Somatic Intervention
Training with Ricki Bernstein
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About Ricki
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 able to connect and move others–these are challenges I love to meet. I find them deeply meaningful, even inspiring.
After a decade of counseling high school students in New York and teaching English at Columbia University, I was psychodynamically trained and licensed as a Clinical Social Worker in New York State. Once I moved to Jerusalem and began working with trauma, I realized that talk therapy and insight–no matter how compelling–were not enough. I needed more tools than just words and personal connection.
I trained in EMDR, Somatic Experiencing, Brainspotting, Mindfulness, and Focusing, all of which taught me the wonders of inhabiting the body. I studied Affective Neuroscience and Attachment Theory, curious to understand whatever I need to know about the brain in order to help people change their patterns, connect to others and grow in their capacity to tolerate stress. Recently I have added Integral Somatic Psychology (ISP) and AEDP to my toolbox; I am delighted to add these powerful ways of working with emotion.
I have been a psychotherapist for over 30 years, teaching, supervising and practicing somatic psychotherapy. I have a BA in English and Psychology from CUNY (Phi Beta Kappa), an MA and MPhil in English from Columbia University, and an MSW from the Hunter College School of Social Work in NYC. I have seven years of training in classical homeopathy.
I am moved by the trust people have placed in me over my long career. They might unveil a speech they wish they could speak, or a feeling they can hardly bear to own, a memory which haunts and hurts them still, or a part of their job which intimidates them. Admiring their courage in searching for themselves and revealing their vulnerability, I am humbled by the risk people take in opening up to me.
About Ricki
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 able to connect and move others–these are challenges I love to meet. I find them deeply meaningful, even inspiring.
After a decade of counseling high school students in New York and teaching English at Columbia University, I was psychodynamically trained and licensed as a Clinical Social Worker in New York State. Once I moved to Jerusalem and began working with trauma, I realized that talk therapy and insight–no matter how compelling–were not enough. I needed more tools than just words and personal connection.
I trained in EMDR, Somatic Experiencing, Brainspotting, Mindfulness, and Focusing, all of which taught me the wonders of inhabiting the body. I studied Affective Neuroscience and Attachment Theory, curious to understand whatever I need to know about the brain in order to help people change their patterns, connect to others and grow in their capacity to tolerate stress. Recently I have added Integral Somatic Psychology (ISP) and AEDP to my toolbox; I am delighted to add these powerful ways of working with emotion.
I have been a psychotherapist for over 30 years, teaching, supervising and practicing somatic psychotherapy. I have a BA in English and Psychology from CUNY (Phi Beta Kappa), an MA and MPhil in English from Columbia University, and an MSW from the Hunter College School of Social Work in NYC. I have seven years of training in classical homeopathy.
I am moved by the trust people have placed in me over my long career. They might unveil a speech they wish they could speak, or a feeling they can hardly bear to own, a memory which haunts and hurts them still, or a part of their job which intimidates them. Admiring their courage in searching for themselves and revealing their vulnerability, I am humbled by the risk people take in opening up to me.
About Somatic Intervention
Somatic, from the Greek word soma (=body), refers to something that is ‘of the body’. Intervention means to come between, interrupt. An intervention is an action taken to improve a situation, to change its course. Somatic Intervention uses body awareness to accomplish this goal.
Somatic Intervention is a technique which allows you to sense and interrupt habitual patterns (like anxiety, anger, stress or fear), discharge the bodily tension and associated memories, and move forward in a calmer and more centered way.
Somatic Intervention teaches you a new language. Instead of simply listening to the narrative of the person in front of you, you also learn to track posture, gaze, facial expression, muscle tension, breath, vitality, movement and internal sensation. This moment-to-moment physical awareness of another opens up a new realm of communication. This type of interaction existed in our early attachment years, before we could voice what was happening inside us. Somatic Intervention reminds our body/brain of the non-verbal language that we stopped noticing once we began to focus on words. Noticing it now, in the present moment, generates a fine attunement, a sense of being truly seen, which can be deeply gratifying and healing.
It is this attunement to the body that creates the opportunity for neuroplastic change, actually rewiring the brain. Most people are used to speaking their story, hoping that others will listen. With Somatic Intervention, the narrative is often interrupted, habit is broken, and their attention is shifted to their internal experience instead. Time slows down naturally when you go inside yourself or when you track another person’s inner journey. And this extra time, coupled with awareness, is the antidote to trauma. Intervening through the body enables you to sense your self in a way that often feels new, fresh, even revelatory .
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