Since 1990
Shin Somatics Program
Key Words
A field of movement study and developmental practices stemming from the Greek word —soma: the body as experienced. Somatic studies include group work, partnering processes, and gentle bodywork with individuals. At Eastwest Somatics Institute, we teach somatic dance processes for healing and well-being.
A Zen word that has several meanings:
body, mind, heart, soul, center, and tree trunk. One of the magical meanings of Shin is patience, so important in our work.
Included in all workshops
1. Somatic Yoga
Our certified teachers are trained in gentle somatic yoga, healing postures and movements that anyone can do.
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Comfort in sitting
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Balance of the body's chakras (energy system).
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Adaptive Yoga for those with special needs
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Land to Water Yoga (on infant and human development)
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Dynamics of posture
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Walking Well
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Mindfulness Meditation
2. Shin Somatics® Bodywork
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Flow Repatterning of the nervous system (whole body responses)
through movement awareness with groups and individuals
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Developmental Movement Facilitation
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Tactile/Kinaesthetic Learning (teaching through touch)
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Contact Unwinding, supportive use of Contact Improvisation
in partners, employing movement facilitation skills
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Focusing imagination and awareness in the listening body
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Yoga Restore Bodywork
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Interpersonal communication for optimal living
3. Intuitive Dance
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Dance/Art Interface
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Excavation of body memories and possible-selves
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Dance in the environment with the camera as witness.
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Depth-Movement in the studio: dance improvisations
in relation to art and non-judgmental witnessing.
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Metamorphic Dance, butoh influence
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Place Dances in Nature
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Depth-Movement Dance
Shin Somatics® Movement Therapists work with restoration and flow. We trust that the human being can attune naturally to gentle movement patterns introduced with clear intentions toward integration of the whole organism. We encourage resilience, the body's natural capacity to heal through movement. Individualized work introduces subtle flow movement patterns to clear away the clutter of the nervous system, relieving stress and trauma at a cellular level for better function of the whole body.
When butoh teacher and community activist, Harada Nobuo, saw Eastwest students using teaching through touch with each other in Japan, he said: "I see the etheric dance."
Shin Somatics® Workshops and Retreats
Two Tracks
1. Professional Certification (full tuition)
Seven Shin Somatics Certification Workshops (or 7 levels of study) are required for professional certification and graduation. Workshops are generally 5 full-days, about 7 hrs. a day, which equals 5 levels of study. Please refer to the Certification Page and Requirements Summary page for more information.
Qualify:
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Qualify for Shin Somatics® and Yoga Alliance RYT 200 (Registered Yoga Teacher) with level 5 at Eastwest and 20 hrs. of student teaching.
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Qualify for Shin Somatics® and Yoga Alliance RYT 500 with 8 levels of study at Eastwest.
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Qualify for RSMT, Registered Somatic Movement Therapist and RSME, Registered Somatic Movement Educator through ISMETA on completing 7 levels. Study teaching methods and hands-on somatic movement therapy.
2. Personal Development (1/2 tuition)
Participate in any certification workshop or retreat for personal development. Enjoy morning sessions, 2 and 1/2 hours daily for 4 days, plus fieldwork full-day,
about 16 hrs. total.
Learn:
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Movement patterns to address habit and ease pain
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Somatic yoga and its benefits for healing pain and trauma
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Simple intuitive dances for emotional support
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Effective communication skills
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Mindfulness Meditation
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Healing through nature
Track 2 does not include afternoon study of somatic bodywork or teaching methods. Students are welcome to participate, but not for certification. Track 2 students also have one fieldwork day of moving in nature.
Catherine Schaeffer, graduate and team member at Eastwest, says:
I remember our many soma dances in nature… the desert… the beach, the green fields in Tuscany… the labyrinths walked… how many of us have stepped together throughout the world, weight shifting… being earth… moving consciously.
Locations: Eastwest Workshops have been taught in Brockport, New York; New York, New York; Geneva New York; San Francisco and Santa Barbara, California; Saint George and Zion, Utah; Tokyo and Fukuoka, Japan; Tuscany, Italy; Chania, Greece; Mexico; London and East Sussex, UK; Wales; Green Gulch Zen Center in Marin California; Kalani and Honolulu, Hawaii; Auckland and Dunedin, New Zealand; Shreveport, Louisiana; Memphis, Tennessee.
Our Home is the beautiful color country of Saint George and Zion in Southwest Utah.
Workshops Formats: Certification and Personal Development Workshops are taught in several different formats. Each one is a 5-day intensive, or the equivalent — about 7and ½ hours a day for Certification, including lunch breaks, and morning and afternoon short breaks. Personal Development option is a morning program shared with certification students.
The following represent various formats we offer toward certification:
Certification Workshops
Small Group Tutorials
Travel Retreats
Home-Stay Retreats and Mentorships
Individually Designed Home Study
Photo: Painting dance experiences
Shin Somatics Theme Workshops
Dancing Down the Bones
(experiential anatomy taught in every workshop)
Dancing on Your Path
(often an environmental travel retreat)
Imagery and Myth
(focusing movement imagery in dance and bodywork)
Somatic Yoga
(applications of somatic practices to yoga)
Land to Water Yoga
(our developmental yoga, with book for home study)
Meditation in Motion
(often includes metamorphic butoh dance)
Lessons in Somatic Kinesiology
(with guidelines for home study –
walking on air can be downloaded from this site)
Intuitive Dance and Developmental Movement
(weaving the strands together)
Themes of the workshops declare emphasis areas. Each workshop covers the required methods in our training program leading to certification. These are related aspects of moving consciously that deepen over time; just as it also takes time to embody dance techniques; moving consciously takes time, and teaching others is still another step.
Advanced certification students prepare to teach and practice the three parts of our method: Somatic Yoga, Intuitive Dance, and Shin Somatics Bodywork.
Photo: Students check in and share
Frequently Asked Questions
Eastwest Shin Somatics® Certification Program and its Relationship to ISMETA — www.ismeta.org.
For Yoga Certification see certification.
Seven Shin Somatics Certification Workshops are required for graduation.
Please refer to the Requirements Summary page.
Seven levels (seven workshops) are required for graduation; this means seven 5-day workshops. 2-day tutorials count for 1/2 level of certification credit with additional homework. Students who complete the Eastwest program are eligible for certification as a Registered Somatic Movement Therapist RSMT or a Registered Somatic Movement Educator RSME through ISMETA - with a recommendation from the director. Each level costs $886 at the present time. Please study the full website, and email further questions.
People often wonder about the sequence of the workshops. Students can take any 7 workshops, and they can repeat workshops for credit as well.
Why?
Major areas of study come up in any one workshop - and each workshop covers the required material leading to certification. The workshops are multi-level The more experienced students act as mentors—even as they continue to learn along with beginning and intermediate students. One of the ways students learn Flow Repatterning and Somatic Bodywork is through having experienced practitioners work with them individually. Thus the beginners learn from the more experienced students, and eventually become mentors themselves. The advanced students focus more on teaching aspects of somatic movement patterning, developmental facilitation, and intuitive dance, as they prepare to teach this work. The model for learning is in a spiral, as basic principles and processes return, again and agin, but in ever more nuanced forms.
Our students come from many different walks of life. Several are dancers and visual artists. Many other fields are represented. Everyone has a common love of movement. One does not need previous experience in dance or movement studies to be a student of somatic movement therapy and education. We bring everyone into the Shin Somatics® processes together, and people move through the program at their own pace. Some finish in a year and a half, but most take from two to four years to finish. The process can also extend into the teaching level, which is Level eight. After this level, students who wish to extend their education with more workshops or a few workshop days, pay only $25 a day. Retreat prices are not discounted, because they include the cost of rooms and often meals.
Full time university students and those with financial need can apply for partial scholarships, which reduces the cost of tuition. In some cases, there are work-study scholarships for reduced tuition.
Please feel free to contact workshops@eastwestsomatics.com if you have further questions.