The NeuroAffective Touch Institute®

The NeuroAffective Touch® Institute is dedicated to bridging the historical divide between talk therapy and the therapeutic use of touch. We invite psychotherapists, body-centered practitioners, and other professionals who wish to resolve emotional trauma and relational deficits to take our Foundation Training.

Developed and led by Dr. Aline LaPierre, the training interweaves the key elements of somatic psychotherapy, attachment and developmental theory, and affective and interpersonal neurobiology to address attachment and developmental trauma, also called complex trauma or C-PTSD. Students are trained in how to use polyvagal-informed, mindful, attuned touch to bring unconscious memories held in the body into conscious awareness. By offering direct communication and support to the body at the nonverbal level, where we all receive our first imprints, trainees learn to address lifelong emotional traumas, reconnecting clients to the innate wholeness of their relational matrix and initiating post-trauma growth.

The NeuroAffective Touch Institute is based in Los Angeles, California. We hold our two-part, In-Person Foundation Training annually in Los Angeles and in London, UK. Additionally, we offer a four-module hybrid training that consists of three online modules and one 5-day, in-person Touch Immersion.

Learn more about training in NeuroAffective Touch^(R)   

Each module of the training includes lecture materials as well as live demonstration sessions; breakout, hands-on practices; and Q&As covering the building blocks of somatic theory and therapeutic interventions. In addition to learning hands-on touch protocols, self-directed touch protocols are also taught. These can be incorporated in online client work and, in addition, help students nurture the personal integration of their own embodiment. Students and graduates receive ongoing free access to the Institute’s private online learning community, where they can connect with colleagues and experienced moderators to support the integration of NeuroAffective Touch into their unique area of specialization.

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Our Founder

Dr. Aline LaPierre is the creator of NeuroAffective Touch®, current President of the United States Association of Body Psychotherapy and Editor-in-Chief of the International Body Psychotherapy Journal. A practicing clinician and teacher, she co-authored the bestselling book Healing Developmental Trauma: How Trauma Affects Self-Regulation, Self-Image, and the Capacity for Relationship, which is available in 14 languages.

In the field of psychotherapy, Dr. LaPierre is a graduate of Pacifica Graduate Institute, which intimately connected her with Jungian and archetypal psychologies, and The New Center for Psychoanalysis, focusing on the evolution of psychoanalysis from object relations to relational and intersubjective approaches. Alongside her psychotherapy training, she has trained extensively in body-centered approaches, including Postural Integration, Somatic Experiencing®, Cranio-Sacral Therapy, Reichian Therapies, Bodynamics Analysis, Continuum, EMDR, and BodyMind Centering.

Dr. LaPierre is former faculty in the somatic doctoral program at Santa Barbara Graduate Institute, and in addition to directing the NeuroAffective Touch Institute, she maintains a private practice in Brentwood-West Los Angeles.

What graduates say:

“Aline’s teachings have added immensely to my therapeutic work and my clients’ recovery rates. Being able to deeply work bottom up, along with top down, has strengthened my work and my confidence.”

—Lynne Friedman-Gell, PhD, NMP, NARM

 

 “I want as many people as possible to have the skills and the confidence to use NeuroAffective Touch, because for me it is the treatment of choice for developmental trauma.”

—Sue Bell, OBE, Chief Executive & Clinical Director of Kids Inspire

 

"I was trained in child development then did 15 years of deep-tissue therapeutic bodywork combined with Somatic Experiencing. When I found NeuroAffective Touch, I was hungry for something to bring it all together. It has done that. It guides my practice and is completely integrated into the way I work with clients.”

—Azure Sutherland, SEP, SE bodyworker, Child Development Specialist, NATouch Practitioner