Personal Development and Professional Training
Rosen training can be done for personal or professional development; or it can be undertaken with the aim of becoming a practitioner. The basic unit of training is the “intensive”, a week-long gathering of students and teachers that involves experiential learning, practice and open discussion.
Key areas of training include:
Rosen touch
Rosen Method practitioners learn a unique form of receptive touch to engage the inner life and elicit information suppressed in the non-conscious. Distinct from other forms of bodywork, there is no intention to manipulate tissues or fix the person. Gentle or deep, localised or encompassing, Rosen touch has only one purpose: to “meet” and engage the client’s awareness of muscle tension and any related feelings and sensations in the present-moment; this invites release and relaxation.
Rosen talk
Unlike talking therapies, there is no interpretation in Rosen dialogue; Practitioners learn to act as ‘midwives’ encouraging clients’ feelings and truth to emerge through a unique way of communicating and by asking questions and listening without judgment.
Presence and listening
Clients reveal their stories non-verbally through their bodies and breath, as well as through words. Rosen practitioners are trained to listen with their whole presence – with their ears, eyes, hands and heart – in order to notice the subtle shifts which show emerging truths.
Embodied self-awareness
Through Rosen touch, presence and talk, clients are guided to states of ‘embodied self-awareness’, where present-moment experiencing of chronic tension is linked to sensations and emotions, allowing often long-suppressed memories and feelings to emerge. This is where deep transformation happens.
Examples of topics that may be explored on introductory weekends or intensives:
- The importance of touch upon general well-being and health;
- Touch as an antidote to stressful life, and its close connection to the hormone oxytocin, the ‘feel-good’ hormone;
- The importance of self-care when working in the caring professions, being able to listen in to one’s own feelings and needs;
- Boundaries – what are our physical and personal boundaries? How do they manifest themselves in the physical body? And how can they do so with more ease and less tension?
- What is chronic muscle tension, and what is its connection to fatigue, tiredness and disassociation with feelings, emotions and past experiences?
- Understanding the natural breath; the opposite of breathing exercises and induced states of hyperventilation;
- Experiential anatomy – how do we use our bodies and why? How may tension limit our self-expression and the physical enjoyment of our bodies?
- How states of embodied being lead to further integration of the body and mind;
- The importance of working with kindness, acceptance and truthfulness;
- What is personal safety? How do you identify what it is to you and how it feels in the body?
The full training to be a Rosen Method practitioner takes at least four years. It has three different stages:
Level 1 (Personal Development)
The trainee is required to attend a minimum of four intensives and to receive at least 12 sessions from a practitioner during Levels 1 and 2. The trainee must successfully pass an interview to move to the next level.
Level 2
Students here must attend a minimum of three more intensives and complete eight hours of personal supervision. Furthermore, students are asked to attend a workshop on Professional Management and attend an interview before going on to the next level.
Trainees are also expected to obtain an Anatomy and Physiology Certificate before progressing to Level 3.
Level 3
At this stage a trainee may start to give sessions to the general public and to charge for them as an intern (practitioner-in-training). To qualify as a practitioner, however, the intern must receive at least 25 supervisions, have 25 sessions (from a qualified Rosen Method practitioner), attend five hours of professional management consultations, attend group supervision and give sessions to a specified number of clients and fulfill the internship criteria to the standard required for qualification.
Please contact us for the training prospectus and full details.
Training to become a Rosen Method Movement Teacher
To train as a Rosen Method Movement Teacher, students can register with the German or the Austrian Rosen Method Bodywork and Movement Schools [www.rosenmethode.de] and follow their requirements.
Although there is no Rosen Method Movement Training in the UK school at the moment, there are movement classes in some Bodywork intensives.