Why Tantra Teachers need to be Trained in Trauma
Shashi Solluna
In the past, many Tantra trainings did not include a module on trauma, yet when we start to work in the field, we frequently come across trauma in our workshop spaces. This is now changing, and many schools have been collaborating to create this training.
The TTP:
Join the Professional Trauma Training Specifically Designed for Tantra Professionals
Do you want to feel more empowered in your facilitation: to be able to understand trauma, recognise the signs and know what to do when it arises?
Many Tantra teacher trainings go deep into the practices, exercises and philosophy of Tantra, but neglect to train their teachers to be trauma-informed. As we are working with the most vulnerable aspects of humanity: sexuality, intimacy, emotions and relating, it is essential that we have a deeply grounded understanding of the potential traumas in these areas and how to handle them as a space holder.
In addition, many of the trauma-informed trainings that are currently available are not targeted at Tantra Professionals, and so do not go into working with sexuality, nudity, intimacy and other delicate topics that we face. This training has been created BY Tantra Professionals FOR Tantra professionals, weaving Psychotherapy together with years of experience (including mistakes made) in the field of Tantra.
The LiveTantra Trauma Training has been built upon the question: What does a Tantra Teacher need to know in order to work with trauma that might arise in their space? It is not that we are expected to be trauma therapists, but we need to know the potential trauma patterns that might arise and how best to handle them. We can also learn how to work in a way that is least likely to trigger our participants. And it is helpful to be able to view our work from a trauma-informed perspective on every level.
Join the next generation of Tantra Professionals, who are integrating the latest scientific understanding together with ancient practices, to create a field in which is it safer to explore the edge.
LIVE ONLINE GROUP COACHING SESSIONS WITH SHASHI SOLLUNA EVERY MONDAY (4-6PM GMT)
PRE-RECORDED CLASSES TO WATCH IN YOUR OWN TIME WITHIN THE WEEK
WEEKLY ASSIGNMENTS FOR CERTIFICATION
TWO DAY-LONG LIVE WORKSHOP (4 HOURS EACH) WITH GITEN TONKOV FOR PRACTICAL SESSIONS
SUPPORT CIRCLES
Allow for around 10 hours each week of study time. We suggest 2 hours each day, Mon to Fri. For watching videos, joining classes, making notes and completing assignments.
Learn How to Read the Signs of Trauma
As a facilitator we need to be able to read the signs in our participants, and to asses the level of trauma in their systems. It is not enough to only ask participants if they have trauma, because much of the trauma we experience in life is stored in the nervous system and body and bypasses the cognitive mind.
So as a facilitator is it vital to know how to pick up non verbal bio-feedback from you group, both at the offset and also during each exercise and interaction.
Once we read the signs we also need to know the appropriate response for each one. How should we respond as a facilitator, and how should our support team respond, to best serve the process. How to respond to the individual and how to respond on the level of the group.
Learn how to Navigate a Crisis
To be a professional Tantra facilitator or session giver, you need the tools to navigate through intense or unexpected moments. The work you are doing can trigger unexpected trauma responses and in such a situation, you will need to know how to support.
You also need to stay clear in your own inner process, to watch for becoming triggered by your participant's reactions.
It is NOT that a Tantra teacher is a trauma therapist. However, you need to know enough information and hands-on skill set to navigate through challenging moments, and also to resource yourself and your team (co-teachers and assistants).
Why Standard Trauma Trainings Don't Fit
There are many excellent trauma trainings available. However, many therapists do not work with the body and with sexuality in the same way that Tantra Professionals do.
For this reason, most trauma trainings do not teach the full skillset that is actually needed when working directly with participants in a Tantra setting.
In this professional training, we combine the wisdom of Psychotherapists with the experience of long-term Tantra teachers, to create a course that is directly aimed to empower Tantra Professionals in their work setting.
What is Included in this Training?
Certified Course
60+ hours of Training
- Foundations of Trauma Theory
- Definitions of Common Terms used in Trauma
- How to Resource Yourself and Stay Centered as a Facilitator
- What is Somatic Regulation and when to apply it?
- Learn to recognise different trauma responses in your participants, and know how to handle each type.
- Down regulation tools and methods
- Understanding Power and Responsibility
- The difference between Developmental Trauma and PTSD
- Working with Sexual Trauma and Abuse
- Working with Abusers, Sex Addicts, Porn Addicts etc
- Working with your own Shadows and Sexual Desire
- Using and Teaching Consent and Boundaries
- Understanding how to work with Sexual Energy in a Clean Way
- Applying Trauma Principles to Tantra Workshops
- How to apply different Tools to Specific Situations
- Resourcing versus Activation
- Crisis Management in your workshop
- Working out a good code of ethics
- Moving from judgement to compassion
- Mediation and Repair
- How to respond to Feedback
- Building a Support Structure for your Work as a Facilitator
- Creating professional, legal safety for yourself as a facilitator and your team, that serves both teachers and participants
Classes will be a mixture of online videos, live interactive classes (Mondays), live one-day workshops online, group forums, partner work, and home work.
Weekly Coaching Calls (2 hours)
Mondays 4pm to 6pm GMT
One-Day Workshops with Giten Tonkov
June 4th
June 18th
2pm to 6pm GMT
Online Classes
There are many interviews and classes made for this training that need to be watched each week. Please set aside dedicated time.
Assignments
After watching all the weeks material, you will complete an assignment. this is also to help you integrate all that you have learned.
Please aim to join all live sessions from a quiet space where you will not be disturbed. Your camera must be on, and it is important that you are alone in the room, so that you can really dive deep. The live sessions will not be recorded and uploaded as you will need to attend in person.
The Team
LIVE TEACHERS: Shashi Solluna, Giten Tonkov
Course Curriculum
- Talk: What Is Trauma? -Shashi Solluna (223:20)
- Slides: What is Trauma? - Shashi Solluna
- Self-Inquiry Homework: Tracking your Nervous System
- David Cates: Healing Trauma by Holding Space (62:33)
- Using Breathwork in Trauma Healing (10:42)
- Developing Compassionate Space Holding (Atisha's Meditation) (51:11)
- Embodiment Class Vagal Chakra Toning - Afke Reijenga (29:33)
- Tools for Down-Regulation and Self-Soothing (14:51)
- Jon Skelton Pearson: Working with Spirituality and Psychotherapy (82:51)
- March 7th: Trauma Responses and how to work with them as a facilitator - Shashi Solluna (120:04)
- Embodiment Class and Integration (108:08)
- Q&A on Dissociation
- Trauma Response Quiz: which responses do you have?
- Tools for Completing the Trauma Cycle (7:50)
- How to Integrate the brain and prevent dissociation - Pat Ogden
- Ma Ananda Sarita: The role of Meditation in Trauma Healing (77:40)
- Understanding Relational Trauma and the Teacher/Student Dynamic- Shashi Solluna (108:56)
- Rachel Poot: Erotic Transference (86:20)
- How to work with Sexual Trauma - Diane Langberg
- The Fawn Response - Dr Stephen Porges
- Attachment Styles and Sex - Dr Kim Sage
- Relational Trauma Link: The Attachment Project
- Trauma Management for Different Personality Types and Application to our Workshops - Jon Skelton Pearce (118:37)
- March 18th:Embodiment Class and Integration (109:30)
- Consciously Choosing between Ethics and Self Interest
- Example Code of Ethics for Sexological Bodywork
- Power Structures and Risk Assessment in Tantra (115:28)
- Trauma Crisis Management - Buster Radvik (3 hours live) (157:00)
- Shadow Reclaimation Work - Jon Skelton Pearson
- How to be Impeccable as a Facilitator - Dr Saida Desilets (54:05)
- Working with Kundalini - Minke de Vos (46:43)
- Integrating your Shadows as a Facilitator (40:17)
- Space Clearing - Wendy Lang (86:23)
- April 4th: Creating Trauma-Aware Retreats - Shashi Solluna
- Trauma, Initiation & Integration - James Stevenson (54:40)
- Sexual Energy Management - Shashi Solluna (92:56)
- Kundalini Energy Support - Minke de Vos (25:47)
- April 6th: Integrating Spirituality and Trauma Healing- Jon Skelton Pearson
- April 8th: Integration Circle and Closing Session (89:18)
- Shadows and Desire, Karma and Dharma **Bonus class** (42:52)
Giten Tonkov
Pendulating between Resourcing and Activation (live)
Giten Tonkov is the founder of BBTRS, a breathwork training designed to work with Trauma healing. He shares a mastery of body-oriented therapies that has evolved from more than 25 years of learning, exploration, and work with thousands of clients.
He is known for his ability to hold space for very strong releases of his participants and clients, and yet being able to support them to stay resourced and to integrate the experience.
On this training, Giten will lead two day-long experiential classes, showing you how to work between activation and resourcing.
Shashi Solluna, MA (Oxon)
Using Trauma Awareness to Facilitate Groups (live)
Shashi Solluna trained at Oxford University in Psychology (4 years), and then trained as a meditation-based therapist at the Osho Institute in Pune.
With 20 year experience teaching Tao Tantric Arts, including founding and facilitating a certified teacher training, Shashi has been integrating these classical spiritual paths with modern therapeutic methods. She has learned that holding space is all about compassionate awareness.
On this training, Shashi will lead classes in Trauma Theory applied to facilitating a Tantra workshop.
Jon Skelton Pearson
Applying Psychotherapy to Tantra Facilitation (live)
Jon completed an NHS Registered Mental Health Nurse training in 1994. He went on to train in Psychotherapy and is registered with the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapists (UKCP). He has been working as a psychotherapist for decades.
For 40 years he trained in Yoga and in the last decade he has been training in Tantra, both Classical Tantra and Neo Tantra. He skillfully and merges the fields of Tantra and Trauma Psychotherapy.
On this training, Jon will lead classes on Trauma Management for facilitators.
Andrew Barnes
What I learned from my Accountability Process
Andrew has facilitated Tantric Body De-armouring, Energy Orgasm and Relationship Map retreats in 49 countries. However, in his career he was also accused of misdemeanour and sexual violations. Andrew entered into an accountability process and a series of mediated feedback sessions. He will share what he learned from this, and what he wished he had known when he started out.
James Stevenson
Using Ritual to Heal Trauma
James’s passion is to help call forth our human potential and our soul. His weave brings together more than 20 years experience in techniques, practices and information from the cutting edge of Neuroscience, Tantra, Biodanza, Shamanic & Energy Work, Integral theory and Taoist practices to create a spirituality that is rooted in the body.
In this training, he teaches how we can use ritual to heal trauma.
Ananda Sarita
Emotional Fluidity and Meditation in Trauma Healing
Ma Ananda Sarita is a world renowned Tantra Teacher and founder of Tantra Essence. She met Osho in India in 1973 and remained in his community for 26 years, receiving much personal guidance from him on the subject of Meditation and Tantra. She has been teaching Tantra and Holistic Healing since 1990
Margot Anand
The Evolution of Trauma-Awareness in Neo Tantra
Margot Anand was the very first teacher to bring Neo Tantra to the West through her school, Skydancing Tantra.
On the TTP, Margot shares how psychotherapy works with Tantra and how the field has evolved over time, including the awareness of trauma healing in Tantra.
Betty Martin
Using the Wheel of Consent as Tantra Facilitators
Betty Martin is the founder of the Wheel of Consent, the leading system used in Tantra for trauma healing through boundaries.
In the TTP, Betty shares how you as a facilitator can work with this system to create safer spaces, and stay conscious in your own relational dynamics.
David Cates
Working with the Collective Nervous System
David Cates is the founder of Belly to Belly, a system created for embodiment and safety in connection with others. the Embodied Intimacy school was built upon the foundations of his work.
In TTP, David shares how to read the room as a facilitator and use bio-feedback to hold safer spaces.
Rachel Poot
Understanding Erotic Transference
Rachel is a registered member of the BACP offering counselling in various forms. She trained at Greenwich University, one of the UK’s leading academic and clinical institutions for counselling and therapy. Having worked as a psychotherapist at a residential addictions treatment and brain injury charity, she now runs a private practice. She is also a graduate of Tao Tantric Arts, and has been facilitating workshops since 2012.
Minke de Vos
Qigong for Trauma Healing
Minke de Vos is a Tao Tantric Artist and founder of Feminine Treasures, Silent Ground Retreats and Tao Tantric Arts. As a Senior Universal Healing Tao Instructor and Medical Qigong Master Therapist she has been practicing and teaching Qigong full time for over 30 years. She is internationally known as one of the top teachers of Qigong, self-healing and Sacred Sexuality.
Afke Reijenga
Yoga for Trauma Healing
Afke is renowned for her vivid and joyful style of yoga, and fuses yoga with Tantra and Conscious Sexuality. She is praised for the way that she brings back sacred sexuality into society. She teaches at Tantra Festivals around the world.
Afke will lead yoga for trauma healing and support on this training.
Meet some of the Guides...
In this video, you can drop into some of the interviews with the facilitators of this training. Get a taste of the topics being discussed and the classes you will receive.
Training Format
The training will take place between May 13th and July 1st 2024
Time zones will align with US time zones (mornings) through to Europe (afternoons) and Middle East (evenings).
Live coaching classes will be 2 hours long, every Monday. We ask you to really to make the time and space to attend these, with your camera video on. Please make sure you are alone for all classes.
There will also be classes that are on the curriculum for you to view in your own time. There will be written tests as we go, to check on your progress. Some sessions will be theory, some will be experiential and others will be for sharing and integration.
FAQ
I am not yet a Tantra professional, can I still join?
Yes. This training is designed for current Tantra Professionals but recent graduates and individuals in training can join and benefit from incorporating these teachings in their future practice.
Is this a self-paced course?
This is a hybrid training where you get the support of Tantra facilitators and experts to help you feel confident to integrate these notions into your work. This training is not just about knowledge, it's also about embodying the skills to become a trauma informed Tantra professional. There are live classes 3 times per week as well as a series of pre-recorded classes with guest teachers that are part of each weekly module for you to watch in your own time.
How long is the training?
The training is 6 weeks long, starting on May 13th 2024 with closing call on July 1st. You then have 14 days to complete the final assessment ready for certification on July 15th. After this date, the material will no longer be available.
What is the schedule?
Live sessions are from 4pm to 6pm GMT on Mondays. These are group coaching sessions, focused on peer-to-peer practices and peer-to-peer learning, Q&A, sharing and integration.
Two live workshops will be done in a workshop format in four hour sessions
Do I get a certificate after this training?
The certificate is given only to those who completed all classes, completed weekly assignments, end of training assignment, participated in all the live classes, and interacted with peers in the private group of the training.
Are payment plans available?
Yes. A 3-month payment plan option is available and payments can be done by card, PayPal or bank transfer. You will be able to access price and payment options after submitting your application.
*You are in time for early bird pricing.
Have more questions?
Email us at [email protected]
Application Form
If you feel that this training is for you, please click below to be taken to our Application Form. This shows all the pricing options and a secure payment gateway.
