New Name & Curricular Changes
As we start to transition into a new season and get ready for a new academic year, I am excited to announce some changes coming to our Somatic Counseling concentration for the Fall of 2024. Before we delve into the upcoming changes, I would like to emphasize what will be continuing throughout the Somatic concentration curriculum.
What Will Stay the Same
The four pillars of our program remain the same:
- Somatic Counseling—In every class, we invite the wisdom and information of the body to be present. This includes and is not limited to, embodiment practice, cultivating awareness of one’s own biases and movement patterns, and tracking sensation, emotion and cognition in relation to one’s present moment experience.
- Contemplative practice and experiential education—The curriculum includes many opportunities to practice mindfulness, and bringing one’s awareness back to the present moment. This includes mindfulness practices that work with oneself from places of stillness and movement, and how this informs and supports one’s training as a Somatic counselor. These practices are in service of increasing one’s range and ability to work with a variety of clients.
- A commitment to social justice—Becoming increasingly aware of one’s personal and systemic impact on others is an ethical necessity for any counselor. Our concentration guides its students to increase related awareness and responsibility through intra and interpersonal investigation as well as studying larger historical, cultural and institutional patterns.
- Development of counseling skills that are grounded in counselor self-awareness and staying in relationship—In the classroom and beyond, students have repeated opportunities to practice their counseling skills grounded in spaciousness, clarity, and compassion with an ability to meet client experiences that are brought to the counseling relationship with discernment.
What Will Change
Beginning Fall of 2024, we will be rolling out two changes:
- First, a reorganizing of our two tracks. As of next fall, all of our students will seek a concentration in Somatic Counseling as part of their studies in Naropa’s Graduate School of Counseling. Within that, a portion may also pursue an additional track in Dance/Movement Therapy, which will put them on the path to becoming an ADTA registered Dance/Movement Therapist (DMT). What was previously known as our Body Psychotherapy track is being expanded and renamed simply as Somatic Counseling. This change brings us into deeper alignment with how we have historically taught our classes. We also find it important to connect with the wider professional network and umbrella of Somatic Counseling.
- Second—a redesigned curriculum that provides a more effective sequencing of clinical courses toward student success and added flexibility with virtually offered summer classes. This new curriculum aligns us more fully with CACREP guidelines, which ensure the highest quality of education in the counseling field.
Course offerings and sequencing are subject to change.
Contact Us
Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us with questions about the changes happening for Fall of 2024. And, if you need any support as you work through your application, we are here to help!
Wishing you an easeful journey.
- Tajah Schall, Interim Director, Tsaharschall@naropa.edu
- Yisraela Jett, Academic Advisor, Yisraela.jett@naropa.edu
- Jeffrey Neering, Admissions Counselor, Jneering@naropa.edu
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Matt Rivera
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