Teaching Somatic Skills to Support Client’s Healthy Sleep

Teaching Somatic Skills to Support Client’s Healthy Sleep

Research shows that regular practice of nervous system down-regulation skills can improve the quality and duration of sleep.

The purpose of this experiential training is threefold: 1) to offer therapists a variety of easy to adopt, evidence-based, somatic skills to teach clients who suffer from sleep issues;  2) to assist therapists in skillfully integrating these skills into their work with clients and 3) to offer a psycho-educational context regarding the importance of healthy sleep and healthy sleep habits that therapists can draw upon.

The presenter will offer an overview of the evidence for somatic practices for sleep, ample experiential practices including gentle qigong movements, breath and meditation, and brief opportunities to practice teach the skills with other participants.

Learning Objectives: 

By the end of the course participants will be able to:

• Explain how the Autonomic Nervous System and general health is affected by a insufficient healthy sleep
• Describe the physiological mechanism by which specific mind-body techniques can improve healthy sleep in a way that is accessible to clients
• Skillfully practice and teach several simple, evidence-based breathing and guided meditation exercises to enhance sleep
• Use effective language in introducing movement, breathing and meditation techniques in the therapy office setting
• Practice key principles when teaching somatic practices to ensure the approach is  trauma-sensitive

Participants Will Receive:

• Scripts for guiding trauma-sensitive breath and meditation exercises
• Recorded trauma-sensitive breath, qigong movement and guided meditation exercises that can be used with clients

Appropriate for therapists and health professionals of all backgrounds, wishing to integrate more somatic skills into their practice.