Whether I am teaching, treating or just being with someone,
my goal has always been the same: to give people themselves.
Whether I am teaching, treating or just being with someone, my goal has always been the same:
to give people themselves.
Finding your sometimes elusive self and the voice that goes with it, being comfortable in your own skin,
being present and able to connect and move others–these are challenges that inspire me and define my work.
Finding your sometimes elusive self and the voice that goes with it, being comfortable in your own skin, being present and able to connect and move others–these are challenges that inspire me and define my work.
With a targeted focus on the Core Curriculum of three trainings, Ricki makes Training in Somatic Intervention profound yet accessible. For professionals seeking to deepen and revolutionize their therapy practice, these courses delve into pieces that are missing, old or even lost. The Core Curriculum is specifically designed to educate and support you as you gain depth and mastery of somatic techniques. With lucid charismatic teaching, these core courses cover the fundamental principles of somatic psychotherapy. Through immersive and experiential learning you will expand your skill set and emerge with confidence in the application of these newfound techniques.
The Body in the Therapy Room
Do you get the sense that words can only take you so far? Are you looking to harness the latest neuroscience to your therapeutic choices in the here and now? Ricki cuts through the jargon, using a simple but elegant approach to help you hear and heal the person that you’re sitting with. If trauma is at the heart of your client’s pain, then it’s time for you to add Somatic Intervention to your skill set!
Attachment Wounds, Then and Now
Experience an attachment course unlike any other. The Old Piece uses a somatic approach to reveal relational patterns, beginning with the experience in the womb, continuing through birth and the first year of life. Ricki uses the earliest non-verbal experiences to understand bedrock communication patterns as they develop into adult relationships.
Reclaiming the Body After Abuse
For abuse survivors the body is a complicated place. While it’s obvious that the relationship to the body needs healing, just the invitation to quietly notice the body can result in flooding and dramatic overwhelm. Survivors feel betrayed by their body. In The Lost Piece, Ricki teaches you how to guide them home on the journey back to themselves.
Ricki’s ability to engage and connect with her audience, especially through zoom, is magical. You feel as if Ricki is talking directly to you! She is a master of her craft and fully embodies the material she teaches. Somatic Interventions will transform your understanding of the human experience and the portal through which healing can occur. Ricki made the process of organizing a training for my agency so simple; she was accessible, responsive, and attuned to our specific needs and culture. From start to finish, I appreciated Ricki’s professionalism, humility, and heart. Thank you!
Rivka Nissel, LCSW Director of Jewish Community Services, The Jewish Board
I was blown away by the simplicity, efficacy, & depth of SI. Ricki is a master teacher and practitioner who has an uncanny ability to fuse theory and practice into an experience that was personally and professionally life-altering. Her empathy and presence was palpable and I could hardly notice this was a Zoom training.
An incredible course! I have so many takeaways, both personal and professional, enough to keep myself busy for years.
How can I now NOT use this in my work with clients? I do not think there is any way for me to go back as a therapist. To do so would mean leaving out such an important, huge dimension, which seems so obvious now: the “voice” of the body and the sensory experience must be expressed, its story told and unlocked by way of movement and attuned-to sensation.
You have really changed my life with your tender caring, your powerful, penetrating, yet gentle and healing therapy, and your lucid, dynamic, profound and yet humble, accessible teaching, and your ability to take very complex material and give it over piece by piece with words, exercises, and demos so that by the end of the course there is an aha, now I know what attachment is, somatically, relationally and cognitively. I had that aha the next day when I had 4 quite amazing sessions with clients.
Ricki is a truly gifted teacher and clinician who embodies everything she teaches.
I know I’ve already expressed how transformative your training was for me. What I did not say, or recognize at that point, was how incredibly it will impact everything I say, do, feel and think in all aspects of my life.
Every interaction and session I’ve facilitated since then has been different… deeper… more meaningful…
Ricki is a truly gifted clinician and teacher. Her wisdom, warmth, and depth of experience made all the difference for me. *This counts as one of the best courses I have had the privilege to attend.
There are only a few teachers I have met along the way, who successfully closed the gap between theory and practice. I felt that the presence from which you taught was similar to the presence of your treatment. It was mindfulness at its best – not as an exercise but as a way of living and being with our clients.
Of all the demos I have done, this was one of the more profound- and I have never felt more safe and taken care of.
What is so compelling and transformative about Ricki and her trainings is the way she explains the material in such a digestible way. I have been taught many of the concepts before in highly respected academic environments, and never understood it thoroughly until taking this course.
Ricki’s process was nothing like any other therapy or trauma work that I’ve ever experienced. Focusing on my body sensations, as opposed to rehashing my trauma narrative, allowed me to notice and release long held tension in my body that I didn’t realize was there. My body was talking to me in ways that I could not imagine possible. Weeks later, I am still experiencing a gentler connection to my body and to my trauma story.
Ricki Bernstein is a great body-oriented psychotherapist and an excellent trainer.
Raja Selvam, PhD
Not only does Ricki bring a compassionate presence, she also brings a wealth of learning, experience, and creativity. Therapists who are fortunate enough to learn from Ricki gain tools that enhance and expand the healing potential of their clients. I enthusiastically recommend Ricki’s trainings, as it’s been my personal experience that adding somatic interventions to one’s repertoire creates the capacity for us to offer our clients ways to free themselves from burdensome patterns of being and behavior that arise from the effects of trauma.
Nancy J. Napier, LMFT
Ricki is a brilliant, caring, creative and enfolding therapist and teacher!
Marianne Bentzen
Gently and knowledgeably, Ricki Bernstein takes her students on a journey that helps them discover the wisdom of the body and how to harness it in the service of healing and transformation for those who come to us for help. Therapists who have taken Ricki’s trainings or workshops speak of her always with warmth and gratitude for the experience.
I strongly recommend Ricki’s work!
Dr. Janina Fisher
The Core Curriculum is designed to train mental health professionals and provides 26 CE credits per course for those licensed in the US. For the complete list of Admission Standards click here.
Additional Courses and many Workshops are available to all. These courses give participants a window into the power of Somatic Intervention. For a list of current offerings click here.
Create a Custom Workshop that meets the unique needs of your staff. These courses are intended for schools, workplaces, organizations, executive seminars and more. Whether your focus is success, enrichment, burnout, resilience, or team building, Ricki tailors the workshop to meet your specific needs. To get started connect with Ricki.
Rather than devise new theoretical jargon and many years of training levels, Ricki’s course creates a sense of belonging in smaller cohorts with an emphasis on simplicity and clinical application. Trainings are designed to be practical and available for immediate use in your practice – and in your life.
See what Ricki’s students have to say in testimonials.
Somatic Intervention teaches a new way of noticing the body and the self. Once you learn it, you can’t help but see things through this new lens. The intention is not to replace what you already know, but to add a powerful new way of being present. Many of the basic insights and most effective tools can be incorporated into your life and your practice immediately. That being said, repeated practice and immersion in the right brain experience only refines your skills.
If you’ve been looking for the right course to begin your somatic education, The Missing Piece is just what you need. This course provides a foundation in somatic work and is ideal for those with a background in Focusing , Mindfulness, or EMDR, or those who have listened to some somatic lectures or read a book like Waking the Tiger.
If you have already taken an in depth training (30+ hours) in another somatic modality, you may choose to take The Old Piece (Attachment Wounds) or The Lost Piece (Reclaiming the Body After Abuse), in no particular order.
Many SI students decide to retake The Missing Piece, sometimes more than once, testifying that each time it lands in a different part of their brain and deepens their work.
To keep up to date on the latest offerings enter your details here.
With a targeted focus on the Core Curriculum of three trainings, Ricki makes Training in Somatic Intervention profound yet accessible. For professionals seeking to deepen and revolutionize their therapy practice, these courses delve into pieces that are missing, old or even lost.
The Core Curriculum is specifically designed to educate and support you as you gain depth and mastery of somatic techniques. With lucid charismatic teaching, these core courses cover the fundamental principles of somatic psychotherapy. Through immersive and experiential learning you will expand your skill set and emerge with confidence in the application of these newfound techniques.
Read more and register for a Core Curriculum Course
Somatic Intervention workshops are custom created to meet the needs and the context of your workplace. Create engagement, connectivity and resilience as you elevate morale and provide your staff with lasting tools and resources with long term benefits.
With your needs in mind, our personalized staff training courses address: team building, executive and leadership skills, peer support, physical, mental and emotional resilience. Increased focus leads to more productivity, stress reduction improves company morale, honed interpersonal skills raise communication to the next level, and work-life balance makes it all possible.
We work globally, both in-person and virtually, with medical and corporate professionals, elite military and intelligence units, educators, emergency response teams and more.
Somatic Intervention can take your team to new heights.
Inquiries for private consultations with Ricki Bernstein including:
● Trauma including sexual, birth, medical and military
● Performance Anxiety & Public Speaking
● Childhood Wounds
● Sexuality and more
Somatic Intervention is a bodymind approach, designed to expand your capacity to bear whatever life hands you.
Contact us here to learn which resources are available to meet your needs.
Anytime you feel overwhelmed, or simply want to slow down and collect yourself, just pick up this soft cork toolkit. One object, one sense at a time, take a mindful pause and connect to yourself in the most natural way. Notice which object anchors or calms you, which object refreshes or makes you curious, and which object balances and settles your nervous system. Focusing on your senses simplifies so much, making you feel alive and in touch with your body-mind.
Leave Ricki a Message:
