This course is designed to assist mental health providers to better understand the fundamentals of Somatic base therapies and how to prepare clients for these modalities. Body-based (somatic) therapies focus on the mind-body connection, using counseling techniques that track and utilize somatic sensation to support emotional healing. This two-part presentation covers key concepts, benefits, and introduction to therapy models that utilize somatic interventions, such as Mindfulness, Somatic Experiencing, IFS, EMDR, and Lifespan Integration. The first half of the presentation will cover the foundational aspects of somatic work, including core concepts such as interoception, the bottom-up / top-down approach, mind-body connection, tracking sensations, pendulation, and embodiment. Common somatic interventions will be reviewed and light experiential meditative activities utilized to help deepen participants’ understanding. Whereas helping clients connect more with their bodies can create increased risk for dysregulation, the second part of this presentation explores how to prepare clients for somatic work, addressing resistance and internal protectors to support effective interventions. Participants will learn about ways that appropriate assessment of a client’s readiness for the work, sufficient practice in grounding and resourcing techniques, as well as education and normalization of the process can promote safety and trust in the therapeutic process.