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Becoming Trauma-Informed: FOUNDATIONS

for Manual Therapists

Remembering Stories of Wholeness, Safety & Resilience

 2- day- 16 hour, Evidence-Based Practice
 
DETAILS

Becoming Trauma-Informed I FOUNDATIONS:

Remembering Wholeness, Safety & Resilience in Manual Therapy

For All Manual Therapists: Massage Therapists, Acupuncturists, Chiropractors, Osteopaths, Naturopaths, Personal Trainers, Physiotherapists

2 -DAY- 16 hour,  Evidence-based Practice, Continuing Education Workshop

 

“A Trauma-Informed Practice fosters an environment where the diversity of each patient’s lived experience is met 

with compassion, humility, and empathy to provide care and service safely, effectively, and respectfully.”

 
FACILITATOR: Elisa Peterson, MEd, SEP, RMT
  • All workshops meet new RMT, Quality Assurance (QA) program requirements
  • Certificate of Participation and Workshop Notes provided
  • REGISTRATION Begins: January 1st, 2026
 
2026 WORKSHOP Schedule: COMING January 1st, 2026
  • Saturday I 9:00am- 6:00pm PST
  • Sunday I 9:00am- 4:00pm PST

 

ABOUT Becoming Trauma -Informed

Becoming Trauma-Informed I FOUNDATIONS: “Remembering Wholeness, Safety & Resilience in Manual Therapy”

A unique training that integrates cognitive, contemplative, and embodied learning to support manual therapists in building safety, trust, and self-regulation within the therapeutic relationship, the practice environment, and through touch. The presence of trauma in all communities makes it such that clinicians are both knowingly and unknowingly supporting patients who have experienced trauma, past and present. Becoming trauma-informed begins with exploring and embodying principles of relationship, communication, and response-ability that build connection, safety, and trust.

 

HOLISTIC Learning Approach

Our training acknowledges the whole person in learning – the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual elements of how we can experience ourselves as people.

With an integrative approach, students are offered the opportunity to learn with:

  • Current Evidence-based Research
  • Contemplative Reflection and Somatic Inquiry
  • Body-oriented Practice such as Movement and Mindfulness

 

WORKSHOP Investment
 
 
CURRICULUM At-A-Glance

 

FOUNDATIONS – Becoming Trauma-Informed I FOUNDATIONS: “Remembering Wholeness, Safety & Resilience in Manual Therapy”

Our FOUNDATIONS Circle begins with inquiry and curiosity… to reflect on the nature of the relationship we with have with ourselves and one another, and how our neurobiology is wired for connection and healing as a human beings.
 
 
With the Polyvagal Theory, we will look through the lens of relationship to understand the dynamics of trauma in the nervous system:
 
Trauma asks us to listen, observe and witness.
Trauma invites us to wonder and ask questions.
Trauma looks and listens for cues of safety – to build dialogue that supports self-regulation, resilience and wholeness.
 
FOUNDATIONS explores the qualities and principles of trauma-informed relationship … a map that guides us safely into relationship with the body.
 
 

I .Trauma through the Lens of Relationship

  • Neuroception: The Unspoken Conservation of the Nervous System
  • Your Brain and Trauma: Dysregulation and Regulation
  • Sources of Trauma

II. Polyvagal Theory:

  • Getting to Know Our Evolved Vagus Nerve: The Social Engagement System
  • Exploring the Wisdom of Our Survival Physiology- Fight, Flight & Freeze
  • Discovering the Body’s Communication Cues of Threat and Safety

 

III. Building A Felt Sense of Safety: Noticing Body Cues

IV. Physiological Symptoms of Safety and Trauma in Our Patients

V. Scope of Practice and Patient Referrals

 

Possibilities for Dialogue…

  • What does meeting a patient with compassion and humility feel like inside my body?
  • What are the factors that define “the diversity of our lived experience”?
  • How does the story of a patient influence my own nervous system?

 

ALL WELCOME I Bursaries and Student Rates are available

If you would like to be part of the training,  Get in Touch with Elisa.

 

 
HEALING as a Community I  Donated Class Fee

10% of your registration fees will be donated to support Indigenous Communities of Canada:

 
VENUE Details

Location: Bodhi Tree Teaching Centre

Unit #212 – 17696 65A  Avenue,

Surrey, BC, V3S 1Z8

Venue Phone: +1 778-688-6824

 

REGISTRATION Begins: January 1st, 2026

“Thank you very much for sharing your wonderful knowledge at the workshop. It truly filled my heart and it’s difficult to describe how special the workshop was. I’m really thankful to have been there with you, and it was exactly what I needed in my life. The experience is now sinking in further, and I’m feeling very full, appreciating the pause in my life.”  
Masumi

RMT, September 2024 Workshop Member

 

DECEMBER 🟠

Healthcare COMMUNITY Circle

All Healthcare Providers Welcome

 Fawning or Appeasement:

Skill & Strategy in Our Client’s Nervous System

December 7th @ 9am PST

DETAILS

Online NOVEMBER  🍂  Healthcare COMMUNITY Circle:

When Living in our Body = Feeling Uncomfortable… Supporting Client’s with Chronic Pain”

 

  • November 9 I When Connecting to Body = Feeling Pain
  • December 7 I Fawning or Appeasement as a Nervous System Management Strategy
  • January 11 I When Healthcare Providers Feel “Triggered”: Strategies & Skills to Find Our Centre
  • February 8 I Differentiation in the Nervous System: Where Clients Find Choices & See New Perspectives

 

Drop- In: $22 +GST-  Register Here

Set of 4 classes: $72 +GST I Register with Elisa @ elisa@elisapeterson.ca

 

 

🟠 What’s Happening at Our Circles
 

🌿Practice and Application of Foundations Principles

  • Body awareness
  • Attunement
  • Pausing
  • Body cues and limits
  • Small steps instead of leaps

🌿Conversation & Dialogue

  1. Teaching on Circle Topic
  2. Your Questions, Ideas and Reflections
  3. Scope of Practice Considerations

🌿Experiential Practice w Break-out Groups

🌿What New Questions Arise?

 

 
🟠 How Do You Learn Best? … Your Unique Way is Welcomed
 

During our circle, do what works for you…

Stand, sit,

lay on a yoga mat

move around (maybe you’re baking cookies) or

be still.

Find your rhythm 🌊

 
 

🟠 Registration LINK

 

 

 

 

 

The topic and practice I found most helpful in the workshop circle was learning how to PAUSE.

I appreciated sitting in a circle and feeling part of a group instead of “just being a student.

Workshop Circle Participant

 

Winter Solstice Circle

A Sacred Journey with the Body

Sunday, December 21st
Virtual – 7:30am -9am PST
DETAILS

 

A Community Gathering… You are invited

 
 

Winter Solstice Circle I Virtual 🌙 A Sacred Journey with the Body

  • Sunday, December 21st, Virtual
  • 7:30- 9:00am PST
  • All Welcome, Sliding Scale Offered
  • Class Fee: $25

Our Circle

A warm, welcoming circle
to celebrate
your body as a sanctuary for healing
and to explore
the wise teachings of the winter season.

 

 

What does a circle look like?

Opportunity for to
explore, learn & listen
with body- centred practice: 
 
  • Winter Circle Teaching: Moving with the Rhythm of Rest & Stillness
  • Reflection & Journaling
  • Listening with our Hearts
  • Group Sharing & Dialogue
  • Gentle Body Movement Practice
 

All Welcome

The circle offers
an inclusive,
trauma-informed approach
that respects your body cues and limits as your teacher.
 
 
You are encouraged to ask questions, be curious, and make decisions during the circle that best support your whole self.
You can adapt, pause, or stop how you participate at any time.
The choice is always yours
 

“When we begin to live by the principles we find in these small doable ceremonies, extraordinary thing happens.

The very act of living as a tribal person, as someone connected to every other being and every other thing on the planet makes our life itself a ceremony– a ceremony that elevates us, makes us more, closer to our highest possible expression of who we were created to be.”

Richard Wagamese, One Drum

Ojibwe Canadian Author and Journalist