Spring and Summer 2019
"It's too hot to sit outside. Is she crazy?" you might say. And I say, "Sitting next to the creek in the shade is not the same as walking through a shadeless, asphalt parking lot in Greenville. I've been seeing clients outside all summer and have hosted 3 workshops. We've all done fine." Shelly
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"Roundtable" Discussion: Breathing, the Felt Sense, and Adding Somatic Approaches To Your Practice.5 Last-Minute CEUS For Counselors and Therapists!
This small group setting offers a unique opportunity to receive some customized learning and instruction, ask questions, and get some practical help in incorporating body-informed approaches into your practice.
You may have the opportunity to experience body-informed approaches for stress relief firsthand for yourself, role-play one of your clients, and get tips for applying these techniques in challenging situations. Space is limited to 6 participants. |
Lunch is on your own or we may elect to work through lunch and end early. Feel free to bring a picnic.
(Please note: This is an outdoor event. Please dress casually and appropriately. Workshops are subject to last-minute rescheduling in case of severe weather. There's a port-o-john on the premises).
Pre-registration required by Wednesday, August 14th.
(Please note: This is an outdoor event. Please dress casually and appropriately. Workshops are subject to last-minute rescheduling in case of severe weather. There's a port-o-john on the premises).
Pre-registration required by Wednesday, August 14th.
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For Therapists (LPC, LMFT, and general Social Work hours)
Beyond Talk Therapy:
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In this relaxing, experiential workshop, you will be introduced to the basics of body-centered (somatic) psychotherapy and life coaching. You will learn simple techniques to help yourself and your clients:
Pre-registration required on or before Wednesday, May 29th.
(No refunds are given after that time, unless workshop has to be rescheduled due to severe weather).
- Connect with the bodymind and access the subconscious material that's driving negative emotions, beliefs, and thought patterns
- Learn how to "talk to" this material in a way that invites it to release
- Learn the real reason you or your clients feel stuck
Pre-registration required on or before Wednesday, May 29th.
(No refunds are given after that time, unless workshop has to be rescheduled due to severe weather).
(Please note: This is an outdoor event. Please dress casually and appropriately. Workshops are subject to last-minute rescheduling in case of severe weather. There's a port-o-john on the premises).
Working With Emotional Energy: What Horse Whisperers Know
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Emotions are made up of energy - so are thoughts and beliefs. Energy is stored in the bodymind and must be accessed and released via the bodymind. Great horse "whisperers" know that working with a horse's flight instinct, is more effective than trying to control or subdue it. Drawing from their example, we will learn how to release negative energy - negative emotions - from the bodymind, by learning how to partner with them versus trying to manage them. This workshop is experiential. You will learn how to use and practice these tools for yourself, before attempting to use them with clients. These tools will also help you stay balanced and centered and take on less "stuff" from your clients. Please note: We will not necessarily be working with horses. This workshop is designed to help you learn how to work with negative emotions in any context. Also please note that this is an outdoor event and is subject to last-minute rescheduling in case of severe weather. Lunch is on your own.
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This workshop is being offered for the staff and volunteers at Wild Hearts Equine Therapy Center.
Date: Friday, June 21
Cost: $90.00
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(Please note: This is an outdoor event. Please dress casually and appropriately. Workshops are subject to last-minute rescheduling in case of severe weather. There's a port-o-john on the premises).
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For Therapists (LPC, LMFT, and general Social Work hours)
Beyond the Story: Somatic Approaches To Healing Sexual Abuse and Other TraumaPhysical self-awareness is the first step in releasing the tyranny of the past. Bessel Van Der Kolk, MD Saturday, June 29, 2019
9:30am - 4:30pm Heaven On Earth Farm, Pickens, SC Cost: $90.00 (Lunch on your own) 6 CEUS
Pre-registration required by Wednesday, June 26th.
No refunds given after that time, unless workshop is rescheduled due to severe weather. |
Space is limited!
Don't let the casual nature of the setting or your facilitator fool you. This work is evidence-based and is consistent with and draws from everything that's effective about EMDR, Focusing, and Somatic Experiencing.
Shelly Smith, LPC, LMFT, has dedicated over 25 years of her personal and professional life in acquiring a firsthand experiential knowledge of how trauma is stored in the body and how it, and it's emotional content, can be released and integrated a in safe, gentle, and practical way.
No Need To Dig Into the Past
This workshop will explain and demonstrate why, when it comes to unresolved trauma, there is no need to dig into the past, retell it, or rehash it, and why it isn't necessary to have clear memories in order to heal. The past will reveal itself quite naturally, when we anchor ourselves in our bodies in the present moment, and allow our bodies to reveal "what's here now." Done correctly, this body inquiry into "what's here now," will reveal what emotional energy is ready to be released. This emotional energy is experienced as a felt experience - a sometimes vague combination of body sensations, emotions, and images or thoughts. These will arise and unfold in a natural order when one learns to "track" the felt sense.
The Client's Own Body-Wisdom Guides the Process
As we guide our clients in feeling safe and grounded while tracking the felt sense, any traumatic memories associated with this energy, in the form of pictures, voices, feelings, or body sensations, will arise organically, spontaneously, and naturally to become integrated in a gentle full-bodied sort of way. Working this way minimizes, if not completely eliminates, the risk of re-traumatization, overstimulation, and overwhelm, because the client's own body-wisdom is guiding the process.
You Will Learn . . .
some basic skills that lay the foundation for somatic/body-centered work. You can start using them with your clients immediately and easily incorporate them into EMDR and other approaches.
Help your clients . . .
This process has successfully treated clients with anxiety, depression, and PTSD. It has also helped clients with relationship problems, food addictions, adrenal fatigue, and a variety of stress-related health problems.
Shelly Smith, LPC, LMFT, has dedicated over 25 years of her personal and professional life in acquiring a firsthand experiential knowledge of how trauma is stored in the body and how it, and it's emotional content, can be released and integrated a in safe, gentle, and practical way.
No Need To Dig Into the Past
This workshop will explain and demonstrate why, when it comes to unresolved trauma, there is no need to dig into the past, retell it, or rehash it, and why it isn't necessary to have clear memories in order to heal. The past will reveal itself quite naturally, when we anchor ourselves in our bodies in the present moment, and allow our bodies to reveal "what's here now." Done correctly, this body inquiry into "what's here now," will reveal what emotional energy is ready to be released. This emotional energy is experienced as a felt experience - a sometimes vague combination of body sensations, emotions, and images or thoughts. These will arise and unfold in a natural order when one learns to "track" the felt sense.
The Client's Own Body-Wisdom Guides the Process
As we guide our clients in feeling safe and grounded while tracking the felt sense, any traumatic memories associated with this energy, in the form of pictures, voices, feelings, or body sensations, will arise organically, spontaneously, and naturally to become integrated in a gentle full-bodied sort of way. Working this way minimizes, if not completely eliminates, the risk of re-traumatization, overstimulation, and overwhelm, because the client's own body-wisdom is guiding the process.
You Will Learn . . .
some basic skills that lay the foundation for somatic/body-centered work. You can start using them with your clients immediately and easily incorporate them into EMDR and other approaches.
Help your clients . . .
- Decrease anxiety, hypervigilance, hyperarousal, and irritability
- Feel more empowered as they learn how to work with feelings, not just manage them
- Learn how to anchor themselves in their bodies and in the present moment
- Learn how to stay present and grounded when feelings of overwhelm arise
This process has successfully treated clients with anxiety, depression, and PTSD. It has also helped clients with relationship problems, food addictions, adrenal fatigue, and a variety of stress-related health problems.
If it were not for resistance, we would all go free very quickly. Lester Levenson
Releasing Resistance From the BodymindSaturday, July 20, 2019 9:30am - 4:30pm Heaven On Earth Farm, Pickens, SC Cost: $90.00 (6 CEUS available for LPCs and LMFTs) Lunch is on your own. |
In this experiential workshop, you will learn how to feel better - from the inside-out. You will learn firsthand the role that unconscious resistance plays in stress-related health issues, relationship challenges, emotions you can't seem to let go of, and any aspect of your life in which you feel stuck. You will learn why we say that The Body Doesn't Lie and how to:
- Access and release resistance from the bodymind, in a way that's natural and easeful, helping you to feel lighter and freer
- Release underlying survival programs that are driving resistance, freeing you from unconscious tension, skewed perspectives, and limited thinking
For more information, read: Resistance To What Is
(Please note: This is an outdoor event. Please dress casually and appropriately. Workshops are subject to last-minute rescheduling in case of severe weather. There's a port-o-john on the premises).
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Pre-registration required on or before Wednesday, July 17th.
(No refunds are given after that time, unless workshop has to be rescheduled due to severe weather). |
Winter 2018 Events
Learn more about Equine-Assisted Personal Growth here.
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Healing With Horses
Saturday, November 10, 2018
9:30am-4:30pm Heaven On Earth Farm, Pickens, SC Cost $75.00 (6CEUS available for LPCs and LMFTs) A light vegetarian lunch will be provided.
Bring your tired, hurt, and world-weary selves to a day of healing and peace with the horses.
You don’t have to talk about “it,” you don’t’ have to do anything at all.
The horses will do it for you. They know what to do. All that’s required is a willingness to be present and a little bit open and Shelly will help you with that part. Bring your intention for the day – what you’d like to shift, let go of, or feel more peaceful about. In the morning, you’ll be guided in gentle grounding and heart opening exercises, before engaging in one-on-one interaction with the horses. During lunch, you will have time to rest by the creek, lie in the grass, write in your journal. and explore the property if you wish. After lunch, our group will mingle with the “herd on the hill” and feel what it means to be more horselike, - what it means to be fully grounded and present, what it means to flow from beingness versus ego, and how to trust and move from the promptings of the felt sense. |
(Please note: This is an outdoor event. Please dress casually and appropriately. Workshops are subject to last-minute rescheduling in case of severe weather. There's a port-o-john on the premises).
Pre-registration required by Thursday, November 8th.
No refunds given after that time, unless workshop is rescheduled due to severe weather. |
Therapist Reports Physical Healing After Exercise At Workshop:
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. . . What really amazed me the most, however, was the first-hand healing that occurred for me through my participation with a Body Centered Exercise with you, and with being in the ring with your beautiful horses. I was able to release sadness that I really didn’t even know I held. I know exactly where I held it too. For YEARS I have had left low back and hip pain. Last night, when I got back from the workshop and was getting ready for bed, I went to take my usual Tylenol to ease up my pain so I can sleep, when I suddenly realized that I no longer had the pain! The pain is still gone this morning and I wanted to let you know and to say thank you. - DB.
Equine-Assisted Personal Growth: A Body-Centered Approach, May 2017
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Spring and Summer 2018 Events
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Healing the Feminine Soul: A Fully Embodied Meditation Retreat
Saturday, June 23, 2018
10:00am-4:00pm Heaven On Earth Farm, Pickens, SC Cost: $75.00 (5 CEUS for LPC's and LMFT's) (A healthy lunch will be provided).
While the masculine longs for the freedom of "no-mind" - the kind that's found post-ejaculation or in his man-cave, the feminine longs for love.
If you find that meditation is often challenging, frustrating, or less than compelling, it may be that your feminine nature is hungry for a full-bodied spiritual experience. A quiet mind is great, but a quiet mind disconnected from the body might leave you wanting more. As a woman you are made to allow love into your body, to nurture that love, and to give it out through your body. It's a circular, felt-expeience. When this longing goes unrecognized or unfulfilled, it can sometimes show up in our relationship with food, as depression, or as physical symptoms. When you can reconnect with your body and open yourself to the present moment, you allow the peace and well-being that's always present to flow through you - in a way that's fulfilling and satisfying. With a combination of guided exercises and time on your own in nature, this retreat/workshop experience will assist you in doing just that. |
(Please note: This is an outdoor event. Please dress casually and appropriately. Workshops are subject to last-minute cancellation in case of severe weather. There's a port-o-john on the premises).
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Gut Knowing: Accessing the body's wisdom - for guidance, clarity, and healing.
Saturday, July 21st
9:30am-1:00pm Heaven On Earth Farm, Pickens, SC Cost: $75.00 3.5 CEUS for counselors and therapists "I feel it in my heart."
"I know it in my bones." "I had a gut-feeling." We have these expressions in our language because we instinctively know that intuitive impressions and Divine Guidance, come to us through the bodymind - not so much from the thinking brain. After all, when was the last time you heard someone say, "I felt it in my frontal cortex."?
The body doesn't lie. Beneath the chatter of the thinking brain and our ego-identification with it, lie the suppressed emotions and limiting beliefs stored in the bodymind. Deeper still, lies the wisdom, peace, and wellbeing that is the truth of who you are. Please consider attending this valuable opportunity to learn how to access your gut (literally) and its guidance, clarity, and peace. |
(Please note: This is an outdoor event. Please dress casually and appropriately. Workshops are subject to last-minute cancellation in case of severe weather. There's a port-o-john on the premises).
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The answers you seek are inside of you.
The kingdom of Heaven is within you.
The kingdom of Heaven is within you.
Please click here to be added to the mailing list for future events!