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The Foundations of UZAZU Embodied Intelligence

A 3-Day In-Person Training for Coaches & Therapists

Using a holistic, somatic framework for growth and healing, unlock the power of embodied intelligence in your professional practice. Learn to access a full spectrum of balanced states through simple movements and body postures. Develop your capacity to identify and shift imbalanced states and to facilitate integrative change in 1-1 sessions.

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This Training Could Be a Fit for You If...

  • You have experience in the field of psychotherapy, coaching, consulting, and/or body-oriented 1-1 work, and you have a desire to be of greater service to your clients.
  • You're finding your 1-1 sessions too 'talk heavy' and want to bring in a more body-focused approach that can help your clients increase self-awareness, build self-regulation skills, and experience deeper transformation.
  • You may already have a variety of embodiment tools and techniques that you bring to your client work, but feel you lack a larger organizing framework to sharpen your intuition about which tools to use when, and why.
  • You've been feeling uninspired about your 1-1 sessions, and would like to feel more energized and engaged as you work with each client.
  • You value engaging in your own embodied self-work, and know it will help make you a more fully authentic and powerful facilitator of change for others.

Embodied Intelligence: Activating the Wisdom of the Whole Self

3-Day-UZAZU-Workshop-Moscow-2019-27

Cultivating embodied intelligence helps us develop our capacity to coherently sense & respond in life-affirming ways to any situation.

Imagine bringing deeper embodiment to your work with clients to help them increase self-awareness, build self-regulation skills, and experience deeper transformation. Using UZAZU Embodied Intelligence, you help your clients access more of the truth, wisdom, and power of their full being by guiding them into greater coherence throughout their mind, body, and awareness. UZAZU is a holistic, research-based model and method for understanding and working with embodied states to identify imbalances and rapidly shift and re-pattern them.

"Intelligence" is not only a property of individual cognitive processes in the brain. In truth, intelligence co-emerges from the mind’s interaction with the body, environment, and culture. We refer to this more integrated understanding of intelligence as “Embodied Intelligence”.

A Comprehensive, Research-Based Approach to Cultivating Embodied Intelligence

UZAZU helps make sense of both our environment and our own felt experience, in service of optimally adapting and responding to our environment in a highly individualized way.

Based on two decades of research and development, UZAZU Embodied Intelligence provides a clear, integrative model and method to understand, identify, and rapidly shift states that are dysregulated or otherwise disruptive.

The UZAZU method helps professionals quickly identify where, and in which contexts, someone’s mind-body integration is becoming compromised or distorted. It equips those who use it with a set of simple postures and movement patterns to cultivate the states that will help them restore and strengthen their capacity to sense and respond to life.

UZAZU offers a unique approach to embodied facilitation

  • UZAZU provides a comprehensive yet flexible framework for facilitating change that is based on nine simple postures and movements, while also supporting organic, intuitive, and creative exploration.
  • UZAZU uses a synergistic approach to mind-body integration, combining two main flows: Bottom-Up (or 'inside out') and Top-Down (or 'outside in'). Bottom-Up integration focuses on uncovering hidden emotions, energies, and mental associations from within, while Top-Down transformation focuses on consciously envisioning and embodying desired qualities and new ways of being.
  • The combination of specific postures, movements and mental frames helps clients easily and intuitively re-balance a wide range of dysregulated states and activate balanced, resourcing states. It also provides facilitators the tools and strategies to work through deeper issues and nurture a client's long-term growth in a developmentally informed way.
  • UZAZU’s core frameworks, patterns, postures, and techniques are easily integrated with other modalities, allowing practitioners to use UZAZU to amplify the results of their existing practice. 

The Learning Journey of the Foundations Training

This 3-day in-person training introduces you experientially to the movements and postures that comprise working with the UZAZU's Nine Modes of Engagement. As a helping professional, you will learn how to work with the states of balance and imbalance corresponding to the Modes. You will learn a framework specific to UZAZU for embodied 1-1 facilitation. You will come away from the training ready to bring this work to clients.

Day One

Access
Balanced States

Access a full spectrum of balanced states by engaging Body, Mind, and Awareness.

Day One Main Topics ⬇︎

1. The Three Layers of Body, Mind, and Awareness

Understand how the three layers of body, mind, and awareness support the integrative top-down and bottom-up processing of energy & information.

2. The Three Bodymind Dimensions Framework

Learn to activate the 3 Core Bodymind Dimensions (Stimulus, Response, and Orientation) as an easy, precise way to understand & shift your embodied state.

3. The 9 Core Modes of Embodied Engagement

Combine the 3 Bodymind Dimensions with specific body movements, postures, cognitions, and imagery to activate a full spectrum of potent, balanced flow states.

Day Two

Rebalance
Dysregulated States

Use simple movements and body postures to identify and shift imbalanced states.

Day Two Main Topics ⬇︎

4. Identifying Imbalanced Activation-States

Identify & safely activate a full range of imbalanced states in order to understand how our bodymind creates them, and further reflect on how they manifest in daily life.

5. Two Primary State-Rebalancing Processes

Learn two easy-to-use effective techniques for helping clients shift out of dysregulation or stuckness and into states of more coherent flow.

6. The Ecology & Assessment of Embodied States

Understand the dynamic ecology of someone’s overall patterns of state-activation and how these patterns help shape key challenges & growth opportunities.

Day Three

Facilitate
Embodied Change

Facilitate integrative change in 1-1 sessions with embodiment-based frameworks.

Day Three Main Topics ⬇︎

7. The 5-Step Embodied Change Sequence

Learn UZAZU's framework for facilitating embodied 1-1 sessions and help your clients achieve clarity and resolution on their most pressing issues with more confidence & ease.

8. Four Core Dynamics of Embodied Facilitation

Discover how to utilize four crucial elements of interpersonal embodied facilitation to enhance client engagement and co-create better outcomes.

9. Integrating UZAZU with your Current Methods & Work

Integrate UZAZU into your current methods and practice and learn effective strategies for facilitating embodied 1-1 work online.

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What people are saying about using UZAZU with Clients

Corinne Vergote

UZAZU has had such a profound impact on me, both as a practitioner and as a person. As a Somatic Movement Therapist, I used to rely on the various somatic practices and tools I’d trained in, but when I discovered UZAZU, I realized its immediacy, simplicity, and practical application really made it stand out—it’s mostly the only tool I use now! UZAZU helps clients shift into a positive frame quickly and effectively, and provides a simple, easy-to-use system for helping them learn to rebalance themselves in difficult situations. I appreciate the positivity that UZAZU brings to my work and how quickly it can bring beautiful breakthroughs and progress to my clients.

Corinne Vergote - UZAZU PRACTITIONER, Somatic Movement Therapist, Bodyworker

Albert Viljoen 2

“UZAZU has transformed my coaching practice and my personal life in ways that I couldn't have imagined. It felt like UZAZU Embodied Intelligence really offered me the map, the developmental framework, and then also the tools to really support someone. Now that I have an embodied map, I can get to the roots of any issue much more quickly and then easily work with it in an embodied way, which has made me much more effective in my work with clients.

Dr. ALBERT VILJOEN, EXECUTIVE COACH & UZAZU PRACTITIONER

"I came to UZAZU with a background in dance, yoga, Feldenkrais, and other somatic practices. I find UZAZU to be a great complement to these other practices, and has become the main frame through which I offer my 1-1 work now. What I love about UZAZU is that it's so practical, and can be used in the moment, in real life. It helps us change our state and respond to our environment without having to take a long yoga class or similar practice, just to regain balance. In that sense, it means that state regulation, balance, and embodied living are integrated into our daily lives, rather than being a separate thing we do outside of our day to day. UZAZU is a unique model, system, and practice for addressing the challenges of responding in the moment. I appreciate its simplicity, immediacy, and power."

Ashley Handel - UZAZU Practitioner, Embodiment Coach

Embodied intelligence for me is all about how our body, other bodies, the world, all come together in our experience. It's what makes us who we are and gives us the ability to listen, respond, care, and create. That's why I find UZAZU so special, as it gives us a language to connect with our body, with ourselves and others. I feel passionately that cultivating our own embodied intelligence is also an important form of resistance to the disembodied culture that has so distanced us from the earth, ourselves, and each other. By getting more deeply in touch with our bodies, we can learn things that the culture won't ever reveal to us. What sets UZAZU apart in the world of embodied practices and healing is that it brings together the creative body, mind, and imagination, integrating inner and outer experiences in an intuitive way that other modalities haven’t quite for me. It's like discovering a whole new world of human experience that I never knew existed, and now I have a way to tap into it and find my inner resources at any moment. I see UZAZU as a gift for anyone looking for more embodiment, and for anyone who is doing healing work, as it helps give us access to such a vast array of embodied human experience.

Kellie Ryan - CHSE (Certified Holistic Sexuality Educator), Uzazu Practitioner, LMT

How the Training Works, and What You'll Get

While UZAZU trainings provide you with a robust underlying theory & framework to help inform skillful embodied work, the focus is primarily on experiential learning.

You'll be invited to engage interactively and experience the various postures, movements, states, and state-shifts yourself.  Then you'll be guided in practicing and applying what you're learning with your co-trainees. These two modes of working -individually and relationally- are each followed with time for reflection and integration in small groups and within the whole group.

We benefit from the rich range of diverse experiences and perspectives in the room as we learn by doing, together.

Your trainers attend with great care to the coherence and flow of participants' experience.

This three day experience offers an intensive journey, so come prepared to engage, practice, absorb and integrate!

Here's what's included when you join the Foundations training:

  • 18 hours of live, in person training & practice, 6 hours each day (with breaks), for 3 days. (Approved by the Maine NASW for 18 CE Credits in Maine)
  • A 2-hour follow-up online Review and Q&A Webinar, 2-3 weeks after the training, to address any questions you may have.
  • A 5-Part Online Video-based 'Foundations Review Mini-Course' so you can easily review all the main elements taught in the live training.
  • PDF reference sheets, summaries and worksheets of all the main content in the training—so you can refer back to and work with the material beyond the live training days.
  • Additional pre-recorded UZAZU Practice Videos you can use to support your own embodiment and learning about the core states.
  • 2-year access to all training and practice videos, in our dedicated online course area.
  • 2-Year access to the UZAZU online community—where you can share your questions, reflections, and successes—to help you continue  learning and growing with UZAZU.
  • A time-limited discount (in addition to the early-bird) for the 9-Month UZAZU Practitioner Certification training, starting September 13, 2023.

Locations, Dates, and Pricing Options:

Munich, Germany

June 1-3, 2023

Indoors, we'll be together at a beautiful studio space. Outdoors, Munich offers iconic architecture, a thriving cultural scene, excellent transportation, and renowned cuisine—we'll be staying on for some vacation afterwards, ourselves...

Meet the Trainers:

dylan newcomb

Dylan Newcomb

Dylan Newcomb is a mind-body researcher, coach, teacher, and founder/director of the UZAZU Embodied Intelligence method. Over the past 20 years, Dylan has taught his unique approach to embodiment training, currently called UZAZU Embodied Intelligence, to over 3,000 students across 4 continents. 

He has trained coaches, therapists, group facilitators, policemen, doctors, and business leaders in how to quickly balance their inner states to bring more ease and flow to their engagement in the world. Dylan is increasingly recognized as one of the leaders in the space of bringing the science and practice of embodiment-based personal development into the 21st Century.
 

Read More About Dylan... 

Dylan works 1-1 with coaches, therapists, teachers, entrepreneurs, and cultural creatives of all kinds to cultivate and access the specific embodied states that help empower them more effortlessly to thrive in their personal and professional relationships and take joyful, effective action on their authentic inspirations. He has led over 200 workshops and trainings for helping professionals and laypeople, teaching about self-regulation and state-shifting.

Dylan spent the first fifteen years of his adulthood (1999-2004) as a dancer, choreographer, and composer. He studied both dance and music composition at the Juilliard School in New York City and danced with the world-renowned Netherlands Dance Theater before going on to enjoy a successful multi-award-winning career as a freelance choreographer & composer.

Driven by an interest to understand the deeper effects of sound and movement on people’s experience, behavior, and relational dynamics, Dylan co-founded the Danslab Institute for Movement Research in 2003 (today called Cloud at Danslab), generously funded by the Dutch Government and multiple other grants.

After several years of research into how vowel sounds affect people’s thoughts, emotion, and behavior, Dylan began shaping his sound-movement research findings into a model—and a method—for helping people identify various forms of embodied state imbalances and then shifting and re-patterning them. This research is what led him to what is now called UZAZU Embodied Intelligence.

Dylan also holds certifications in Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), Healing from the Body-Level Up (HBLU), Psychological Kinesiology (Psych-K).

He lives with his wife Kyung-sun Baek and their 11-year-old daughter Kiana in Freeport Maine.

Deb Grant

Deb Grant

Practicing psychotherapy for over 25 years, Deb Grant, LCSW, LSMT integrates Body-oriented Psychotherapy,
UZAZU Embodied Intelligence, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Body-Mind Centering, energy psychology (including EFT), and ego state work in her trauma-informed psychotherapy and coaching work with clients to help create lasting healing and change.

She brings consultation and professional development workshops to therapists and other helping professionals, exploring the integration of somatic/body-based work with psychotherapy. As a lead trainer for UZAZU Embodied Intelligence, Deb provides clinical consultation and training for the professional workshops and certification programs for UZAZU.
 

Read More About Deb... 

Deb has co-presented workshops on polyvagal theory with Deb Dana, including at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Lenox, Massachusetts as well as at Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York. Among her many collaborations with Deb Dana, she co-authored a chapter in the book entitled Clinical Applications of the Polyvagal Theory: The Emergence of Polyvagal-informed Therapies (Editors Stephen Porges and Deb Dana).

Deb is a Body-Mind Centering® Somatic Movement Educator and a Registered Somatic Movement Therapist, and holds two yoga teacher certifications. She teaches improvisational dance using somatic and relational approaches, offering students ways of using dance as a personal practice for health, well-being and embodiment. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is this training for? How do I know if it's a good fit for me?

The professional-focused trainings of UZAZU Embodied Intelligence are designed to easily and effectively compliment your existing methods & tools.

We welcome you to attend this training if you are a coach, psychotherapist, somatic therapist, social worker, counselor or other helping professional; and are experienced in and comfortable working 1-1 with individuals in your professional context.
You do NOT need to have any prior training in UZAZU Embodied Intelligence. And, you do not need to be currently trained, certified or credentialed in any specific profession to take this training. 

While the training focuses on 1:1 work and has limitations for its use at this level in group contexts, experienced group facilitators can benefit from this work as well. 

Do I need to have any prior experience in facilitating "embodied work" to take this training?

No. UZAZU Embodied Intelligence works equally well for "newbies" to embodied (somatic-oriented) change work, all the way to seasoned somatic therapists with several body-based modalities under their belt.
For people new to somatic work, this training can serve a simple-yet-comprehensive unique framework & ‘starter-kit’.
For those already utilizing one or more body-based approaches, the training offers an integrative framework for sessions that can help professionals combine multiple approaches to their work in a more coherent and focused way.

I am not a mover or a dancer. Am I going to feel like a fish out of water?

Very likely not. UZAZU is designed to be accessible to all bodies, whether a facilitator or a client. The postures associated with the 9 Modes of Engagement are simple to learn* and can be adapted to suit the capacities as well as limitations of the person using it.

While people with a movement background benefit from bringing their embodiment competencies to UZAZU, people new to or self-conscious about movement often appreciate how accessible and transformative the movements of UZAZU are for them, leading to a fast-growing competency working with embodiment as a tool and practice.

*Note: with practice and/or further training the Modes and movements of UZAZU can be more deeply investigated and explored in a nuanced way. 

UZAZU is described as being ‘intuitive’— but is it also backed by any research? 

With 18 years of original research by Dylan Newcomb, including 3 years of funded projects from the Dutch government and multiple years of funding by various grants, our approach integrates findings on human responses to vowel sounds and movement with key models of Ego Development Theory, Phonetics, Mindfulness Practice, Taoist Yin-Yang Theory, Dynamical Systems Theory, Integral Theory, Stimulus-Response Conditioning, Polyvagal Theory, Emotions & Affective States, and Attachment Styles, creating a highly integrative framework or embodied operating system.

Also, we are proud to report that our online self-assessment has been statistically validated across 800 subjects, with a 96% Chronbach’s Alpha (a measure which assesses an instrument’s reliability).

UZAZU was developed iteratively with coaches and therapists, assuring quality and ongoing improvement in how we bring this research-founded modality to others. We do not have efficacy studies yet, but aspire to conduct these as soon as it is feasible to do so.

How can I determine if UZAZU Embodied Intelligence is a good fit for my specific client-base?

Here are the main concerns we hear from Helping Practitioners who are leaning into bringing more embodied approaches into their client-work, followed by our basic responses to each, based on both our years of client experience and teaching:

“Most of my clients won’t be able to use embodied approaches effectively, or even at all. They’re generally just not ‘embodied enough’ to work well in this way.”
   > 1-1 Facilitators of UZAZU generally find that they can successfully titrate, or ‘dose & adapt’, the embodiment-based work they do to meet their clients where they are at. The structure of UZAZU helps support a gradual entry into doing embodied work with clients. This work can range from doing simple initial ‘light experiments’ with body-sensing and using simple physical postures to support additional insight and awareness, all the way to working with embodied processes for processing deep tensions and resolving core conflicts. This ‘embodiment onboarding process’ is something we address directly in the Foundations Training, and go into even more at length in our certification training.

“My clients are not coming to me for body-based work. They are just expecting me to use talk-based approaches. I’d need to change my clientele and/or my fundamental agreements with them, in order to do more embodied work.”
   >Your clients are ultimately coming to you for relief from their pain and solutions to their challenges and desires, and there is no one approach to accomplishing that. In the foundations training, we address the basics of how to frame working with embodiment so that you can gradually & skillfully introduce it. By knowing how to introduce bringing movement and body awareness to sessions, and how to help them understand and align with the value of bringing more of their whole, embodied self into that process, you'll find that most clients are willing to ‘go there’ with you. 

“I know the body is important, but that kind of work is just not that directly related with the kinds of issues my clients are focused on with me.”
   >Facilitators find that UZAZU is applicable to a full range of issues and life areas addressed in psychotherapy (including trauma work), coaching, business, and education. The core focus of this work is on state-awareness and state-shifting, central to what makes us capable of relating with ourselves, feeling and being empowered, connecting effectively with others, and collaborating. As the body tells us a deeper or more accurate truth about how we are dealing with or relating to a situation we help clients bring out a more full experience of their lived reality. Through movement explorations specific to them we then help them experience greater coherence, organization, and integration in their systems.

“If I invite a client to start involving their body in our process, they’ll feel awkward and it will break the flow and maybe even erode some of the trust we have.”
   >If done poorly or awkwardly, yes—’bringing in embodiment’ can be a misstep. However, when embodied approaches are introduced in a sensitive, articulate and attuned manner, facilitators of UZAZU often report that the level of client-satisfaction and rate of client progress rapidly and dramatically improves, leading to deeper trust and a higher level of collaboration.

“I’m concerned that if I invite clients to start using their body more, stuff will come up that I can’t handle.”
   >Indeed, working in a deeply embodied way can bring up strong emotions and energies. In our Foundations Training, we provide three easy-to-use strategies for handling these kinds of moments and states. So, whether you’re a therapist or coach or consultant, etc*., you’ll be able to feel confident you can safely ‘venture into the wilderness’ of doing more embodied client-work, knowing you’ll be able to offer them a safe container regardless of what comes up. *Of equal importance to having the skills to help safely contain and/or work with strong feeling states is having the ethical clarity and commitment to work within your scope of practice.  For help with these considerations you may wish to seek consultation from a trusted expert in your field.

Is this a certification training? And: Can I get CE Credits for taking it?

No, this is not a certification training. We have one, however, and that’s a great possible next step as the Foundations workshop is the prerequisite to taking our 9-Month UZAZU Embodied Intelligence Practitioner Certification Training. The next round of this more in-depth training begins September 13th, 2023.

About CE credits: In Maine USA, this program has been approved by the National Association of Social Workers (Maine branch) for 18 CE Credits in Maine. Currently we do not have 'official' CE’s available for our European locations. You can, however, receive a Certificate of Completion for 18 hours of training if you attend the course fully and complete the feedback form we provide. Some certifying organizations and/or licensing bodies will honor these certificates—check with your board or organization.

You are welcome to say and advertise that you've taken training in or studied the Foundations of UZAZU Embodied Intelligence. The Foundations training is focused on bringing UZAZU to your 1:1 work. You cannot advertise yourself as a(n) (certified) UZAZU Practitioner.

While this training does not endorse you to bring or teach UZAZU to groups, you are welcome to bring one or two elements of UZAZU to groups that you already facilitate; we kindly ask that you credit UZAZU when doing so. We teach leading UZAZU workshops as an advanced training, to certified practitioners.

Do I have to take this training, if I want to join the upcoming Practitioner Certification Training?

The Foundations of Embodied Intelligence for Helping Professionals training is the prerequisite to taking our 9-Month UZAZU Embodied Intelligence Practitioner Certification Training, which starts its next round on September 13th, 2023. If you can’t make it to a live in-person Foundations training and are interested in joining the 9-Month Certification program you have the option of taking our pre-recorded version of the Foundations Training. It provides about 18 hours of training, and works very well in an online format. You can click here to read more about that option. You will simply need to have thoroughly gone through all the content, and experimented with using & applying it, before we start.

I'm very interested, but not able to make it to any of these Trainings... What are my other options?

For the past three years due to the pandemic, we've been teaching this Foundations Training ONLY online, and have found that the training is effective and engaging in this way*. We will offer at least online Foundations training each year— check HERE to see if there is one available.

We also have a pre-recorded version of the Foundations training. It provides about 18 hours of training, and works very well in an online format. You can click here to read more about that option.

*Dylan has been teaching UZAZU primarily online for over 9 years now, and we feel very satisfied with teaching in an online context. We've worked (and keep working) to optimize the effectiveness of our online teaching methodologies, and we consistently receive feedback on how surprisingly engaging & transformational it is for people.

I can forget much of what's taught in these intensive trainings. Will there be any follow-up support?

As part of the Foundations training you will have access to our course site for two years. The course handouts and additional materials, including practice videos and a 5 part course review, will be housed there.

You will also have access to the our online UZAZU users community, where you can share and ask questions to other members.

We highly recommend you join a 'time-zone appropriate' Practice Pod, for practicing using & applying what you’ve learned— students find it to be powerful and effective to connect and meet together for practice.

Additionally, Deb provides paid consultation for individuals and small groups who are interested in having support and input for bringing UZAZU to their professional work. You are welcome to reach out to her to check on her availability.
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About UZAZU Embodied Intelligence

At UZAZU Embodied Intelligence, we believe that our bodies are not just vessels for our minds, but an integral source of intelligence, insight, and power.

UZAZU Embodied Intelligence is a holistic approach to utilizing the intelligence and power of our bodies. Our mission is to make it easy for everyone to tap into their body-mind's innate wisdom and strength, providing them with accessible education, practical tools and resources, and advocacy for embodiment-supportive technology.

With 18 years of original research by Dylan Newcomb, including 3 years of funded projects from the Dutch government, our approach integrates findings on human responses to vowel sounds and movement with key models of Ego Development Theory, Phonetics, Mindfulness Practice, Taoist Yin-Yang Theory, Dynamical Systems Theory, Integral Theory, Stimulus-Response Conditioning, Polyvagal Theory, Emotions & Affective States, and Attachment Styles, creating a highly integrative framework or embodied operating system.

Over 3000 people have taken trainings in UZAZU, and our community of Certified Practitioners is growing each year. Dylan Newcomb and Deb Grant serve as the principal co-trainers, and we work with experienced Training Assistants supporting all our main trainings. As our community continues to expand, we're preparing to 'train the trainers', bringing UZAZU Embodied Intelligence's approach to even more individuals and communities.