Somatic Psychology Program

Course Descriptions

COR 505 (a, b, c, d) Professional Seminar (2 units)
This seminar provides students opportunities for personal and professional growth as part of an educational community. Experiential learning is emphasized as we maintain an informal forum for discussion of issues that may arise in the course of graduate study and for practice and integration of course material.

COR 511 Integrative Psychology  (1.5 units)
This course provides an overarching context and framework for further academic work at SBGI, personal growth, and professional development. In this course, students explore the Wilber Integral Model as a meta-framework for inquiry, the evolving relationship of spirituality and science, as well as come to understand the vital importance that worldview, personal and professional paradigms, play in perception, conceptions, and empirical inquiry.

COR 530 Process of Creating Community  (1 unit)
This course serves as an orientation to the program, Institute, facilities, faculty and fellow students. Principles and practices of healthy group interaction and the establishment of a safe, nurturing and respectful community environment are emphasized. Individual and group intentions are developed.

COR 535 Therapeutic Skills I (3 units)
COR 536 Therapeutic Skills II (2 units)
COR 537 Therapeutic Skills III (1.5 units)
These three foundational classes meet sequentially during the first year and provide the fundamental skills for the student’s future clinical practice.  Skills of awareness and presence begin this series. Students learn self-awareness skills of orienting, centering, sensory awareness and personal boundaries, energetics of relationship: contact and distance, boundaries, pacing, impact of where attention is placed and identification of intention. Developing the therapeutic witnesses and skills of listening, seeing, sensing, empathy, accurate reflection, and communications that allow the innate wisdom and inner knowing of the client to emerge, are explored and experienced. Specific skills from different modalities such as Gestalt are introduced.  Students practice skills with their peers and receive feedback.

COR 540 (a, b) Theories of Psychotherapy (3 units)
This seminar provides an overview of the history and development of the major schools of psychology, and the ensuing therapeutic approaches.  Students will also identify current psychological trends and future directions for development.

COR 541 Principles of Group Psychotherapy  (1.5 units)
Major theories, uses, and dynamics of group psychotherapy and group process are presented.  Specific therapeutic considerations of group work are explored and experienced, such as: creating a safe container, beginning and ending groups, developing interpersonal contact and group cohesiveness, maximizing hope, trust, safety, and risk-taking in therapy groups.

COR544 Developmental Psychoneurobiology  (1.5 units)
This course presents new research that is giving a clear understanding of interaction of cognitive capability and personality formation and developmental psychology. Explored is an interdisciplinary look at early affective development emphasizing the new findings in psychoneurobiology including how and why early events profoundly effect the development of the self. Current findings in infant research and neurobiology posit that the infant's affective interactions with the early human social environment directly and indelibly influence the postnatal maturation of brain structures that will regulate all future socioemotional functioning.

COR545 (a, b) Lifespan Human Development  (3- 4 units)
This course spans two quarters and examines human development over the lifespan utilizing traditional and evolving models of development. Beginning with infancy and the transition to childhood, the course continues the exploration of development through adolescence, adulthood, and the aging and dying process.

COR 550 Fundamentals of Professional Writing and Library Research  (1 unit)
This course prepares students for writing graduate level research papers. Students are introduced to key concepts in library research, and practice the use of databases, thesauri, online catalogs, library borrowing systems, and the World Wide Web. Students improve their ability to select a topic, organize and present their ideas in writing using SBGI writing guidelines. Citing research in APA style, and self-editing are emphasized.

COR 553 (a, b) Critical Thinking in Research  (2 units)
The focus of this course is an introduction to critical thinking, literature review and research issues.  It is designed to give students the essential skills they will need to participate in the community of scholars and to extend the scientific knowledge and basis inquiry in their fields, applications, and research for scholars, practitioners, clients, and the world at large. 

COR 605 (a, b, c, d) Professional Seminar (2 units)
This seminar provides students opportunities for personal and professional growth as part of an educational community. Experiential learning is emphasized as we maintain an informal forum for discussion of issues that may arise in the course of graduate study and for practice and integration of course material.

COR 620 Theories of Couple, Marriage and Family Therapy  (3 units)
This course begins with an historical overview of couple and family therapy and includes the family developmental life cycle, basic communications and systems theory, the theory and practice of the major family therapies, transgenerational models and family of origin analyses, the contributions of object relations and cognitive behaviorists. Students also learn the dynamics and stages of relationship and systematic interventions. The course includes a comparison and an application of different family therapy models.

COR 625 Child Centered Family Therapy  (1.5 units)
Principles and elements of therapy with children and their families are examined. Addressed are appropriate developmental tasks, motor skills, cognitive and emotional development as well as prenatal and perinatal issues to be considered in the therapeutic process. Students learn skills of observing and tracking autonomic nervous system cycling, biological rhythms, somatic sequencing, affect sequencing, symbolic play and symbolic sequencing. Also explored are the applications of primary modes of contact with children including visual, touch and creative opposition in the context of play within therapeutic situations with children and their families.

COR 635 Clinical Practice I (3 units)
COR 636 Clinical Practice II (3 units)
COR 637 Clinical Practice III (3 units)
This series during the second year helps students prepare for clinical practice. Clinical issues such as intake, client screening, case management, transference and counter-transference, and systems approach are included.  The class often incorporates practical applications of theory presented in a concurrent class such as family, couple or child therapy.  A strong emphasis is placed on assisting students to develop their own therapeutic approach and style. Integration of prenatal and perinatal and somatic with other modalities in the clinical setting is explored. Video and audio case presentations are utilized.

COR 658 Clinical Practicum  (5 units MA, 15 units Ph.D.)
Students receive credit in this course for successfully completing their supervised clinical practicum.

COR 665 (a, b, c) Practicum of Group Process  (1.5 units)
This course encourages students to develop and implement the principles and practice of group psychotherapy introduced in the previous group process courses.

COR 680 Personal Therapy  (2 to 6 units)
Students must participate in their own personal psychotherapy (preferably with psychotherapists utilizing a somatic or prenatal and perinatal perspective).  See degree program description for number of units required.

COR 741 Neuroscience: Vital Keys to Well-Being (1 - 2 units)
Valuable new findings in the field of neuroscience that help unlock the mysteries of optimal health, transformational healing, and deeper integration of our authentic self are explored.

COR 750 Research Design / Qualitative Methodologies (3 units)
Qualitative research methods provide valuable theoretical frameworks and procedures for conducting research on psychological, spiritual and somatic development. Here students examine a variety of approaches to research including case study, phenomenological, heuristic/intuitive, narrative/disclosure and cultural approaches to research. The role of these methods in research and their strengths and limitations is discussed. Students also explore their application to phenomenological and theoretical dissertations.

COR 751 Quantitative Methodologies/ Statistics (3 units)
This course emphasizes both traditional and non-traditional methods while familiarizing students with quantitative approaches to research. The fundamental concepts and techniques of basic statistics are also presented in this course.

COR 756 Dissertation Proposal Seminar (1.5 units)
In this course students refine drafts of their research proposals, create and submit SBGI Application for Research on Human Subjects, communicate with doctoral committee members about the final arrangements for their research and prepare presentations to colleagues on their intended research.

COR 835 Advanced Clinical  Seminar (15 units)
This series of fourth year clinical seminars helps students continue to deepen their skills and the application of their specialty.

COR 855 Dissertation Development II  (5 units)
This class supports students in their fourth year to continue the development of their research and dissertation writing.

COR 858 Clinical Practicum II  (10 units)
Students receive credit in the course for their continued successful work in their supervised internships.

COR 950 Dissertation Writing II  [elective] [16 units]
If the dissertation process is not completed within the fifth year, students must enroll in this course.

Licensure Classes

These courses are required for those enrolled in Clinical Psychology Programs.

LIC 690 Cultural, Ethnic and Diversity Issues in Psychotherapy  (1.5 units)
This class includes study of movement, perception and expression within various cultures and people, how it manifests itself and how we interpret it. The intention is to help students understand more clearly the interpersonal variations of physical, familial, geographical and political experience. Multicultural values in the practice of psychotherapy are also explored. Social, political and economic issues relating to ethnicity, culture, race, religion, class, age and gender are carefully considered.

LIC 691 Psychopathology and Psychodiagnosis (3 units)
This course examines the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV- TR system of classification and the clinical disorders as they are coded within that system. Attention is placed on intake assessment, formulating multiaxial diagnoses, and understanding the connection between clinical assessment, ideology and treatment planning. Traditional diagnostic principles are presented in contrast with an examination of the personal, social, and political aspects of mental illness and an examination of the role of culture in defining mental health.

LIC 693 Legal and Ethical Issues in Professional Practice  (3 units)
This course emphasizes the content and meaning of legal and ethical codes. Ethical standards and legal issues in the practice of psychology and counseling, such as confidentiality and dual relationships are examined. Reviewed here are also ethical concerns surrounding touch, safety, transference and counter transference, and other specific issues. 

LIC 694 Assessment and Intervention in Partner Abuse
(0.0 units, 7 contact hours)
This course makes explicit the dynamics of the battering relationship and explores the treatment and prevention of domestic violence through crisis intervention, counseling with the battered woman, treatment models for perpetrators and prevention through awareness. Discussed are the ways in which gender roles, legal structures and societal values enter intimate relationships in the form of power, control and violence. Reporting laws are also covered. This is a seven-hour certificate course.

LIC 695 Prevention and Treatment of Chemical Dependency  (1.5 unit)
This course presents a theoretical and holistic framework regarding the etiology, diagnosis, assessment and treatment of chemical dependency. It acquaints the student with major research findings in the area of substance abuse, psychopharmacological effects of various substances, patterns of use and theories of addiction, and various prevention and treatment techniques. It also increases student awareness of the role alcohol and drugs play in society.

LIC 696 Human Sexuality  (1.5 unit)
Healthy sexuality is fundamental to our experience of living in our body. Our lives begin with an act of sexuality and sexuality affects us from then on through our existence. Our bodily awareness and sense of aliveness is fundamental to our sexual expression. This course presents a survey of human sexuality and sexual dysfunction from a somatic and energetic perspective.

LIC 698 Psychopharmacology  (3 units)
The objective of this course is to give students a broad working knowledge of psychopharmacology sufficient to make appropriate referrals to and work collaboratively with physicians and other health care professionals in the assessment of the need for additional treatment that may include medication or other medical evaluation and treatment. In addition, students learn the effects and side effects of psychotropic compounds, and acquire knowledge of the psychopharmacology of classes of drugs commonly used to treat mental disorders and drugs that are commonly used and abused that may or may not have therapeutic uses. Also emphasized is the education of patients and significant support persons in the risks, benefits, and treatment alternatives to medication.

LIC699 Child Abuse Reporting  (0.0 units, 7 contact hours)
The ethics and laws regarding child abuse assessment, reporting, and intervention are examined as they relate to clinical practice. Students learn to define the types of child abuse and their levels of manifestation, develop skills to assess child abuse, understand reporting laws and the ethical dilemmas faced by mental health care practitioners. This is a seven-hour certificate course.

Students enrolled in non-licensure programs may elect to take any or all of the licensure classes for an additional fee.

Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology

The following courses are required in the Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology Programs.

PPN 510 Foundations of Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology  (1.5 units)
This class provides the broad-brush strokes of the prenatal, perinatal and birth psychology landscape.  An historical perspective gives an interesting backdrop for current burgeoning research and practices in the field. Students will survey the history and literature of prenatal and perinatal psychology and study both current theory and the practical applications of this new psychology. This class considers the merits of an empirical approach that integrates clinical data, experimental data, and personal report data. Explored are the psychology of reproduction from the parents’ point of view and the psychology of gestation and birth from the baby’s point of view.

PPN 512 Prenatal and Perinatal Imprints Over the Lifespan (1 Unit)
This class introduces core prenatal and perinatal concepts and explores the implications and positive as well as negative influences of the prenatal and perinatal experience over the human life span. It will present major perspectives on how prenatal and perinatal experiences impact life: recapitulative impacts, stage impacts; obstetrical impacts; differential impacts (trauma and shock), and interactive impacts.

PPN 513 Embryology  (1.5 units)
A simple understanding of the significance of the embryo in health and healing is the objective of this class. It offers an overview of biodynamic embryology with emphasis on the first eight weeks of human development and the salience of this crucial time.

PPN 515 Prenatal Experience I  (1.5 units)
This seminar explores the experience from preconception to conception and the ensuing journey towards implantation where the all-important relationship with mother is established. The conception constellation, embryology, conception journey, the beginning of human relationships and self-concept are discussed with their implications for holographic imprinting—physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual–and the development of the authentic self. The continuum of influences from optimal to traumatic is discussed. Also explored are factors impacting fertility and key ways prenatal and perinatal practitioners can intervene to optimize the well-being and health of the conceptus and family.

PPN 615 Birth and Bonding I  (2 units)
Birth is a rite of passage that can optimize the development of children for life. This rite of passage entails four unique stages through which the prenate passes. Each stage is rich with profound shaping—physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual—that impacts the hologram, the individual’s core fabric of being. This course leads the way in describing optimal methods to navigate this challenging terrain. Childbirth alternatives that incorporate humanistic and holistic attitudes are introduced.

PPN 616 Birth and Bonding II (2 units)
With the birth of the newborn, one of the most crucially important events occurs, bonding and attachment. This course focuses on the process by which parents develop a bond or tie to their newborn. It explores what enhances the bonding process, what hinders it, and what methods help heal trauma sequelae surrounding it. Also reviewed is research evidence that supports the neurobiology of attachment during this sensitive period, and the literature on the amazing abilities of the normal newborn.

PPN 618 Impact and Implications of Chemical, Medical and Surgical Intervention  (2 units)
In the 20th century, the conception, prenatal, and birth journeys were vastly impacted by technological and medical developments and practices. They have changed the nature of birthing for most and therefore have profoundly impacted the very fabric of being – personal, social and cultural. Introduction to general implications of medical, chemical and surgical use and interventions and their ramifications are discussed. The impacts of chemical usage by parents on the prenate are also examined. Impacts on all levels of being are reviewed: states of being, psychological issues, physical syndromes, addiction, and later behavioral patterns.

PPN 622 Group Psychotherapy  (0.5 - 1.5 units)
Specific dynamics of adult prenatal and perinatal issues are explored and experienced within the group context. Principles learned in previous therapeutic skills, group psychotherapy and human development classes are applied to a group process that focuses on exploring and healing early attachment patterns. Examined is the rationale for small group, early developmentally-oriented work, from both client and therapist perspective. Concepts of group structure, safe container, womb-surround, intention, contact, boundary, leading edge, resources and birth dynamics in a group context are emphasized. Also covered are protocols for individual sessions within the group, group closure and follow-up.

PPN 624 Therapy with Young Families  (2 units)
Principles and elements of therapy with infants and their families are examined. Particular attention is paid to the application of current attachment theories and psychoneurobiological research.  Discussed are the primary keys of assessing needs of infant and parents, the history of psychotherapeutic work with infants in the context of family, the primary issues of infant therapy, implications of specific paradigms used as basis of therapy with infants, and the spectrum of approaches and adjunct interventions used with infants and their families.

PPN 735 Professional Practice in Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology I (2.5 units)
PPN 736 Professional Practice in Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology II (2.5 units)
PPN 737 Professional Practice in Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology III (2.5 units)
This series focuses on clinical supervision and case presentation and analysis, including analysis of video and live sessions when appropriate. Specific therapeutic topics are explored according to particular class needs. Students also complete a self-evaluation including defined areas of expertise, awareness of strengths and talents, and areas for continued growth.

PPN 815 Advanced Topics in Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology I   (2 units)
PPN 816 Advanced Topics in Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology II  (2 units)
PPN 817 Advanced Topics in Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology III (2 units)
These third-year seminars provide more in-depth study of specific prenatal and perinatal psychology topics. Topics are chosen according to the interests and needs of the students. Topics may include: twins and twin loss, abortion, fertility and high tech practices, ethics, adoption, and specific disorders relating to prenatal and perinatal experience. These classes will also include training in specific therapies, such as hypnosis, expressive arts therapies and other leading-edge modalities.

Somatic Psychology

The following are required courses in the Somatic Psychology Programs.

SOM 501 Somatic Movement Approaches (1.5 units)
This course utilizes the various movement methods, combined with process-oriented psychotherapy, to study one's own perceptions, projections and relationships in the world. The practice awakens the senses and develops kinesthetic awareness, allowing the individual to contact and respond to the flow of unconscious material as it finds expression through the body. Developing skills of witnessing, the ability to be present, with oneself and with another, in a more vital, increasingly conscious, empathic relationship and bridging conscious and unconscious processes is emphasized.

SOM 503 Developmental Embodiment in Psychotherapy (1.5 units)
This experiential course explores movement reeducation, experiential anatomy, and developmental movement. It serves as a basic introduction to Body Mind Centering and how it may support psychotherapeutic work. Students learn tools for personal development and clinical application. They also delineate the relationship between anatomy, sensation, and physiology as well as demonstrate and identify the fundamental actions of vertebrate movement:  yield, push, reach, grasp, and pull.

SOM 504 (a, b) Survey of Somatics and Somatic Psychology  (3 units)  
In this introduction and survey of the field of somatic psychology students become acquainted with the basic theories and methods that constitute some of the major somatic-psychological practices.  Investigation and comparison will be encouraged for a comprehensive understanding of the field. Students are also introduced to and experience some of the major meditation and somatic awareness practices and their relation to somatic psychology. From this basic introduction students choose an appropriate practice for themselves and are supported to continue to develop their practice throughout their course of study.

SOM 602 Reich, Object Relations and Somatic Psychotherapy (3 units)
This course provides an introduction to and “fleshing out” of object relations theory and practice as it applies to somatic psychotherapy. The focus is on understanding and working with Depth Psychology and Object Relations concepts, such as introjects and projection. Includes didactic and experiential work.

SOM 604 Somatic Life (1 unit)
This seminar focuses on the body in the world. Considered are culture and cultural influences/standards and ecopsychology – the interaction with nature. The course has a broad focus: from the political to the sexual body, the individual to the world body, the flesh and bones body to the dream and spirit body, and from body work and somatics to psychotherapy and healing.

SOM 605 The Psychology of Touch (1 unit)
Touch is one of the oldest and most fundamental forms of healing and helping. This course explores the contemporary application of touch in healing and psychotherapy, including ethical considerations.

SOM 606 Psyche, Soma, and Health (1.5 units)
The interaction of health and personality, research and perspectives from Health Psychology are explored. Well-being and the influences from mind-set and psycho-spiritual practices are included.

SOM 607 Body, Soul and Self (3 units)
An integrative study of somatic psychotherapy, addressing the whole human being which includes body and psyche, wholeness of the person and the environment, as well as transpersonal dimensions.

SOM 701 Advanced Topics in Somatic Psychology I    (2 units)
SOM 702 Advanced Topics in Somatic Psychology II   (2 units)
SOM 703 Advanced Topics in Somatic Psychology III  (2 units)
These third-year seminars provide more in-depth study of specific somatic psychology topics. Topics are chosen according to the interests and needs of the students.

SOM 760 Professional Practice in Somatic Psychology I   (2.5 units)
SOM 761 Professional Practice in Somatic Psychology II  (2.5 units)
SOM 762 Professional Practice in Somatic Psychology III (2.5 units)
These classes continue the clinical supervision for students during their practicum and traineeship.

Electives
The following courses may be taken during the fourth year or in extenuating circumstances as electives for any program upon mutual agreement between student and administration.

COR 551 Applied Professional Writing and Library Research  (Variable units) [elective]
This class is available as an elective tutorial for students who may need further assistance in research and writing skills. It is tailored to the student’s specific needs and may include refining skills in locating and critically evaluating scholarly writing, synthesizing research, incorporating personal ideas, and writing research papers. Students may also gain increased experience in the use of academic resources on the World Wide Web.

COR 746 Independent Study in Clinical Psychology (Variable units) [elective]
This elective is a self-directed study of a Counseling Psychology topic.

COR 835  (a, b, c) Advanced Clinical Seminar (9 units)
This year long course is for students pursuing dual clinical psychology degrees. This clinical case seminar in undertaken in fourth year along with the clinical placement.

COR 858 Clinical Practicum II (a, b, c) (5 units) [elective]
Students receive credit in this course for successfully completing their supervised clinical practicum in the fourth year.

PPN 717 Current Issues in Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology (Variable units) [elective]
This elective course is designed to meet the current needs of students wishing to receive credit for related trainings.        

SOM 704 Independent Study in Somatic Psychology (Variable units) [elective]
This course is a self-directed study of a somatic psychology topic.

SOM 705 Contemporary Somatic Psychotherapy (Variable units) [elective]
The recent developments of somatic psychology and psychotherapy are the focus of this course. Explored are current trends and established practices of contemporary somatic psychotherapy.

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