What is Rosen Method Bodywork?

Rosen Method Bodywork and Somatic Therapy is empowerment.  Learning to be with one's own fears, hesitations, and emotions and listening to the wisdom that comes from the body brings forth renewed creativity, an honoring of our deepest sense of ourselves, and a sense of new possibilities to live as we truly are, our truth in embodied self-awareness.

Visions

Rosen Method Bodywork and Somatic Therapy is for people who have wishes and visions of what life really could be like. It is for those who wish to use a holistic approach to physical and emotional health, and to empower themselves in their personal lives. It is for those wishing to:

• gain more self-confidence, feelings of self-esteem, and self-worth
• restore their life of feelings, including their childhood ability to unconditionally love
• experience the power of safe, gentle, healing touch
• reintegrate the connections between body, mind, and spirit
• release emotion and tension stored in the muscles of the body and relieve the accompanying physical pain
• reclaim the vibrancy of their senses
• support continuing recovery from addictions by developing a strong sense of self
• become free from the effects of early childhood hurts, physical, sexual, or emotional; it is especially for those who no longer want to hold themselves back in their past painful experiences
• bloom into their full intelligence and creativity and live without limits

Philosophy

Rosen Method Bodywork and Somatic Therapy maintains that we are our own healers. We are designed to live our lives in complete creativity, with full power and intelligence, full of awe and wonder, fully connected to each other in loving cooperation. This is your inherent nature, and it is possible to live from this place. The Rosen Method practitioner can support the client's unfolding self-discovery, self-expression, and healing.

Training and Education

Practitioners of Rosen Method Bodywork receive a rigorous formal training before being certified by the Rosen Institute. The average length of study is four years, in part because one's preparation to do the work requires a good deal of self-discovery. During the internship, which includes 350 hours of practice sessions and 25 hours of sessions supervised by senior teachers, the intern is also expected to receive Rosen sessions him- or herself. Receiving the work is an essential component of learning how to practice the work.

What to Expect from a Session

There is no typical Rosen session. Each session is a unique experience for both client and practitioner. There are, however, several elements that you can generally expect:

• A session is about an hour long.

• The client is invited to lie on a massage table.

• The practitioner may talk to the client, inviting her or him to notice and perhaps respond in words to what is happening in the body as it is touched.

• No oils or lotions are used. Touch may be received directly on the skin or through clothes, as the client wishes.

There is also no typical Rosen client. We work with people who want to experience the wholeness of body, mind, and spirit. Some people come because they are suffering from physical pain or discomfort, some because they sense a general dissatisfaction with their lives, some because they are excited by new possibilities and want support in exploring those new options.

The work is not designed for those with severe mental health issues, such as psychosis, or for people who are actively dependent on chemical or controlled substances.