Transcript

Brian
Hi and welcome to the Somatic Coaching Academy podcast. How are you today, Ani?

Ani
I’m good, thanks. How are you, Brian?

Brian
Doing well, doing well. You looking forward to today’s podcast?

Ani
I’m always looking forward to spending time with you, Brian.

Brian
Oh wow, that’s so nice. Here we are, folks, on episode 96. And today we are going to be breaking down the Somatic Coach Complete program.

Ani
Tuition.

Brian
Tuition.

Ani
Specifically. Yeah, which is, I think, very cool because, you know, some programs that people look at for somatic coaching, like you’re not going to find the information about the tuition. It’s like hidden and all of that stuff.

We really want you to understand the decision you’re making. And I think that one part for me that’s really important about this is people feel very drawn to this program. Like they feel a gut knowing or an intuitive sense or that small whisper.

It’s kind of that intuition-y kind of being called. And sometimes that can be a little freaky-out-y. You know, sometimes that can be a little, ah, and so we just want to sit down, get a cup of tea or coffee or whatever you like to drink.

Brian
Or hot chocolate.

Ani
Hot cocoa. And, yeah, let’s go ahead and talk to your intellect a little bit about this because it’s going to allow your heart-mind to relax a bit and get you integrated as you look into this decision.

Brian
Yeah. So to be perfectly honest, like the idea for this podcast came about a few months ago when I was talking with another, kind of like a colleague in the somatic coach training universe in space. And we were talking about the differences with our programs.

And one of the big differences was the tuition with the programs. But there was also differences too, like the amount of people that are in the program and how long the program is and how much attention or not attention people get. On-demand in-person, live and online.

All those kinds of things kind of play into why a program costs what it costs. So if you’ve been looking around at all at somatic coach training programs, you’re going to notice that the tuitions might be just all over the place.

Ani
Over the place. And you might be a little confused by that. Then, of course, you would be.

Brian
Yeah. You know, why are there thousands of dollars difference between one program and another program? Yeah.

And so when I was having this conversation with my colleague, I was like, wow, this is really kind of interesting thing and important thing, I think, to talk about for people who are considering getting trained. Like really to really think about what it is that you’re looking at. Because to be honest with you, like our program, the program at Somatic Coaching Academy is not right for everybody.

Ani
Right for everybody. And it’s really important to us that you’re getting the right fit no matter where you study. So whether you study with us or you study somewhere else, we want you to have the right program fit.

And so it is really important to have these conversations so that you really understand if that’s what you’re looking for.

Brian
Yeah. And we’ve done an earlier podcast, actually, on when you’re researching a program, what to look for. So there’s an earlier podcast on that.

We’ve written articles about that in LifePost Magazine, places like that. So you can go ahead and there’s other information out there about that.

Ani
And if you’re looking for any of the resources that Brian just mentioned, and also some of the resources we’re going to be referring to during this podcast, if you go into the library, if you’re not a library member, subscribe to our public library. So you can find that opt-in basically anywhere on our website, somaticcoachingacademy.com. And then get in the library, you’ll log in, go into the library, and right on the front page, you’ll see a place where it says Decision Packs.

And there’s all kinds of podcasts and a PDF and the article Brian just mentioned that you can look at. And so all the stuff that we’re referencing is right in there.

Brian
It’s all there. So one of the things that when we think about the program here at this Magic Coaching Academy, we’re at all three levels of the program and all three certifications you get as you go through the whole program to end up a certified sensation-based motivation coach. At the end of this thing, when we were designing this program, we asked ourselves, what’s our intention for this?

And this, again, came out of the conversation. We’re asking for other people creating their programs. What’s your intention?

What’s your intention? And so really our intention, everything we’ve built, everything we’ve created here at the Somatic Coaching Academy is really built on the intention to become the most comprehensive and most complete somatic coaching training program available.

Ani
So let’s talk a little bit about what that means and looks like. What does that look like to you?

Brian
To be the most complete? Comprehensive and complete, for me, it’s A to Z. It’s someone can come into this program with no prior body or somatic knowledge.

Some people come into our program and they’re already qigong and tai chi teachers, yoga professionals. They’ve been doing this for a long time. Right.

And then there’s also people that come in that they’re transitioning out of a corporate job or something where they don’t have any body skills. So that’s like the A. We have to start there.

All somatic coach training programs need to have that as a part of their foundational curriculum. And ours does too. And so we invite people in from that place.

Ani
And that’s part of that completeness. And by the way, we’ve never had anybody who is masterful with this stuff already come in and start at A and say to us, I wish I wasn’t starting at A. Everybody is so thrilled to get all the information they get.

So it really meets people no matter where they are. But okay. So starting A to Z is part of the completeness for you.

What else goes into that?

Brian
So another part for me of the completeness is people having their own transformation during a part of the program. Because I feel like, and I don’t want to speak for you, but maybe I can say the we of this. Anyway, I feel like that if you’re going to do this depth of work with people, if you’re going to do somatic work with people, then you have to have gone through some change yourself.

Because otherwise, if it’s just an intellectual knowing, but it’s a somatic coach program. So if you’re doing somatic coaching from an intellectual place, doesn’t that seem a little bit discordant? Right.

I agree with you wholeheartedly. You have to have a program complete enough with a container long enough and a container with enough touch points in it so that people go through their own transformation in a tangible way so that they can have the energetic capacity to hold space for their own clients in their own clients journeys after the program. So it’s another part of completeness for me, is it’s not just A to M, it’s A to Z.

Ani
It’s not just a professional training. It’s both a personal transformation and a professional training. Both.

Brian
Right. And to do that, our cohort sizes have to be relatively small. And by say relatively small, because there are other somatic coach training programs that have cohort sizes of 200 people in them.

And so ours are a lot smaller than that.

Ani
And that’s a big spectrum, right? Because there’s programs that are small like ours, and then there are programs that are maybe 40, 50, 60 people. We’ve been a part of programs that let’s say five to eight people, and then up to a hundred people.

And the dynamics that you experience are so profoundly different. It’s like below 12, and then 12 to 25, and then above 25 to 50. And there’s differences in the experience of the cohort.

Profoundly different.

Brian
And we designed the cohort, and we might be getting ahead of ourselves here, but to have these typically between the 12 and 20 people in the cohort. Now that could shift and change from time to time, but we make it a point so that there’s all different intersections between cohort members within to actually facilitate growth for people. And when cohorts get larger than that, what happens is people will automatically niche out.

And so if you’re in a cohort with a hundred people, you’re not getting to know a hundred people. You will actually self-identify a niche with four or five people, and you’ll go through that with four or five people. And so that’s not to say that’s a bad thing.

However, when you’re looking at a transformation, transformation requires contrast. It just simply does, just in the way that we look at energetic transformation. So you have to have enough contrast, but not too much contrast.

And you have to have enough kind of reflection, positive support reflection, but not too much of that. So this is all things we think about when we create programs and we design these cohorts. And this goes into this idea of this completeness with the program.

Ani
Okay. So we’ve got the completeness of the really being able to learn, even if you haven’t done any of this stuff before. And then we’ve got the completeness.

What was the second one that you said?

Brian
Well, so the other one was to go through the transformation.

Ani
Well, the personal and the professional track. And what else? What goes into making it complete?

Brian
Well, I think those are kind of, for me, the two primary things. Well, the other part of it too, is you’re kind of going along a learning journey. So you’re learning the science is really important.

You have to understand the science and the physiology of what’s going on. Of course, it has to include some type of trauma, kind of work processing trauma, all the levels of the trauma spectrum, which you’ve talked about as well. You have to have that as part of it as well.

Ani
And I think part of the completeness is not having it be completely about trauma, by the way. Because semantics and coaching isn’t completely about trauma. So I think that’s a part of it.

Brian
That’s got to be a part of it. That’s got to be a part of it.

Ani
Right. And then like you said, the science and the practical skills, both of those things need to be a part of it. The body, mind, spirit methodology, so that it’s not too heavily weighted in one or the other area, I think is really important to us.

And then I think the only other thing that’s on my mind about the completeness is, let’s face it, people want to be able to use these skills to make an impact on other people’s lives. That means being able to take them and do them with folks in a practice setting. And so business building skills are part of the completeness.

And I just have one more caveat about that. Something that’s really important to me as a part of our program and the completeness of it is some programs are going to show you how to build a business in the digital world really only. And they’re going to show you how to either create a web page or create a funnel or something like that.

And what we teach, and to me, this feels like a very complete part of the program, is the timeless business development skills that allow you to have a business in the virtual world and in the real world, both, and have that be a thriving practice no matter what happens with the technology. Because let’s face it, it changes so quick. It just makes all of our heads spin and it’s ridiculous.

So that you actually get to do the work that you really love in the world and not have to spend all day behind a computer. And to me, that relationship building business development that we do as a part of our programs is part of the completeness. And the things that we’ve chosen to give people as templates and talks and things like that, that they can then go do in their business, the turnkey business stuff.

We’ve been very specific about what we do and don’t give you. So that again, the completeness of the program allows you to get yourself off on the right foot in your business.

Brian
Yeah. And just to speak to that really quick, Ani, too, around that business piece and the virtual business support and the funnels and things like that, that some programs will teach is from my perspective, from my experience in this, and because we’ve both fallen into this hole as well, as well as seeing a lot of other people do this. Building the funnels, doing the virtual stuff is really actually a scapegoat from having real conversations with people.

Ani
And doing your own work.

Brian
Understand what people need and what you need. Yeah. And so they look good on paper and everyone actually grabs after that because everybody wants to go, oh, I just want to set up a funnel and have people come and find me without me and click a buy thing online, without me having to have a conversation with them.

Ani
It’s the magic bullet.

Brian
It’s a magic illusion.

Ani
It is.

Brian
It’s not a magic bullet. It’s a magic illusion that people have.

Ani
It’s the promise of just as it really doesn’t work. I mean, the statistics tell you that it works 0.3% of the time. That doesn’t sound very good.

Brian
Yeah. So for people who are operating at the kind of the solopreneur, like solo practice kind of level, funnels are, in my opinion, I’ll just say it, the biggest waste of time and biggest waste of money that you can do.

Ani
Absolutely.

Brian
It’s much more important to do these time-tested practices or time-tested tools of building your practice of building your business.

Ani
And when you say time waste, to me, it’s not just the time spent building the funnels. It’s the time you are wasting building the funnels and you could be making an impact and enjoying your own life and life force. Like it’s, yeah, a big deal.

Yeah. The other thing, as we’re talking, that occurs to me about the completeness is to do somatic work and have it be optional or not a part of your program that you’re going to do the work in person, live and in person together. It just isn’t complete.

It’s just not complete, which is why that is a part of our Somatic Coach Pro program. You don’t get to be a Somatic Coach Pro unless you have done work in person, live and in person, because that’s the most complete way to do it.

Brian
Right. Yeah. So again, this is just the look at, this is our philosophy, and this might be not the way that you operate or your philosophy, which is fine.

Which is great. There’s lots of programs out there for all kinds of different people. We just want to make sure that people who are looking for the most comprehensive, most complete training available, that they know that that’s our intention to provide that.

Ani
And who really want to do this professionally, because some people don’t want to. They want to just go through for their personal journey. And we work with people who are professionals, who want to be professionals and be with a group of professional colleagues.

Brian
Yep. And by the way, we do have all levels of people come through the program.

Ani
Sure do.

Brian
People who have not done any ounce of embodiment work at all, all the way through people who have done embodiment work for years and years and years, and are wanting to add embodiment or somatic coaching to their programs, all the way to people who’ve been doing coaching for years and years and years and embodiment work, and they’re looking for a way to up-level their skills and have a different and a deeper experience with it.

So all kinds of different people come through. And if you’re just listening to this podcast now and you’re like, well, geez, how do we even get more information getting started? Listen to the podcast we did last week with the amazing Lynn Bonner, who is our program advisor that people hop in the call with.

Ani
Right. Yeah. When you want to apply to the programs, you’ll talk to some of our folks on the phone and Lynn is the person who you’re going to get on the phone and talk to.

Brian
So let’s talk about some nitty gritties here.

Ani
Nitty gritties.

Brian
Let’s get into some nitty gritties.

Ani
I’ve got some notes, Brian.

Brian
You’ve got some notes. I have some notes. Here we go.

So what do you get when you are in the Somatic Coach Pro program? Somatic Coach Complete.

Ani
Somatic Coach Complete. So all three levels.

Brian
All three levels.

Ani
Which by the way, is what most people contact us interested in, because most people want to get to the level three program and you need to go through all the levels to get to level three. So Somatic Coach Complete is the way to go. It gets you all three levels.

Brian
So just in brief, level one is our Somatic Practice Essentials program. You get a core centering practitioner certification when you graduate from that program. And that program is really about nervous system regulation, nervous system relaxation.

Ani
And all the practices to help you to do that, you to do that, and to help other people do that.

Brian
And that’s a prerequisite for any somatic work that anybody ever does. If you can’t relax your nervous system, you’re not going to get very far.

Ani
Yeah.

Brian
At least with somatic work, you’re not going to be very successful with it.

Ani
Yeah. And if you don’t learn that stuff, then you can learn all the advanced stuff, but not really be able to do it sustainably because you haven’t done the foundational work. You really have to do that foundational work.

Brian
Exactly. Okay. So level two.

And oh, and by the way, that level one program is a 30-day container. Right. So I just want to kind of give people an idea.

We’re going to come back and talk about these in more detail in just a moment, but I just want to kind of give us a big arc framework to look at first. Level two, that is somatic transformation fundamentals program. It’s a three-month long, 12-week, three-month long program.

You gain a cross mapping method practitioner certification with that program. And this program builds on level one. So in level two, what you’re learning is not only to relax the nervous system, but you’re learning to actually begin to direct the function of your own nervous system.

Oh, that makes sense. In that level two. Now you’re doing it more consciously.

So you think about the level one program, it’s the essential skills to just relax the nervous system, calm it down. Level two, now you’re using your conscious mind to begin directing your nervous system function, to begin changing your nervous system function in order to create more ease and peace, less distress in your body and in your life.

Ani
And when you have less ease and distress, you can create and manifest whatever you’d like in life.

Brian
Yep. So that’s kind of the gist of the level two program. That’s three months long.

Okay. Level three program is eight months long. And what do you do in level three?

Well, this is where you take those first two levels, relaxing your nervous system, learning to consciously direct your nervous system. And now you learn to begin coaching with those skills and tools. And we actually take, you learn advanced cross-mapping skills in that level three program, which have a lot more to do with helping to regulate a nervous system that is potentially traumatized for people, but also creating an anchoring experience in the person’s nervous system.

So again, they can create anything they want from there.

Ani
You actually look at how to deconstruct and reconstruct patterns that affect all the results that people are getting in their lives. So you can, as you’re coaching with them, look at what people want to achieve and help them to determine where their patterns of emotions and thoughts and behavior and actions and the words that they speak all go together. Really simple and easy to use process and deconstruct what’s not working and reconstruct new patterns so that they can do what they would like in their life.

Brian
You’re learning the soul’s agenda. Find your soul’s agenda process as an assessment to help people discover their purpose state. Yep.

Ani
Help them discover their purpose.

Brian
Yep. So you’ve got that going on.

Ani
Yep. You learn business skills, relationship-based business skills to help people to buy into their own transformation. And when I say buy in, I’m not just talking about helping people to turn from prospective clients into clients.

That’s a part of it. But also helping people to actually know what they want and then allow themselves to go for it as a part of that process.

Brian
People are learning about their core limiters. What is at the heart of their patterns that are stopping them from becoming the person they most want to become in the world?

Ani
Yep. Which includes their limiting beliefs.

Brian
Yep. And so we’re also learning connective tissue practices that help to wade through, to navigate through the defenses of changing the core limiter.

Ani
Emotional management and regulation, which is probably the biggest thing that thwarts folks when they’re moving into whatever they want to create in life.

Brian
Yep. So you’re navigating through the body resistance, learning to navigate through the emotional resistance, learning to navigate through the intellectual resistance that comes with changing and shifting core limiters in order to help people live from their primary core expression, which kind of links back to the soul’s agenda that we do earlier in the program.

Ani
And integrating body, mind, and spirit. So these ideas about purpose and the desire and the mind and how the mind works in the body and how the body works in really linking together all of those key pieces of intelligence so that people can tap into their complete human intelligence while they’re navigating their lives.

Brian
Yep. So at the end of the Somatic Coach Pro program, you’ve got tools to help people regulate their nervous system. You have tools to help people and yourself, by the way, you’re doing this all through the program for yourself, to consciously direct your own physiology, to create own physiological changes, to have more ease, more relaxation, more flow in your life.

And then you’re also learning how to deconstruct and reconstruct patterns, which is what we all operate from. You’re getting this find your soul’s agenda assessment. You’re learning the deeper advanced cross mapping tools and skills.

You’re learning visual lead release skills that have to do more with kind of the way we visually and imagery process things. I mean, I don’t want to kind of go into all the details, but you’re learning the connective tissue muscle release practices.

Ani
All of these things, by the way, are in the syllabi that you can find on the program pages. So when you go to somaticcoachingacademy.com and you go to the explore our programs thing in the menu, you’ll see somatic coach complete, and you can click on each of the program pages. And on every single one of those, there is a detailed syllabus where you’ll find out about all of these details.

Brian
Yeah. And by the way, because we are committed to having it be the most comprehensive, the most complete somatic coach training program available, we’re always going back and kind of making tweaks and adjustments, upgrading, always upgrading what’s going on with the syllabus. And then people who’ve graduated from previous cohorts inside of our Somatic Coaching Academy community, we do updates for the old graduates and any new material that we put in there.

Ani
And I just recently, I guess it was about a month ago, ran one for past grads. We were up, I mean, minor tweaks, but really important stuff that we were telling the grads about. And they were so thrilled.

I had multiple people tell me this is one of the biggest reasons why our investment in the program with the Somatic Coaching Academy just continues to pay off over and over and over again, because every time you all update things, you tell us all about it and we all get to learn and develop. And that’s part of the completeness. We’re not going to leave grads hanging.

Brian
Yeah, exactly. That comes back to the complete. So that’s our intention, always to help it be more and more complete.

So right currently, there are 111 contact hours that are a part of the Somatic Coach Complete program that happened over a year, really. And so if you think about that, that’s actually kind of dispersed pretty well over a year. It’s not a lot of super intensity, but it’s because we know that transformation takes time and we know it takes time to integrate the program.

You can go to programs and just get intellectually fire hosed for two months. And then after you’re like, what the heck was that? And you don’t remember any of it.

You didn’t get anything out of it.

Ani
Not what we do. We are so intentional about giving you the right amount of information in the right doses so that you can integrate it.

Brian
Integrate it. And then there’s peer calls that go along with that. There’s open coaching.

There’s all these other things that are a part of the program as well to help you integrate. So you really have a really profound and tangible transformation that you go through.

Ani
And you need that. We believe that you need that space. So if you’re just looking for contact hours to sit in the classroom and get pumped with information, this might not be the best program for you because we’re going to give you that spaciousness to be able to integrate this stuff.

Brian
So those are the formal contact hours. But I have to tell you, there’s actually multiple bonus things that happen that we don’t even count on the contact hours. So at some point in time, I’ll probably go back through and re-look at all the actual contact hours because the bonus stuff, it’s not required, but you’re crazy not to do it because we’re offering it because we want to be the most complete program out there for people.

So just in level one, for instance, it’s a 30 day container, but there’s 16 contact hours as a level one program, but we do four additional bonus classes just for your cohort. So you can come and practice the core centering techniques. You can learn how to teach them.

You can get them in your own body. So there’s like four additional hours just there alone in the level one program.

Ani
There’s all kinds of, it’s a turnkey program is the thing. So there’s just the right business support too, for you to be able to just take this and go start your business.

Brian
Turnkey. Yeah. You can turnkey this right away.

Ani
So that’s all in there.

Brian
Yeah. We do peer share reviews. And so this is an important thing that other programs might not do too, I just want to say.

Whenever you have an instructor actually reviewing what you’re learning and then giving you feedback on it, that is one of the most valuable, what do you want to say? It’s not even an add on, most valuable components of a program. And we do that with every one of our levels.

You have an instructor looking at the materials you’re submitting and then giving you feedback on it so that you can go out there and make a big difference in the world. So you’re always connected to your teaching faculty.

Ani
Well, you’re saying it’s not an add on. It’s not an add on for us, but it is an add on for other programs.

Brian
You’re right. So other programs charge you a little more in order to get that video and get a feedback.

Ani
But they don’t have it so that they can keep the costs down.

Brian
Right.

Ani
You actually have instructors giving you feedback on the things that you’re doing. That’s so valuable.

Brian
So I would add that to my complete thing, by the way, when you asked me at the beginning. Yeah.

Ani
I think that’s actually a really special part of what we do here.

Brian
Yeah. So in level one, you’re submitting practices within our cohorts in a safe way inside of the cohort container and getting feedback from your instructors on how you could make that, what you’re doing well, and what you could maybe even do to improve and make it better to really go out there and make a big difference in the world.

Ani
Yeah. Well, I guess that’s a good thing to say too, is the way we keep saying we’re highly intentional. We’re highly intentional about the way that we give feedback.

And it’s feedback that is well-received and people get a lot out of moving forward. It’s not the kind of feedback where you got to brace yourself and get nervous.

Brian
Yeah. It’s all our primary goal is to help you just knock it out of the park in the world with these techniques and these strategies which you’re learning. If you’re not making a big difference in the world, we didn’t do our job.

That’s the way I think about it. So the way we think about making sure that people are competent, we’re not creating exams or tests to trick or fool people. We’re creating kind of challenges, let’s say, for people to become better at what they’re doing.

That’s my primary goal is to have you go out in the world and make a big, big, big difference in other people’s lives.

Ani
The stuff that we’re talking about, by the way, is all ironed out on a PDF. If you get into the library and you go down to those decision packs, you’ll see a PDF about the price breakdown for all of the programs. So you can see exactly what we’re valuing in each of the programs and how it breaks down.

That’s what we’re talking about.

Brian
The current pricing is all on the website. We’re not going to tell you what the pricing is here because it could change between the time you listen to this and the time you look at it because this podcast is going to be around forever. But the pricing will always be very clearly and transparently displayed on the website.

So look there for sure. And I would just say too, since we’re talking about it, if you’re looking around at other programs, be very wary of programs that do not openly display their tuition.

Just be wary of that.

Ani
Like I wonder why they don’t do that.

Brian
Right. Why are they not displaying their tuition? I mean, I could give you a whole bunch of reasons why they’re not displaying their tuition.

Ani
Well, it’s kind of an old sales technique to not give people all the details. So they have to get on a call with folks and then to get the information that they’re looking for. And then they have the capacity to influence you differently when you don’t have all the information.

Brian
Exactly. So anyway, so that’s one reason why. So ours will always be right there.

And then you can call and talk to Lynn about whatever questions you have about it, but it’s always right there. Okay. What else do we have?

So when you get into level two and level three, by the way, what are other ways that like this program is complete open coaching, Ani? Want to talk about open coaching?

Ani
Yeah. Well, as soon as you get into level two, you are a part of the open coaching program and it doesn’t make sense for you to be a part of the level one program and get open coaching because we’re not doing coaching skills in level one. We’re starting to do that in level two.

So the open coaching program is a time where you can come and get coached by our team. And it is not mandatory. It is highly suggested that you come and do that because you will get a chance to get coached and get coaching, learn and see all the skills and practice and be able to watch as one of our coaches really performs like a quintessential experience for you of using these skills.

Because you know, there’s lots of different coaching skills. And when you graduate from the program, you’re going to take the things you already knew and you’re going to integrate them with the things that you now know and, you know, have your own brand and flavor and all of that. What you’re getting in open coaching is a quintessential experience.

So you’re getting a very clear exchange and ability to see exactly how these things work because you’re going to be using them and doing them with other people. And that program extends through the level three program as well.

Brian
Yeah. Perfect. Also in level two, a bonus thing that you get are mentor calls.

Actually, these are required. They’re not really a bonus, but I just want to talk about them. You get a mentor call to get on with an instructor and actually practice cross mapping with someone who’s been not only a graduate of the program, but teaches this stuff to again, give you one-on-one personal feedback about how you’re doing with the skills that you’re learning.

So you’re doing a mentor calls as a part of the program to get that one-on-one feedback. The other thing that you’re doing as a part of the level two and level three program, what we call peer shares, where we’re matching you up to practice the skills with each other. And when you do these peer shares, you submit a follow-up form that again is reviewed by your instructors.

So we are questions on that follow-up form that our instructors look at and are cued in to where you may be struggling. And then we build office hours in the level two program, especially around what your peer feedback is so that we’re always like finger on the pulse of what does your cohort need. So for level two specifically, there’s a part of level two that is regimented learning, that there’s some pre-recorded stuff there that you do.

We have four primary engagement sessions to currently where we run right now that we have dialed in. And then there’s six, I think six or eight code office hours that we dial specifically for your cohort. So we’re always paying attention to that.

How can we customize and personalize this to what you need?

Ani
Yeah, it’s actually a really nice blend because in a program that’s just customized, you’re not going to get the structure that you need. And in a program that’s just structured, you’re not going to get the customization you need. And the part of the level two program that I really appreciate is there’s really that customization element to it that’s awesome.

Again, you will continue to get client resources and things. One of the things that our students really appreciate is we have sample scripts that you can use for each of the different processes that we’re doing with you. Because we don’t want you to be a robot.

We want you to be able to be a person who can effortlessly and easily be competent with material. But to be able to get you to the place of competency, we’ve found that giving scripts that you can follow to practice along, make sure that you don’t miss anything. So that as you’re practicing, you get all of the important details.

And then it’s actually pretty easy to let go of the script and be able to do it yourself after that.

Brian
Yeah, absolutely. And then just, I mentioned this a little earlier, but I should mention it again now as again, part of level two, you’re turning in a couple of videos of you doing physical cross-mapping for physical distress and cross-mapping for emotional distress with sample clients. And then those videos are being reviewed by your instructors that then in turn give you specific feedback, both, hey, what’s going great?

What are you doing well? Do more of, as well as, hey, this is what you want to tweak. Do this a little bit better.

So you’re getting someone again, looking at the work that you’re doing, giving you feedback on it, and then potentially doing a follow-up mentor call to make sure you’ve got it dialed. Again, our goal is to make sure you can bring these things out into the world in a powerful way. That’s the goal.

Ani
So let me touch on something that you’re not going to find in this or the other programs that I think is really important to me, probably to you too. And that is you are not going to be touching people. So Brian just said something about physical cross-mapping and emotional cross-mapping.

We actually are going to teach you how to help people who have physical symptomology and emotional symptomology. And I’ll take the symptom word out for a second, physical stuff that comes up for them and emotional stuff that comes up for them. This is a coaching program.

And so we want you to be able to help when a client comes and you say, how are you this week? And I’m like, I’ve had a kink in my neck for a week, or I have this back pain. I’m working with my physical therapist.

It still won’t go anywhere. We want you to help to be able to have a conversation with these people, no matter if they’re bringing physical symptomology or emotional symptomology. Gee, I’m really anxious this week.

Or boy, I just had this buzzy sensation that I can’t get rid of. So any of that stuff, you’re going to be able to navigate. You will not be putting hands on people.

And that’s an important part of our program. And you might say, well, you just said you have the most complete program. We have the most complete somatic coaching program.

And Brian and I both have multiple licenses to touch in New York state. So he is a licensed physical therapist. I’m a licensed occupational therapist, and we’re both licensed massage therapists.

We have license to touch. Not all states require you to have a license to touch people in order to touch people. But there are certainly plenty of states who have a licensure component associated with touching people.

You will not touch people in this program because you don’t have to, to be able to get the powerful coaching results with folks. And that’s an important aspect that is not in the program on purpose. We want you to be able to affect change through conversation because that’s how coaches operate.

Brian
Yeah. And I’ll just bounce on that a little more. It makes it very legally mucky.

As soon as you put your hands on people, it gets very legally mucky. So even if you’re in a state that there’s no legal requirements to be licensed to touch people, I’m just going to say this, please check with your liability insurance because your liability insurance might not care that there’s not a license needed in your state. They might say, are you licensed to touch people?

And if you say no, they’re going to say, it’s going to be a million dollars a year or something astronomical then for you to be able to have that as a clause in your liability insurance. And if you don’t have that in your liability insurance and you touch someone and some harm comes to them, either real or imagined in some way, and they turn around and sue you and you don’t have that liability insurance, you are in deep doo-doo.

Ani
And you should definitely check with a lawyer about this. And if you’re listening and you’re like, I would love to check with a lawyer, but I don’t know who to ask, just send us an email at info at somaticcoachingacademy.com. We are happy to point you towards a lawyer who I would say is one of the best people in the world to talk about this because she specifically works with folks who do energetic kinds of work, including hands-on healing and coaching.

And I was having a conversation with her recently actually, and she was giving us some kudos about how we do the program. We do not do hands-on, which like you said, can get legally very mucky. And also it can get legally mucky when you’re working with people’s emotions and not bringing it down into the sensory components that they’re experiencing in their body.

Because all of a sudden you could be doing therapeutic work and not knowing you’re doing therapeutic work, but you are as a coach. And so we have a very legally clean certification program and you should definitely do your due diligence on that.

Brian
Yeah. So do your due diligence on that. Okay, cool.

All right. So let’s go on to level three. And so again, level three, eight months on.

What are the bonuses that happen in level three? Well, by the way, no matter what level you’ve graduated from, we have these monthly Somatic Coaching Academy office hours, Ani.

Ani
We do. I run them most of the time.

Brian
Want to tell us about those?

Ani
Yeah. So it’s an hour every month to sit down with the graduate community and of any of the levels and to be able to help them to improve their capacity to use the work in the world. Sometimes that has to do with their capacity to use the work with themselves.

Most of the time the conversation revolves around using the work with others in their practices. Sometimes it’s strictly business building. Sometimes it’s more conversation about the curriculum.

Like for example, one of the office hours we ran recently was how to use the level one, two, and three skills with children because that’s not something we do in the program. But we want to make sure we talked about with the community. This month we’re doing a kind of a really open format where people can bring their questions because we’re doing a challenge with the community where they’re doing like a visibility challenge.

And so we want to be able to give them the support to be able to answer any questions that they have about how to be successful with their practices. So it can go from a very open format to kind of a lecture style depending on what the community needs and how the community is being met with the world. So it’s not always like here’s what’s going on in the marketplace kind of conversation, but sometimes it is because you got to kind of know what’s going on in the world to be able to meet people.

Brian
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Another completeness or comprehensiveness for every one of the levels, and we’re talking about level three right now, so let’s talk about level three. You’re held in a container that includes a private forum community, right? So you can kind of get into that network and anytime a day you can pop questions in there.

And it doesn’t mean it’s going to get answered right away anytime a day, but at least once a day, there’s someone from the team coming through there to say what questions are being asked, what support is needed from people, and we’re pretty responsive.

Ani
We’re very responsive. And you’re part of the greater community, the greater virtual community, but you’re also part of your cohort community. And so you have those connections both with your cohort and also with the greater Somatic Coaching Academy community.

Brian
Yeah. So we’re prompting, we’re monitoring, we’re involved in there. And I think I have noticed that the people who really utilize that have a much better outcome with the program.

Some people just don’t utilize the virtual community as much as other people do. And the people that do, they get their questions answered, they’re really engaged, they’re really involved, they have opportunities come up for them. It’s really, it’s a great, I mean, imagine being in a container like that for literally a year if you go through the whole program.

It’s pretty amazing.

Ani
Yeah, well, as of right now, you also are part of that forever. So as of the time of this recording, as long as you take one of the certification programs, you’re part of that community. The thing I really appreciate about how people show up there, by the way, is it’s really thoughtful.

So we do some fun posts or tell us about this or what’s your favorite that, but for the most part, the questions and the people who engage with the community, it’s really thoughtful questions. I had a client who had this or that thing. What do you all think about that?

Or I have this or that thing come up in my own life and I’m thinking about it like this. And what would other people say, or have you ever had that happen to you? It’s really reflective.

And I think one of the things that I hear is it’s rare to have individuals as a part of your network and social networks that really get the kinds of transformational work that you do, who you are, what matters to you, and to have that community right there at your fingertips where you can show up, be you, ask questions, be curious, be vulnerable, and be met with high regard and respect and be able to think together is rare. You have that here.

Brian
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. So when I was having this conversation with this colleague a couple of months ago about the differences in our programs, and he runs a program that is lower cost, higher volume, more people compared to our program, which is a little higher cost and less people.

And we were talking about the differences. And then I said, is there an in-person component for yours? And he said, no, not really.

And he said, what about yours? I said, yeah, we have a four-day in-person retreat. And that’s included in their tuition.

Ani
That’s included.

Brian
And he said, oh, now it makes sense why there’s a difference in our tuition levels.

Ani
100%. And here’s how you’re going to know this for yourself, by the way. If you’re comparing programs and you do enough research on a few programs, you’re going to see that there are certain programs that do not have an in-person component baked into the program, but there is an optional in-person add-on.

So take those costs that you’re seeing associated with the optional in-person add-ons, and you’re going to see where the tuition costs come from in terms of our program, because it’s baked in. And not only is the program cost baked in, but your room and board for that experience is baked in too. So you’re not coming and staying at a hotel and needing to pay for all of your own food.

All you have to do is get yourself there and the rest of it is all baked into your retreat experience.

Brian
Get yourself to the retreat center. So we run the retreat at a retreat center that is vetted by us with clean and healthy nourishing food, with beautiful spaces that feels energetically supportive for the work we have to do. I mean, we really take our time to look for what’s the absolute best possible spot to be able to do the work we’re doing together intensively for these period of days where you feel really supported and nourished.

Ani
It’s an energetic match.

Brian
Yep.

Ani
Yeah.

Brian
Yeah. And it’s all included in the program cost. Right.

It’s all included in your tuition.

Ani
Yep. It’s not optional, folks. If you want it optional, you’re at the wrong place.

Brian
Yeah, because we are invested in having the most comprehensive and complete somatic coach training program. That’s kind of our intention.

Ani
And I’ll tell you, the competencies of our students right before they get to the retreat experience and then after the retreat experience, totally different. Once they have the retreat experience, the competency level of those folks who got to practice in person, human to human, live. I mean, I’m making a point of it because nowadays we think that’s optional.

Brian
Right. Yeah.

Ani
I think before COVID, we didn’t realize that was optional, but nowadays we think it’s optional. We work hybrid. We work from home.

We might see people. I don’t go places. It’s not optional when you’re working with the body.

Well, for us, it’s not optional.

Brian
Exactly. So that’s baked into the cost. We just want to let you know that.

Okay. So let’s talk about the four-hour Souls Agenda workshop, Bonnie, that happens. That’s a bonus, by the way.

It is. It’s a bonus. People come for four, do additional four hours worth of work.

Ani
Right. So the Souls Agenda process is a purpose finding process that we teach you how to do in the program. And the reason that we do it with you is threefold.

We want to have you find your Souls Agenda and do that purpose work so that we understand who you are. And we do it before the program starts because we want to know who you are throughout the course of the program. And we get like a ridiculous amount of information just by knowing your Souls Agenda before you start the program.

We know who you are at a very deep level on day one. So we know who you are. That’s why it’s important.

You know who you are and you get to do the process and you get to have the process facilitated for you because you’re going to be a person who’s going out and doing that process with other people. We want you to have it facilitated by us, not by your peer, by us so that you can see what it’s like. But the third thing is we do it in a group on purpose because we want you to know what it looks like to be able to run a workshop with other people so that when you graduate or even before you graduate, you can run these purpose-finding workshops with folks.

And you’ve already been through a workshop, so you’ve seen what it looks like. And then we’ll give you the map of how to facilitate it yourself, like moment by moment, how you should run it if you’re going to run it. But you’ve been through it, so you see it.

It’s a really fantastic opportunity on multiple levels.

Brian
Yeah. And so I’ll just speak to this again. You’re going to turn in a video of you doing this whole agenda process with a client, and then that video is reviewed by an instructor and you’re given feedback.

You’re also going to turn in a video of you doing the sensation-based motivation coaching process with a client. It’s going to be reviewed by an instructor. You’re also going to get a mentor call based on what happened in that call.

So you’re going to get even more support there, again, to make sure you can do these processes out there in the world when you are blessed to do them after you graduate. So you’re having that reviewed also, which all takes time from the instructor and also that personalized feedback.

Ani
Exactly. So you’re getting it from multiple angles, right? You’re going to open coaching.

You’re getting coached. You’re doing the peer share. So you’re doing peer development.

And then you’re getting the feedback from faculty. So you’re getting that angle too. So there’s multiple angles as you’re approaching the work.

Brian
Yeah. And if you’re active in the network, you’re getting all the contrast and support from your group as well. So there’s all these change touch points that happen.

Ani already mentioned the 12 to 15 hours of additional structured business support that happens during the course of that program. And that’s outside of the ad hoc business support that people can ask about in the forum.

Ani
They can ask about in the forum. There’s hours and hours and hours of video support in the program that we point you towards so that we don’t have to actually take your time to go through something with the business support that you could watch a quick video that we did about it so that you can get all your questions answered. You will be able to take this work and do it and make a living out of it.

Part of the reason that we feel very confident about your tuition investment is we know that you can take that tuition investment and turn it into a 10x on your tuition investment. And then over and over and over throughout the course of your life. So within, I think reasonably about a year and a half, you can turn your investment into a 10x investment if you do everything that we say.

And then over and over and over, you can repeat that. So we feel very confident in your tuition.

Brian
So easily into the six figures. Easily into six figures.

Ani
Easily.

Brian
Pretty quick.

Ani
Over and over and over. And you need to meet us halfway, right? Because you need to take up the work and take it seriously.

And we meet you right there and give you everything you possibly need.

Brian
Yeah. So we’ve both been in private programs and business building communities over the years, right? We’ve invested a lot of money in those things.

And so when we looked at our program from really an objective place, we really valued the cost of the program upwards of $85,000.

Ani
Yeah. And that’s all broken down for you, by the way, in the PDF that I mentioned, it’s in the library with the decision pack.

Brian
Right. Now your tuition for this program is never going to cost that much money. But we know that that’s the value that you’re getting out of the program based on what we’ve paid for our own development in other programs that have costed upwards of $85,000, right?

I mean, a lot of investment, a lot of money over time doing that. And as of now, and we can’t guarantee this is the way it’s going to be forever. We can’t guarantee it waits forever.

But as of right now, graduates, they’re just continuing to be part of the community at no additional cost.

Ani
Right. And that may change at some point. We may have renewals and things like that.

But at this point, yeah, people continue to learn and grow with us. And there’s graduate opportunities that people can take part of. There’s really quite a robust amount of things that you could be a part of if you want to after graduation.

A lot of programs that you take, I would say most programs that you take, it’s really based on the amount of time that the program is, and then you go bye-bye. And it’s really the start of something when you start with the Somatic Coaching Academy, rather than when you get to the end, you drop off a cliff. It’s really the start of something.

Brian
Yeah. And I think you mentioned this actually this morning, Ani, which is why this is so important. I think that, I was thinking recently, I was going to do a little bit of a reveal, which I know you love when I do these reveals on podcasts, and I haven’t talked about it ahead of time.

But I was thinking recently about you and me, when we got together and started to brought our business together and started to change, reorganize our lives and be together. And I thought, what was that really about? Why was that important?

And I think one of the things that, to me, feels like bonded us together was shared experience. Just the power of shared experience when other people don’t get it. They just don’t understand what you’ve experienced together in a really empowering way.

And you mentioned this this morning, actually, about our community and how important this is for people that graduate from the Somatic Coaching Academy.

Ani
We say after every call, what are your takeaways? And we go through whoever’s there and we do takeaways. And so we do them as a part of the office hours.

So we’re in contact with the graduate community regularly through office hours, and we do takeaways. And every time, at least a handful of people say, my biggest takeaway from this meeting is the community. And I kind of scratch my head around it sometimes because I’m thinking, what do they mean?

Do they mean the people? Do they not have friends? Or do they not hang out with people?

What do they talk? What do they mean the community? And what is special about this community?

And I think it really went back to what we’re talking about this morning and what you just said. If you have a transformational experience yourself, it needs to be shared with other people who can see you, who can see you, and who can really listen. And that experience to really be seen and really feel understood needs to be shared with somebody who has walked the path.

And I think that’s what our people are talking about when they say the community is they have a moment in time where they’ve taken some time to be with people who get them on a very deep level. And it feels incredibly nourishing. And I think that actually is one of the biggest things that people feel like is missing in their lives.

And I don’t know that you can always put words on it. I think it’s one of those like a little bit of emptiness in me that I don’t even know where it comes from kinds of feelings. But you know, when it’s not there anymore, and you really appreciate that it’s a full place now.

Brian
Yeah, yeah. And it’s sometimes people when they graduate from the Somatic Coach Pro Program, they just they stay right in community and stay really connected. Sometimes people drift away, and then come back.

And that’s wonderful, too. It’s like everyone this is if you if you’ve been through the program, if you’ve graduated from Somatic Coach Pro, you’re always home here. This is always home, no matter what it is that you go off and, and investigate and journey on and, and maybe mess around with or get in trouble with or good trouble, whatever it is, you know, you’re always welcome.

And it’s always a joy to have people come back in and, and kind of reconnect to reconnect in a place that had so much shared experience for people.

Ani
Brian, I’m going to say something that I know rubs some people a little bit, because it takes a little bit away from the warm and fuzziness of this conversation. But people would say very often that that experience is priceless. What we’re describing right now.

And honestly, when we say it’s priceless, we don’t know how to put monetary value on it. And our society operates on putting monetary value on things. And I can tell you, you’re not going to get that feeling when you’re a part of a program that has a very low price point.

So it’s not priceless. It does cost a certain amount of money to have the high intentionality and touch points needed with the professionals who have the cultivated experience necessary to create that experience for you. It is created for you.

And that does cost in our society, a certain amount of money to be able to be in that experience.

Brian
Yeah. So yeah, and we love to actually help our graduates step out in the world and be able to ask for compensation that equals their capacity and capabilities.

Ani
To create those experiences for other people.

Brian
Right. So when you have a complete program experience, a comprehensive program experience, when you have a transformation that allows you to be able to ask for the law, this is the natural law, the law of compensation. When you can give more to the world, you’re able to open to receive more from the world back monetarily.

And that’s why, as Ani was saying, to be able to 10x your revenue return based on the tuition, we’re not exaggerating that. That’s based in the laws. Yeah.

Ani
So if you’re to the place where you’ve listened to this entire podcast, you’re probably at the place where you’re considering programs and trying to figure out what’s right for you. Like Brian said, last week we did a podcast with Lynn Bonner, our program administrator, who is the one who you will have a conversation with when you’re considering the program. And I highly encourage you to have a conversation with her.

So whether you listen to last week’s podcast or not, schedule a call with our team so that you can have a conversation about whether or not this program is the right fit for you, because that’s what we’re up to, is helping you to find the right program fit, whether it’s this one or whether it’s not. So you have that available to you. Take advantage of it because whether or not you join the program or you join this program or you join no program, you’re going to have a valuable use of your time to sit down with our team and help you to get clarity and discover what it is that you really want and what is the right match to help you to get where you want to go in life.

Brian
Yeah. Because we’re going to run the program. It’s going to be amazing.

And it’s really up to you whether or not you want to be on that train or not with us.

Ani
That’s very true. And we’d love to see you there. So thanks so much for being with us with this time today.

If you have any additional questions, always reach out to us at info at somaticcoachingacademy.com. And we’ll see you next week. See you next week.

Bye, everybody.