Women's Pelvic Health: Scar Tissue Remediation, Education and Management (STREAM)
A four-day intensive training in working with scar tissue, inflammation and trauma with Ellen Heed and Kimberly Johnson
Date: 14-17 July 2016
Location: Dawlish, Devon
In this intensive training, you will learn the critical role that scar tissue can play in women's pelvic, reproductive and sexual health. Scar tissue remediation is at the cutting edge of the skills needed to effectively and holistically work with birth injuries, gynaecological surgeries such as colposcopies and hysterectomies, endometriosis, gender reassignment surgeries and pelvic pain of all kinds.
There is the first time this training has ever been offered, and the only time it is being offered this year, worldwide!
Who is the training for?
This professional training is open to bodyworkers and somatic sexologists who work with genital touch in their practice, such as Certified Sexological Bodyworkers, Tantra professionals, midwives and obstetric osteopaths.
We welcome diversity in sex, gender, sexuality, age, body type, ethnicity and ability.
This is a practical workshop and all attendees will be required to both give and receive.
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During the training you will learn:
the composition and biodynamics of scar tissue
how to tune in to bony movement in the pelvis in order to home in on scar-related physical restrictions
the basics of pelvic muscular anatomy
the location, action and postural implications of the key muscles of the pelvis and how they affect posture, gait, emotional attitudes and behaviours.
Underpinning effective treatment is accurate assessment. During the course, you will learn crucial assessment techniques that will lead to powerful results in your practice. These assessment skills will include: asking the right questions during your intake; palpating for digestive system imbalance; palpating and releasing abdominal adhesions; palpating functional pelvic restrictions; and mapping scar tissue both internally and externally. You will also learn active and passive techniques with castor oil, how and when to use clays, and self-help protocols and techniques for your clients to use on their own.
In addition, during the training you will learn and practise empathic listening skills as an entry point into conducting somatic trauma work. You will learn how to track your client and find out the whole story behind your client's presentation, as well as techniques to keep your client present during emotional release. Upon completion of the training, you will be better equipped to accurately assess the needs of your clients, have an idea of how the treatment might progress session by session, and feel more confident in using somatic tracking when trauma arises.
Course leaders
Ellen Heed
Ellen has been teaching somatic professionals since 2000 - work that she loves. During this time, she has taught alongside Ana Forrest, Joseph Kramer, Hugh Milne and Vincent Medici. She has taught in all kinds of environments, including yoga studios, birthing centres, the Certificate in Sexological Bodywork, massage schools, US universities and on professional training programmes internationally. She registered with Yoga Alliance UK as a Senior Yoga Teacher and has taught anatomy trainings for yoga teachers all over the world, from Cape Town to Singapore.
Ellen's mission is to share her knowledge about scar tissue remediation, ancestral nutrition and embodied practices to everyone who desires to live a radiant life. She has pioneered bold new approaches to healing sexual pain, and continues to influence the development of somatic sex education and practice worldwide.
She maintains a thriving private practice in Los Angeles, where she is completing her doctoral dissertation on the psychology of somatic sexual healing.
To find out more about Ellen's work, visit her website: ellenheed.com.
Kimberly Johnson
Kimberly is a birth doula, Certified Sexological Bodyworker and near-certified Somatic Experiencing Practitioner. She specializes in birth injury, birth trauma, post-partum recovery and sexual healing.
Before dedicating her life to helping women emerge through the childbirth and motherhood process more whole, she was a full-time yoga teacher, yoga teacher trainer and Structural Integration practitioner. She has taught classes and trained teachers in New York City, Boulder, San Diego, Brazil, Thailand and Malaysia since 1999.
Kimberly's own difficult post-partum healing process, where she experienced searing back and sacroiliac pain, incontinence, haemorrhoids and painful sex, led her to a path of exploring what she calls the black hole of women's health: the post-partum period. Told she needed a full pelvic floor reconstruction, she committed herself to healing holistically. Along the way she met Ellen Heed, who was conducting a research project on post-partum scar tissue remediation. In three sessions, the haemorrhoids reabsorbed, her abdominal wall knitted back together, and she returned to joyful pain-free sex. Already a bodyworker, she was determined to learn this work and to help as many women as possible navigate the post-birth process with far less suffering and far more support than she herself experienced.
Kimberly is currently at work on a book [The Fourth Trimester] about the physical, emotional, spiritual and sexual aspects of becoming a mother. She has taught post- partum courses to midwives, to doulas, yoga teachers, and new moms at Bini Birth where Michel Odent is hosted, and at Yoga Tree in San Francisco.
To find out more about Kimberly, visit her website: https://kimberlyannjohnson.com
