COURSE DETAILS
Alchemical Alignment training will only be online for now.
Foundation and Deepening: seven 3-day Modules.
Taught by Tele Darden (see bio below).
2022 FULL. Please apply for Fall 2023, waitlist filling now.
Fall 2023 Foundation (Sept, Oct, Nov)
Module 1: Sept 21-23, 2023; 10am-4pm Eastern (7am-1pm Pacific, 4pm-10pm CET)
Module 2: Oct 26-28, 2023; 10am-4pm
Module 3: Nov 30- Dec 2, 2023; 10am-4pm
Advanced Modules (Dec - May)
Module 4: Jan 11-13, 2024; 10am-4pm Eastern (7am-1pm Pacific, 4pm-10pm CET)
Module 5: Feb 15-17, 2024; 10am-4pm
Module 6: Mar 21-23, 2024; 10am-4pm
Module 7: Apr 25-27, 2024; 10am-4pm
Includes membership in our Maintain Alignment international online practitioner community gathering space, and M4-7 include Integration Circles.
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Apply here if you are a practitioner ready to join us in 2023.
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Alchemical Alignment is a heart- and soul-based experiential bodywork training with a solid amount of information for your mind. Learn principles and practices for interactive, virtual and hands-on, non-verbal and verbal health, fight, flight, freeze and double bind work.
Classes include "The Alignment Sequence™," a mindful embodiment ritual movement meditation, as well as guided seated meditations, experiential exercises for dyads and triads, and more.
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Modules 1-3: Foundations in Health
Develop the resilient practitioner presence, capacity and stability needed
to practice trauma resolution work sustainably. Learn to recognize trauma imprints and how to create conditions to meet places in the injured relational field
that may have been previously inaccessible.
Mod 1: The Alchemist’s Relational Field
Cultivate the internal practitioner awareness, stability, attuned pacing and
relational skills needed to meet danger and safety issues in clients.
Introduction to the 7 Realms of the Body Security System.
Mod 2: Creating Conditions for Transmutation
Deepen into the 7 Realms and other maps of the Body Security System.
Begin to meet, reregulate and transform
post-traumatic physiology patterns with subtle yet powerful exercises.
Mod 3: The Mystery of the Valiant Protectors
Begin to explore how the intelligence of the tidal body can hold
unfinished threat responses and unmet needs. Learn how to relate
with the extremities as portals to inaccessible somatic zones.
Modules 4-7: Advanced Trauma Resolution Skills
and Embodiment Practices
Learn to mend the gaps in The Weave created by trauma imprints.
Build capacity to meet higher levels of intensity and subtlety of imprinted and embodied dysregulation patterns held at the core. Explore details of reclaiming
the buried treasure of frozen health and power
held in place by threat response patterns.
Mod 4: The Quest for the Dragons of Health
Understand the capacity needed to support mobilization
towards resolution of outdated body security system default settings of danger (neuroception). Learn how to offer appropriate accompaniment
to those held in these historical threat response patterns.
Mod 5: Reclaiming Core Presence
Deepen into the experience of the vertical and horizontal axes of the embodied self.
Mod 6: The Alchemist in the Multiverse
Clarify and differentiate time, space, and subject in order
to allow for the emergence of the more deeply embodied self.
Mod 7: The Compass of the Heart
Develop and refine skills for meeting held polyrhythmic, polyvagal somatic
patterns after intense or inescapable conditions. Witness what is possible
through continued attunement of the present time aligned self.
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Optional Modules 8-14 deepen into details of
"Death within Life" and "Death within Birth," see below.
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Course costs:
$8250 total, Modules 1-7.
Includes $500 non-refundable registration fee.
Commitment to all seven Modules required for lowest tuition rates.
If there is space, M1-3 applications will also be considered.
See application for all payment options, dates, and breakdown of costs.
Cost includes class, and between-Module group Integration Circles (M 3-7).
Individual supervision, if you choose that instead, is not included in tuition. Membership in our international gathering space, Maintain Alignment, is included until three months after finishing M7.
The training is recommended for practitioners with a practice, who have done a fair amount of personal work, have developed some resilience, and are ready for a deeper somatic exploration.
Homework required: regular meditation, movement, readings, peer exchanges, receiving professional sessions, giving practice sessions, and Integration Circles or supervision. Alignment Sequence download included.
Participation eligibility, and advancing to the next Modules, to be determined by instructors.
Number of spots limited, small groups.
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15 Bodywork CE hours given per Module, through NCBTMB.
Alchemical Alignment is approved by the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork (NCBTMB) as a Continuing Education Approved Provider.
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Withdrawal/cancellation policy:
Alchemical Alignment, LLC reserves the right to cancel or postpone any program. In such a case, tuition credit is transferred to future classes. We also reserve the right to ask any student to leave, or wait for another round, for any reason.
In case of student cancellation:
This policy encourages you to commit to coming. Tuition is fully transferable to another round of training up to 6 weeks prior to the start of the class, and changing to another group, the $500.00 registration fee will be charged. Within 6 weeks of class, tuition is non-refundable or transferable except in cases of dangerous weather, unexpected illness, birth work, or emergency.
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Scholarships:
We love variety. The idea of people from various backgrounds, languages, cultures and communities getting this healing message, and translating it into what will serve their community feels fulfilling to us. Because of this, a limited number of scholarships of 25-75% off for all levels are available for individuals coming from and working directly with historically marginalized communities, please include an explanation in your application if you are interested in being considered.
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Retaking:
Part of the Alchemical Alignment culture includes retaking, as often as you would like. This is a win-win situation, where your skill reaches new breadth and depth, receiving the information again and again. In addition, the newcomers benefit from your level of practice. There is always something new to learn or with which to experiment, for practitioners at all levels. This model is based on Aikido classes and seminars, where all ranks of students train together, for a lifetime. The cost is currently $3500 for M1-7 ($3000 one month early), with preference given to those retaking a whole round, M1-7. If there is space for you to come to less than M1-7, the cost is $510 per Module.
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Course Teachers and Assistants:
There have been several bodyworkers and psychotherapists with decades of experience and extensive education participating as teachers and assistants. They are recommended for professional sessions and supervision as well. Their practices may be full, in person only, or also/only virtual, please inquire directly.
M1-7 Teacher:
Tele Darden (she/her) is a bodyworker, teacher and coach
who guides visionary healers as they become more empowered
and embodied forces for change in the world. In practice since
2007, she offers her wide range of skills and experience in
somatic and intuitive healing to create deep and nourishing
containers of transformation for her clients, both in the US and
internationally. Tele lives with her husband, teenager and pets,
including Pickle the ball python on traditional Susquehannock,
Nentego (Nanticoke) & Piscataway lands in Maryland.
Current Course Assistants:
Gisele Silva LMT, BCST (PA)
Kimberly Clark OTR/L (ME)
Liz Hartshorn LMT, RCST®, SEP (NYC)
Claire Turner RCST® (OR)
(A1-3) Sarah Tacy Tangredi (ME)
(A1-3) Chelsea Meney, LMT (MD)
(A1-3) Jessica Sharp, MT, TJT (MD)
(A1-3) Mina Aidoo (UK)
Past Teachers:
M1-3, Ladan Nabet, L.Ac., Dipl. Ac. (MD)
Past Assistants:
Rob Sherrod NCTMB (MD)
Wayne Sickels RCST®, NCTMB, MTS, MDIV (VA)
Glenda Enagonio LMT, RCST®, SEP (MD)
Carol Syvret Austin LMT, RCST® (VA)
Sille Borstad SEP, RCST®, NCTMB (DC)
Sandra Washburn LMT, RCST® (MA)
Becky Carroll PhD, SEP (MA)
Connie Ridgway LICSW, LMT
Kate White MA, SEP, RCST®, NCTMB (VA)
Cynthia Wilcox PhD (CO)
Click here for Course Feedback from participants.
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Optional Advanced Modules with Brigit Viksnins after completion of M1-7:
Deepening into "Death within Life," M8-11. Twelve days, challenge vs trauma, intro to somatic imprints left by (near) death of others and (near) death in self.
2022 Dates: Nov 3-5, Nov 17-19, Dec 1-3, Jan 12-14 (2023),
and "Death within Birth," M12-14. Nine days, intro to somatic blueprint and imprints, pre-conception to post-birth.
2022 Dates: Mar 30-Apr 1, Apr 20-22, May 4-6 (2023).
All days: 9:20 am - 3:45 pm Eastern.
Here is the application.
Fall 2023 Dates: Oct 5-7, Nov 2-4, Dec 7-9, Jan 18-20, Mar 7-9, Apr 4-6, May 2-4. $2700 each (Death/M8-11, Birth/M12-14), $2600 early. $5000 two months early (by Aug 5) for both.
Retaking rate is half price.
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M8-14 Teacher:
Brigit Viksnins MAT, SEP, RCST®, BCTMB, LMT
Brigit (she/they) is an advanced bodyworker, and the creator
of the training program Alchemical Alignment. She is also a
Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, Biodynamic Craniosacral
Therapist, and Board Certified Massage Therapist. She has
undergrad and graduate degrees from Georgetown University.
Brigit has had a successful private bodywork/somatics practice
in the Washington, DC/Piscataway/Nacotchtank area since 1996.
She is a life-partner, stepmother, mother and grandmother as well.
Brigit is a first-generation Latvian American, from a lineage rich with healers, midwives, authors, and teachers. Her parents and all childhood community adults had fled their homeland, and had been refugee immigrant children under bombs and in Displaced Person's camps in WWII, on their way to the USA. She regularly travels to post-Soviet Latvia to relate to the land and people, eat traditional foods, steep in the wisdom of her ancestors, and also share her skills.
She created a full body movement meditation -- latest video recorded in the forest in Latvia -- called The Alignment Sequence™, based on movements from Aikido, Qi Gong, and bodywork stretching. It is helpful for people who want to move beyond old patterns into their Blueprint, and cultivate self-regulation, resilience, presence and power.
Brigit taught Massage Therapy at PMTI in the 90's, is a few hours away from being an association-approved Biodynamic Craniosacral (BCST) teacher (well, tbh, it has been a decade and hasn't reached the top of the to-do list yet), has assisted Somatic Experiencing (SE) trainings, and Body Into Being.
Since 2013, her commitment has been to Alchemical Alignment: Bodywork for Trauma Resolution and Embodiment of Spirit (see course feedback here). Tele Darden is now teaching the first half of the Alchemical Alignment program, Kimberly Clark is teaching an intro to the work for Reflex specialists, and Brigit will continue to teach the Death and Birth Modules, and in our group space, Maintain Alignment.
Highly recommended: schedule with the practitioners listed above. To reach Brigit's very limited private practice calendar, schedule here if you are a practitioner interested in the program: 1 session, 3 sessions. For non-practitioners, not interested in the program, schedule here: 1 session, 3 sessions. Starting mid-2022, receive personal healing through small group support in the Alchemical Constellations Seeker Role, and Representative Role.
Brigit values continuing education highly, and not only teaches, but also participates regularly in short or in-depth training programs as a student or an assistant. Recently those include programs by Ray Castellino and Anna Chitty (Body Into Being: PPN/BCST/SE/Polarity), Katherine Ukleja (post-grad BCST), Kain and Terrell (TST), Barral and Crobier (Neuromeningeal 1-5 and Visceral Osteopathic), Boxhall (BCST), Upledger (CST), Barnes (MFR), Wanveer (Glia), Degranges (PPN/BCST/SE), Taussig (Distance Osteopathic Skills), Bosbach Largent (Family Constellations foundation training, Vala/Seidr), Esterman (Shadow Constellations), as well as regular ASD morning class Aikido training starting in 1991. Here is a list of some classes that have influenced her worldview.