top of page

about Gioia Piscioneri

Some relevant formal qualifications & training…

  • Somatic Resilience & Regulation: Touch support for Developmental Trauma, Kathy Kain & Stephen Terrell

  • Graduate Certificate, 'Loss, Grief & Trauma Counselling', Flinders University SA.

  • Somatic Practitioner, SEP - Somatic Experiencing Australia.

  • BodyMindCentering Movement Workshops: Perceptions & Sensations, & Basic Neurocellular Development, Melbourne.

  • Touch Skills for Therapists. Kathy Kain, Melbourne.

  • Integral Somatic Psychology, Module 1. Raja Selvam, Melbourne. 

  • Dynamic Attachment Re-patterning Experience (DARe), completed all modules, Colorado, USA.

  • 'Creativity & Confidence' 2 day workshop, Justus Neumann, Bruny Island.

  • Essential Somatic Exercise Coach Training - Level 1.  Martha Peterson, Australia.

  • Graduate Certificate in Movement Based Somatic Therapy, Tensegrity Training Pty Ltd

  • Certificate – 'Body as Voice: Restorative Movement Psychotherapy for Survivors of Trauma'.  Amber Gray, Melbourne.

  • Bachelor of Arts (Honours), Utas.

  • Member, Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute (SETI), Colorado, USA.

My early professional journey meandered many paths including work and study in the arts, social research, tourism and education. I look back at the eclectic nature of my life work explorations & see thread like connections which have lead to the work I am now whole heartedly committed to. My personal life is a fabric shaped by my process of transforming an adoption history and other adverse life experiences all of which have informed my commitment to enhancing connection; to self, others and our world.  

​

As a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP) I focus on the restorative nature of the body to heal trauma through a gentle awareness of internal sensation, autonomic nervous system response and cognitive connection. Based on the work of Peter Levine Somatic Experiencing honours the survival response of our nervous system and its capacity to seek release and heal.

 

Working with attachment from a somatic focus through my studies in DARe have provided a missing piece to the story of early trauma. Training with Kathy Kain, a leader in the area of touch and the resolution of trauma, has deepened my understanding of stress physiology and the ways in which it constrains body movement and thought. 

 

Training in Thomas Hanna Somatic Exercises, as taught by Martha Peterson, provided me with the skills and experience to work with embodied tension and muscular constriction. Combined with an understanding of developmental movements. These gentle exercises and studied observations of emerging movements allow for powerful body/mind connections. I continue this movement exploration through my ongoing study in BodyMindCentering and the training of Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen. 

​

I remain fascinated by the 'whys' and 'hows' of being human from a cognitive perspective also, this led me to complete a Postgrad in Loss, Grief & Trauma Counselling. 

 

My passion in working from a somatic perspective is informed by the regenerative healing it has brought me, the inspiring ongoing work of theoretical and evidenced based research in neurophysiology, and the determination and courage of every client I have the honour of moving with. 

bottom of page