Somatic Psychology Certificate
Student stories and a complete guide to Meridian University's Somatic Psychology Certificate: what you'll study, how long it takes, and where embodied practice can lead.
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Student stories and a complete guide to Meridian University's Somatic Psychology Certificate: what you'll study, how long it takes, and where embodied practice can lead.
Program Overview
The Somatic Psychology Certificate is a program offered through Meridian University's Center for Transformative Learning. Designed for professionals who want to deepen their understanding of the body-mind connection and develop embodied approaches to therapeutic practice, the certificate draws on Meridian's graduate curriculum in somatic psychology to build a comprehensive foundation in body-centered practice.
Somatic Psychology recognizes the body as a fundamental source of knowledge, experience, and healing. Drawing on research in neuroscience, embodiment, and movement, the field explores how physical experience shapes psychological well-being and how embodied awareness can become a resource for personal and relational transformation. Coursework engages practices and topics including body metaphors, nonverbal felt experience, embodiment, and historical trauma, so participants study somatic theory while developing their own embodied awareness as a foundation for professional work.
Certificate participants take the same rigorous, faculty-led courses that graduate students experience, drawn from the anchor and other parts of Meridian's curriculum offered during their enrollment. Practitioners in this expanding field work across settings including psychotherapy, somatic education, health and wellbeing coaching, employee wellness, and organizational development.
Hear from Meridian student, Carter S., a PhD in Psychology student who directs a treatment program at a drug and alcohol facility in Napa Valley. He talks about learning with his whole being, experiencing coursework in his body, mind, and expression, and how he has carried that transformative approach into the classes and group work he designs for clients and staff.
Students and alumni describe what embodied, experiential study at Meridian is like.
"It's been a really beautiful experience at Meridian to dive into putting my whole being into the learning process- instead of just listening to a lecture or reading a book, actually experiencing the learning process in my body, my mind, and expression- and weaving that all into something that I can carry with me when I leave. Professionally, it's given me a lot of fuel and ideas and concepts that I've taken into my work and used not only with my clients but with designing programs where I work. There's a lot of encouraging of imagination and experience, while also rooting us into solid foundation."
"When it comes to transformative learning, what I really notice is exactly how they say it: it's just landing in my body. I don't have this stress or urgency to memorize facts. Because it's landing in such a way, it stays with me and translates to my outside of school experience, too."
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"It's very experiential and experience-based, which makes it very personal, but also I can take this personal experience and widen it and apply it in different ways to work with people or groups. It's not just knowledge based; it's grown into my bones and muscles and being, and I have grown with it."
Program Pillars
Meridian's Somatic Psychology Certificate combines graduate-level coursework with embodied pedagogy, completed in 6 to 12 months.
Coursework draws on spiritual traditions, somatic practice, creative arts, mythology, indigenous wisdom, deep ecology, cultural history, and social critique.
Complete the certificate in 6 months at 8 credits per quarter, or in 12 months at 4 credits per quarter, alongside professional work.
Tuition is $476 per credit, $7,616 for the full certificate, and credits earned may be applied toward a Meridian University graduate degree program, as applicable.
Find clear, practical information here
A 16-credit program offered by Meridian University that provides a comprehensive foundation in Somatic Psychology, with rigorous, faculty-led coursework drawn from the graduate curriculum.
As few as 6 months taking 8 credits per quarter, or up to 12 months taking 4 credits per quarter. Each course is 4 credits, and the certificate requires four courses in total.
Tuition is $476 per credit, and the total cost for the 16-credit certificate is $7,616.
Yes. Credits earned in the certificate may be applied toward a Meridian University graduate degree program, as applicable, so certificate work can become the start of further graduate study.
Need more information about the MEd?
Connect with Meridian's team to learn more about the Somatic Psychology Certificate, ask questions, or start your application.