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Why get Certified in Shin Somatics®?

  • ​Enhance your skills as a therapist, performer, teacher or athlete.

  • Release self-defeating habits of movement and mind.

  • Discover joyful healing dances in moving with nature.

  • Help people discover the healing power of mindful movement.

  • Learn how to design and teach simple Core Movement Patterning lessons

  • Learn how to relieve pain, relax tension, and improve performance.

  • Translate your talent and creativity into hands-on therapeutic bodywork. 

  • Become a registered Shin Somatics® hands-on therapist or teacher

  • Become certified to teach Shin Somatics® Land to Water Yoga

  • Become a registered yoga teacher through Eastwest and Yoga Alliance, RYT 200/500

    Eastwest Workshops feature SHIN SOMATICS® LAND TO WATER YOGA

    Shin is Centeredness in Japanese, also Heart, Core, Body, Mind, Spirit, Tree Trunk.            Shin Shin Ichinyo: Body and Mind are One is the Eastwest Logo Calligraphy

Land to Water Yoga in the Water

Scroll down for Somatics Certification

Yoga Sphinx, Pre-Crawl Infant Development

Shin Somatics® Certificate Programs

Eastwest Certification 

with Registration through ISMETA or YA

REQUIREMENTS

Become Certified with 7 levels of Workshop Study, equal to 500 hours, or 5 levels of Workshop Study equal to 250 hours. Certify through an individually designed program that includes independent study. Choose any five or seven workshops toward certification. Workshops may be taken in any order through advisement. See also individually designed programs. Many workshops are offered online.

Each level of workshop study represents 36 contact hours and 26 reading and home study hours for a total of 62. The workshops are multilevel. More experienced students in the workshops become mentors while continuing to advance in the shin somatics techniques and processes that provide the core of the program.

Background courses are prerequisite to the program, but may be taken concurrently with study at Eastwest. These may be college or professional courses. Some are available at Eastwest, and some may be undertaken through home study.

The 7 level program toward certification is designed for people who already have experience in some form of therapy, dance, bodywork, yoga, psychology, communications, leadership and group dynamics, sports and movement education, or music and theater, as shown in background courses below.

  • Eastwest Somatics is an approved school of the International Movement Education and Therapy Association (ISMETA

  • Graduates of Eastwest at Level 7 qualify for the designation Registered Somatic Movement Therapist RSMT and Registered Somatic Movement Educator RSME through ISMETA.

  • Graduates of Eastwest qualify for RYT 200 and RYT 500. Registered Yoga Teacher through Yoga Alliance.

Movement Science (required prerequisite or equivalent)   

Movement Function: Creativity (required prerequisite)  

Shin Somatics Level I workshop & independent study     

Shin Somatics Level II workshop & independent study    

Shin Somatics Level III workshop & independent study   

Shin Somatics Level IV workshop & independent study   

Shin Somatics Level V workshop & independent study    

Shin Somatics Level VI workshop & independent study   

Shin Somatics Level VII workshop & independent study  

Case Study   


 

Three courses from the following subjects:

dance, sports, ecology, or movement education; theater and music, psychology, philosophy, world religions. Not for certification credit.

 

Required Prerequisites, defined below.

*Note: Transfer Credit accepted. Independent Study accepted.

Apply to receive transfer credit, independent study credit, professional and  life experience credit for background courses.

 

Movement Science: Required Prerequisite

 

Select from: Anatomy, Physiology, Biology, Kinesiology, Dance Science, Sport Science, Movement Analysis

 

Prerequsites are included in the certification and may be completed before or during the training. Experiential Anatomy and Kinesiology are offered at Eastwest. Transfer credit accepted.

 

Functional Movement: Creativity and Therapy Required Prerequisites, select three emphasis courses  from below according to interest and talent.

Aesthetics of Movement and Touch

Authentic Movement

Contact Improvisation

Choreography and Somatics

Dynamics of Walking and Running

Functional Movement and Iliopsoas Integration

Somatics in the Classroom (Dance, Music, Sports)

Yoga, Meditation, and Movement Integration

Arts Therapies (Dance, Music, or Theater)

Topics of Performance (Arts or Sports)

Dance, Music, or Theater Improvisation

Arts for Children

Three courses are included in the certification total hours, and may be completed before or during the Eastwest training. Students lacking in this background may take extra Eastwest Workshops to fulfill this requirement.

 

Note: Most of these courses are offered at Eastwest in small groups and regularly scheduled workshops, or in college and university courses in the arts.

Butoh, Surrounding Container

Tuition

Each level of study costs $886. Since Covid the price has dropped to $786. Save an extra $100 with Early Bird registration. Certification Retreats are priced separately. Partial scholarships are available through application. These are reserved for full-time university students. A limited number of work-study partial scholarships are also available through application. 

Shin Somatics® Professional Certification through Individual Design 

 

Description

The Shin Somatics® Certificate Program offers a certificate of completion in variety of professional fields through individual contract. Students in this program are able to study somatics in relation to their expertise and interests and to include independent study. This program also offers the opportunity to study in your location of choice with registered somatic therapists and educators—certified through Eastwest Somatics Institute. All teachers in this program are also registered through ISMETA, International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association.

 

Some fields of study are listed below along with the requirements for the Shin Somatics® Graduate Certificate and the Shin Somatics® Associate Certificate. Directed courses of study in related fields may also be arranged through application and designed with specific goals in mind. Independent study is designed through contract with Eastwest Somatics Institute. Certificate students may also fulfill requirements through participating in Shin Somatics® Workshops offered through Eastwest Somatics Institute. Programs may be designed to include workshops, independent study, and private or small group tutorials.

 

The program is intended for candidates who are active in their professions as teachers, advanced students, dancers, creative arts specialists, movement specialists, therapists, communication and leadership specialists, or bodywork practitioners. Upon completion of the certificate program, candidates will receive associate certificates, or graduate certificates. Associate certificates are based on fewer hours and apply to those who take the program for personal growth or further development in their field. Those who complete the full program and achieve graduate certificates are eligible to apply to ISMETA for the designation of Registered Somatic Movement Therapist (rsmt), or Registered Somatic Movement Educator (rsme).

 

Earning Credits

Credit for each course taken through independent study or private tutorial is based on demonstration of competency and completion of reading/writing assignments and/or reports of practicum hours. Credit for workshop participation is given at the end of the workshop. A final case study is required for the graduate certificate. On completion of all coursework and homework, the candidate is awarded a Shin Somatics® Certificate that designates their field of specialization and their associate or graduate status. Those seeking a certificate to teach Shin Somatics® Land to Water Yoga can design an associate certificate for that purpose with the help of an Eastwest Somatics designated instructor.

 

Benefits

The Shin Somatics® Certificate Program meets the needs of teachers, dancers, artists, movement specialists, counselors, and communications professionals seeking to integrate somatic education processes and principles with their related interests and professions. Course work can be completed within a time frame and at a pace suitable to the candidate.

 

Requirements

Students complete the required courses at their own pace, but within a three to six year time period. For each workshop, independent study, private or small group tutorial, active participation is required. If students take professional courses outside of the Eastwest Somatics Institute they wish to integrate with the certificate program, they can apply to receive approval to include such courses. Students may receive credit for two such courses upon approval and as they apply to their field of study. The student needs to demonstrate ongoing integration of somatic studies in their chosen field, and also needs to complete all written work, as well as the final case study for the graduate certificate.

 

Contract of Study

Students draw up a contract of study with the director of Eastwest Somatics, or with a designated teacher who will follow through with them in setting up the required study. The designated teacher may also be the instructor for some or all of the tutorials and independent study. The contract of study should equal 4 levels of workshop study though Eastwest for the Associate Certificate, or be the equivalent of 7 levels of workshop study for the Graduate Certificate. The Shin Somatics® Associate Certificate is based on 4 levels of study including the prerequisites. Certification to teach Shin Somatics® Land to Water Yoga requires 5 levels of study and a competency exit exam. The Shin Somatics® Graduate Certificate is based on the summary of requirements listed below and includes 7 levels of study plus the prerequisites. Prerequisites may be college courses in subjects listed below, or others that apply. They may also be taken concurrently with study at Eastwest, and some are offered at Eastwest. Students wishing to complete 8 levels of study may earn a Teaching Certificate.

 

Students in any of the above Shin Somatics Certificate tracks should take at least 2 Eastwest workshops where they participate with others in the learning process. It is recommended that these workshops be taken first, before independent study or tutorial study is undertaken.

 

Tuition Students register for courses as included in their contract of study with Eastwest Somatics Institute, and pay the course tuition through Eastwest. Registration information is listed on the Eastwest website: www.eastwestsomatics.com. See the registration page. All other books are purchased separately. Each level of Shin Somatics Study is $886, now discounted $100. Designated teachers for independent study, private or small group tutorials are paid through Eastwest. Full time students may apply for partial scholarships or fee reductions. Payment distribution over agreed upon time periods is also possible. Retreats are priced separately.

 

Application Process: Apply through email to workshops@eastwestsomatics.com. Send a one-page statement of your goals and a short biography. A one-page recommendation from someone who is acquainted with your professional goals and educational background is also required.

 

Suggested Topics for Independent Study Papers (10 pages double-spaced)

Defining the field of somatics; Structure and rewards of autotelic activities; Practice as research; Designing a case study; Ethics in somatics; Somatics and aesthetics; Teaching dance technique in relation to somatics; Contact improvisation somatically designed; Choreography and somatics; Improvisatory paintings of dance experiences; Somatics in children's dance classes; Cultural bodies and the somatic structures of identity; Enjoying work; Dance and the experience of flow; Transcendence of ego-boundaries in somatic experience; Dance and the performative self; Therapeutic aspects of performance; Self-perception and personal development; Political bodies and somatic theory; Somatic movement re-patterning with victims of trauma; Environmental settings for somatic explorations; Common features of butoh and somatics; Philosophy of the body and somatic theory; Phenomenology of somatics; Modes of breath work; Repatterning in music and somatics; Music therapy and somatics; Effective communication and somatic processes; Somatics applied to group dynamics and leadership; Applications of somatics in social work and counseling; Somatic studies and developmental movement in infants; The embodied brain; Relationships between somatics and neurobiology; Applied anatomy in yoga and bodywork.

Sondra Fraleigh in Snow Canyon Butoh
Eastwest Somatics, Mexico Students

  our students in Mexico

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