Location:

Boulder, United States

Program Type:

Full Degree

Degree Level:

Master

Specialty:

Psychology

Program Overview

Program Description:

The Somatic Counseling programs look at the relationship between the mind and body as a dance: As one goes, so goes the other.

Grounded in the assumption that the body (soma in Greek) can be used to help individuals transform, this cohort program will give you the academic, experiential, and contemplative experience necessary to begin a compassionate, clinical practice.

Distinguished by a curriculum that emphasizes mindfulness and moving meditation as well as diversity and community engagement, Naropa's Somatic Counseling programs will help transform you into a deeply aware therapist passionate about helping others create change in their bodies, minds, and lives. 

As one of the first universities to establish a graduate somatic counseling program, we offer a rich and rigorous curriculum in which you will holistically explore—and experience—how the body can be used to help people transform.

As a Clinical Mental Health Counseling master's degree student with a concentration in Body Psychotherapy, you will combine the study of clinical mental health theory and practice with work in body psychotherapy. You will also learn about the ways that power and privilege impact the counseling relationship and will gain essential skills in working therapeutically with the body across areas of difference.

Through your studies in Somatic Counseling: Body Psychotherapy, you will learn to use mindfulness training, breathwork, interoceptive awareness and other somatic techniques to help others ease suffering, support mental health, and sustain change for improved living. Naropa's Body Psychotherapy concentration takes a very broad view of the ways that the body/mind connection in psychotherapy have been used and are being applied. This program finds some of its strength in not being dogmatically attached to any particular somatic lineage, while giving a unique solid grounding in the practice of being somatically informed as a counselor.

From this rigorous background, alumni from Naropa's Somatic Counseling: Body Psychotherapy concentration program go on to forge meaningful lives as individual and family therapists, group counselors, business trainers, , mental health leaders and innovators, teachers, and writers, among other career paths

Naropa's Somatic Counseling: Body Psychotherapy concentration is an ISMETA (International Somatic Education and Therapy Association) Approved Training Program.

The Clinical Mental Health Counseling master's degree program with a concentration in Somatic Counseling: Body Psychotherapy is a 60-credit-hour, three-year cohort program that combines theoretical studies, 30 hours of your own psychotherapy along with the development of clinical and mindfulness skills to prepare you to become a psychotherapist grounded in the integration of mind, body, and movement.

Additional Program Information

Accreditation:

Naropa University is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and is a member of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.

Financial Aid:

Yes