4 Day BCST postgrad workshop

Dates: 16-19 July, 2021
Times: 930am-530pm, last day 930am-4pm
Venue: The Oasis retreat center, St’at’mic territory near Lillooet, BC
Tutor: Renee Hella
Cost: CAD $700

Topics we will work with:
– Gut Embryology
– Serotonin/microbiome integration with brain development
– ENS as a neural net – sensing environment through taste/synesthesia
– Enteric glial cells / Brain glial resonance (leaky gut/leaky brain)
– Vagus-Brain-Gut-Microbe personality loop/labyrinth
– Gut Mucosa – where we meet the world, symbiosis of man and microbe
– Microbiome and personality/consciousness
– Attachment/Immunology, moods and addiction

Felt Sense – Discerning Symbiosis:
The felt sense of the Enteric Nervous System is quite different than that of our Central Nervous System. In our modern consciousness this is something so alien and yet so familiar that it is like a fish trying to get the felt-sense of water. We need to be able to be with altered realities to begin to understand our guts. Our gut is symbiotically integrated with an incredible variety of microbes. So many that they even outnumber the cells in our bodies. The question then becomes, of course… who is actually running the show … are we man or microbe? To get the felt sense of our gut lining, our 1/2 inch zone of connection and symbiosis, we must step through the looking glass by turning ourselves inside out and cultivating our awareness of this subtle, multi-dimensional intelligence(s!) that operate not unlike an octopus in a maze.

Embryology – Gut and Brain Development:
We will keep grounded in our bodies by exploring the anatomy of the gut as a whole. There is a way of feeling our gut/microbe as a biodynamic whole that is quite different than the felt-sense of the individual primary respiration of the various organs of the gut.

Practitioner Skills – Health History:
The workshop will include a session on how to language and begin to discover what is actually going on with a clients’ digestion during an intake session. There is often a lot of shame around the digestive process, so being able to get an idea of the gut without triggering this dynamic can be delicate.

About the Tutor:
Renee Hella (RCST, CGP) has been studying the Enteric Nervous system and all things related to the gut, including the microbiome for the last 20 years. Originally trained in physical anthropology and working internationally as a chef, nutritionist and food writer for 20 years she also is a craniosacral therapist and Pre and Perinatal Psychology educator. Her approach to understanding us as superorganisms that work in symbiosis with microbe and environment allows us to explore the multi-dimensional ways in which we can work with the digestive system to support our clients in their quest for optimal Health.