A 2 year Skan training group will start May 23-28/2024 in Sebastopol/CA

About Skan Reichian Bodywork

Skan Bodywork is directly rooted in the pioneering work of the Austrian Physician and Psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich. Reich observed ways and mechanisms the organism uses to protect itself from traumatic experiences and overwhelming emotions via bodily blockages, emotional avoidance and reduced breathing activity. Thus the being unconsciously encapsulates traumatic energy and strong “reactive” emotions within the body . He named this process armoring. The name reflects a motion of protection but also an emotional and physical “war-zone”. As a result, negative emotions are either projected outward or turned inward against oneself. On a physical level we observe muscle armoring, chronic tightness or numbness and a restriction of the natural flow of the life energy, within one’s body and shallow breathing and even organ restrictions. The most effective way to release these armored structures, energies and emotional and mental suffering, is by taking the entire person into account, including the body and the breath.

Wilhelm Reich is the great-grandfather of every form of body-therapy. Reich pointed out the importance of restoring a balanced functioning Autonomous Nervous System, also named Vegetative Nervous System, thus naming his work “Vegetotherapy”

The American artist, musician and therapist Al Bauman, friend and student of Reich, has uniquely preserved and further developed the original methodology, spirit and intuitive therapeutic process of Reichian body-therapy. He enriched Skan with group-dynamic processes and “Streaming Theater” based on the Reichian emotional release principles. Al’s work has been passed on via Michael Smith, Loil Neidhöfer, Petra Mathes and others. Skan continues to develop, while staying true to its source.

We are born with the natural capacity to support our connection with self and the world. If all goes well and we are met in our physical, emotional and mental needs, we can develop into creative, rational, sensual, respectful and loving human beings, able to express ourselves according to the rational of the moment.we experience our own body and psyche as a pulsating wholeness.

Most human beings have experienced trauma in various forms during childhood and later in life. Your body hold the memory, even though you might not consciously remember. We cannot change the past, but we do have the capacity to heal and experience wholeness. You can find a voice beyond words and feel alive. Skan aims to restore your natural state of being.

Elements of a 2 year Skan training

In order to heal we also need to address unproductive character patterns and old coping mechanisms. Instead of ‘coping’ we can learn to feel alive and whole. As Skan practitioners we are first and foremost offering a ‘human’ not a’ therapeutic’ relationship. In order to become a Skan practitioner, moving through your own process is an absolute necessity. Skan can not be learned within a weekend workshop. Real change takes time. Self-experience is an indispensable part of the training, It is the only way we can gain a deep understanding, intuition and energetic sensitivity to work with others. Only those who allow for a process of sufficiently releasing their own armor will be able to work with people in a great depth.

Changes need to reach the biological foundation to prove themselves in everyday life and need to be experienced and applied in contactful encounters within and outside the therapeutic setting. Therefore we are offering a 2 year Skan practitioner training

Main focus of the training

• Fundamentals of the classical Reichian Vegetotherapy

• Understanding of the segmental structure of the armor

• Step by step conducting of individual sessions ‘or also called mat sessions’

• Therapeutic relationship and ‘vegetative identification’

• Contact and resonance in Reichian body-work

• understanding of ‘streaming and ’pulsation’

• Structure and dynamics of character armoring

• Group dynamic processes and verbal communication in bodywork

• Streaming Theater and scenic integration

We want to invite people who

• who are working in a healing, therapeutic or educational profession and who want to incorporate Skan into their practice

• who already are or want to work as coaches, trainers, teachers, or team leaders

• who are in the creative and performing arts

• are interested in their own personal growth and aliveness

• anybody who is committed to an in depth 2 year intensive for personal and professional growth