“More than a training module, this body-mind approach offers you a real transformative experience!”
Core Strokes™ is a comprehensive and powerful therapeutic process for self-development within a relational alliance in order for us to connect with and live from our Core (Center of Right Energy) Essence. It combines psychotherapy with deep affective bodywork and therapeutic touch. This Core Strokes course can be taken for your personal development.

What is/are Core Strokes ?
The Core Strokes method was developed by Dirk Marivoet after 30 years of practice and teaching.
This psycho-corporal method combines the theoretical and practical aspects of the following approaches:
- Postural Integration, Energetic Integration and Pelvic-Heart Integration, developed by Jack W. Painter, PhD
- Core Energetics, developed by John C. Pierrakos, MD
- Pesso-Boyden System Psychomotor (PBSP), developed by Albert Pesso and Diane Boyden-Pesso
- Other approaches and systems such as those of William Reich, Carl Jung, Alexander Lowen, Eric Berne…
In Core Strokes, ‘Core‘ stands for our ‘Center of Right Energy‘ and ‘Strokes‘ for the units of recognition (which can be verbal or non-verbal) and the targeted hands-on manipulations, touches and caresses that help us to come out with a new part of ourselves, or an old part of that has been hiding in the body as symptoms. The presence of the therapist should give the client the courage to begin revealing (and become conscious), what is coming to the surface from their inner depths (the Dynamic Ground, which is the seat of the deepest level of the unconscious, the inherited or collective unconscious), to purify and transform it.
” TOUCH AND BE TOUCHED: LEARN TO LIVE WITH AN OPEN AND AVAILABLE HEART! ”
- The originality and effectiveness of the Core Strokes method lies in its ability to integrate techniques of bodywork and verbal expression that will “touch” us deep within, both in our tissues but also in our emotions, our wounds, our basic human needs, our soul.
- Core Strokes allows us to discover to what degree the “blows”, the “spikes” that we receive can hurt us, close us, and how much the “caresses”, the “strokes”, can bring us support, recognition, and allow us to open our heart, or “Core” (our “Center of Right Energy”).
- Core Strokes allows you to learn to express your needs and your emotions, to release your tensions, to let go, to listen and to perceive differently, to give and to receive. Trauma-based protection and defense mechanisms are effectively resolved and integrated, while developing a deep connection with your Authentic Self.

Program of the Training Module II Core Strokes
This second module focuses on the theme “Building your confidence and taking your place”.
We integrate:
- The natural Energetic Wave in Steps
- Bodymind work at the fascia level: hands-on and hands-off holistic Core Strokes techniques to unlock the middle layer of the myofascial network
- Work on the parts of the body: lateral line, shoulders, neck, pelvis
- Focus on the structure of personality: “Mask”, “Lower Self” and “Higher Self”
- Holistic bodywork techniques: meridian and point work, movement awareness, chakra work, zone/segment de-armoring (release and integration)
- “Reading” the body interactively and phenomenologically
- Working with trauma through “embodied deep listening” and deep bodywork
- Pseudo-solutions: dynamics of submission/dependence, aggression/control, detachment/withdrawal and its effects in the body at the level of structure and posture
- The functional study of areas and parts of the body from a holistic point of view
- Basic needs, deficits and reversals (level 2)
- Neurophysiology: how to create new memories to offer alternatives to old patterns
- The deepening of the techniques and theoretical teachings of module I
Educational means
- Bodymind and bodywork practices (awakening, awareness, anchoring, breathing, movement, voice …)
- Theoretical contributions
- Demonstrations of individual sessions in large groups
- Guided practice in small groups and analysis of experiences
- Analysis of the effects of the methods and techniques tested
- Q&A time
Out of class work
- Individual therapy sessions in Core Strokes with a certified practitioner (min. 6 hours)
- Working group: regular meetings to exchange and practice on the subjects studied during the training with other students
- Study of recommended resource books
- Personal reflection and evaluation
Thanks to this module:
- I invite and welcome new ways of being and wholeness.
- In my relationship with the other, I am more connected to my inner resources.

What about the facilitator?

Dirk Marivoet, MSc.
is founder and director of the IBI (The International Institute for Bodymind Integration). He is a certified psychotherapist (ECP) and certified psychomotor therapist (University of Louvain). He is also a Certified Trainer and Supervisor for Postural Integration, Energetic Integration, Reichian Bodywork and Pelvic-Heart Integration (Jack Painter, PhD) and a Core Energetics Teacher and Supervisor (John Pierrakos, MD). After more than 35 years of clinical and teaching experience, both in the academic, alternative and complementary fields of psychotherapy, he created the Core Strokes approach, which he shares around the world. He lives in Ghent (Belgium).

The place in Villers-en-Prayères
This workshop is hosted in Villers-en-Prayères at 2h from Paris, in the “Domaine des 7 Vallons”. Built on 43 hectares of land with lakes, forests and meadows, the Domaine des 7 Vallons enjoys a natural setting conducive to healing, while being accessible by public transport. It is situated in the Champagne region in the heart of nature, a wonderful place with a large hosting capacity.

Practical information
Dates and place :
Dates : From 22 August 2023 (14h) until 27 August (16h) 2023
Venue : Residential, at 2h from Paris in Domaine des 7 Vallons (in Villers-en-Prayères).
Rates for accommodation and meals :
Between 46 € and 125 € depending on your chosen option.
Reserve your accommodation directly via the online form:
Participation costs:
- Early Bird – 880 € (before 1 july 2023)
- Tarif Normal – 930 € (after 1 july 2023)
Enjoy a 10% discount by signing up another person.
Languages used :
English (with possible translation into French and Dutch by Dirk Marivoet)
QUESTIONS?
Write to Solène, who is responsible for the organization : solenegarreau@posteo.net
