Feb 11 – May 13, 2026
2 Hybrid Modules

63.50 CE Hours Available
Offered through Hakomi California and hosted by Embodywise

Faculty: Manuela Mischke-Reeds, Susan San Tara, Julie Murphy, Pamela Thompson, Ashley Ross, Tara Shannon, Karen Daley.

Description

Learn clinical tools and somatic practices for working with early character formation, spanning human development from the perinatal period through adolescence, with special attention to BIPOC and Indigenous child development.

This professional training combines two immersive, in-person modules and ten live online teachings, offering a developmental and somatic framework for understanding character strategies as adaptive, body-based responses to early life experience. Rooted in the Hakomi Method and informed by cultural, systemic, and intergenerational awareness, this training equips practitioners to meet clients with depth, precision, and compassion.

Through the lens of mindfulness, somatic psychology, and Hakomi’s Map of Human Development, you’ll explore the deep roots of personality, survival strategies, and embodied relational patterns. Character strategies, formed as intelligent adaptations to early relational environments, shape how we move, breathe, connect, and perceive ourselves. Over time, these patterns influence posture, emotional regulation, relational habits, and core beliefs about safety, worth, and belonging.

Participants will gain embodied tools to support meaningful change, both in their own development and in their work with others.

Who is the training for

This training is suitable for Hakomi students, graduates, and psychotherapists who want to include character theory and maps in their toolkit. It is also open to psychologists, coaches, and educators seeking a practical framework for understanding and working with deeply held character patterns.

Core Competencies and Embodied Skills

This immersive journey supports clinicians and practitioners in identifying how these strategies take shape across the full arc of life, from in utero and early attachment through childhood, adolescence, and into adult expression. You will learn to recognize the somatic narratives held in gesture, breath, tone, and internal states, and meet them with compassionate curiosity and skillful therapeutic presence.

You will be guided through an integrative, developmental, and somatic exploration of the most commonly encountered character strategies. Each module includes lecture, demonstration, dyadic practice, and embodied inquiry.

You will learn how to:
● Trace the developmental origins of character strategies
● Understand the emotional worlds, limiting beliefs, and relational wounds associated with
each strategy
● Recognize somatic expressions; posture, breath, touch, and movement patterns
● Experience the visceral “felt sense” of each strategy from the inside-out
● Identify the resilience and protective function embedded in each
● Work skillfully with relational habits, trance states, and projection dynamics
● Apply precise Hakomi-based somatic interventions that foster transformation
● Honor cultural, ancestral, and systemic influences, including Indigenous and BIPOC
developmental experiences

Full descriptions for each of the 12 modules are provided on the Embodywise website.

Program Schedule
10 Online Modules
Wednesdays, 9am-Noon PT
February 11, 18, 25
March 4, 18
April 1, 15, 29
May 6, 13

2 In-Person Immersive Retreats
Fri/Sat/Sun, 9am-5pm PT (Berkeley, CA)
March 13-15

April 24-26

Tuition
Early Registration
$3,095 (Full Training) / $1,895 (Online-Only Modules) if applied by December 15, 2025

Final Registration and Payment:
$3,495 (Full Training) / $2,295 (Online-Only Modules) if enrolled by February 1, 2026

A $400 non-refundable deposit paid is due to complete registration for the training. Scholarships requests can be made during the registration process.
https://embodywise.com/hakomi-trainings/character-training/

CE Credits
This program is sponsored by Embodywise. Embodywise is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists to sponsor continuing education for LMFTs, LPCCs, LEPs, and/or LCSWs. Embodywise maintains responsibility for this program/course and
its content.
This course meets the qualifications for up to 63.50 hours of continuing education credit for LMFTs, LPCCs, LEPs, and/or LCSWs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. CE approval agency: CAMFT. Provider number: 82187. CE hours are subject to change with schedule changes.