.
The SOMA-Embodiment® method, originally developed as a theory in Dr. Sonia Gomez’s doctoral thesis, Engaging Touch & Movement in Somatic Experiencing® Trauma Resolution Approach, is now applied as a clinical practice by professionals in over 10 countries worldwide.
Imagine guiding your patients to connect with their bodies, reducing dissociation and supporting trauma recovery, leading to a more peaceful life free from chronic pain and PTSD symptoms.
SOMA offers exactly that
What Will You Gain From This Training?
Embodiment
Embodiment will help you reconnect your clients to their bodies, reducing trauma-induced dissociation. This process enables a return to body-reality when the mind has disconnected during critical or traumatic events.
Embodiment involves actively feeling and paying attention to bodily sensations in real time. By connecting to both internal and external sensations, clients can perceive themselves in the present moment and move toward self-regulation. Engaging in full-body sensing strengthens orientation, creates a sense of security, and fosters overall well-being and systemic coherence.
Through practice and skill-building during the training, you will learn to help release traumatic imprints, allowing repressed emotions and feelings to flow through the body. Ongoing work with embodiment will enable you to identify psychobiological blocks and develop strategies to restore sensorimotor coordination lost as a result of trauma.
Professionalism in Somatic Therapy
You will learn how to work with patients who have experienced complex trauma and are dealing with dissociation in their lives. In addition to understanding the core principles of somatic therapy, the course provides tools to create rapid change in the reorganization of body patterns formed by trauma.
By deepening your body awareness and embodiment as a therapist—specifically, the ability to identify and feel your body in the present moment during therapy—the training offers protocols that foster connection between the body, surrounding space, and gravity. These protocols promote stability and grounding, enhancing your presence during therapeutic interventions. Throughout the course, you will practice self-regulation techniques and learn to use resonance and intuition in your clinical work, building your confidence in guiding patients.
Hapticity in Therapy
Hapticity, or kinesthetic communication, refers to how we convey and receive information through movement, bodily sensations, and physical touch. It is a form of nonverbal communication where the body transmits messages through movements, posture, gestures, and sometimes direct physical contact. Kinesthetic sensations help us understand the world by engaging the body’s movement and sensory systems, including awareness of body position, the forces acting on it, and how we respond to environmental stimuli.
With SOMA, you can help your patients connect with the deepest layers of body sensations to facilitate profound healing, create insights, and release patterns of trauma and emotional blockages. More communication, with fewer words.
Attachment's Role in Trauma
In this course, you will explore how developmental patterns can become fixed, causing the body to adopt defensive positions. You will learn to identify early movements that manifest in emotional behaviors, indicating that the body, mind, and nervous system are stuck in a freeze response. Through lectures and therapeutic demonstrations, you will gain insight into how neural stimuli in the vagal systems (anterior and posterior), as well as the sympathetic system, affect the body, mind, and brain.
You will also learn to recognize the subtle signs resulting from these stimuli and develop the skills to intervene at the right moment using touch and movement. The goal is to change distorted sensorimotor perceptions and emotions, as well as to change repetitive behavioral patterns. You will receive tools to address intense emotions and unresolved emotional triggers, using personal attention, clear boundaries, and compassion.
The Training Program
About the Program
The SOMA-Embodiment® training program combines trauma therapy theory with modern psychological, physiological, and neuroscientific principles. It provides therapists with practical and clinical tools while emphasizing the importance of focusing on patients’ body experiences, sensations, and emotions in the present moment. Participants will observe daily demonstrations by Sonia Gomez, showcasing the method’s application in various traumatic situations, and will have opportunities to practice using the tools in small groups under the guidance of a trained and supportive teaching staff.
Eligibility for the Course
The program is designed for professionals certified in various trauma treatment methods and psycho-emotional therapies. It is also open to students who have completed at least one year of training in emotional and somatic therapy programs, such as Hakomi, Biosynthesis, SE, Body Psychotherapy, etc.
To receive full certification, participants must complete five personal sessions with certified SOMA therapists, and two professional training sessions (supervision) with certified SOMA therapists.
- Expanding the Perceptual System (Hapticity)
- Embodiment and foundational articulations
- Unlocking traumatic movement restrictions
- Restoring balance and fluency in movement and touch
- Using resonance and intuition in trauma work
- Developing awareness of pre-movement patterns, Kinesfera, Alpha and Gamma touches, territoriality, and plurisensoriality.
- Restoring the functionality of proprioceptors, interoceptors, and exteroceptors (tonic function)
- Understanding the phenomenology and neurophysiology of gravity
- Enhancing expressivity to overcome bodily inhibitions
- Addressing movement restrictions associated with symptoms and behaviors
- Tracking compensation systems in the body and increasing awareness of posture in relation to gravity, space, and time
- Balancing the autonomic nervous system, including differentiating DV, VV, and SNS responses
- Reactivating active defense responses (fight and flight) through stability and spatial orientation
- Addressing various trauma types through hapticity to support transitions from the inner to outer world, including: Pre-perinatal and birth trauma, GHIA (General High-Impact Activities), Inescapable attachment trauma, Medical procedures, Sexual and emotional trauma.
- Participating in live demonstrations and group supervision focused on different trauma types
Structure of the SOMA-Embodiment® Training
The training consists of four units of five-days each.
Each day, participants will engage in specific protocols involving therapeutic touch, movement, and follow-up exercises, with the following objectives:
- Expanding emotional and sensory perception, kinesthetic communication skills, and physical embodiment.
- Restoring physical mobility and developing the ability to observe themselves and their patients during therapy sessions.
- Releasing trauma-induced movement restrictions to restore balance in the body and emotional systems.
- Watching trauma-related demonstrations and practicing techniques in pairs.
Module 1:
Overview of Trauma and Trauma Treatment
- Foundational Research: Exploration of key contributions by leading foundational researchers:
Peter Levine (Somatic Experiencing)
Stephen Porges (Polyvagal Theory)
Dr. Ida Rolf (Structural Integration)
Hubert Godard (Tone Functions and Movement Work)
James Gibson / Grunewald (Hapticity) - Body Organization: Introduction to basic tools for organizing the body in relation to itself and its surrounding space.
- Embodiment: Reestablishing a sense of territoriality, boundaries, and security as a foundation for healing.
- Embryological Development: Understanding fetal development, spatial organization, the haptic system, and the impact of the gravitational field on the body.
- Stability and Orientation: Encouraging support, stability, and spatial orientation through touch and coordinated movement.
- Polyvagal Theory in Practice: Application of Polyvagal Theory principles to therapeutic touch and movement techniques.
- Trauma and the Body: Recognizing how trauma becomes embedded in body structure and posture, affecting emotional embodiment, interpersonal perception, and spatial orientation.
- Technique Demonstrations: Observing demonstrations of touch and movement techniques to release physical and emotional blockages.
- Practical Training: Practicing protocols to support trauma recovery and foster emotional and physical realignment.
Module 2:
Concepts and Tools of Touch and Movement – High-Impact Trauma
- Touch and Presence: Mastering the fundamentals of touch quality and therapist presence.
- Resonance and Perception: Developing sensitivity to resonance and refining touch perception.
- Body Language: Understanding static and dynamic body language in therapeutic contexts.
- Tone Functions and the Haptic System: Exploring alpha and gamma tone functions and their connection to the haptic system.
- Embodiment as a Therapeutic Tool: Using embodiment to transfer and process experiences effectively.
- Core Stability: Building and maintaining full physical stability.
- Coordination of Time, Space, and Movement: Enhancing awareness of “prepersonal space” and its role in therapy.
- Boundaries and Perception: Using boundaries to expand sensory and emotional perception.
- Inhibition vs. Restriction: Differentiating between these concepts and understanding their impact on expression and impression.
- Stimulating Mobility: Encouraging movement continuity through improved coordination, body balance, and self-expression.
- Tissue and Joint Mobilization: Techniques for mobilizing tissues and joints to reshape body movement.
- Body Patterns and Templates: Identifying, deploying, and releasing ingrained body patterns and templates.
Module 3:
Prenatal and Birth Trauma – Regulating Primitive Memories in the Body
- Creating a Healing Environment: How to establish a supportive space for effective clinical interventions.
- The Birthmark: Exploring the primitive nature of the dorsal vagus system and its impact on the body.
- Injuries and Emotions: Understanding the relationship between physical injuries and emotional responses, and their effects on the body.
- Addressing Chronic Conditions: Techniques for working with emotions when chronic injuries are present.
- Body Communication: Engaging with the nervous system, emotions, and connective tissue in therapeutic work.
- Flexibility and Adaptability: The role of these traits in developmental stages and recovery.
- Affective System Development: Strategies for fostering emotional regulation and resilience.
- GHIA: Understanding the stress response and its ongoing effects on brain structure.
- Trauma Patterns: Identifying recurring patterns in birth trauma, shock, and physical injuries.
- Developmental Movements: Introduction to foundational movements that support healing and growth.
Module 4
Integrating SOMA – Emotional and Sensory Development
- Working with Attachment and Emotional Trauma: Approaches for addressing the impacts of attachment disruptions and emotional trauma.
- Emotion and Trauma: Understanding how trauma inhibits emotional expression and feeling.
- Linking Emotions to Neural Circuits: Connecting emotions to integrative neural pathways for deeper understanding and intervention.
- Attachment and Haptic Perception: Exploring the role of sensory awareness in attachment and healing.
- Bidirectional Nervous System Function: Bottom-up and top-down processes explained through polyvagal theory.
- Core Muscle Overview: Insights into the role of core muscles in somatic regulation.
- Traumas and Complex Syndromes: Addressing intricate trauma patterns and syndromes in clinical practice.
- Role of Sensory Systems in Trauma Treatment: Understanding exteroceptors, interoceptors, and proprioceptors, and tracking emotional energy stored at three levels of nervous system organization.
- Releasing Restrictions: Techniques for removing blockages in the body and movement linked to symptoms and behaviors to restore autonomic balance.
- Integration and Wholeness: Emphasizing the principle of wholeness in trauma recovery.
- Future Orientation and Session Closure: Strategies for fostering a forward-looking perspective and effectively concluding sessions.
Full Course
Information & Registration
Cohort of 2025 – Registration now open!
An annual course consisting of four immersive study units:
Unit 1 – 26-30/10/25 – with Salvador Braga
Unit 2 – 11-15/1/26 – with Salvador Braga
Unit 3 – 17-21/5/26 – with Dr. Sonia Gomez
Unit 4 – 5-9/10/26 – with Dr. Sonia Gomez
For registration and additional details, please fill out the form.
- Please note that the course includes therapeutic touch practice on a treatment table.
- The course is conducted in English with simultaneous translation into Hebrew.