Developmental Primary Reflexes

October 24th -27th, 2024 | Glen Echo, MD
OR February 6-9, 2025 | Online

In this 4 day workshop specifically developed for bodyworkers and somatic practitioners, you will learn how to identify and somatically support the role that our Developmental Primary Reflexes play in protection and survival beyond infancy and into adulthood.  

It is commonly known that Primary Reflexes are present during our gestation time and play a significant role in our birth process, as well as our physical, cognitive, and emotional development during our first few years of life.  Whether a reflex is functioning as “Regulated, Hypo, or Hyper,” our primary reflexes continuously function in the role of survival and protection throughout our life. 

What is less understood is how to identify and offer easy and gentle support when our inhibited or hyper active survival reflexes surface during a session in which somatic experiences of trauma arise during a therapeutic session. 

This class will include theory & practice to engage specific contact points or certain positions which offer support for somatic rehab and reflex repair of our automatic survival responses including: grip, bonding, push & boundaries, kicking, running & climbing, startle & freeze response, stability & grounding, postural patterns governing flexion/extension, auditory, tactile and sensory processing, and overall stress management.

We will explore the use of presence, awareness, attunement, pacing, and creating conditions of safety in order to support our automatic reflexes as they may show up in our work with others in response to unmet or unresolved history involving stress and trauma through our fight / flight / freeze mechanisms.

This training offers 27 Continuing Education hours for NCBTMB.

Dates & Time, Location & Format:

Thursday, Oct 24th - Sunday, Oct 27th, 2024
Thurs-Sat: 9am - 6pm ET, Sun: 9am - 4:30pm ET
In-person training, offered in Glen Echo, MD, USA.

OR Online on Zoom:
Thursday Feb 6 - Sunday Feb 9, 2025.
Thurs-Sat: 9am - 5pm, Sun: 9am - 4pm ET.

This training class is a combination of pre-recorded lectures for you to watch at your leisure, shorter in classroom lectures covering key factors of each Reflex, and hands-on or virtual learning  in pairs or triads with supervision.

Training Cost: $945 USD, which includes the $400 non-refundable deposit fee. Full tuition due two months in advance (by August 24, 2024 or online, Dec 9, 2025). Half price for retakers (space limited).

A refund will be available until 4 weeks prior to the training date, OR until access to the 23 pre-class videos is given. After that, no refund will be available.

In order to register please choose one of the links below.

Course Dates, Location and Registration:

Meet Your Instructor: Kimberly Clark OTR/L, RCST®

Kimberly Clark graduated from the University of New England in 1992 with a Bachelors of Science in Occupational Therapy. While working as an OT at Brighton Medical Center, she completed a certified training program in Massage and Polarity Therapy in 1994. She began her private practice in Southern Maine to better address her patients’ needs for skilled manual therapies for pain relief and an improved quality of life.

Kimberly has received advanced training in manual techniques including Myofascial Release, Neuromuscular Re-education, and she is a certified Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapist® as well as a MNRI® Core Specialist  and former Instructor with the Svetlana Masgutova Educational Institute. She is a graduate of Alchemical Alignment, as well as a First Year Teacher and Second Year Teaching Assistant. Visit her website here.

Student Feedback

As an intuitive SE-trained bodyworker, I can't believe how effective it is to work with the specific sensory reflex stimulus within my virtual and in-person trauma resolution work. I very much appreciate having that increased efficiency, as well as a new containment skill (for alchemy)!

Kimberly holds the classroom field with joy, respect and attunement. Her teaching style enriches students with humor, knowledge, and personal stories from working in the field. Her stories demonstrate course material and give students real life examples of how Alchemical Alignment dances in both life and in practice as a practitioner. I highly recommend joining a class taught by Kimberly!