The ERT Practitioner School is an in-person training in the full Emotional Release Therapy modality, taught by Pat Jackman, assisted by Kamala Crompton, to a cohort of no more than eight. It runs as five four-day modules plus twenty-five practicum sessions. Certified graduates are listed in the public practitioner directory. The next cohort begins with module one on January 7–10, 2027 in Sebastopol, California. A $600 deposit reserves one of the eight seats.
What you actually learn
The training teaches the whole modality: the release points, the table protocol, and the steadiness it takes to stay with someone through a release.
- The release points. You learn the full set of release points across the five modules: where each one is, how to find it by touch, and the order a body usually lets you approach them.
- Pressure, depth and positioning. How to grade sustained pressure to the tissue in front of you, and the body mechanics that let you hold it through a full session. Most of this is learned by having your hands adjusted at the table.
- Working with what the body holds. Sustained contact at held tissue often brings up early emotional material, sometimes from childhood. You learn to support that response through breath, positioning and pacing, and to stay steady while it moves.
- Holding a release. What to do when someone is shouting, sobbing, shaking or gone quiet. When to hold contact, when to lighten, when to take your hands off.
- Reading a body in real time. Breath, color, temperature, guarding, tremor and micro-withdrawal: the signals that tell you to go further or to stop.
- Consent, boundaries and scope. Informed consent for deep sustained contact, draping, recognizing when a response is beyond your scope, and how to refer.
- Closing and integration. How to bring someone back and send them home landed, which is as much of the craft as the release itself.
- Giving and receiving. You practice in pairs and receive as much work as you give, so every technique is learned in the body as well as on it.
- Inner child work through the body. How to reach a younger self through tissue rather than conversation, and how to stay with them once they arrive.
This is where ERT practitioners train. All five modules are taught in person in Sebastopol, and there is no online version or fast track.
How the training is built
- Five four-day in-person modules. Each one builds on the last. Days are long and hands-on; you will be working on people and being worked on from the first module.
- Twenty-five practicum sessions. Real sessions with real people, completed between modules and logged. This is where the training actually lands.
- A cohort of no more than eight. Start to finish, the same eight people. You will be on the table in front of them as often as you are beside it, which is why the number is small.
- Dates are set by your cohort. Dates for the remaining modules are chosen by the group once it forms, because students travel a long way to attend and the calendar has to work for all of them.
- Certification on completion. Twenty-five practicum sessions finished, and then a listing in the directory.
- $1,950 per module, food and lodging included. Each module is paid two weeks before it begins, so the cost is spread across the training rather than due up front. Five modules, $9,750 in total.
Who this is for
Cohorts have included massage therapists and bodyworkers, licensed counselors and psychotherapists, yoga and breathwork teachers, nurses, and people with no professional background in this field at all who simply could not leave the work alone after sessions.
What has mattered far more than credentials is a specific and unglamorous set of traits: you can be still while someone else is not; you do not need to fix people; you can be near strong emotion without absorbing it or flinching from it; and you are willing to receive the work as fully as you give it.
How to join a cohort
- Experience the work first. A private session with a certified practitioner, the one-day workshop, or a retreat. Any of the three gives you the modality from the inside. This is required, and it is required for your sake.
- Register, with a short letter of intent. A few honest paragraphs about why this work and why now. It is not an exam; Pat reads every one.
- Place a $600 deposit. This reserves your seat in the cohort. It comes off your final module rather than sitting on top of it, so it is not an extra fee. Deposits are non-refundable.
- Pay two weeks before each module. $1,950 per four-day module, food and lodging included — so $1,950 two weeks ahead of each of the first four, then $1,350 two weeks before the fifth, because the deposit covers the difference. Nothing is due for a module you have not reached yet.
- Meet your cohort and set the calendar. Once the eight seats are filled, the group chooses the remaining module dates together.
Next cohort
- Status
- Registering now
- First module
- January 7–10, 2027
- Location
- Sebastopol, California
- Length
- Five modules, dates set by your cohort
- Structure
- 5 four-day modules + 25 practicum sessions
- Cohort size
- Up to eight students
- Cost
- $1,950 per module — $9,750 total
- Included
- Food and lodging at every module
- Paying
- Two weeks before each module
- Prerequisite
- A session, workshop or retreat
- To apply
- Register — $600 deposit
- If it fills
- Waitlist for the cohort after
- Deposit
- Comes off the final module
Students travel from across the United States and Canada for this training. Sebastopol is about an hour and a quarter north of San Francisco; Santa Rosa (STS) is the nearest airport, and SFO and OAK are both comfortable drives.
Questions about the training
Do I need to be a licensed bodyworker already?
No. Cohorts have included people with no professional background in bodywork. What you will need is a license or permit to practice bodywork for money in your own state or province once you certify — requirements vary a great deal, so check yours early rather than at the end.
Can any of it be done online?
No. This is hands-on work taught hand to hand, and there is no remote equivalent to having your pressure corrected mid-session. All five modules are in person.
What does the whole training cost?
$1,950 per module, and there are five modules — $9,750 in total. Food and lodging at each four-day module are included in that, so the only additional cost is getting yourself there.
You are not asked for $9,750 up front. Each module is paid two weeks before that module begins, which spreads the cost across the whole training.
The $600 deposit reserves your seat when you register and comes off your final module — it is not an extra charge. So the schedule is $600 at registration, then $1,950 two weeks before each of modules one through four, and $1,350 two weeks before the fifth. Deposits are non-refundable.
What if I have to cancel?
The $600 deposit is non-refundable. The training is one program of five modules: once you begin module one, you commit to completing all five. Each module is paid two weeks before it begins, and once you have paid for a module, that payment is non-refundable, including if you leave after the module has begun. If we cancel a module, you get a full refund for it, or you can move to a later offering. We can't cover travel costs.
How much travel is involved?
Five trips in total. Module dates are chosen by the cohort once it forms, specifically so that people flying in can plan around them.
Where do the twenty-five practicum sessions come from?
You find them — friends, colleagues, people who hear what you are training in. Most students find the harder part is not finding bodies but slowing down enough to work properly with each one. Sessions are logged and discussed at the following module.
What happens if I need to step out partway through?
Talk to Pat. Life happens, and people have joined a later cohort to finish. What is not possible is skipping a module and catching up on paper.
Am I listed in the directory automatically?
On certification, yes — the directory is the list of practitioners the school stands behind, and it is how most people find a practitioner near them.
Can I host a module or a retreat in my area?
Modules are taught in Sebastopol — all five, every cohort. Retreats are the ones that travel: they run elsewhere when a group forms. Email Pat if you have a group and a space.
Emotional Release Therapy is not a substitute for medical or psychological treatment, and does not diagnose, cure or treat any condition. Certification in ERT is not a license to practice bodywork — licensing requirements are set by your own state or province. Results vary from person to person.