SOMATIC CPD TRAININGs, uk
DATES 2025
Module 1: Foundations, Somatic CPD Training
1st - 5th May 2025 at The Yoga Garden, Knepp Estate, West Sussex (Non Residential)
Module 2: Elemental Body, Somatic CPD Training
25th - 29th September 2025 at Leusdon Memorial Hall, Dartmoor, UK
Module 1: Foundations, Somatic CPD Training
The Foundations Training module is broad and covers different aspects of Somatic Yoga, Somatic Movement with Nature and is underpinned by Buddhist Contemplative Meditation Practices and Creative Process.
Through the 5 days you will discover principles, techniques and understandings around somatic practice and how they interweave to bridge the worlds of yoga, meditation, movement, therapy and creative process with nature.
This CPD creates a bridge for yoga and movement practitioners and teachers, dancers, creatives and therapists to enter the diverse world of somatics.
Led morning Somatic Yoga practices as a foundation for further embodied explorations with focus on stability, grounding, clarity, structure and orientation.
Understanding and cultivating developmental sequencing as an intelligent somatic asana/movement framework.
Cultivating awareness and relationship to the inner body through movement practices such as walking and slow movement, underpinned by Buddhist teachings (drawing on the traditions of Insight and Zen meditation)
Cultivating a somatic movement practice with nature, understanding how an eco-somatic approach to movement in nature develops inner resources, well-being, empathy, creativity and community through both human and more than human worlds (drawing on Somatics, Butoh Dance, and Eastern Contemplative Arts)
At The Yoga Garden on the Knepp Estate
The Yoga Garden is a beautiful natural centre found within the pioneering 3,500-acre rewilding project that is the Knepp Estate. The training takes place in a beautiful hand-crafted yurt set within a wildflower meadow, with a swimming lake, woods and accompanied by many animals, birds and insects all around.
I have specifically chosen to bring the somatic training to the Yoga Garden on the Knepp Estate because of the re-wilding focus and it now being one of the most biodiverse places in the UK. Due to importance of foregrounding nature with movement in my approach, I am interested in how our somatic movement process will be enriched and informed by this diverse ecology that we move within at the Yoga Garden and how our collective process can give back to the space and to nature. I believe that somatic practices with / as nature develops reciprocal and reparative relationships.
Please see the trailer for the recently released film ‘Wilding’ about the Knepp Estate:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXmh6bXyaLI
Daily Schedule: TBC
Cost: 575 GBP, 3 low-cost spaces available at 450 GBP (please email me to apply)
Accommodation: This is a non-residential training. Please choose from a range of local Air B n B’s around the Yoga Garden (we have a list) or there are glamping options right next to the Yoga Garden please book through the Knepp Estate website https://knepp.co.uk/stay/glamping/
Food: Please bring a packed lunch, tea, coffee and biscuits are provided
Module 2: Elemental Body, Somatic CPD Training
This Elemental Body Somatic CPD is a multi-faceted CPD of embodied practices that foreground the connection to and the expression of the inner body in movement and its relation to nature and the elements.
This CPD is an empirically based somatic, therapeutic approach to movement that utilises a creative and expressive approach informed by nature to engage the body, mind, and spirit in order to transform stress and suffering and trauma.
The CPD develops the moving, sensate body as a regenerative field of contemplation, emotional intelligence and creative process that can connect us to empathy, compassion and inter-connectedness. A recognisable safe foundation of yoga and meditative practice allow for a more experimental exploration of the body in movement where its inner felt landscape can be expressed and flower into its own authentic dance and where its relationship to the elements provides a deepening well of resource, support and creativity.
At its heart, the Elemental Body CPD fosters feeling, care, empathy, and soul. It is work that cultivates ways of seeing, being, and moving that supports us to directly experience the inter-connected nature of existence. From this perspective Elemental Body could be defined as an eco-somatic, eco-feminist process. Embodying the elements can become a source of ancestral wisdom that we can experience together.
Experiencing the inter-connected nature of existence as an embodied state is fundamentally important right now, it can provide us with a space from which to respond to and tend to the multiple social and ecological crises we face in contemporary culture which can otherwise be overwhelming and plunge us into paralysis and helplessness.
The opening and expression of the inner body through improvised dance / movement is supported by coherent somatic therapeutic principles and techniques from Buddhist Meditation (Insight and Zen), Japanese Butoh Dance, Body Orientated Trauma Therapy (Somatic Experiencing), and Somatic Movement.
Due to my background in Somatic Experiencing therapy (body orientated trauma resolution), I have evolved Elemental Body CPD to specifically work with the physiology, cultivating nervous system regulation, inner and outer resources, internal stability, expanding nervous system capacity and resilience, agency and empowerment and unlocking creative energy.
NB. These processes are long term practices and require continuing commitment.
At Leusdon Memorial Hall on Dartmoor
Dartmoor is “a rugged and captivating region in the Southwest of England, offering a remarkably diverse and utterly magical outdoor experience. Covering 954 square kilometres, this ancient landscape is characterised by rolling hills, vast granite tors, gorgeous green valleys, and pristine rivers”. Dartmoor is a place where the elements, history, and nature converge to facilitate tangible experiences of connection to ancient lands. Embodying the elements on Dartmoor can be a deeply transformational experience that can re-invigorate, re-animate and re-wild our connection to self, nature and other. Elemental Body was born out of my own practice on Dartmoor and it now feels appropriate that students/participants can experience the site specificity of this work.
Leusdon Memorial Hall on Widdecombe on the Moor will provide us with a beautiful simple indoor space with kitchen and tea making facilities where morning practice will take place. In the afternoons, weather permitting, we will explore working outside by the river and up at one of the Tors as we develop our Elemental Body practice with nature where there is an abundance of the elements (rushing rivers, beautiful woods, huge granite boulders, spacious skies and expanses of moorland), returning to the Hall for final process and closing in the early evenings.
Daily Schedule: Morning Session 10am - 1pm, Lunch 1 - 2.30pm, Afternoon Session 2.30 - 5.30pm.
Cost: 450 / 550 GBP (sliding scale)
Accommodation: This is a non-residential training. Please choose from a range of local Air B n B’s in Ashburton or Summerhill Campsite which is nearby http://summerhillfarmcampsite.co.uk
Food: Please bring a packed lunch, tea, coffee and biscuits are provided
Inclusivity and a Non-Hierarchical Approach
The 5-day CPD’s are offered to small groups (maximum 12 participants) to cultivate a personal, safe and well-held experience for all involved.
The CPD is a space of open enquiry, dialogue and creative process, the material is explored within community using an experiential pedagogy. I specifically facilitate a non-hierarchical way of exploring together, which involves invitations and suggestions of movement to deconstruct power dynamics.
These spaces are queer spaces meaning that they are open and inclusive to people who may find themselves somehow different, marginalised or underrepresented on the grounds of sexuality, age, gender, colour, race, neurodiversity or disability. They are both safe and inclusive.
Modular Structure
Each module can work as a stand-alone module or sequentially for those who are interested to dive into the world of somatics.
However, for participants with no experience of Buddhist mindfulness practices or somatics, it will be necessary to take Module 1 first and then progress to Module 2.
Certification
The Somatic CPD Trainings are 30 hours and on satisfactory completion of the hours, you will be issued with a CPD certificate from Still Flowing Yoga Teacher Training with my senior yoga teacher stamp on it from the UK Yoga Alliance.
Facilitator Biography
Gemma Mallol is a Dance and Movement Researcher (Master’s) at The University of Plymouth, currently researching Butoh Dance and Somatics. She is a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (body orientated trauma therapy) and a Senior Yoga and Mindfulness Teacher Trainer (23 years teaching). She now works with diverse groups integrating Somatics, Butoh dance and creative processes with nature as an eco somatic response to the current multiple social and ecological crises that we collectively face. She sees her work as as a form of regenerative activism and aims to cultivate feminist, creative and embodied community spaces and networks. She identifies as queer, neuro-diverse and mixed race.
Bookings & Info
Please email Gemma on stillflowing@hotmail.co.uk or Whats App 00 44 7745300237
Places are limited to 12 so please book in advance to ensure your access to accommodation