The body keeps its score – but we are not counting
After a year and a half of war and ongoing, repeated exposure to trauma—alongside hundreds of individual therapy sessions and group treatments—we have identified a set of physical and psychological symptoms that significantly hinder behavioural therapy. These symptoms call for a therapeutic approach that places the body at the centre of care.
- Difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, and waking up
- Hypervigilance, tension, and restlessness in the limbs
- Daytime exhaustion and nighttime hyper-alertness
- Persistent threat monitoring
- Irritability, outbursts of anger, and frequent mood swings
- Depression, anxiety attacks, and avoidance
- Loss of healthy appetite and/or emotional eating
- Difficulty concentrating, memory lapses and social avoidance
What is Somatic Integration?
Somatic Integration is a therapeutic approach that combines both theoretical knowledge and practical intervention techniques. It is designed to create a safe and supportive space for both the client and the therapist, enabling the exploration of complex and traumatic content within the client’s past experiences, gradually and relatively quickly. The goal is to facilitate reconnection with the client’s inner resources, restore boundaries, establish a safe internal space, process trauma, and help the client re-engage in interpersonal relationships, communication, and daily functioning.
Somatic therapy takes a different approach than cognitive-behavioural methods, focusing on treatment progression from the body upward (Bottom-Up). This means therapy begins with the client’s physical responses, gradually expanding their sensory and emotional awareness, while connecting to cognition and behaviour. The body and its communication serve as central elements in the therapeutic process. Without the body being ready or able to process the experience, it’s not possible to deepen the somatic healing process, since the body serves as both a physiological and emotional platform for experiencing the physical and social reality. In other respects, somatic therapy is similar to other therapeutic methods.
Somatic Integration draws inspiration from various somatic psychotherapies, including Somatic Experiencing (SE), Psychomotor Somatic Psychology, Polyvagal Theory therapeutic applications, Formative Psychology, breathwork techniques, and more.
These methods offer practical, effective tools for working with symptoms of hyperarousal and anxiety, completing defensive responses, regulating sensory and emotional states whilst returning to the personal window of tolerance, reframing traumatic memories, understanding and tracking the body’s responses, linking the physiology of trauma to the therapeutic process, and more.
Applying these tools will accelerate the patient’s sense of well-being and enhance the effectiveness of all treatment methods in your therapeutic toolkit, fostering healing at a deep and holistic level.
Outline of the Training
The training consists of six Zoom sessions, each lasting four and a half hours, held weekly (totaling 36 academic hours).
Each session includes: a lecture, a demonstration (Demo) by the course instructor showing how the technique is applied, and hands-on practice of the techniques in small groups.
Upon completing the educational portion of the training, there will be three supervision sessions via Zoom (highly recommended), held every week. Each supervision session is 1/5 hours, in small group of up to six therapists (totaling 6 academic hours).
During these sessions, participants will bring real-life cases and dilemmas related to the clinical application of the techniques learned. Additionally, based on participants’ needs, in-depth discussions will be facilitated on topics arising from clinical practice.
At the end of the training, and after attending at least 85% of the sessions, participants will receive a certificate of completion.
The Somatic Language of Experience
Using the “Triune Brain” metaphor to introduce a unique language that acknowledges the three layers of subjective experience—sensations, emotions, and thoughts. Developing awareness and tools to build a somatic language that accurately describes experience at the physiological level.
Somato-sensory Regulation
An introduction to the nervous system’s structure and the pathways for somato-sensory afferent and efferent information flow. Participants will learn how to apply the principles of pendulation and organic titration from Somatic Experiencing (SE) to regulate somato-sensory information and balance the nervous system.
Startle Response and Orientation
Polyvagal Theory and the continuum of the Startle Response. Emphasis is placed on conscious expansion of the orientation field, shifting from Defensive Orienting to Explorative Orienting, thus cultivating a safe experience within connection, proactively preventing autonomic defence responses and symptoms of hyperarousal.
Completing Autonomic Stress Defense Responses
Interventions focused on voluntary movement within a safe space to complete autonomic defence responses (fight or flight) following stressful events. This includes understanding the dynamics of stress hormones, incomplete survival energy, and the process of releasing the body from freeze states.
The Somatic Compass
A model for consciously navigating emotional and physical responses following prolonged exposure to traumatic events. This approach enhances awareness of self-regulation techniques and facilitates a shift towards safety and connection.
Emotional Regulation
Integrating emotions – a fundamental protocol for embodying emotions within the ISP approach. Participants will learn and practice locating emotions in the body, expanding them, integrating, and regulating them to anchor and enhance the emotional experience.
“Survival” Responses within Relationships
The “Body Knote Model” from the Bodynamic approach – exploring and practicing the eight stages of encoding experience within relationships. Emphasizing somatic focus and shifting from mutual regulation driven responses (attachment defence mechanisms) to emotional and somatic self awareness and responses in relationships based on self-regulation.
About the Course Developer and Instructor
Vitaly Vainblat, co-founder of Somatica, is a somatic psychotherapist specializing in trauma and a group facilitator. With an entrepreneurial spirit, he develops content and tools to enhance personal and group resilience. He specializes in sensory and emotional regulation, as well as managing anxiety and trauma. Vitaly works as a therapist, mentor, and trainer in somatic therapy.
Since the beginning of Iron Swords war, he works as a therapist in Hosen Eshkol, facilitating group sessions for reserve soldiers in the “Shavim” project. He collaborates with the Paratroopers Brigade (IDF), works with IDF veterans with PTSD, where he implements the “Somatic Compass” model for combat soldiers. Vitaly also sees clients in his private clinic in Pardes Hanna.
Therapists share their experiences
How did the course meet your expectations?
In trauma therapy, the body and bodily sensations play a central role. Various techniques can be used to work with this, and even in EMDR, I place significant emphasis on bodily sensations. The course greatly contributed to my sense of security, encouraging me to engage more deeply and address challenging issues. The theoretical explanations were excellent and helped me reconnect with topics I had learned but had not used recently, such as working with the vagus nerve. The practical component was also wonderfully structured. The group exercises, the demo that Vitaly demonstrated, and the subsequent work with different protocols provided me with practical tools for everyday implementation. I also shared my successes with these tools in the clinic during the group sessions.
The course offered a well-balanced mix of theoretical content and practical experience. The experiential exercises always followed Vitaly’s demonstration with one of the participants.
The integration of theory and practice was highly effective.
I gained a deep understanding of the somatic field and received practical tools to apply in my therapeutic work.
The course met my expectations, and I am now actively applying the approach in my clinic. It is practical and effective. I was exposed to a whole new world—something I was missing in trauma therapy and lacked knowledge about.
It provided a foundational understanding of the physiological aspects of the mind—what happens in the body—and how trauma is stored within it. Most importantly, it gave me practical tools for integrating the body into therapy. This is crucial for trauma situations and relevant to any therapist working with emotional content, not only trauma. It is particularly important in times when words fail, and the body communicates.
Which tools and techniques are you already using after the course?
In working with clients, I use the practice Pendulation and Titration.
Completing movements and much more use of somatic anchoring in the body as a way to start a therapeutic session and derive new insights from there.
Focusing on emotions, focusing on sensations, breathing through the diaphragm, Pendulation, and more… Just the phrase ‘Imagine you have all the time in the world’ is priceless! It opens up, allows, expands, and soothes!!!
I practice with half of my clients.
I do exercises we learned, giving a lot of attention to the body with explanations.
Using somatic tools to release trapped energy in the body.
Thank you so much, Vitaly! I didn’t expect to apply it so quickly. It’s amazing to discover how relevant and powerful the connection between body and mind is and the impact it has.
Three reasons why I would recommend this course to colleagues:
A complementary channel for therapy – Learning how to work with a client somatically is valuable, especially when some clients have difficulty expressing themselves verbally. This channel can help reach their hearts in a different way.
Excellent structuring of the material. The course provided practical experience, both as a therapist and as a client, ensuring that the content was not just theoretical. It created a wonderful way to build enriching connections with other therapists.
The course offered us practical tools to enhance our therapeutic work, especially in resilience building, highly effective for our therapeutic work in Eshkol region.
Addressing the body as both a trauma focal point and a means for relief – The course provided hands-on learning and connected to current field-specific needs.
Somatic work as an additional tool in therapy, expanding our ability to work with various clients through somatic techniques.
Practical exercises, somatic understanding, and a wonderful instructor – The practical exercises, along with developing somatic understanding, allow us to provide more effective explanations to clients and show greater attentiveness.
A practical tool for immediate use in therapy – this course strengthens our use of tools such as SEE FAR CBT and enhances the client’s sense of capability.
Practical, supportive instructor, and non-stressful learning process – The guidance provided was calm, encouraging, and reassuring, making the learning process stress-free.
First and foremost, the body is always with us, and it’s a tool that can be enhanced and diversified for therapeutic use. The course also connects us to the emotional and sensory layer, allowing us to work with clients in a practical, “here and now” way. Even if the changes aren’t dramatic, there’s a noticeable improvement in their general well-being, which can be continued outside of the sessions through techniques like relaxation. This offers clients empowerment, self-control, improved self-esteem, and fosters hope, optimism, and self-compassion.
The course provided great personal benefit for me as a therapist. In this safe space, I was able to address personal issues, and in each session, I experienced relief from the burden I’ve been carrying lately as a therapist.
Course Details
Limited to 18 participants.
Schedule: Wednesdays, 9:00 AM – 1:30 PM
May 14, May 21, May 28, June 4, June 11, June 18
Course Fee: 2,500 ILS
Supervision Groups:
Dates: Wednesdays – June 25, July 2, July 9
Available time slots (to be scheduled during the course):
- 9:30 AM – 10:30 AM
- 10:45 AM – 12:15 PM
- 12:30 PM – 2:00 PM
Supervision Fee (3 Zoom sessions, once a week, 1.5 hours each): 600 ILS
Discount:
Participants who pay for the supervision sessions at the time of course registration will receive a discounted rate of 450 ILS instead of 600 ILS.