The Slow Steep
300 hour practitioners & yoga teacher training
300 hours of marination with Anja & Sarah -
Bridging the world of yoga and somatics.
The Slow Steep is 300 hours of online marination with Anja Bergh & Sarah Zandbeek. Over the period of a year and a half we will explore bridging the worlds of Yoga and Somatics. Deeply steeping in our practices, for skill, experience and refinement.
Somatics comes from the Greek word “soma” which translates to “body” and “ics” which is an “organized body of knowledge.” In Yoga and Tantra, Soma represents the elixir of life, a subtle essence that is believed to flow through the body, promoting longevity and spiritual awakening. Symbolically, Soma embodies the principle of rejuvenation and renewal, akin to the cyclical nature of the moon. It signifies the potential for transformation and the cultivation of inner tranquility and vitality. Whether through ritual, meditation, or physical practice, Soma invites a deeper exploration of one's inner landscape which is the essence of this training.
It is through the wisdom of the body that we will come to understand the capacity of our full spectrum, the elation and the rage, the grief and the resilience. We will utilize the ancient wisdom of Chinese medicine to remind us of how all things are energy in motion and we too are a cycling part of Nature; we will invite a new way of learning from cerebral to body and from senses to mind, making way for us to inform ourselves through felt sense, landing and locating just as much as we know how to inform ourselves from theory or thought. We will look at the ways we hold ourselves back through conditioning and offer ourselves the chance to mobilize the things that never got to complete their cycle and remember the importance of integration, pausing, and stabilization in both the process, as well as the practice itself.
There are so many ways to approach wellness and it is here that we will sink into honesty, spectrum and constitution to invite ourselves to descend into the body and support ourselves to really be here. It is in the here that we have the opportunity to gain clarity on our surroundings through our senses, come into our instinctual, primal self, learn discernment, and regain our vision to forage a path forward that we feel stoked about.
We spiral through the layers of Outer, Middle & Inner - Known, Hidden & Undiscovered to bring ourselves home to the present moment content that exists in the here and now, unabashedly.
Three modules
We are so excited to dive into three modules with you. Each module is a journey with and through the body. Every module offers a group of body systems that we work with through somatic explorations, yoga + somatics, free movement, experiential anatomy, yin yoga, yoga nidra, reflections and creating your own map and language.
Module 1: Somatic Foundations & OUTER BODY
Module one will look at the outer body - the aspects of our Self that engage with the outer world, how the outer world engages with us, the outer anatomy and embodiment of the tangible and external. From skin to bones; from seeing, smelling, hearing, feeling, tasting to our magnetic field.
We start with somatic foundations, how to really be able to listen and stay present to sink through the surface layer of information. We will more through a sequence of developmental basic neurocellular patterns, finding the origin of movement through tone, vibration and pulsation and movement patterns. When we’ve landed in the body, we take it into the more solid systems of the body:
Cells and the origin of movement
Bones
Muscles
Fascia
Joints
Skin, pores
Organs - general
Module 2: Somatic refinement & MIDDLE BODY
Module two moves into the middle body, from the sheaths of gel like structure known as the fascia to the organs, diaphragms, fat, and meridians, to the way the systems, like lymph and endocrine, work inside our body and brain and how to initiate our movements from these spaces.
Here we will move further in, spiralically, and experience and learn into the deeper layers of places and systems we’ve already been and introducing more layers through the fluid body.
Here we will dive into how the fluency of outer to inner is perceived and translated into experience. You will get foundational nervous system understanding as it ties into the lanscape of our emotions and sensations. The practice of emotional understanding and emotional tantric alchemy is practiced, sliding between emotions and moving towards that slide in our yoga nidra practice of opposites.
Somatic cueing - deepening
Fascia
Organs - in depth
Fluid body; fascia, blood, joint fluids, cerebrospinal fluid, hormones and lymph
Fat
Meridian work
Module 3: Somatic refinement & INNER BODY
Module three focuses on energy. From our cells to our nervous system, through neuroplasticity and into the eight extraordinary meridians that orient themselves the moment the egg and sperm come together. We will look at the movements of our constitutions and how these fluctuations ripple to the outer as our expression.
This module offers an opening into the groups specific interest and trajectory as we explore in depth together all that has come up along the way.
Teaching methods
Somatic Yoga
Theoretical learning through lecture, visuals, and body labs
Experiential anatomy
Sensory labs: locating, palpating, release & support bodywork
Somatic explorations: led explorations, free movement
Meridian work and Traditional Chinese Medicine theory
Body rolling
Yin Yoga
Breath work
Yoga Nidra
Visualization + Meditation
Reflection, journaling + writing prompts
Who is this for?
This Training is for practitioners in the realms of yoga, acupuncture, psychology, somatic practitioners and therapists, doctors and nurses, fitness trainers, athletes and anyone who already has a body understanding and practice who are interested in bridging a more traditional yoga practice towards a somatic one.
For the people who feel stuck in their own practice or feel what they’ve previously learned is no longer working for their clientele.
This is an opportunity to look at the body in a whole new way!
How will this course support you in being a better facilitator?
This course is a body and life training that will offer you knowledge and experience that can be poured into your yoga & somatics classes. It will also offer the time to practice with greater skill and precision, which will be supportive, as well, for other types of work and facilitation; for those of you working with movement therapy, dance, bodywork or other kinds of health and movement related work.
Refinement:
Body literacy / anatomy
Physiology
Cueing and communication
Space holding capacity
Presencing
Discernment
Clarity
Self care & community care:
Self care is deeply influenced by our capacity to be present with ourself and when we feel the importance of that level of self presence, one can’t help but extend it outward to the surrounding community. Presence is compassion in motion.
As someone who works with the human body venturing into the world of somatics can offer you a wider range of movements, freedom and clarity of direction to offer your clients. Your cueing becomes much more refined. Your understanding of the human body and its systems and how to guide a class from a particular system or place in the body develops and you can become more specific in what you are doing. Your range will widen immensely as you realise how vast the possibilities of movement initiation are in the body.
DATES:
Dates:
November 15, 2024 - November 17, 2025
Every 3rd weekend is a Training weekend consisting of 4 hours on both the Saturday and Sunday. 16:30 - 20:30 Central European Time, (8:30 am - 12:30 MST Canadian time).
Weekly - 1,5-2H long, pre-recorded movement classes/labs to practice when you’re able to during the week. These classes are to be practiced in between our weekend sessions, as the classes are connected to the weekend material.
WEEKEND SESSIONS:
2024
November 15-17 - 12 hours (3 days) - Opening
November 23/24
December 14/15
2025
January 4/5
January 25/26
February 15/16
March 8/9
March 28/30 - (3 days) Module 2
April 12/13
May 3/4
May 24/25
June 14/15
July 5/6
July 26/27
August 15/17 (3 day) - Module 3
September 6/7
September 27/28
October 18/19
November 8/9
November 29/30
December 12- 14 (3 day) - Closing
**All content will be recorded and placed in an online space; however, we do hope that you try to make as many sessions as you are able to live.
**There will be a final practicum video due to ensure you have watched and understood the content provided before you receive your certification. If you are in the course for the sake of your own experience you can finish the course without a final class, of course.
COST:
34 500 swedish krona / $4400 CAD
Payment options:
One time payment
Pay half when signing up and half in 60 days
4500 kr down payment + 12 month subscription of 2500 kr/month
Meet your instructors:
Sarah Zandbeek
Sarah has facilitated yoga asana classes and teacher trainings for over 16 years; as well as, graduating from the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) program where her passion for energetic healing, herbs and natures wisdom truly started to flourish.
Her path of physical movement has transformed over the years and has lead her to her now teacher, Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen; a very wise, beautiful teacher and creator of Body-Mind Centring—essentially a somatic embodiment school. She has studied Embodied Flow with Tara Judelle and Scott Lyons in Bali (where she met Anja) and her mind was absolutely blown with how little she knew about her body and the places and ways one can initiate movement.
In her becoming a Mother every single teaching she has ever received has continued to enrich the way she approaches life, study, her children, and facilitation.
It has been through these teachings, experiences and guidance that this program was born.
Anja Bergh
Anja is a movement educator, yoga teacher, mother, business owner who has been teaching movement for 20+ years. Her passion is teaching slow transformative embodiment processes and practices for the wise, ordinary human being.
The processes are of the kind that work immediately but take time to weave into the fabric of our being.
She is a certified Embodied Flow Yoga Teacher, Body Mind Centering student, practices Fajardo Method of Holistic Biomechanics for clarity and uses nervous system informed somatics to gently bring more coherency to herself as well as offer a fusion of all the above in her classes and trainings.
As someone who has had the experience of life coming at her, somatics have offered the experience of co-creating with the world, of life rising through us, ultimately a gift, something that can be continious, holding all the experiences of effort and ease.
