The Core Zero Balancing Program is a 50-hour program taught in two 25-hour segments, Zero Balancing I and Zero Balancing II, separated by a period of practical experience. After ZB I and ZB II participants will have learned the complete Zero Balancing Protocol, which is necessary to achieve the full benefits of Zero Balancing sessions. The full ZB Protocol is the foundation for all advanced ZB classes and skills. ZB I and ZB II are prerequisites for all advanced ZB classes.
Zero Balancing I |
2-3 months of practice |
Zero Balancing II |
ZB I students:
* learn a basic Zero Balancing protocol
* study theory and principles of Zero Balancing
* distinguish body energy and body structure through touch
* practice the skill of using energy as a working tool
* learn "Interface Touch" for working with boundaries
* give a basic Zero Balancing session by the end of the course
Practical Experience: This is an important time of learning the protocol and digesting the information from ZBI. Students should practice as many pure Zero Balancing sessions as possible, in preparation for giving a basic Zero Balancing session on the first day of ZB II. With this experience, students will come to ZBII with confidence and with questions which can be answered.
ZB II students:
* learn additional powerful fulcums necessary for the complete Zero Balancing protocol
* advance their ability to work with expanded states of consciousness
* learn how to frame a ZB session
* amplify and empower the work learned in ZB I with an emphasis on quality of touch, focus and positioning of the practitioner
* deepen their understanding of ZB theory, principles and techniques
* enhance skills and coordination in handling energy and structure
* acquire experience in preparation for advanced study
* exchange full Zero Balancing sessions
Course length: four days for ZB I and four days for ZB II
CE Hours: 25 for ZB I and 25 for ZB II
ZB I and ZB II are required for the Certification Program
Adding Warmth to Elegance : Myofascial Fulcrums for ZB with J. Kelly Russell (Back to Top)
Myofascials and fulcrums can bring more alignment, balance and clarity to muscles and fascias in the same way a classic fulcrum affects the skeletal system. When the tensions generated in the myofascial system are better balanced, energy transmission through the skeleton is enhanced. Learn how to integrate fascial vectors and work around the joints into your ZB sessions to add more warmth to the elegance of classic ZB.
Course length: two days
CE Hours: 12.5
Prerequisites: Core ZB Program (special permission may be offered to people with extensive myofascial background and only ZB I)
Advanced Zero Balancing® with Dr. Smith with Fritz Smith, M.D. (Back to Top)
In this Advanced Zero Balancing program, founder Dr.
Fritz Smith will share his latest excitements about Zero Balancing. This will include, but not be limited to: the relationshiop of touch and ZB to left/right brain functioning and experiences of expanded consciousness; the integration of the freely moveable joints of the body with the axial skeleton and body core; ways of stabilizing the energy body to ride the waves of uncertainty of our time. Students will learn advanced fulcrums related to the above ideas and strategies to augment the Core ZB sessions. The class will advance students' self-development. The ambiance created by the class energy itself amplifies the learning curve and invigorates the time we will spend together.
Course length: four days
CE Hours: 25
Prerequisite: Core ZB Program
Alchemy of Touch with ZB Faculty (Back to Top)
Alchemy of Touch is a course that expands the basic Zero Balancing principles to work specifically with amplified vibration. It includes teaching the alchemical fulcrum, working directly with mental content and personal history through fulcrums, evaluating and balancing freestanding wave forms and providing clients with a direct experience of healing. As in all advanced classes, there will also be a teaching segment designed to deepen the Zero Balancing protocol.
Course length: four days
CE Hours: 25
Prerequisites: Core ZB Program
This course satisfies requirements for the Certification Program.
The Art of Zero Balancing® with Fritz Smith, M.D. (Back to Top)
The world is composed of energy and structure. Core ZB I teaches the form of ZB, including the protocol. Core ZB II emphasizes the refined handling and controlling of energy. The Art of Zero Balancing teaches the art of how to put it all together and that the whole is significantly greater than the sum of its parts. The course will teach:
Course length: four days
CE Hours: 25
Prerequisites: Certification in ZB or Certification Candidate with Core ZB Program completed.
This course satisfies requirements for the Certification Program.
Connecting Heaven and Earth - ZB and Chakras with Bob Brown, L.Ac. (Back to Top)
This course will be a combination of learning to balance the chakras with fulcrums and direct experiential processes to enhance your connection to your own chakras. We will explore each of the 7 chakras, their qualities and powers.
Experience the Vitality of the Chakras:
Course length: four days
CE Hours: 25
Prerequisites: Core ZB Program
Custom-Made Zero Balancing with John Hamwee (Back to Top)
A course for the newly certified, it teaches how to take a good 'ready made' ZB, which the newly certified practitioner is well able to provide, and turn it into a 'custom-made' one - attuned to the needs of one particular client on one particular day.
Every stage in learning Zero Balancing - and learning never stops - opens up a new prospect. As you acquire one skill, another one comes into view as a difficult but desirable goal. Towards the end of certification and for a year or two afterwards, most people have the same new prospect in view - which is to do work more precisely crafted to meet the specific needs of each individual client.
Another way of looking at this issue is to say that the newly certified practitioner routinely does good ZBs's - and that itself can become something of a trap. The practitioner can fall into working somewhat mechanically and, as a result, at the end of the session neither the client nor the practitioner feels fullly energised. This course enables the practitioner to give more with less work and to complete a day's work feeling invigorated.
Course length: two days
CE Hours: 12.5
Prerequisites: Certification in ZB (an exception may be made for those about to certify)
Deep Massage - The Lauterstein Method: A Training in Soft Tissue Fulcrums with David Lauterstein (Back to Top)
Deep Massage: The Lauterstein Method can be taken by non-Zero Balancers as well as by experienced ZB practitioners. Deep Massage: The Lauterstein Method applies the principles of Zero Balancing to soft tissue work. Previous ZB students and practitioners will deepen their appreciation of ZB philosophy and practice by learning 25 extremely useful new soft tissue fulcrums. Non-ZB'ers will be introduced to the key concepts and practical principles of Zero Balancing while vastly enhancing their soft tissue work. All participants will receive with their tuition a 60-page workbook and a 2-hour DVD with close-ups of each technique you will learn.
Course length: variable, usually 2.5 to 3 days
CE Hours: 16-20
Prerequisites: Students in this class must be familiar with musculo-skeletal anatomy and be health professionals for whom touch is part of their scope of practice (massage therapists or students, acupuncturists, PT's, nurses, etc.).
Donkeys are Real: Horses and Zero Balancing with Elliot Abhau (Back to Top)
This is an adjunct class which is open to Zero Balancers and to animal owners and to anyone curious about Zero Balancing and Animals. Because of the inherent co-operative nature of this therapy, Fritz Smith wanted a recognizable model. His sighting of pack donkeys leaning into one another to share their load and increase their balance while on a ride down the Grand Canyon presented just the model he was looking for. The client and the practitioner "lean together" into the work of the session; the practitioner acts as a facilitator with gentle holds and stretches and follows the responses of the client to guide him. Successfully done, this is referred to as a "donkey connection" and is the essential signature of Zero Balancing.
Doing Zero Balancing on horses can do two things:
This class is a lecture/demonstration/video/exercise presentation which can be tailored to fit a 3-hour, half-day, one or two-day format. In its extended format, the class includes demonstration of some hands-on ZB followed by working with ZB principles in-hand and mounted. Private or small group tutorials can be scheduled by request to persons with their own horses.
Course length: variable
CE Hours: none
Prerequisites: none
El Silencio: Soul Vision with Aminah Raheem, Ph.D. and Fritz Smith, M.D. (Back to Top)
El Silencio: Soul Vision is the annual retreat taught by Aminah and Fritz in Borrego Springs, located in the magnificent 600,000-acre Anza-Borrego Desert of Southern California. The continuing focus of this retreat, with a different program each year, is individual transformation and world peace. It offers the student a breather from daily pressures to align with deeper purpose in a safe, energized container. The program builds on Aminah’s and Fritz’ 14-year experience from Rio Caliente, Mexico, and the many workshops they have presented in Borrego Springs. It will feature individual and group process, empowering rituals, world work, meditations, yoga, Chakra Tai Chi and bodywork, including but not limited to Process Acupressure and Zero Balancing. A special highlight is always El Silencio, a full day of silence alone in the desert with its transformational magic. Aminah and Fritz cultivate an atmosphere of unconditional acceptance for individual development through support of inner strength, peace, love and higher consciousness, all within the great harmony of nature. Old and new students are welcome.
Course length: eight days, residential
CE Hours: 25
Prerequisites: Core ZB Program, Process Acupressure, or agreement of instructors
This course satisfies requirements for the Certification Program.
Fabulous Fulcrums with Bob Brown and Judith Sullivan (Back to Top)
Come have fun exploring some of our favorite fulcrums not normally taught in any other class.
Course length: two days
CE Hours: 12.5
Prerequisites: Core ZB Program
Fields and Fulcrums with Fritz Smith, M.D. and Michael Oruch (Back to Top)
This class will bring together many ideas and concepts from various classes and present new fulcrums and ways of thinking about fields. The material presented will be both esoteric and pragmatic, exploring the exquisite nature of Zero Balancing.
Many people believe that changes in the field precede physical change and pathology, and true healing occurs only when one changes the field. The desired outcome from this class is to deepen the understanding of fields both generally and in terms of ZB, learn how to navigate and affect them through the use of fulcrums, and highlight the importance of fields in preventative medicine and in the general practice of Zero Balancing.
In this class we will focus on the relationship of energy and structure to these fields, both in terms of our general life strategies as well as the specific role of fulcrums in this relationship. We will teach new, useful, and exciting ways of using fulcrums. In addition to the new material we will include skills of propreoceptive recognition, body mechanics, framing, and post session guidelines. We will include review of the basic protocol and roots of ZB, showing how they support the field paradigm. Specifically we learn how to navigate the layers presented in the energy model, how to differentiate the energy body from the structural body, discuss how vectors are fields and introduce new ways of using them.
Fields and Fulcrums will be a combination of lecture, exercises, demonstrations, swapping ZBs, and building community. It is geared to the advanced Zero Balancing student who wants to understand how fields generally affect their lives, who wants to gain a keener grasp of fulcrums, the protocol and basic theories of Zero Balancing, and who wants to deepen and progress their understanding of ZB and its potential.
Course length: four days
CE Hours: 25
Prerequisites: Core ZB Program
The Fifteen-Minute ZB with Michael Oruch (Back to Top)
This one-day class will outline and teach how to do a fifteen-minute Zero Balancing efficiently and effectively. This is a skill every advanced ZBer should know. Michael will provide the theoretical background information on when and why one might want to do a short ZB, tips on how this is done, and a variety of protocols as models to work with. Included, of course, will be a review of the ZB protocol fulcrums.
Course length: one day
CE Hours: 6.5
Prerequisites: Core ZB Program
Form & Fulcrums: The Art of Engagement in ZB with Michael Oruch (Back to Top)
As one progresses in ZB, the concept and ability to engage oneself and client is an essential skill as we often think more structure is needed but in fact it is more engagement. The more we engage ourselves, the more we can engage our clients and the more the client can engage themselves at the level of their true self.
The main topics covered in this course are Donkey, Rhythm, Positioning, Blue Line, Transitions, Improvisation and Engagement. This class will utilize Chinese movement principles focusing on body mechanics to find optimal positioning for the individual practitioner while doing Zero Balancing. Students will learn simple Qigong based ZB exercises to facilitate more body involvement and also thoroughly review each fulcrum of the protocol incorporating these concepts. New fulcrums and variations will also be introduced.
Course length: four days
CE Hours: 25
Prerequisites: Core ZB Program
This course satisfies requirements for the Certification Program.
Form & Fulcrums II: Finding Rhythm and Utilizing Movement with Michael Oruch (Back to Top)
This advanced Form and Fulcrums class builds on the foundation and principles
established in the basic class. By reviewing and utilizing Chinese movement principles,
the class will practice the ZB protocol step-by-step incorporating the following
concepts:
Rhythm: Teaches how to connect with each person's donkey and their rhythm, both within individual fulcrums and the session as a whole. Tuning into a person's rhythm allows deeper access and makes the ZB easier and more effective.
Transition: Teaches how to move from one fulcrum or one area of the body to the next in a smooth and efficient manner that enhances the session.
Improvisation: Teaches how to bring all of one's skills and perceptions to the ZB session. This includes the use of language, innovative fulcrums, the second hand and subtle movements. New physical, perceptual and verbal exercises will be used. These will enhance one's abilities to treat clients and find a new level of creativity within a Zero Balancing session.
Course length: two days
CE Hours: 12.5
Prerequisites: Core ZB Program and Form and Fulcrums I
This course satisfies requirements for the Certification Program.
Framing in Zero Balancing with Jim McCormick, L.Ac. (Back to Top)
This is a new experiential workshop exploring the art of framing a session in Zero Balancing. Theoretical presentations and demonstrations of methods and techniques of framing will be followed by experiential exercises practicing framing in groups of three with feedback: "client", "practitioner", and "observer". Learning happens very quickly in this format. Learn to create a deeper, more useful frame for both the client and the practitioner. The class will also include how to use the frame during a session.
Course length: two days
CE Hours: 12.5
Prerequisites: Core ZB Program
Freely Moveable Joints with Judith Sullivan, Ida Smith,
Jim McCormick, L.Ac., Bob Brown, L.Ac., and J. Kelly Russell (Back to Top)
This course
applies the power of ZB fulcrums to an expanded array of joints, e.g., joints
of the extremities, anterior chest, ribs, shoulder girdle and cranium. A detailed
protocol of evaluation and fulcrum design is presented. Attention is also given
to body mechanics and to making doing ZB easier. This seminar will add breadth
and precision of skill in addressing the specific needs of clients. Individual
teachers include special topics based on their areas of expertise. Please contact
individual teachers for more information.
Course length: four days
CE Hours: 25
Prerequisites: Core ZB Program
This course satisfies requirements for the Certification Program.
Geometry of Healing with ZB Faculty (Back to Top)
Geometry of Healing is an advanced level Zero Balancing program that teaches students how to work directly with energy fields of the body. It teaches how to access and evaluate vibratory fields, obtain information contained therein, and how to balance and clarify the designated field or material. The program shows how to work with slowed vibratory fields to access “the gap”. Much of the theoretical material presented is based on the newer sciences such as quantum physics, holograms, and field theory and how they relate to the world of touch.
GOH is the third of the Zero Balancing trilogy related to energy fields: Core Zero Balancing addresses the relationship between existing body energy fields and body structure; Alchemy of Touch applies amplification strategies to balance energy fields; GOH works with the fields themselves including the space between vibrations.
Geometry of Healing will include:
Course length: four days
CE Hours: 25
Prerequisites: Core ZB Program
This course satisfies requirements for the Certification Program.
Inner Alchemy with Sandra Savine and Olaive Jones (Back to Top)
Inner Alchemy comes out of the Zero Balancing and Vipassana principles. This experiential class is designed for all bodyworkers and health care providers (as well as meditators and would be meditators) who are committed to personal transformation and to increasing clarity in their sessions and in their lives.
The objective of this dialogue is to provide tools that help support the clients' as well as the practitioners' spiritual journey.
With meditation and movement, students will:
• apply mindfulness techniques toward greater awareness
• identify the road map of the mind to break patterns that no longer serve to unravel the knots of suffering
• realize the possibilities of inner peace and emotional freedom.
• practice the skill of being at Interface with themselves
Course length: one day
CE Hours: 5
Prerequisite: ZB I
Inside Zero Balancing with Dr. Smith with Fritz Smith, M.D. (Back to Top)
This class provides a unique opportunity to sit at the side of the creator of Zero Balancing listening to his thought processes as he performs a ZB and then debriefs the session with the receiver. Following each session, specific aspects of the ZB will be highlighted, with the opportunity of hands-on instruction and practice. The format of any given workshop may vary because of the spontaneous impromptu nature of each class but, in general, Dr. Smith will perform and debrief two or three sessions a day, oversee post-session hands-on practice, and provide the opportunity for everyone to swap ZB amongst themselves.
Course length: two to four days
CE Hours: 14 for two days (Fri. night, Sat. and Sun.), 18 for three days, 25 for four days
Prerequisites: Core ZB Program (particularly suited to Certified ZBers)
Intensive ZB Certification Program with Bob Brown, L.Ac. (Back to Top)
This is for those of you who have taken at least Core ZB I and found that you resonated with it and wish to explore Zero Balancing further on a definite track and time line. In this program, a group of practitioners will move through the whole certification program together, having the support of each other. Going through the whole process with the same group of people also tends to increase the intensity and depth of the program, as well as the joy. The classes in order will be Core II, Freely Moveable Joints and Alchemy of Touch - the latter two being co-taught so that you will have the added experience of different teachers.
For further information on the Intensive Certification Program which is currently being offered in Laurel, Maryland, please contact Bob Brown, L.Ac. at 410-235-2998 or ZBBob@aol.com.
Program length: 12-18 months
CE Hours: 75 (25 hours for each of three classes)
Prerequisites: ZB I
Introduction to Zero Balancing with ZB Faculty (Back to Top)
This one-day course is designed to provide basic exposure to the principles of touch used in Zero Balancing, to the concepts of body structure and body energy, and to a set of hands-on Zero Balancing techniques. This course will include lecture, demonstration, hands-on and experiential components.
CE Hours: 6
Prerequisites: none
Introductory Talk on ZB with ZB Faculty (Back to Top)
A non-credit presentation to introduce Zero Balancing to those who may be interested in studying ZB further.
CE Hours: none
Prerequisites: none
Making Conscious the Process of Mastery with Jim McCormick, L.Ac. and Hau Thi Long, L.Ac. (Back to Top)
This program is designed to provide skills and support to certified (or experienced) ZB practitioners who desire to deepen their work and their personal development. Our intention is to build a strong ZB community to use as a laboratory for exploration. We are committed to sharing knowledge and believe that we need to learn and grow together.
The next class will be a stand alone class and will be held in Truro, Massachusetts in October 2008. You may take this class even if you did not take the first one in Santa Fe, and you may take the class in Truro without any commitment to future classes. Our suggestion if you are interested in the class to talk with either Jim or Hau, or to contact some people who took the first class and get a sense from them of how it went, and what was involved.
After October, we hope to work with an on-going group of motivated, experienced ZBers who want to grow together, learn together, and grow to understand how to become masterful in their ZBs (and their lives). We know this involves great personal work as well as improved ZB technique and we want to work and share at all these levels. We are also looking at how to keep this connection and level of support going over time, so the group continues to function outside of class time.
Some of the topics we addressed in the first class:
Course length: 5 days. Additional modules will be scheduled approximately every six months to give continued work together as a group.
CE Hours: 30/module
Prerequisites: Certification in ZB or permission from instructors. Admission is upon faculty evaluation. For application/ registration, please call Hau Thi Long at 408-737-0668 or email at hauthilong@comcast.net or Jim McCormick at 617-354-8360 x11 or email at jimmc5@comcast.net or download an application from www.1shinkodo.com.
The Natural Bridges of Zero Balancing at Rio Caliente Spa, Mexico with Fritz Smith, M.D. and Michael Oruch (Back to Top)
The Natural Bridges of Zero Balancing is our annual program at Rio Caliente Spa. The name stays the same but the context ever evolves. Natural Bridges is designed to be a multidimensional experience of deepening one's understanding of ZB and creating a container for personal growth, rejuvenation and positive change. This is all done in an atmosphere and environment of support, both by nature and your peers, while using time-honored rituals to enhance the wonders and intensity of the retreat. Other highlights include a silent El Solo day in the high desert, a day of shopping, and an evening in the artisan community of Tlaquepaque. Often there is Mariachi music and dancing after dinner. The Spa is located in the mystic healing valley of Prima Vera and features hot pools, steam room, vegetarian meals, maid-attended rooms with fireplace, massage, hiking, horseback riding, yoga, aqua exercise and evening lectures. Both returning and new participants are welcome.
Course length: eight nights, residential
CE Hours: 25
Prerequisites: Core ZB Program
Class size is limited to 30 people.