Like a Pro - Training for Practitioners: Consent, Boundaries, Clarity with Dr. Betty Martin

Saturday 16th - Wednesday 20th May 2015

Do you get paid to put your hands on people? Then you need this course.

Taught by Dr. Betty Martin, 5 days.

Making your Sessions Safe, Effective and Satisfying 

You’ve taken the courses — tantra, massage, sexuality education, sexological bodywork — and you’ve got the skills. But what is it, exactly, that makes you a professional? (Hint: it’s not the money).

You can learn great massage or tantric skills in many places, but what is it that makes your work, well, professional? If you are doing hands-on work, you need to have your own personal clarity, accurate protocols for assessment, and skills to teach consent and empowerment to your clients/students. You need to know the difference between giving and receiving, and to know – exactly – how to make sure you never overstep what your client is ready for.

That’s what separates the dilettantes from the pros. And that is where this course comes in.

This class is unique.

There are many wonderful places to learn bodywork and tantra skills, but there are two critical pieces that make your work as a professional, well, professional.

  • Assessment – finding out what your client is ready for and – more importantly – what they are not. This must be done with guided body experience, not just with conversation.
  • Empowerment and informed consent – teaching your client how to become exquisitely aware of their own desires and limits and how to communicate them. Reminding them it’s OK to say ‘No’ is not enough.

This class is for touch professionals who take their work seriously. It’s for anyone doing hands-on work – therapeutically-based or pleasure-based, or both: therapeutic massage, pleasure-based massage, Sexological Bodywork, Tantra, courtesan experiences, teaching sex technique, Sacred Intimates, courtesans, escorts, dommes, massage artists, sexual healers, dakas and dakinis, tantrikas, and sex coaches.

Others who have found the class helpful include talk therapists, sexuality and relationship coaches and experienced non-professionals who wish to deepen and clarify their own erotic path.

Here’s what you will learn:

  • The single most important skill a practitioner can have and how to develop it (it’s NOT another technique!)
  • What “giving” and “receiving” REALLY are and why knowing the difference is crucial for getting profound results for your clients and students.
  • What you are responsible for in your sessions and what you are not — so you can serve your clients far beyond what they expect without tying yourself in knots
  • Assessment – what you need to notice BEFORE you even start, making less work for you and more powerful results for them
  • How to create a strong container for your clients that has enough safety for them to get into the REAL work they are coming to you for
  • When to bring your own pleasure into session (and when not to!) — making it more fun for everyone
  • What’s actually going on in healing work and how to help your clients access parts of themselves that have been hidden away
  • How to bring both clarity and heart into your hands so that all your touch is rich, juicy and satisfying

Here’s how it’s structured:

5 full days, includes 2 days practicum.

We meet as professionals all day Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. We spend the first day on YOU – finding where you are clear (or not) in receiving and giving, and give you the framework of the Quadrants that everything else is built on. This is often the big ‘Aha’ day.

Then you learn assessment protocols so you find out what is useful for your client – and what is not (and when to set aside your groovy techniques in light of that). We show you how to use this in varied situations and then each participant has time to ask, brainstorm and clarify how this fits into their own particular form of work. Forms of work vary, and therefore so does the application.

This will be interwoven with hands-on practice to enable the teachings to be expereinced and embodied.

This is what we don’t cover:

We don’t teach bodywork techniques, but instead the skills to clarify, enhance and empower all your touch.

There are many opportunities for exchanging touch as part of the learning, but there is no genital touch in the workshop.

Business and marketing skills are mentioned briefly but not focused on.

The training is limited to 16 students.

Costs:

  • £540 Tuition - includes lunch and refreshents. Delicious healthy super-food ingredients cooked by our chef Kuniko Komiya, plus
  • £150 Self-catering accomodation for 5-6 nights from Friday night (can include Wednesday night at no extra cost). Limited single rooms are available for £295. 
  • B&B option in same venue is £39 per person per night i.e. £195 for 5 nights or £234 for 6 nights. Single occupancy is £57 per night i.e. £285 for 5 nights or £342 for 6). If going for B&B option this MUST be stated at time of booking. 
  • Evening meals will be bring and share, cook together or eating out by the sea restaurants , cafes or fish and chips on the beach
  • Some work exchange places are avalable - please ask.

To book we require payment in full or a non-refundable deposit of £250.

To register please complete the course booking / application form & send to Betty.

For more information contact Kian de la Cour kian@pleasurelab.org or Katie Sarra katie@katiesarra.com

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