What, For Whom, Why?

A Body-Oriented Integrative Approach to Healing Trauma

Every Human Being in its nature strives to live in peace, harmony, joy and a sense of fulfillment. However, we are not only living in a time of increasing uncertainties, but we also live in a time and space of heightened stress and experiences with the potential for traumatization.

Some of these experiences have an immediate visible impact on the life of a person, but most often we don’t become fully aware of the situation. We learn to compensate, to adjust, to increase the emotional and physical stress onto our system, so that we can function and meet the demand that life and work bring – until we feel overwhelmed, emotionally challenged, lack of concentration or healthy sleep, difficulties in relating, increasing unknown fears, even possible signs of panic attacks, burnout or depressed moments – an overall lack of deep joy, positivity and sense of fulfillment.

What Will You Learn in the Core Evolution® Trauma Training with Dr. Siegmar Gerken?

• How to recognize and become aware of the signs of a possible traumatization in you and in others;
• How different types of trauma shape a person’s life:
  they relate to Developmental-, Shock-, Generational-, Collective- and other forms of traumas.
• • Individual trauma – emotionally or psychologically overwhelming life experiences that leave deep imprints in the system;
  • Shock trauma – the effects of sudden traumatic events (e.g., accidents, violence, surgery, sudden loss, etc.);
  • Generational trauma – such as war experiences, dysfunctional family patterns, unresolved family secrets;
  • Collective trauma – natural disasters, man-made catastrophes, war, genocide, occupation, and similar collective experiences;
• How to assess the impact of trauma on individuals, relationships, families, teams, and society;
• How trauma influences our capacity to respond to personal, societal, and global crises.

In this program you gain a comprehensive understanding of the Trauma Matrix and you learn effective tools for positive change and transformation.

Who Is This Training For?

This training is intended for all professionals working with people who wish to become more trauma-informed—both personally and professionally. Ideal for:

• Medical doctors and nurses seeking to understand the neuroscientific and psychological dimensions of trauma;
• Psychotherapists and counselors;
• Social workers;
• Teachers and educators;
• Yoga and movement instructors;
• Human resource professionals and organizational leaders;
• Everybody working with people and who want to live a more conscious life and being more informed about the impact of traumatic experiences – personally and professionally.

Learning Outcomes

Participants will:

• Understand the nature of psychological trauma and its effects;
• Use body awareness and mindfulness practices to support healing;
• Know key trauma therapy concepts and apply them in self-analysis and work;
• Learn to notice, understand, and support people affected by trauma;
• Describe the psychophysiology of stress and trauma in relation to personal experience and client work;
• Understand nervous system functioning and its role in trauma processing;
• Recognize trauma triggers and consciously respond instead of overreacting;
• Identify signs of numbness, dissociation and fragmentation;
• Apply exercises integrating body, emotions, and thoughts;
• Set healthy boundaries to support healing and prevent retraumatization;
• Support the restoration of joy, hope, and vitality in oneself and others.

* Please note: This training is not intended for individual therapy. The focus of the teaching lies on experience, theory and practice. You can book individual Trauma Therapy separately with Dr. Gerken and staff. Please inquire for more details.

General curriculum

Contemporary trauma theories describe, that a traumatic experience that has made an impact on a person’s system and could not be fully processed and integrated, can often leave the system in a state of stress or shock. Neuroscience and decades of practice experience show, that with the principles of this Integrative Trauma Training of Core Evolution, you can find a place of healing.

Being a pioneer for almost 50 years in the field of Humanistic, Somatic and Transpersonal Psychology, Dr. Siegmar Gerken has developed an integrative approach to work with Developmental-, Shock, Generational-, Collective- and other forms of traumas, that are held in the person’s system, whether they are from past or from the present life situation.

We come to understand, that a trauma is not just held in the brain.
A trauma is an energetic, somatosensory and emotional experience affecting the entire human system.
– Siegmar Gerken

Traumatic situations in early or later phases of life can lead to a numbing, protective withdrawal or to a distortion of reality. These conditions have a strong influence on the forming forces of the personal development and the coping mechanism of how a person lives the daily life. Traumatic experiences are then often becoming ‘frozen patterns of history’.

These patterns manifest on the emotional, somatic and cognitive level of your life and can
a) limit your capacity for harmonious self-regulation, and
b) make it difficult to stay in deep contact with yourself and allow a natural and authentic expression of your life- energy.

Integrative Trauma Training in Core Evolution gives you an expanded understanding by recognizing and describing the forces that traumatizing patterns can have in the life of a person, in terms of:
a) Influencing the state of personal harmony and happiness;
b) Recognizing triggers especially also in relationship and Intimacy, that makes it hard to stay open and loving;
c) Often then it is not easy anymore to connect with the creativity and joy in the professional expression. How a person structures the information in a traumatic event will also determine how resources can be accessed and activated, so that optimal coping strategies and healing processes can be developed accordingly.

Learning Modules

MODULE 1
September 29–30, 2025 | Tallinn
10:00–18:00 (Monday–Tuesday)

Trauma Experiences and their Effects on the Body, Psyche and our Fields of Life

Foundations for the Comprehensive Understanding of Psychological Traumas
Theoretical models and therapeutic approaches in therapy and medicine often focus on the direct trauma or clinical criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Since trauma is always processed by each individual differently, we also need to recognize the whole person in its present life situations and social structures.

The teaching and practice includes:
• Terms and definitions in Trauma Therapy;
• Stress – Trauma – Traumatization;
• Psychophysiology of stress and trauma – important aspects of interpersonal neurobiology;
• The central nervous system and the regulation of traumatic experiences;
• Sympathetic and parasympathetic states of fight, flight and freeze – from simplicity to complexity;
• Research: The most important Fundamentals in Integrative Trauma Therapy, incorporating the neurological, biochemical and psychological aspects;
• Change is possible – brain structure, Neuroplasticity and preparing for change;
• The Practice of Mindfulness and Somatic Awareness supports the re-organization of the personal system;
• Accessing and evaluating resources and establishing healthy boundaries;
• Therapeutic presence and creating a safe space;
• Learning to anchor (Grounding) and how to prevent re-traumatization;
• Practice to safely release and integrate energies that are still held in a traumatic experience.

Throughout the training we will practice the Principles of Mindfulness and safe exercises for the concept of grounding, activation and harmonizing of body and feelings with breathing and movement, developing a Body-Feeling-Thinking-Mind-Awareness as an integrative approach to Trauma Therapy.

MODULE 2
October 27–28, 2025 | Tallinn
10:00–18:00 (Monday–Tuesday)

Expanding the Therapeutic Realm
The Social Brain

Every person is part of a society, family, profession, institution, religion, traditions, culture, etc. Therefore, we also have to recognize the complexities of the social dimensions of trauma and its impact on a person’s life.

A traumatized, over-reactive system in general activates some physiologic, cognitive and behavioral survival mechanisms via the subcortical areas of the brain (limbic system and brain stem). This often can leave a person with the feeling of not being really supported and received in the world, as well as feeling estranged and isolated, which limits healthy integration and carries the seed for post-traumatic stress.
The over-reactive system is regulated by intra-personal processes as well as being co-regulated by empathic interaction. Therefore, facilitating regulation and social integration should always be part of a psychological first aid.

The teaching and practice includes:
• The Social Brain – its development, personal structuring and our ability to relate;
• Empathy, attunement and mirror neurons;
• Auto-Regulation, Self-Regulation, Co-Regulation and the therapeutic relationship;
• Implicit and explicit memory, the complexity of memory recognition and research beyond the brain*;
• How Developmental Trauma structures our ability to access our inner and outer resources
• Generational and Intergenerational Traumas leave strong imprints in a person. We will delve into the depth of our family histories, shedding light on intergenerational patterns and narratives that have influenced our lives;
• Functional exercises for the integration of body, feelings and mind;
• Body-oriented processing, Polyvagal activation and other neuro-regulatory interventions;
• Attain skills to track the energy dynamic in a person;
• Resourceful processing of somatic memories.

* These insights also draw from Dr. Siegmar Gerken’s research in human energetics: documenting psycho-emotional states within the body-feeling-mind field using infrared analysis and bio-photonic measurement.

Online Training
December 12, 2025 | 17:30–21:15 (Friday)

Innate Resilience and Inner Resources

Online Training
January 20, 2026 | 17:30–21:15 (Tuesday)

Application and Practice of Trauma Therapy Principles

Online Check-in
February 10, 2026 | 19:00–21:00 (Tuesday)

Experiences in Life and Work – Questions and Answers

MODULE 3
March 23–24, 2026 | Tallinn
10:00–18:00 (Monday–Tuesday)

The Coherent Self – development and stabilization of a healthy ground

The Integrative Trauma Therapy of Core Evolution provides the ground for a life-affirming direction, initiating one’s life-energy again after a traumatic experience and brings a renewed meaning into the life of the person.

The practicing of the body-oriented and mindfulness-centred approach focuses on essential Core qualities of a person and Positive Psychology. With that the clinical approach to Trauma Therapy is expanded and deepened with humanistic values and transpersonal aspects of life.

The teaching and practice includes:
• Collective trauma and cultivating Collective Resilience. We can harness the power and wisdom of collective resilience and will create a space where our collective experience becomes catalyst for individual growth and transformation.
• Our systemic approach reaches from cell-biology to the universe;
• The Coherent Self – development and stabilization of a healthy ground
• Work with unspecific psychosomatic issues (burnout, chronic pain, etc.)
• Working with situations of complex traumatization;
• Concepts of working with trauma in different topics like: accidents; surgery, anesthesia, severe loss, war and other existential situations, earthquakes**, natural and man-made disasters and other topics that participants bring;
• Self-Acceptance – Integration of Affects, Thoughts, Images, Believes and Attitudes.

* Read the article by Dr. Siegmar Gerken: Healing Individual and Collective Trauma: www.coreevolution.de/en/resources/articles

In one way or another, we are all affected by trauma these days — our own or that of others. Learn to live a trauma-informed life and create healing and unity for individuals, families, generations and our collective wellbeing.
— Siegmar Gerken

Join us in this specialized training for the integration of traumatic experiences!

Siegmar Gerken

PhD, ECP, HP (Psychotherapy)

Dr. Gerken is a lecturer, therapist, trainer and supervisor. He has conducted this specialized Trauma Therapy Training in Chile, Columbia, Mexico, Australia, USA and Europe. He is co-founder of the Scientific Committee of the EABP.

Siegmar has been a leader in body-oriented and heart-centered therapy and humanistic psychology since 1976, and is the co-founder with his wife of the International Institute for Core Evolution and CoreSoma.

He has been teaching Integrative Body Psychotherapy Core Evolution in Estonia for over 15 years.

Dr. Gerken’s educational journey includes psychology, education and anthropology.

Siegmar has taught on the faculty of the JFK University Somatic Psychology Department (2012–2019), the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute (2007–2012), the Esalen Institute and the Behavioral Therapy Training Institute in Hamburg.

He now teaches at universities and private institutes worldwide, on the interconnectedness of psychosomatic processes as they manifest on the levels of body, emotions, mind, will and consciousness.

In exploring many realms of consciousness, Dr. Gerken has always been interested in building bridges between Psychology and Spirituality, Environment, Personality and Eco-Psychology, Science, Medicine, Healing and the subtle dimensions of life.

He is married for 50 years and has three children and three grandchildren.

 www.CoreEvolution.com