Online Classes

Upcoming Classes

Online courses offer the advantage of allowing you to learn and try out new things in your familiar environment. This is especially helpful if you want to establish new routines in your life. With the other participants, you’ll experience openness, exchange, and community.

The following courses are currently open for registration. If you’re interested in other topics, please let me know. I’m also happy to design courses for existing groups.

Free Introduction
Body and Breath as Sanctuary

Thursday, September 3, 2026 • 12-1pm EDT

This online course is being presented through the Professional Development Center by ISMETA.

Join us in this free 1-hour introduction for a glimpse of Body and Breath as Sanctuary, the upcoming 6-week series that cultivates self-regulation, co-regulation, and the capacity to hold a safe, responsive learning environment for clients who have experienced trauma.

This course is for professionals as well as anyone interested in the topic.

Body and Breath as Sanctuary:
Unwinding the long term effects of trauma

Thursdays, October 1 – November 5, 2026 • 12pm-2pm EDT

This online course is being presented through the Professional Development Center by ISMETA.

In this 6-week online cours participants explore movement, breath, sound, stillness, and touch as basic technologies for self-regulation and well being. Professionals learn to translate these somatic resources into their teaching and client work—helping others reclaim a sense of bodily authority and safety.

By the end of this course, practitioners will deepen their capacity to perceive the quiet traces of trauma, empower clients in their own healing journey, and inhabit a compassionate presence in their professional and personal lives.

This course is for professionals as well as anyone interested in the topic.

Dear Soma

coming soon …

Dear Soma is a 6-week online course in which we familiarize ourselves with our bodily sensations. We begin with somatic exercises to connect with our breath and body. Through writing, we enter into a dialogue with the parts of the body that currently need attention. In exchange with others, we recognize similar themes and experience non-judgmental attention and support.

“I am a writer, and this course has helped me rediscover my craft. Petra showed me that writing is not just a mental act, but demands my entire being. The somatic exercises help me get back into the flow of breath and movement in everyday life when I have writer’s block. Afterwards, my writing becomes much more fluid. When I feel stagnant, I’ve remembered how the breath can awaken natural flow within me and reconnect me to the rhythm of life.”

“Through writing, I have gained a completely different access to my body. Instead of reacting emotionally to symptoms, I now have tools to go deeper and communicate. Through this new access and my openness, I have learned a lot about myself that was previously closed to me. I feel more balanced and energetic as a result.”

Embodied Mindfulness

coming soon …

Embodied Mindfulness is a 6-week online course based on the concept developed by Jamie McHugh. Here, you’ll learn somatic activities that help you being present and loving with yourself. The goal of the course is for you to practice these activities in your daily life so that you can move through life much more connected to yourself.

“After practicing embodied mindfulness for several months, I was surprised to realise that I am no longer hypervigilent. Instead I am deeply connected with my breath and body sensations even when I am out and about and driving public transportation. This totally surprised me.”

“When I feel overwhelmed, I’ve been reminded of the simple yet powerful ways the breath can help me feel emotionally safe even within an experience of overwhelm. I’ve remembered how the breath has the power to bring scattered, fragmented chaos back into relationship — into a steady stream of energy, a rhythmic pulsation of unity.

Class Schedule