Hakomi Workshop

Expanded States of Awareness & Hakomi

A three–day workshop with Manuela Mischke-Reeds

Naarm/Melbourne: Fri 27 Nov—Sun 29 Nov 2026

Cultivating Innate Somatic Intelligence

An Advanced Trauma Workshop for Mental Health Professionals

How do we help clients move beyond symptom management toward deeper embodied integration? How do we strengthen our own therapeutic presence while working with trauma, attachment wounds, and expanded states of awareness?

This advanced three-day clinical workshop invites experienced mental health professionals into an immersive exploration of an integrative, body-oriented approach that brings together the Hakomi Method, Continuum, embodied mindfulness, contemporary trauma science, and work with expanded states of awareness.

Participants will learn practical Hakomi-informed somatic interventions for developmental trauma, attachment adaptations, dissociation, and expanded states. Through mindfulness, present-moment tracking, somatic inquiry, movement, nervous system regulation, and experiential practice, clinicians will build greater confidence in facilitating embodied integration while maintaining ethical, trauma-sensitive practice.

A central foundation of this training is the Therapist’s Seat — the clinician’s own regulated, embodied presence as the primary instrument through which healing unfolds. Before any intervention can be effective, the therapist’s nervous system must be organised enough to remain present, flexible, and responsive within the intensity of trauma work and expanded states. This workshop is designed to cultivate that capacity directly.

From this embodied foundation, participants learn precise somatic interventions that support nervous system regulation, deepen interoceptive awareness, work skilfully with protective adaptations, and facilitate integration of traumatic experience — practiced within a relational, mindfulness-based framework emphasising moment-to-moment tracking over protocol-driven technique.

The workshop also develops the therapist’s ability to recognize and trust the client’s innate somatic intelligence — the self-organising processes that move toward regulation and integration when the right conditions are present — and to recognise one’s own protective adaptations as they arise in the therapeutic relationship.

We’ll explore how trauma organises perception, movement, identity, and relationship around protective adaptation, and how mindful somatic work can restore flexibility, resilience, and embodied connection — situated within a systemic understanding of how family, cultural, and institutional contexts shape those adaptations. Participants experience this work from the inside out through teaching, live demonstrations, supervised practice, and extended Continuum movement sessions.

Clinical skills you will develop

  • Occupying the Therapist’s Seat under clinical intensity
  • The Backbody Practice for tracking client process without losing your own ground
  • Reading the body’s implicit organisation — micromovement, breath, gesture, neurogenic patterns
  • Mindful somatic inquiry to access implicit memory and embodied meaning
  • Grounding, orienting, titration, pendulation, breath, movement, and contact for regulation
  • Working with the Somatic Centers of Awareness (head, heart, gut)
  • Becoming a Regulated Witness with dissociation and expanded states
  • Working somatically with expanded states — assessing readiness, tracking process, facilitating integration within clear ethical and scope-of-practice boundaries
  • Reading protective adaptations through a systemic lens
  • Recognising Embodied Vicarious Growth as a source of professional resilience

Why this focus matters

Growing evidence supports what body-oriented clinicians have long observed: meaningful trauma recovery requires engaging the body alongside the mind. As psychedelic-assisted therapy expands in clinical practice, therapists’ capacity for embodied regulation becomes essential — complex presentations carry real risk during expanded states, which may reactivate dissociated material. This workshop pairs skill-building with clear discussion of ethics, scope of competence, and appropriate referral.

Acknowledgement of Country

“We respectfully acknowledge the Traditional Owners of Naarm, the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung and Bunurong peoples of the Kulin Nation, and pay deep respect to Elders past, present, and emerging.”

Dates & Times:
Friday 27 November 2026: 10:00am – 6:00pm
Saturday 28 November 2026: 10:00am – 6:00pm
Sunday 29 November 2026: 10:00am – 4:30pm

Investment:
Early Bird:$1,230 (paid by 30 September 2026)
Standard: $1,440 (paid by 30 October 2026)
Full Professional: $1,550 (paid by 30 October 2026)
Indigenous Scholarships: Two full fee-waiver scholarships are available for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participants which cover the full cost of registration.

Venue:
Balam Balam Place -Room 401
15 Phoenix St (formerly 33 Saxon St)
Brunswick, VIC 3056

For more detailed information on this workshop, please see the brochure below

REGISTRATION:

To register, please click here.

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