Training Program Faculty

The faculty consists of certified Somatic Educators™. Training of Clinical Somatics™ practitioners may only be conducted by certified Somatic Educators licensed to do so by the Somatics Board of Accreditation. Our trainings are conducted by these licensed instructors.

The program employs team teaching to enrich the student's learning experience. Team teaching provides greater intellectual stimulation and closer supervision during clinical practice time. In addition, between semesters each student communicates with a mentor from the teaching team. Mentoring helps assure that students receive personal attention with regard to assignments, issues with clients, and staying on track for completion of the program by the end of the final semester.

Thomas Hanna's influence is profoundly felt in every training, not only because he personally instructed many of our trainers, but also because his educational methods and philosophy are the foundation for the program.

Trainers

Our faculty are not only fully licensed trainers, but the only licensed trainers in the world. All trainers have been continuously active in the training program since its inception and have been instrumental in developing the training program and curriculum.

Our faculty are certified clinical practitioners of Somatic Education who maintain private practices and offer periodic workshops open to both the lay public and health care professionals. They are members of the Clinical Somatic Education Society.

Steven Aronstein, Executive Director, Clinical Somatic Educator [1]

Steven Aronstein is the founding Director and President of the Somatic Systems Institute. A certified Clinical Somatic Educator trained in the second program ever conducted, he has been in practice in Western Massachusetts and the Northeast for more than a decade. Steven is a member of the Novato Institute's training program team, and the first person granted the opportunity to operate a Somatics training after Thomas Hanna's class. He is President of the Clinical Somatic Education Society, the official professional guild of CSE. He has worked in K-6 education; and works with the High/Scope Foundation's Education Through Movement program. Steven has studied Aikido, Tai Chi, and Qigong, and pursued a professionally tutored study of holistic Japanese medicine. He takes a special interest in chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, nutrition, and related matters. Read more about Steven's personal experience with Fibromyalgia and Somatics. [2]

Pam Bladine [3]

Pam Bladine is a certified Somatic Educator trained in the second program ever conducted, and has maintained a practice in Texas for over a decade. Pam is also a Massage Therapist licensed in both Texas and Oregon, with additional training in a wide variety of modalities including Zero Balancing, Polarity, Trager, Orthobionomy, Myofascial Release, and Cranio-Sacral Therapy. She has a strong interest in the arts, and has even served as events coordinator for the Old Chicken Farm Arts Center in San Angelo, Texas. In addition to her body work expertise, Pam has a Masters in Juvenile Correction, a background in dance, and over a decade's experience in Hollywood motion picture and television production.

Karen Hewitt [4]

Karen Hewitt is a certified Somatic Educator trained in the first program ever conducted by Thomas Hanna. She was the first Training Coordinator of the training program after Thomas Hanna. She has an extensive and distinguished background in classroom education, professional training, corporate training, and mathematics education. Karen is a founder and senior member of the Somatics Board of Accreditation, the international organization responsible for licensing and certifying Somatics programs and practitioners. Karen is a founding and Charter member of the Clinical Somatic Education Society, and has been in private practice in San Jose, California since 1990. Read more about Karen's personal experience as a client of Somatics, 100% elimination of 13 years of crippling knee pain. [5]

Program Director

Trainers' Assistants

In addition to the faculty described above, the training program is also staffed by a number of Trainers' Assistants (TAs). TAs are certified Clinical Somatic Educators who are in training to become Teachers/Trainers. They are involved in a multi-year process of apprenticeship and intensive hands-on work. To become a TA, practitioners undergo an application process and acceptance through the Somatics Accreditation Board, the certifying agency for Clinical Somatic Education.

Somatic Systems Institute strives to provide a premium experience for its students. TAs working in the Somatic Systems Institute Clinical Somatic Education training programs are experienced teachers who have completed part of their TA training at a separate, dedicated training course.

TAs offer the students in our training program even greater support. Rather than decreasing the contact between students and the primary faculty like in many graduate programs, they add significant program human resources to greatly increase the already uncommon level of personal support and one-on-one interaction. In addition to offering additional expert feedback, improving the team's ability to directly monitor student strengths and difficulties, and enhancing small group classes and practice sessions, our TAs perform ancillary program duties which frees up primary faculty to work more closely and more frequently with students.