Level 2 Somatic Movement Dance Therapy Training Course
16th May 2026 @ 10:00 am - 9th September 2026 @ 5:00 pm
£780 – £880
Deepening Practice: The Spirit of Soma
Learn how to guide clients back to a felt sense of wholeness—restoring fluidity, meaning, and soul connection through the body.
This Level 2 Intermediate Training in Somatic Movement Dance Therapy is for experienced movement facilitators, freelancers, coaches, and therapeutic professionals who want to deepen their trauma-informed practice through integrated somatic, spiritual, and imaginal approaches.
You will develop the skills to work with cranial-sacral movement and touch, lymphatic and fascial health, eco-somatic awareness, authentic movement, and archetypal integration.
Rooted in therapeutic principles and spiritual embodiment, this course will refine your facilitation presence and expand your capacity to support healing through the intelligence of the body, the soul, and the natural world.
About this course
Are you ready to deepen your somatic practice and integrate advanced skills in embodied facilitation, spiritual inquiry, and the moving imaginal realm?
This Level 2 intermediate training course in Somatic Movement Dance Therapy accredited by International Practitioners of Holistic Medicine and in association with The Association for Somatic Movement Dance Therapies United Kingdom, is designed for qualified practitioners who have completed the 100 hour Foundation Course ( or equivalent) and wish to expand their therapeutic capacity through advanced somatic, spiritual, and improvisational practices.
Applied and adapted from the pioneering research and trainings of Dr. Amanda Williamson, and based on her book Somatic Movement Dance Therapy: The Healing Art of Self-Regulation & Co-Regulation, this training extends the principles of bottom-up healing into the realms of fascial and lymphatic health, the fluid body, eco-somatics, spiritual embodiment, and the moving imaginal realm.
This course recognises that our life experiences—especially those that overwhelm our sense of safety, connection, or meaning—can become deeply embedded in the tissues, rhythms, and subconscious patterning of the body. When unprocessed, these experiences can fragment our sense of self, suppress our vitality, and sever connection to our deeper essence and the more-than-human world.
Through the integration of Jungian and somatic psychology, cranio-sacral movement and touch, and authentic movement, you will learn how to guide clients to experience a sense of wholeness—restoring fluidity, meaning, and soul connection through the body.
By learning to attune to the body’s deeper rhythms and symbolic language, you will cultivate the skills to meet clients in a relational, poetic, and transformational space—where healing unfolds beyond words.
What is Somatic Movement Dance Therapy?
Somatic Movement Dance Therapy, coined by Dr Amanda Williamson, is a somatic therapy originating from the field of Somatics. It is a bottom-up therapy offering self-regulation and co-regulation for your clients. Rooted in the somatic arts, it blends Polyvagal theory, eastern disciplines, eco-somatics, experiential anatomy, somatic psychology, somatic touch, cranial-sacral therapy, Jungian psychology, movement meditations, improvisation, authentic movement, art therapy, and embodied practices, offering a recognised and potent approach for healing trauma, disconnection, and chronic pain.
Somatic Movement Dance Therapy Training: A Recognised Pathway
For those on the path to professional certification in somatic therapy, finding a training that builds progressively—deepening both practical skill and spiritual embodiment—can be a challenge.
This Level 2 Intermediate Training (100 hours) is designed specifically for graduates of the SMDT Foundation Course or individuals who have 100 hours equivalent training, who are ready to go further in their development as somatic movement practitioners. It offers a structured and progressive next step, expanding your capacity to facilitate meaningful transformation through body-based, improvisational, and imaginal methods.
Created for therapeutic professionals, freelancers, coaches, movement practitioners, and holistic healers, this course bridges the gap between foundational knowledge and deeper therapeutic application. You’ll gain further confidence working with complex somatic processes while developing spiritual presence, attuned touch, and improvisational facilitation.
If you should choose to further your training, this course is certified by IPHM and in association with The Association for Somatic Movement Dance Therapies United Kingdom and offers a recognised pathway to becoming a registered Somatic Movement Dance Therapist SMDT (500 hours). You can combine level 1 (Foundation 100 hours) with the level 2 (Intermediate 100 hours) and level 3 (Enhanced Practitioner level 300 hours). On completion of the three courses and hours, you can register as a Somatic Movement Dance Therapist with UKSMDT.
Combine this course with Level 1 & 3 to register as a Somatic Movement Dance Therapist with UKSMDT
Level 2 Course Structure & Modules
This four-month Level 2 Intermediate Training builds on your foundational knowledge and takes you deeper into the transformational power of somatic movement and dance therapy. It is designed to refine your presence, strengthen your facilitation, and expand your capacity to hold space for complex somatic processes.
Structured as a hybrid learning journey, the course includes:
Three interactive online modules delivered via Zoom, with live lectures, breakout rooms, experiential practices, detailed notes, and real-time group facilitation.
A five-day in-person non-residential training retreat (Module 4) where you will deepen your embodiment, receive guided feedback, and engage in applied studio practice and assessment. This retreat honours the soulful and relational nature of the work, offering a rich, immersive environment to integrate your learning.
You will also complete independent hours through reading, personal practice, reflective integration, and practical assessments, contributing to the total 100-hour certification.
Module 1: Cranial-Sacral Movement
16th & 17th May 2026 – Interactive Online Zoom Training
In this module, you will explore the vital role of the fluid body in the therapeutic space, with a focus on trauma recovery, somatic sensitivity, and spiritual development. You will learn to attune to the body’s natural tide-like movements, including the subtle flow of cerebrospinal fluid and its impact on the wider fluid matrix of the body. Through experiential somatic practices, you will cultivate a sense-perception of internal flow, alignment, and midline awareness—essential for restoring coherence, safety, and connection. Each fluid in the body holds unique qualities that can be sensed and expressed through movement and touch, opening pathways for healing and transformation.
Module 1 Curriculum Highlights:
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Module 2: Soft Tissue Rolling – Lymphatic and Fascial Health
27th & 28th June 2026 – Interactive Online Zoom Training
In this module, you will explore the relationships between movement, soft tissue release, and the health of the lymphatic and fascial systems. You will learn how to support tissue hydration, lymphatic flow, and fascial elasticity—key components in restoring resilience, reducing stagnation, and supporting emotional release and trauma integration.
Through embodied movement, guided touch, and experiential anatomy, you will deepen your understanding of the lymphatic system as a key detoxification and immune support network, and fascia as the body’s living web of communication, structure, and memory. These practices will support your ability to work with stuck, bound, or dense areas of tissue—inviting softness, mobility, and cellular renewal.
Module 2 Curriculum Highlights:
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Module 3: The Spirituality of Somatics
25th & 26th July 2026 – Interactive Online Zoom Training
From Buddhism and Animism to Butoh and Ayurveda, this module honours and explores the interface of somatic movement with Earth-centered, Matrifocal, Jungian and East-Asian inspired embodied spiritualities. The meditative and contemplative dimensions of practice are explored as a path of healing, insight, and transformation. Rooted in diverse embodied wisdom traditions, it invites you to experience the body as sacred, movement as prayer, and the Earth as a living, relational field. Through experiential movement, ritual, breath, and stillness, you will engage the body not only as a physical structure but as a vessel of consciousness, memory, and spirit.
Matrifocal values—such as feminine wisdom, cyclicality, and receptivity—underpin this work, encouraging a return to intuitive, Earth-honouring ways of knowing. You will explore how this practice bridges the sacred and the secular, integrating spiritual embodiment into everyday life. Eco-somatic practices, underpinned by feminist spiritualities, will deepen your connection with the more-than-human world, inviting you to sense, move, and heal in relationship with nature. Through these frameworks, students will develop the capacity to hold space for spiritual embodiment within somatic movement work, while also refining their improvisational and relational skills.
Module 3 Curriculum Highlights:
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Module 4: Moving with the Imaginal Realm & Integrative Assessments
5th–9th September 2026 - Five-day In-person Training
Location: Rosehip Barn, St Clether, Cornwall.
This immersive, in-person training integrates and synthesises the teachings from previous modules, grounding your learning through formative assessment and deeper embodiment.
Influenced by Carl Jung’s concept of active imagination and the archetype of the Self, and authentic movement this module explores how the imaginal realm acts as a bridge between the conscious and unconscious, allowing the soul’s language to move through gesture, presence, and relational expression. Movement becomes a vehicle for archetypal encounter, symbolic inquiry, and personal myth-making. You will learn to access and guide others through imaginal movement processes that support healing, wholeness, and integration. We will also focus on developing improvisational skills and facilitation presence through peer facilitation and tutor-led assessment, supporting you to integrate and embody the spiritual, somatic, and therapeutic dimensions of this work.
Module 4 Curriculum Highlights:
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Meet Your Teachers
Vanessa Tucker and Amanda Williamson set the intention to make Somatic Movement Dance Therapy more accessible, while maintaining a high professional standard.
In response to the growing demand for embodied, trauma-informed approaches, they recognised that most professional trainings span two years and cost between £6,000 & £8,000 placing them out of reach for many. To address this, they developed a flexible three-level training pathway: Level 1 (100 hours) and Level 2 (100 hours) can each be taken as standalone courses, or followed by Level 3 (300 hours), which completes the 500 hours required for professional registration. This structure ensures both accessibility and depth, making this vital work more available to those committed to healing and transformation in their communities.
Vanessa Tucker is a registered Somatic Movement Educator and Therapist (ISMETA) and a registered Somatic Movement Dance Therapist (UKSMDT) with over 30 years of experience in the healing arts. She created the 3 Level structure in Somatic Movement Dance Therapy, alongside Dr. Amanda Williamson, offering creative and transformative learning experiences for working with trauma, deepening practice, refining skills, reconnecting with the innate wisdom of the body and coming home to ourselves.
Through her courses, retreats, women's empowerment work and private healing practice, Vanessa has supported countless individuals on their journey toward health, wholeness and empowerment. Drawing from a rich background in expressive arts, education, psychology, theatre as therapy, meditation, energy healing, clinical hypnotherapy, NLP, therapeutic shamanism, trauma recovery, and somatic movement dance therapy, she brings an integrative and multidimensional approach to her healing, teaching and facilitation.
A lifelong artist of the soul, Vanessa is deeply devoted to the healing of the Earth and the awakening of the human spirit. Her work is rooted in a heartfelt commitment to meaningful healing, personal empowerment, and the creation of compassionate, interconnected communities—spaces where all of life is honoured, and every being has the chance to flourish.
Dr. Amanda Williamson is the founder of Somatic Movement Dance Therapy and guest lecturer on the Level 2 course.
Amanda works with a wide range of people experiencing back pain, joint pain, grief, migraines, addiction, stress, anxiety and depression, as well as people with no specific conditions, but feeling isolated, low and disconnected.
She is one of the pioneers in the field of Somatic Movement Education & Therapy and works across continents supervising PhD. students. She is a ‘Master Somatic Movement Educator and Therapist’ (ISMETA) and registered ‘Somatic Movement Dance Therapist (UKSMDT).
Amanda publishes extensively through practice-as-research, traversing areas such as experiential anatomy and physiology, the spiritual elements in the healing process, socio-cultural theory. Amanda is an Honorary Professor at ‘The Centre for Dance Research (C-dare).
Her most recent book, of which this course is based upon, is Somatic Movement Dance Therapy: The Healing Art of Self-regulation and Co-regulation, Intellect.
Teaching Fees/Exchange/Investment
Early Bird Discount: £780 (Ends 31st January 2026)
Full Fees: £880
The fees for the course include:
- Somatic Movement Dance Therapy qualification (Level 2 Intermediate) Accredited by IPHM in association with SMDT UK
- 6 days online interactive zoom teachings
- 5 Days in person training and assessments at Rosehip Barn, St Clether, Cornwall. (Non-residential)
- Comprehensive teaching materials and zoom recordings
Instalments:
You can either pay the full Early bird fees of £ 780.00 or in instalments:
£ 390.00 at time of booking (£190 of this is your deposit) and £ 390.00 – Due 31st January 2026
Refund policies:
Deposits are non-refundable.
No refunds are given up to ten weeks before the course starts. We only refund course fees if the course is cancelled by the training provider.
For refund policies please see ‘terms and conditions’.
