As the mental health field continues to evolve, more clinicians are seeking approaches that address the connection between mind, body, emotion, and nervous system health. Antioch University’s Somatic Psychotherapy Certificate is designed for licensed therapists and helping professionals who want to deepen their clinical skills through body-based, trauma-informed, and experiential methods of healing.
This advanced certificate program offers students the opportunity to explore how stress, trauma, attachment, and emotional experiences are held in the body, and how therapeutic change can happen through awareness, movement, regulation, and embodied presence. Through a combination of theory, experiential learning, and practical application, students gain tools they can bring directly into their professional practice.
Guiding students through this work is Richard Lepore, an Antioch University faculty member, psychotherapist, educator, and longtime practitioner of somatic psychotherapy. Lepore brings extensive experience in embodied clinical practice and has worked with approaches that integrate movement, expressive arts, phenomenology, relational process, and nervous system awareness. His teaching emphasizes both personal experience and professional application, helping students understand somatic psychotherapy not only as a theory but also as a lived, practical process for healing.
To learn more about the program, Lepore was asked about the future of psychotherapy, the role of somatic awareness, and what students can expect from Antioch University’s Somatic Psychotherapy Certificate.
Why do you think this work is important for the future of the field?
Richard Lepore:
Somatic awareness is an integral component of a psychotherapeutic process, and body or somatic psychotherapy is now an established theoretical orientation.
How do you see this program contributing to the evolution of psychotherapy?
Richard Lepore:
All therapists will be able to incorporate regulation of the nervous system and how this supports working with implicit meaning.
What does it mean to bring the body and the whole person into the therapeutic process?
Richard Lepore:
“Whole Person” is a somatic awareness – a “sense of self” occurs as one senses one’s “overall body sense” – these are inseparable, which becomes evident on an experiential basis. We refer to this as “agency” – this awareness of connection is what becomes disrupted because of trauma or lack of early attachment and bonding.
Why do you think it’s important for the profession to integrate somatic awareness more fully?
Richard Lepore:
Somatic awareness provides a way of thinking about mental illness within a new paradigm. This has ramifications for both how the therapist brings in their own somatic awareness in treatment as well as how the client uses their somatic awareness to address a full range of mental health issues, including trauma.
What kind of student is drawn to this program?
Richard Lepore:
A student who is already licensed in the field has some experience with somatics but wants to increase their skill set.
How do students’ life experiences or motivation to help others enrich the learning environment?
Richard Lepore:
During class experiential work, students have the opportunity to support each other. This occurs through group interactions and more structured dyads.
What do you hope students take away from their time in this program?
Richard Lepore:
Increased capacity for somatic awareness as an experience of regulation, which they can then incorporate into specific interventions with their clients.
What makes somatic psychology or body-based approaches so powerful in therapy today?
Richard Lepore:
Somatic psychology is already an established approach to therapy. Today, therapists are interested in learning more nuanced and developed approaches which can support working with specific aspects of mental health and support intentions to approach therapy as an embodied endeavor.
How does current research support the connection between body, mind, and healing?
Richard Lepore:
Neuroscience is the primary way. Research studies in clinical approaches and case studies also support the field.
How do you help students learn to see clients through a more holistic lens?
Richard Lepore:
I provide them with an experience of how somatic awareness is integral to their own embodiment and the therapeutic process.
What practices or modalities do you like to bring into your teaching?
Richard Lepore:
Movement, expressive arts, humanistic and phenomenological approaches, touch, movement, and experiential anatomy.
How do you help students integrate somatic approaches into their clinical work?
Richard Lepore:
I teach both theory and application. I break down each somatic approach into concrete steps, engage students in an experiential process that includes reflection, and include relational support in all experiential learning.
Explore the Somatic Psychotherapy Certificate at Antioch University
For licensed professionals ready to expand their clinical skills, Antioch University’s Somatic Psychotherapy Certificate offers advanced training in body-based therapy, trauma-informed care, and embodied healing practices. Guided by experienced faculty, students gain practical tools to support deeper healing and more effective therapeutic relationships.
Demand is rising for practitioners trained in somatic therapeutic approaches that recognize the powerful connection between body and mind in the healing process. Through just three weekend residencies, students earn 30 continuing education credits and expand their clinical skill set.
Offered through Antioch University’s Santa Barbara campus, the program provides an opportunity for experienced practitioners to integrate leading-edge somatic knowledge into their current practice while learning from respected experts in the field.
Application Requirements
Eligibility: An existing master’s degree in psychology or a related field is required.
Brief Essay: A response of less than one double-spaced page is required addressing the following prompt: How might this training impact professional practice, career, awareness, personal growth, and relationships, and what challenges might be encountered?
How to Apply: Applicants should email a resume and essay to [email protected].
Learn more about Antioch University’s Somatic Psychotherapy Certificate.
