Learn to Support clients in Healing

complex & developmental trauma directly through the nervous system 

Origins of the Protocol

Eric Wolterstorff’s approach emerged from his studies with Peter Levine, integrating somatic theory with hands-on clinical practice. He refined the method by combining meditative awareness with nervous system tracking, discovering that certain defense responses could be completed and strengthened through intentional focus and repetition. 

He also drew from memory science — distinguishing between semantic, procedural, and episodic memory — to tailor techniques that work with each type in the context of trauma recovery.

A Nervous System Roadmap

Developed by Eric Wolterstorff, Ph.D. out of the work of Peter Levine, Ph.D., the Autonomic Nervous System map is a powerful tool for clinicians and clients. It is a guide to understanding the symptoms of trauma as highly adaptive survival responses, and a roadmap for how the body and nervous system can naturally resolve traumatic wounding.

State 0: Calm, regulated, alert
State 1: Mild stress – tension, irritability, unease
State 2: High stress – panic, anger, fight/flight
State 3: Dual state – anxiety plus collapse, exhaustion
State 4: Disconnection – numbness, flat affect, dissociation

Why Somatics?

Stress and trauma live in the body. They bypass cognition and settle deep into the unconscious — the autonomic nervous system, which governs survival, safety, and connection.

Everyone has the same basic wiring, but our responses to threat — whether fight, flight, freeze, or dissociation — can become stuck. This approach offers tools to recalibrate those automatic responses and help reshape the narratives and symptoms built around them.

Unlike talk therapy, somatic work begins from the body up, working directly with physiology to support psychological change.

What will the training involve?

• Intimate (16 participants max.), participant-focused, hybrid remote e-learning (24 hours) and in-person intensive (37.5 hours) training.
• Extensive learning and practice working with stressed, traumatic, & dissociative symptoms and states.
• An introduction to parts work and transferential roles in working with complex trauma.
• An introduction to physical touch as a therapeutic intervention in working with trauma.
• Addresses the when, the how, and the ethics of using psychedelics in therapy.
• Addresses the when, the how, and the ethics of using psychedelics for trauma resolution.
• How to assess client fitness and readiness for trauma processing and psychedelic-assisted work.
• Understanding of various psychedelic substances and considerations for possible use.
• An amazing opportunity for personal and professional growth!

This training is for anyone in the healing professions who works directly with individuals and wants to deepen their skills and knowledge for processing trauma through the body. However, the course is designed with counselors, psychotherapists, and those similarly trained in mind. We recommend foundational understandings of psychotherapy and highly recommend direct experience in the field working with trauma, as this training addresses advanced topics and complex issues in healing work.

A perfect fit candidate is someone with counseling/therapy training (masters level, doctoral, coaches with significant training and experience) who also has experience in the field and a high interest in trauma work. No amount of experience is too much—we welcome seasoned practitioners!!

There are also a variety of non-psychotherapy professionals who may well benefit and directly apply skills taught (e.g. doctors, certain types of bodyworkers, yoga therapists). We leave it to each practitioner to understand and operate within their scope of practice. We also accept counseling/therapy students who are at the end of their studies and have engaged in at least some clinical work (i.e. practicum or internship).

We've found that this training can be a lot for someone right at the start of their practice. A huge benefit, but not requisite, is for someone to have engaged on some level in their own personal process and healing work. This training asks trainees to reflect on their own experiences, track their nervous system responses, and even act in the role of “client” at times in practice trades.

If you have any questions about whether this training is a fit, please let us know in your application.

SE is probably the closest cousin to the Trauma Integration Protocol (TIP). Erictrained and worked under Peter Levine, the founder of SE, and so TIP actually was developed out of Eric’s experience with SE. Eric has said that one of his goals in developing TIP was to make the work more accessible and efficient. A full SE training runs 8 modules, 3 levels, over multiple years, so in that way TIP cannot compare to a certain depth or breadth in what can be covered. Neither Parad nor Trevor are SE trained, though they know a fair number of folks who are. Their sense of 3 big differences:

1) Where SE teaches “pendulation” between resource and stress/trauma states, TIP teaches that under the right conditions pendulation can be released and one can safely access stress/trauma “waves” in their nervous system

2) Trevor and Parad believe that TIP has a more inclusive and nuanced way of working with dissociation. Most trauma models shy away to some extent from working directly with dissociative states, generally resourcing or pendulating out of them. TIP has a strong focus on working directly with dissociative mechanisms and states. This aspect may be the most unique and powerful piece of the whole model.

3) Eric simplified Peter Levine’s nervous system map into a very digestible and handy tool for clinicians and clients to conceptualize the work.

EMDR and TIP are both trauma-processing modalities, and so have some inherent similarities, but overall Trevor and Parad find them to be quite a bit different in how they operate and how they orient the client. They're both EMDR trained, and draw frequently on some aspects that EMDR seems to do very well (e.g. locating targets via “floatback” technique), however neither of them uses EMDR as a primary modality. A few differences:

1) EMDR is not necessarily oriented to the body in processing trauma, depending of course on the practitioner or EMDR training that was received. Our trainings were in somatically-oriented EMDR, but even in that we’d say it was still not a “body first” system. They are biased for a number of reasons towards more bottom-up (body & autonomic nervous system) approaches.

2) Trauma Integration Protocol is more directive and interactional between therapist and client. This means that the therapist’s reads and prompts are more a part of the process, and also that transference is more likely to occur.

3) EMDR generally keeps clients away and out of dissociative responses. TIP teaches clients to track, stay with, and re-associate within dissociative states.

4) Parad and Trevor have both found when working with clients who have done a lot of EMDR, that at times there are EMDR habits (namely a particular way of staying highly regulated) that actually have to be re-trained.

Yes!

2/3’s of the training or more would be highly relevant to a practitioner who has no interest in psychedelic-assisted work. The Trauma Integration Protocol was not created with psychedelics in mind, and Trevor and Parad teach that core model as it is prior to discussing modifications for integration with substances. Similarly, nearly all other content orients to working with trauma first, psychedelics second. Our client work is both with and without psychedelics, using the same knowledge base and techniques as the foundation either way.

• Attendance at all of the remote sessions is strongly recommended. The protocol in this training builds on itself, and it can be difficult to build competency if important elements are missed. 
• Attendance for the entirety of the in-person portion of the training is strongly recommended. This cohort model necessitates the connection between participants, and the safety built together in this container.
• If you need to miss any time, please speak directly to the trainers so adjustments can be made.
• Willingness to experience both somatic work, as well somatic work in conjunction with cannabis, from role of client will be asked of you through the training. Although no one will be required to act in the role of client, or to utilize cannabis, participants will be strongly encouraged to do so as a part of the learning process.
• Desire to learn and grow both professionally and personally by encountering your own edges, limitations, and shadows
• Ability to hear and integrate constructive feedback.
• To practice the techniques taught outside of the training environment with peers prior to working with clients
• Practice trades will be required throughout the program
• Willingness to engage in some vulnerability together with a small cohort of peers