Presence Psychotherapy: Integrating Spirituality With Trauma Work

Imagine a healing framework where spirituality isn't sidelined as a personal preference—it's woven directly into the therapeutic work of trauma recovery. Presence Psychotherapy offers mental health professionals a transformative five-day intensive that bridges the deepest knowing of contemplative practice with rigorous, evidence-based trauma treatment. Developed by LCSW Michelle Lepak, this innovative model guides both clinicians and their clients through the Four Dimensions of Presence—Compassionate, Spacious, Grounded, and Transcendent—unlocking pathways to healing that honor the whole person.

If you're a therapist, counselor, or mental health professional seeking to deepen your practice and expand your clinical toolkit, this training at Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY is designed for you. Presence Psychotherapy recognizes that trauma lives not just in memory, but throughout the nervous system and body—held in attachment wounds, limiting beliefs, and fragmented sensory networks. By cultivating presence awareness alongside somatic attunement, clinicians learn to help clients access their essential self, the core of who they are beyond their trauma. This approach honors clients' connections to nature, animals, spiritual beings, and other sources of meaning, integrating these dimensions of human experience into the heart of the therapeutic work.

This is not a passive workshop. Over five intensive days, you'll engage in didactic instruction led by a master teacher, witness live demonstrations, and step into supported experiential practice—developing both conceptual understanding and embodied skill. You'll leave with practical protocols, a deeper relationship to presence in your own nervous system, and a clinically coherent way to hold spirituality and trauma work as one unified healing process.

What to Expect

The training arc moves from foundational learning to clinical application and personal integration. Expect clear instruction on the neurobiology of trauma and the Four Dimensions framework, followed by live demonstrations that show how Presence Psychotherapy unfolds in real therapeutic encounters. You'll have opportunities to practice the skills yourself in a supported, peer-learning environment—essential for embodying this work. The atmosphere is contemplative yet grounded, honoring both the precision of clinical training and the depth of inner work. By the end, you'll carry home specific methodologies for nervous system regulation, reprocessing traumatic memory, and weaving clients' spiritual resources into healing—tools that honor the complexity and resilience of those you serve.

Venue & Logistics

This five-day intensive takes place at Omega Institute for Holistic Studies in Rhinebeck, New York, a renowned retreat center nestled in the Hudson Valley. The training begins on Sunday, August 23, 2026. Please check Omega's website for specific daily timing, accommodation options, and what to bring. Comfortable, layered clothing and an open heart are recommended; the practice includes seated work, movement, and self-inquiry. Contact Omega directly with accessibility questions.