DST SOMATICS STEP 5 – Embodied Biology: Listening to the Living Body – 042026

Embodied Biology: Listening to the Living Body

Learn to perceive and respond to the body’s many systems — tissues, fluids, nerves, organs, and fields — through refined somatic listening and restorative contact.

This is DST Step 5 — a deepening into the body itself.

In this advanced experiential training, we move beyond dialogue and foundational touch into biological awareness. You’ll learn how different tissues communicate, how fluids and nerves organize experience, and how the body reveals what it needs when we know how to listen. This step refines your capacity to meet the person through what is expressing — muscularly, viscerally, neurologically, emotionally, and energetically.

This training delves into following how the body reorganizes as it unwinds.

What You’ll Experience

Over four rich, integrative days, we explore:

Orienting — The Body as a Living System
• Developing biological awareness across tissues and systems
• Learning to distinguish squishy, rubbery, wiry, hard, stretchy, fluid, and vibratory expressions
• Understanding how organs, muscles, bones, nerves, and fascia relate
• Meeting the person through what part of the body is speaking
• Establishing a restorative, non–fix-it container

Listening — Fluids, Fascia, and Diaphragms
• Working with fluid systems: blood and lymphatic drainage
• Understanding the role of the thoracic region in regulation and overwhelm
• Learning how congestion affects vitality and emotional state
• Reviewing the three main diaphragms and their coordination
• Supporting downward flow from the cranium through gentle DST contact

Responding — Muscles, Nerves, and Joints
• Working with rubbery muscle tissue to test and encourage coherence
• Exploring compressive and ortho-style support
• Introduction to neural tissue tension and gentle nerve work
• Listening to joints and how they want to move
• Integrating Chapman-informed reflexive approaches

Integrating — Vibration, Field, and Restoration
• Working with vibrating and energetic expressions of the body
• Introduction to morphic and field-level sensing
• Understanding overwhelm as a biological state (mirroring Step 2)
• Introducing Principles of Fields
• Closing sessions with integration, restoration, and forward movement

Why It Matters

Step 5 refines your ability to work with the whole person without losing the body.

You’ll leave with:
• Greater clarity in sensing what system is expressing itself
• Deeper skill in supporting regulation through tissues and fluids
• Increased confidence working with overwhelm and complexity
• Expanded capacity to listen across body, emotion, and field
• A more integrated, restorative way of practicing DST

This step prepares the ground for Step 6 and marks a shift into advanced biological and field-based listening.

Course Details

Dates: April 27–30, 2026
Location: Serra Retreat Center, Malibu, California
3401 Serra Road, Malibu, CA 90265
https://serraretreat.com

Prerequisite: Completion of DST Steps 1–4
Format: In-person, 4-day immersive training

This course and all associated materials are educational in nature and are not intended to replace the advice, diagnosis, treatment, or care of a licensed medical, psychological, or mental health professional. The content is not psychotherapy, medical treatment, or a means to cure illness or psychological conditions. Participation in this training is designed to support and enhance your professional skills and personal insight — it is not a substitute for clinical therapy, medical care, or professional supervision. For full details, please see our Disclaimer and Scope of Practice page