The next modules of The Basic Somatic Training are:

ongoing: Foundation Module

15 x open class SOMATIC MOVEMENT online

every tuesday

SOMATIC COACHING online

book your one-on-one session with Dieter Rehberg
Find Freedom and Health - Center Body and Mind - Reduce Physical Pain - Solve Emotional Suffering

Welcome
Somatic Training
is your Opportunity
for Health,
Freedom and Happiness
Discover our comprehensive 500-hour professional training program to become a certified somatic movement therapist. This unique course, rooted in the PME method, offers an immersive, client-centered, and process-oriented approach to somatic therapy.

The PME method harnesses the power of guided body sensing, movement, touch, and reflection to facilitate healing and growth. By engaging in mindful and compassionate body awareness, participants activate and support physical self-regulation, paving the way for emotional balance and cognitive clarity.

Led by Dieter Rehberg, MA, BA, MSMT/E, the founder of PME, with 35 years of somatic expertise, this training covers a diverse range of disciplines including Somatic Movement, Anatomical Embodiment, Somatic Coaching, Healing Dance, Somatic Touch, Somatic Movement Education, and Somatic Movement Therapy.

Accessible worldwide through a fully hybrid/online format, this affordable training program offers flexibility and convenience, making it possible for you to join from anywhere. Embrace this opportunity to deepen your somatic practice and enhance your professional skills.

For You

Somatic Trainining is for you if
  • you want to live your full potential
  • you want to find your physical wisdom and creativity
  • you want to become who you are
  • you want to ease physical pain and remain from suffering
  • you think that talking is not enough for your development
  • you love movement, bodywork, dance, yoga or martial arts
  • you work already professionally with people and want broaden your approach to communicate with others in a helpful and healing way
  • want to become a "Somatic Movement Therapist", a "Somatic Movement Educator" or a "Somatic Practitioner"

Somatic Training

The comprehensive 500-hour, two-year professional training program rooted in the PME method prepares participants to become certified Somatic Movement Therapists and Educators (certified by ISMETA), or Somatic Practitioners / Body-Psychotherapists (certified by USABP).
Ideal for professionals seeking to expand their approach in helping others, and for those who love movement, bodywork, dance, yoga, or martial arts, the training program is accessible worldwide through a fully hybrid/online format. It offers flexibility and convenience through its modular form, enabling participants to start at any time. The training is conducted in small live groups to ensure individual attention and support, crucial for personal and professional development.

PME

Physio-Mentale Entwicklung (PME) is a holistic, sustainable somatic method designed to enhance human health through the integrated development of both body and mind. Utilizing tools such as touch, movement, language, and perception training, PME fosters a mindful, compassionate 'Somatic Dialogue' that triggers and supports the process of physical and mental self-organization and self-development. The 'Somatic Dialogue' promotes self-regulation by cultivating trust in the body's inherent wisdom, creating a healing process through mindful and compassionate self-perception.

In the 'Somatic Dialogue' therapists and coaches initiate healing effects and helpful developments through mindful and compassionate listening, movement education and touch. They guide the individual process of the clients into their resources in slow and describable steps. This structured yet flexible approach provides a clear framework for intention and action and ensures the method's safety, efficacy, sustainability, and ease of use.


PME addresses comprehensive health by alleviating physical pain, providing relaxation, and enhancing coordination, while also resolving mental and social issues using the moving body as a resource and anchor for mental changes. It is effective in overcoming emotional conflicts, coping with crises, relieving emotional stress, and supporting positive behavioral development.


This immersive, client-centered, and process-oriented approach to somatic therapy is designed for personal and professional growth, enabling individuals to live their full potential, discover their physical wisdom and creativity, ease physical pain, and transcend suffering, especially if talking alone is insufficient for their development.
PME is practiced in individual sessions, group settings, and through 'Healing Dance', integrating buddhist psychology to define perceptual qualities .
PME was developed by Dieter Rehberg, who synthesized his training, practical experience as a movement educator and therapist, insights into Buddhist psychology, and subsequent creative developments.

Year one: Basic Somatic Training

(250 hours)
The first year focuses on experiencing and embodying the principles of PME across various disciplines, guiding personal development towards a healing process. Disciplines covered include Somatic Movement, Anatomical Embodiment, Somatic Coaching, Healing Dance, and Somatic Touch, supplemented by theory, group sharing, homework, and individual coaching. Highlights of the curriculum include understanding basic anatomical structures and physiological entities, exploring the principles of PME in theory and practice, studying the mind and its qualities, engaging in and practicing the 'Somatic Dialogue', and learning about self-regulation, self-organization, and co-regulation.

Year two: Advanced Somatic Training

(250 hours)
The second year of the Somatic Training, the Advanced Somatic Training, covers the disciplines Somatic Movement Education, Anatomical Embodiment Education, Somatic Coaching and Somatic Movement Therapy. The Advanced Somatic Training is designed for dedicated individuals with strong time management skills and a solid understanding and practice of PME. Its aims include developing professional educators, coaches, and therapists in PME; fostering safe and responsible professional practices in teaching, coaching, and therapy; enhancing the ability to reflect, discuss, and write about PME; and creating ethical and sustainable PME-based businesses. Learning outcomes for students encompass gaining a deeper somatic and cognitive grasp of PME, acquiring skills to design and maintain personal somatic practices, understanding the importance of personal practice as the foundation for professional work, and developing self-regulation and balance. Additionally, students will learn the professional use of language in teaching, coaching, and therapy, and gain knowledge in designing, conducting, and reflecting on somatic movement and anatomical embodiment sessions. They will also be equipped to conduct professional PME coaching and therapy, understand the theory of PME and related fields such as Idiolectics, Body-Psychotherapy, Trauma, Health, and Salutogenesis, and contextualize PME theory and practice within broader fields. Practical business skills for education, coaching, and therapy are also included, along with integrating somatic movement therapy and education into their work and life.

Somatic Training is an ISMETA Associate Organisation
Somatic Training applies the code of ethics
and standards of practice of the International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association (ISMETA)
Somatic Training is active member and accredited somatic training institute of USABP.
Somatic Training also agrees and aplies to the principles and ethical standards of the United States Association for Body-Psychotherapy

Feedback

"The teacher is brilliant! :) Very passionate and knowledgeable on the topic, conveying precise and easy to understand knowledge, experience  and enthusiasm along the course. Very friendly, approachable and generous in his support and feedback."
"Absolutely excellent and very unique. The training offers real insight into movement. Beyond categorized terms – and is also a space for personal growth and development. Very recommendable to all kinds of movement teachers."
"With its simplicity this training really enables one to focus and understand what "mindful" realy means. And by constantly emphasizing and explaining its importance it creates the safe space for it to be embodied."

"Personally, this has been an amazing and rich journey, connecting more to my body, physically and sensory, becoming curious and explorative, being more friendly and compassionate with my body and its processes. This course offered the space to go through a wide range of sensing, feelings, thoughts- from I feel nothing, I am not sure what is there... to overwhelming, humbling realizations about my self (mind, body, spirit)"

"Fun, collaborative, awe-inducing, educational, challenging, focused, and transformative. This is what comes to mind when I remember this module. I’m writing this feedback nearly 12 months after I took the module. This week planted the seed for an awakening process for my awareness. The only thing that exists is right here right now and that’s true for everything everywhere."
Somatic Movement is a practice designed to enhance inner alignment, mindfulness, health, and bodily freedom by encouraging individuals to listen to their body's messages and develop their unique movement vocabulary. This practice involves mindful attention to bodily processes, promoting self-organization and development through a somatic dialogue where sensing acts as a question and movement as the answer. Somatic Movement emphasizes the importance of the quality of sensations over the form of body positions, advocating for slow, conscious movements focused on internal experiences rather than end results. It offers numerous benefits, including harmonizing body and mind, releasing tension, improving alignment, and opening emotional channels for creativity. By engaging the parasympathetic nervous system through inward sensing, Somatic Movement helps shift from stress responses like fight, flight, freeze, or fawn to a state of rest and healing, allowing for the expression and release of stored emotions, thereby aiding in mental and emotional recovery.
highlights of the curriculum are:
  • the practice of somatic movement
  • exercises vs free movement
  • stillness vs movement
  • positions vs flow
  • exploration / somatization
  • full body movement vs spezifikation
  • spatial relationships
  • gravity
  • archaic movement patterns
  • attention
  • quality of sensations
  • mind factors
  • reflection / finding words
  • feelings / emotions
In Somatic Movement online you can experience the healing power of "Physio-Mental Development" through interactive Zoom meetings.
Our program blends classic somatic movement with anatomical embodiment, featuring advanced 3D animations for a unique and immersive experience. Enhance your journey with somatic self-coaching for comprehensive healing.

Anatomical Embodiment
Anatomical Embodiment is a practice that applies scientific knowledge of anatomy and physiology to individual experience, enhancing body-schema and body-image through sensation, movement, and touch. This method begins with theoretical input on anatomy, followed by personal exploration using the "Somatic Dialog" of Method PME to achieve healing and beneficial results. The aim of Anatomical Embodiment is to foster an embodied understanding of anatomy, promote freedom and integration of pain-free movement, and reveal the relationship between physical and mental qualities. It enhances self-esteem and character development by uncovering hidden qualities, leading to better self-regulation and awareness of the emotional history stored in the body. The content includes exploration of body parts, tissues, neighboring structures, systems and organs.
highlights of the curriculum are:

  • axes / inside spaces
  • spatial organisation
  • spine
  • bone tissue
  • head & neck
  • pelvis - sacrum- isj
  • breathing
  • heart - lungs - rib cage
  • shoulder girdle
  • upper extremity
  • lower extremity
  • introduction organ tissue

Somatic Coaching applies the principles of Physio-Mental Development (PME) in a one-on-one setting to address personal, professional, and social issues through touch and movement. This approach transforms emotional and physical concerns into healing development by initiating a "Somatic Dialogue" that fosters safe, reflective, and client-centered self-organization. The coach guides the client to access their inherent solutions, enhancing relaxation, clarity, emotional intelligence, and personal resources. Somatic Coaching promotes holistic problem-solving, gut decisions, and embodied leadership by translating unconscious knowledge into practical actions. This trauma-sensitive method fosters the gentle release of old injuries and the development of new, wholesome behavior patterns.
highlights of the curriculum are:

  • the practice of somatic coaching
  • the role of the coach / therapist
  • setting, time & space
  • the somatic dialogue
  • the steps of somatic coaching
  • the grid of the levels of perception and action
  • using touch in coaching
  • self - coaching
  • stop - coaching with group supervision
  • analyzing recorded coachings
  • supervised coaching
  • poly-awareness
  • the grid of perception and action
Online Somatic Coaching offers similar benefits through video conferencing, emphasizing mindful dialogue, self-regulation, and the holistic integration of body and mind. It supports mental and physical development, resolves blockages, realigns old injuries, and is particularly effective for career and relationship decisions, psychosomatic complaints, and emotional suffering.

Healing Dance
  • Healing Dance is a holistic dance practice designed to foster emotional expression, self-awareness, and relational skills through free and playful movement. It integrates somatic movement to access the body and spirit, encouraging participants to feel, touch,  connect with themselves and others and find a mutual dance. This dance  practice emphasizes the joy of life, healing development, and self-organization, allowing for spontaneous and diverse movement without predefined steps. Emotional and tactile touch are key, enabling direct expression of feelings and promoting healing. Safety, trust, and a non-judgmental environment underpin the experience, facilitating honest self-exploration and supportive dialogue. Healing Dance also incorporates mindfulness and compassion, offering metaphors for life and pathways for personal and spiritual growth. While not a medical therapy, it aims to enhance physical and mental health, encouraging a balanced and liberated life.
highlights of the curriculum are:
  • the practice of healing dance
  • safety and trust
  • emotional expression through movement
  • touch and being touched
  • free movement and improvisation
  • the somatic dialogue in touch and movement
  • communication and relationship skills
  • leading and following
  • activity and passivity
  • surrender and resistance
  • impression and expression
  • dancing qualities

Somatic Touch
Somatic Touch is fundamental to our healing development, impacting us physically, mentally, and emotionally. As the tactile sense is the first to establish contact with the outside world, it forms the basis of our communication and defines our self-awareness. Treatments using the PME method involve a comprehensive approach that includes anatomical understanding, embodiment practices, healing touch, and a mindful and compassionate touch quality. This method also integrates anatomical-systemic touch quality, a healing mindset, work on the massage table, practical grips, passive movement, and complete treatments. Techniques such as Easy Hands-On and Somatic Dialogue are employed, accompanied by feedback rounds and supervision focused on touch qualities, ensuring a holistic and supportive healing experience.
highlights of the curriculum are:
  • the practice of somatic touch:
  • safety and consent
  • helpful & healing touch
  • mindful and compassionate touch quality
  • anatomical-systemic touch quality
  • healing attitude of the mind while touching
  • easy Hands-On
  • somatic dialogue with touch
  • touch and move
  • steps of coaching with touch
  • supervision on touch qualities

Dieter Rehberg
Dieter Rehberg, MA, BA, MSMT/E, is Psychological Counselor (LSB), Master of Somatic Movement Therapy and Education(ISMETA), Somatic Dance Educator , Massage Therapist and Performance Artist. Rehberg is Trager-Practitioner and certified in Idiolektics and has extensive experience and knowledge in Release Technique, Contact Improvisation, Creative Dance, Alexander Technique and Body-Mind Centering. He developed his method integrating these different dance, bodywork and counseling techniques from his 35 years of professional experience as somatic therapist and performance artist combining it with his insights into buddhist theory and practice. He is the director of the "Institut und Akademie für Physio-Mentale Entwicklung" and founder of THE SOMATIC TRAINING. Rehberg holds a Bachelor of Arts from the European Dance Development Center / NL, the Trauma Certificate from Laurier University / CAN and a Master of Arts in Somatic Studies from Middlesex University / UK. For 25 years he worked in his private practice in Vienna / Austria and teaches nationally, internationally and online.


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Akademie für Physio-Mentale Entwicklung
Institut für Physio-Mentale Entwicklung