Become A NeuroAffective Touch® Practitioner
Bridge the Body-Mind Divide to Nurture Post-Trauma Growth
Foundation Training
When the Mind Doesn’t Know What the Body Needs
Too many people with developmental trauma are facing stalemates in their lives. As hard as they work on their mental health, at some point, they can go no further.
This is because trauma is locked in the physical body where unconscious bracing and long-standing tensions keep emotions such as grief, fear, anger, and shame frozen in place.
As much as the body may want to let go of painful patterns, the mind doesn’t know how to address what the body desperately needs. And as much as the mind may want to help the body, the dysregulated body cannot respond to the mind’s insights.
Even if you have realized that body and mind collaborate as one, cultural and scientific beliefs in their separateness continue to limit our therapeutic approaches.
Break Through the Impasse
Research now shows that healing early trauma requires an integrated body-mind approach.
If you are a therapist, body-centered practitioner, or healing professional, you should know it’s possible to break through the impasse your clients are facing by combining psychological skills and the therapeutic use of touch.
Bridge the Body-Mind Divide to Nurture Post-Trauma Growth
Years ago, looking for a way to bridge the body-mind divide, I undertook dual training as a psychotherapist and bodyworker, which was rare then and still relatively unusual.
As I integrated the two skill sets, I developed and refined NeuroAffective Touch, a neurologically informed approach that combines the disciplines of psychotherapy with the therapeutic use of touch. It uses foundational body-centered knowledge as a guide to vital psychobiological interventions.
Develop Your Somatic Skills in the Foundation Training
I’m excited to offer the NeuroAffective Touch Foundation Training to all healing arts professionals interested in supporting their clients with body-mind integration at the deepest levels.
The training addresses the role of the body and its equal importance to the mind. Our developmental relational focus addresses emotional, cognitive, and energetic challenges that cannot be resolved individually with either talk therapy or bodywork alone.
What You Will Learn
The Foundation Training will open new possibilities for your clients and career as you learn to…
- Work somatically with early development, bringing healing to the deepest core of the self
- Touch and support the emotional body (also known as the dorsal vagal system), releasing the impact of relational shocks and shifting the body-mind toward states of emotional regulation
- Use integrated psychological principles to foster post-trauma growth, resilience, and joy as you guide your clients to deepen their relationship with their body’s intelligence and wisdom
The training can be completed in two fully in-person 6-day modules or an international hybrid format combining three online modules and one 5-day in-person Touch Immersion.
Learning a new or innovative approach to work can feel risky, but I have trained hundreds of people to do precisely that, with exceptional results for their clients and careers.
Curious? Watch Dr. LaPierre’s Introductory Presentation and Q&A
Become A NeuroAffective Touch® Practitioner
Clinical Psychologist Specializing
"I am a clinical psychologist specializing in developmental trauma and addiction, and Aline’s teachings have added immensely to my therapeutic work and my clients’ recovery rates … I have left every training more fascinated and more educated."
Simply the Best
"Aline is simply the best at bridging the divide between bodywork and talk! I highly recommend studying with her."
The fastest, safest, most gentle approach
Aline creates a very supportive and safe environment to practice the tools of bodywork techniques and client-centered therapeutic self-directed touch. I am now able to gently assist clients in moving past defenses and projections. This enables them to experience the trust, relaxation, and internalized sense of safety they had never experienced before.
Effectively working with relational trauma
Karen Bauman, MA, NMT, SEPI consider myself incredibly fortunate to learn from Aline. Her knowledge in the field of somatic psychology is vast. Her compassion is palpable. And her ability to help me grasp what she knows and feel what she feels has been a gift — I have no doubt Aline will be known for years to come as a pioneer in integrating bodywork and psychotherapy.
Integration of relational and somatic models
The integration of relational psychodynamic and somatic models makes the work especially useful for most of my clients struggle with: an arrest at one stage or another of their development.
The Foundation Training includes…
- Step-by-step training in the building blocks of working somatically
- Demonstration sessions in real-time with detailed commentary
- Breakout practices and Q&As in each module
- Self-directed touch protocols and self-care guidance that provide a profoundly nurturing integration space for all you are learning
- Support to develop your own personal somatic practice, which will help you teach your clients how to work with their bodies therapeutically
- Ongoing access to our online Forum Learning Community, where you can discuss issues with moderators who have long-term expertise in topics such as addiction, complex trauma, eating disorders, and couples work.
In addition, the hybrid training includes…
- Exchange practice sessions with a practice partner from your cohort to apply what you are discovering in each module
- There will be three 2.5-hour Case Consultations led by Dr. LaPierre. During these, students will have the opportunity to present cases that she breaks down and offers clinical guidance on, drawing from her 35 years of expertise.
Who is Dr. Aline LaPierre?
Dr. Aline LaPierre, the creator of NeuroAffective Touch, is a clinician, author, artist, consultant, speaker, teacher, and past faculty in the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute somatic doctoral program. She is President of the United States Association of Body Psychotherapy and Editor-in-Chief of the International Body Psychotherapy Journal.
Aline co-authored the bestselling book Healing Developmental Trauma: How Trauma Affects Self-Regulation, Self-Image, and the Capacity for Relationship, available in 14 languages.
In psychotherapy, she is a graduate of Pacifica Graduate Institute and The New Center for Psychoanalysis.
In somatics, she has studied Somatic Experiencing, Postural Integration, Cranio-Sacral Therapy, Reichian Therapies, Bodynamics Analysis, Continuum, BodyMind Centering, and EMDR.
A Groundbreaking Somatic Program
The training is nuanced, comprehensive, and groundbreaking. It goes beyond the psychotherapy training and bodywork programs available today to offer a truly integrated body-mind approach.
Our students frequently refer to NeuroAffective Touch as finding the “missing piece” that allows them to weave all their previous trainings into a seamless whole.
The training modules build sequentially, beginning with a deep dive into the psychobiology of touch and how to use touch ways that invite consciousness to emerge rather than “doing to” the body.
This orientation supports the body’s telling of its story, which is often very different from the mind’s narrative.
Psychotherapists will discover how to use language in a somatic way that invites the body to reveal its story and to finally be listened to and witnessed.
Bodyworkers will expand their psychological skills through body-mind collaborative languaging that supports the cognitive integration of changes in bodily states.
In this training, you will learn…
- How to work somatically with the earliest developmental states, reaching the deepest formative core of the self
- How to renegotiate states of hypervigilance clients face, resetting the social engagement system
- How to recognize positive autonomic shifts into the expansive movement of post-trauma growth that indicates the emergence of self as revealed in imagery, sound, gesture, and posture
- How to reconnect clients with their relational blueprint, repair ruptures in their developmental progression, and bring their body-mind to wholeness
Throughout the program, you will receive training in body-centered techniques to work bottom-up with implicit procedural behavior, posture, and movement and top-down with trauma-based thoughts, beliefs, and identifications, fostering multidimensional growth and expansion for the people you work with.
Offer Your Clients Deep Transformation and Grow Your Practice
Whatever your treatment goals, NeuroAffective Touch can enhance your practice with leading-edge somatic skills that expand your capacity to meet your clients and generate breakthrough momentum.
You will learn to allow their bodies to safely share the story of their struggles to love and be loved, and enable their minds to grow new neural pathways that open new possibilities for the whole person.
And ultimately nurture the greater expansion and unfolding of their unique human potential.
Join us to learn to offer your clients the profound transformation of a groundbreaking somatic approach.
FAQ
Who can benefit from the Foundation Training?
The training is for you if you are a psychotherapist, psychologist, social worker, or pre-licensed intern or student in these fields, or if you are an addiction counselor, psychiatrist, coach, certified massage therapist, body-centered practitioner, nurse, health practitioner, or other professional who wishes to integrate body and mind to support trauma resolution.
How is the training structured?
We offer two options: choose which format best suits you and your schedule.
The first option is to attend the two 6-day in-person sessions with Dr. LaPierre in Los Angeles, California, or London, England. Please apply here for the London training.
The second option is to attend the International Hybrid Online+In-Person training combining three online 3-day Modules and one 5-day in-person Touch Immersion. In 2025, in-person Touch Immersions are held in Los Angeles, California; Sydney, Australia; and London, UK
Read all the details on our Training Calendar and choose your preferred training.
What is the scientific basis for this program?
Our training draws on more than 40 years of scientific research and publication on the role of touch in human developmental psychology, biology, and behavior from conception throughout our lifetime.
Bainbridge Cohen, B. (1993). Sensing, feeling, and action. Northampton, MA: Contact Editions.
Bowlby, J. (1988). A secure base: Clinical applications of attachment theory. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
Caldwell, C. (1997). Getting in touch. Wheaton, Il: Quest Books.
Caplan, M. (1998). Untouched: The need for genuine affection in an impersonal world. Prescott, AZ: Hohm Press.
Chaitow, L. (1997). Palpation skills. New York: Churchill Livingstone.
Craig, A.D. (2015). How do you feel? An interoceptive moment with your neurobiological self. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Critchley, H.D., & Nagai, Y. (2012). How emotions are shaped by bodily states. Emotion Review, 4(2), 163–168.
Damasio, A.R. (1999). The feeling of what happens: Body and emotion in the making of consciousness. New York: Harvest Books.
Field T. (1995). Touch in early development. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Krieger, D. (1986). Therapeutic touch. New York: Prentice Hall Press.
Leboyer, F. (1987). Loving Hands: The traditional art of baby massage. London: Collins.
McGlone, F., Wessberg, J., & Olausson, H. (2014). Discriminative and affective touch: Sensing and feeling. Neuron, 82(4), 737-755.
Montague, A. (1971). Touching: The human significance of the skin. New York: Columbia University Press.
Nathan, B. (1999). Touch and emotion in manual therapy. New York: Churchill Livingstone.
Olausson, H., Lamarre, Y., Backlund, H., Morin, C., Wallin, B. G., Starck, G., Ekholm, S., Strigo, I., Worsley, K., Vallbo, Å. B., & Bushnell, M. C. (2002). Unmyelinated tactile afferents signal touch and project to insular cortex. Nature Neuroscience, 5(9), 900-904.
Overly, R. (1994/2004). Dr. Eva Reich’s butterfly touch massage. Asheville, NC: Gentle Bio-Energetics Institute.
Panksepp, J. (1998). Affective neuroscience: The foundation of human and animal emotions. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Phillips, J. (2002). Somatic tracking and the ethical use of touch. The USA Body Psychotherapy Journal, 1(2), 63-77.
Shaw, R. (1996). Towards integrating the body in psychotherapy. Changes: An International Journal of Psychology and Psychotherapy, 14(2) 117-120.
Schore, A. (2003). Affect regulation and the repair of the self. New York: W.W. Norton.
Sills, F. (2001). Craniosacral biodynamics. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books.
Swade, T. (2020). The touch taboo in psychotherapy and everyday life. New York: Routledge.
Yoshida, S., & Funato, H. (2021). Physical contact in parent-infant relationship and its effect on fostering a feeling of safety. Science, 24(7), 102721.
Do I get access to the training’s video recordings?
Yes! Students will receive links to all the video recordings of their training modules. The video links are active for 5 years from the end of your training and can be revisited to deepen your integration of the training over time. For ease of viewing, video recordings are broken down into chapters and titled according to their content: lectures, demo sessions, practice debriefs, and Q&As.
What if I miss a module?
We understand that sometimes life gets in the way, so if you cannot attend a module at the time it is given, please get in touch with our student advisor, Laura, at laura@neuroaffectivetouch.com
How do I become a Certified NeuroAffective Touch Practitioner?
To receive the Practitioner certification after becoming a Foundation Training Graduate, we ask candidates to fulfill the following requirements:
- Complete eight personal therapy sessions with a certification session provider to prepare your nervous system for the body-mind integration you will offer clients.
- Attend eight live or pre-recorded Practicums of your choice.
- Complete twelve consultation credits through individual, small group, or mentored case consultations with an approved consult provider.
- Write a Case Study to illustrate how the therapeutic use of touch contributes to the process of healing and change. Aline holds a free drop-in support group on the first Saturday of most months for those who have questions about their Case Study and for anyone who has questions they want to discuss.
Upon fulfilling your certification requirements, you will receive an official NeuroAffective Touch Practitioner badge for display on your website and any marketing materials you wish. The Institute will also list this special designation of Certified NATouch Practitioner in our online Practitioner Directory at no charge.
More details about the certification process are available here.
What is the cancellation and refund policy?
If you cancel your registration at least 21 days before the training module, you will receive a full refund, less a $85 processing fee.
If you cancel a training within 20 days of its start date, a 60% refund will be made for that module’s tuition, less an $85 processing fee. If you paid tuition in advance for future modules, a full refund will be issued to you for those modules.
If the NeuroAffective Touch Institute needs to cancel a training module, we will issue you a full refund, or you can apply the tuition the next time the module is offered.
All requests for cancellation and/or refund must be submitted by email. A cancellation request is officially granted once you receive an email confirmation of the cancellation.
Our complete sales and refund policies can be found here.
