Joshua and I are pleased to announce our upcoming class. Hope you can join us!
Experiences of trauma are pervasive, yet many continue to feel stuck in emotional and physiological patterns stemming from unresolved trauma. Within the complementary frameworks of constitutional herbalism and somatic awareness, there are tools we can apply to change these patterns and help people regain wellness however they define it for themselves. This class will discuss the underlying physiological and neurobiological consequences of trauma and the common resulting long-term patterns which can be altered by using herbs and somatic practices. It will also discuss more subtle emotional tendencies and the ways that herbs and somatic practices can be used to help people who feel trapped in these seemingly intractable patterns. Short-term, acute de-escalation and relief will be covered, as will long-term interventions that help redirect and untangle more persistent patterns so that they recur less and less over time. This class’s approach will emphasize allowing individuals and clients to decide for themselves whether or not they want to include a spiritual component to their healing.
Both Joshua’s and Mordecai’s professional experiences include working extensively with sexual abuse and trauma. This includes trauma rooted in surviving injustice as a person of color; trauma which stems from poverty; family violence, neglect, and isolation, and trauma which arises from living as a queer, trans, or gender-nonconforming person in this world.
The course will use both lecture and experiential teaching methods. Some of the specific topics that will be covered in the class include: panic attacks, depression, sleep disorders, anxiety, challenges with safety, emotional containment and intimacy, digestive issues, chronic pain, inflammation and other common physical ailments that often accompany trauma, and compulsive behavior/addiction. The class will also present counseling skills and specific somatic practices for working with trauma.
Joshua Muscat has 20 years of clinical experience with the San Francisco Botanical Medicine Clinic, a low- to no-cost herbal clinic with a strong grounding in ethics and access. (More information about the clinic is available here: http://www.sfbmc.org/) Joshua has studied at Michael Moore’s Southwest School of Botanical Medicine, the Pacific School of Herbal Medicine, the California School of Traditional Hispanic Herbalism, the Blue Otter School of Herbal Medicine, and the South Star School of Traditional Tonic Chinese Cooking. He is a clinical herbalist and wildcrafter.
Mordecai Cohen Ettinger, MA, has 20 years experience as a multi-modality healer, educator and social justice activist. Trained as a somatic practitioner, Reiki practitioner, and Cranial Sacral practitioner with a background in neurobiology and functional medicine, he has maintained a specific focus on trauma and trauma resolution using non-pharmaceutical interventions over the last two decades. His somatic practice is grounded in Somatic Experiencing ©, the work of biophysicist and psychologist Dr. Peter Levine, with whom he trained along with Dr. Raja Selvam, and Dr. Bessel van der Kolk. His Masters research explores the neurobiology of trauma and trauma resolution, particularly trauma stemming from systematic injustice, as it relates to collective and individual resilience and healing. Along with working with clients, and educating about health, wellness and justice; Mordecai serves as Adjunct Faculty at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) and is a playwright. Read more about Mordecai and his work here: http://bodyeclectic.net/about/ .