CranioSacral Therapy (CST) and SomatoEmotional Release (SER)

On Demand Study Groups

A Virtual Study Group for CranioSacral Therapists and Students of the Upledger Institute International

facilitated by Suzanne Scurlock, CST-D

Study Group Overview
Detailed Overview
What this Study Group Explores
Learning Outcomes
Why This Matters in Practice
What's Included
Audience
Meet Your Instructor

Healing the Heart:

cultivating coherence,

grounding, and heart-centered awareness

Open to ALL CST levels (from CST 1 and above)

Lifetime Access Only $99

heart with flowers and plants as a living growing organism

Healing the Heart: Cultivating coherence, grounding, and heart-centered awareness is an on demand professional study group for CranioSacral Therapists and students trained through the Upledger Institute International.

This study group explores the heart as both a physical organ and a multidimensional center of emotional, relational, and spiritual experience. Participants learn how effective heart treatment in CranioSacral work begins with the practitioner’s own embodied presence — cultivating coherence, grounding, and heart-centered awareness before addressing pathology or trauma in others.

The program is facilitated by Suzanne Scurlock, CST-D, a senior instructor with more than 40 years of experience teaching CranioSacral Therapy. Participants receive lifetime access to professionally recorded lectures, demonstrations, and clinical Q&A.

Open to ALL CST levels (from CST 1 and above)

Investment: Only $99

Detailed Overview

Healing the Heart integrates embodied self-assessment, clinical frameworks for heart-related issues, and a live therapeutic demonstration illustrating how safety and presence create optimal healing conditions.

Key themes include:

Embodied therapist presence as the foundation for heart work
Physical, emotional, and belief-based heart presentations
Pre- and post-surgical support for cardiac clients
Working with scar tissue, vascular trauma, and pacemakers
Expanding from physical heart tissue into spiritual heart presence
Understanding vulnerability, resilience, and relational safety

What This Study Group Explores

This study group guides practitioners through:

Direct experiential contact with their own heart through grounding, breath practice, and internal inquiry
Clinical pathways for working with structural, emotional, belief-based, and grief-related heart issues
How trauma may live in tissue tone, vascular tension, or hypervigilant belief systems
The role of safety and coherence in regulating the heart's field
A full-length live demonstration of a heart healing session to be used pre- and post-surgery

Participants explore how the heart may constrict, dissociate, tighten, or become hyper-alert — and how to respond skillfully, respectfully and lovingly to support healing.

Learning Outcomes

By completing this study group, participants will be able to:

Cultivate embodied heart coherence to strengthen therapeutic presence
Differentiate between structural, emotional, belief-based, and grief-related heart issues
Apply hands-on heart positioning techniques that avoid rib distortion and increase therapeutic ergonomics
Track therapeutic rhythm distinct from cardiac pulse
Support clients pre- and post-cardiac surgery, including work with scar tissue and vascular repair
Recognize when integration time is needed rather than moving towards full resolution
Facilitate expansion from physical heart issues into spiritual and relational heart awareness

Why This Matters in Practice

When a therapist’s heart is coherent and embodied, clients feel safe — and safety is vital to the healing process.

Clients regulate more quickly
Emotional material surfaces safely
The nervous system settles and down regulates

Heart issues are rarely “one and done.” Understanding layered release prevents over-treatment.

Surgical repair requires integration over time
Trauma may reside in belief, vascular tone, or scar tissue
Partial resolution may be protective and appropriate

What's Included

All components were professionally recorded live over Zoom.

Your registration includes:

A full-length lecture on Healing the Heart: Cultivating coherence, grounding, and heart-centered awareness
A full-length live demonstration of a heart healing session to be used pre- and post-surgery
Clinical insights drawn from four decades of teaching CranioSacral Therapy
Practitioner Q&A
Lifetime access via the Online Training Center (OTC)

Audience

This study group is designed for CranioSacral Therapists, bodyworkers, and students of CranioSacral Therapy seeking to:

Deepen therapeutic presence through embodied heart coherence
Expand clinical confidence when working with heart-related conditions
Integrate physical, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of heart healing

Meet Your Instructor

Suzanne Scurlock, CST-D

Creator of Healing From the Core®

For more than 40 years, Suzanne Scurlock — senior instructor for the Upledger Institute International — has been helping CranioSacral Therapists and students strengthen and refine their palpation skills, sensitivity, grounded therapeutic presence, and confidence.

Her live courses, online study groups, and mentoring sessions support practitioners in every stage of their journey — from first discovering CranioSacral Therapy to mastering advanced SER work and beyond.

Suzanne is the author of two acclaimed books: Full Body Presence: Learning to Listen to Your Body’s Wisdom and Reclaiming Your Body: Healing from Trauma and Awakening to Your Body’s Wisdom.

Details on Our Study Groups

All the lectures, demos, and Q&A were filmed live over Zoom. You can watch from your location with a practice partner or on your own.

The beauty of this type of study group is that the cost of registration gives you lifetime access to the video to watch as many times as you need so you will get all the nuances that you may have missed during the initial lecture and demonstration. You can revisit the material again and again until you feel confident to put the skills into practice.