Our Vision

Our vision is a life-affirming future for all. We support transformative leaders, coaches, and organizations that can meet the challenges of our time – delivering sustainability, interconnectedness, and social equity.

Our Mission

To produce leaders, coaches, and organizations that embody pragmatic wisdom, skillful action, and grounded compassion; who use conflict as a generative force.

Our Values

These values not only guide our practices, but are at the root of SI’s operations, relationships, strategy, and long-term vision.

Dignity

We value dignity, acknowledging it as an inherent need of all people. We honor individual paths and contributions, and cultivate mutual respect.
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Generativity

We value generativity, creating possibility from uncertainty, and life-affirming direction from strife.
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Interdependence

We value interdependence, appreciating our reliance on, and connectedness with, all living systems on this planet. We thrive together.
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Diversity, Equity,
& Inclusion

We value diversity, equity, & inclusion. We believe that our world is a better place when we learn and grow from each other, while celebrating, understanding, and respecting our differences.
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Purposeful
Action

We value purposeful action, practicing it as a life-long path. We believe in cultivating an alignment between action and a deeper sense of purpose.
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Sustainability

We value sustainability, acting responsibly with our business and our profits, while furthering our commitment to leave the planet and all communities better than we found them.
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Transformation

We value transformation, moving from old ways of being to new, evolving practices and capacities that are aligned with our visions and values.
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B Corp™

As a Certified B Corporation®, we meet the highest verified standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability.
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Strozzi Institute is the creator of embodied leadership and the original somatic training institute.

Strozzi Institute is an industry leader in the world of somatics.

With 45 years of development and experience, we have fine-tuned a unique and powerful methodology that produces sustainable transformation.

SI Somatics teaches the “how” in actualizing the best leadership and coaching ideas, theories and intentions – not just for individuals, but for coaches, teams and companies around the world.

Why We’re Different

Whereas others only focus on Somatic Awareness, we focus on all three aspects of somatic transformation: Awareness, Practices, and Opening. This approach will give you a more sustainable and complete transformation.

We focus on what you long for. It’s more powerful to move toward what you desire rather than move away from a problem. What do you want to embody for your future? We’ll give you the tools and techniques to focus on it and make it happen.

We offer the most comprehensive somatic methodology in the world. Developed in just about every environment and culture imaginable, our method integrates aspects that others do not. From standing practices and bodywork to social context, our methods take everything into consideration.

Origins of Our Groundbreaking Methodology

By integrating Aikido and bodywork principles with his leadership and holistic change work, the field of Somatics was born.

This innovative concept is based on the understanding that the mind, the body, the self, and our rationality are inextricably linked. To develop one, you must cultivate the others.

Richard studied with many teachers to look at the most effective ways to produce holistic change: change that engaged meaning, intellect, emotion and body; and produced new actions and competencies. He partnered and studied with many innovators of the time including: Dr. Randolph Stone, Magda Proskauer, Doris Breyer, George Leonard, Li Li Tau, Thomas Hanna, Saotome Sensei and Charan Singh.

In 1970, Richard founded Lomi School with Dr. Robert K. Hall, Alyssa Hall, and Catherine Flaxman. Using his research on holistic change, Lomi worked to further personal excellence, transformative change, leadership and team building among therapists, psychiatrists, counselors and other health professionals.

During this time, Richard was also deepening his own personal proficiency through the martial art of Aikido, earning a 6th degree black belt. By integrating Aikido and bodywork principles with his leadership and holistic change work, an integrative and innovative field developed that we now call “Somatics” – the unity of language, action, feeling and meaning. Somatics is based on the understanding that the mind, the body, the self and our rationality are inextricably linked; to develop one, you must cultivate the others. Modern neuroscience is now offering the psycho-biological grounding for this work. Between 1970 and 1985, the Lomi School developed into the premier training ground for this pragmatic somatic methodology.

In the mid-1980’s, the Army Special Forces engaged Richard in a classified project to increase the Green Beret’s capacity for physical and mental enhancements, as well as team cohesion. The outcomes of the training showed a 56 to 100 percent increase in mental, emotional, physical and team capacity, with a marked increase in leadership ability from all participants.

Strozzi Institute: The Early Years

Richard founded the Strozzi Institute in 1985. Strozzi Institute was born out of his realization that leaders, coaches, and organizations needed more. They need the leadership possibilities inherent in the discourse of Somatics.

We are guided by the decade-long collaboration of Richard and Fernado Flores, PhD. This partnership combined the business application of Fernado’s linguistic distinctions and Strozzi’s somatic distinctions. The continual refinement and evolution of Strozzi Institute’s somatic practices is the foundation of our leadership and organizational work.

In 1999, the first Somatic Coach Certification program was launched and we’ve been leading the field ever since.

We have spent the last two decades furthering Embodied Leadership with leaders globally, working within Fortune 500 companies, start-ups and social enterprises, certifying Somatic Coaches and Master Coaches, and integrating somatic bodywork into leadership work around the globe.

Strozzi Institute Today

In 2012, with the leadership of Staci K. Haines, Strozzi Institute took a new look at the world and at the possibility of making a greater difference.

Today, our commitment is to develop transformative leaders and organizations that can meet the challenges and hopes of our times – leaving our communities and world more vital than we found it.

Sustainability

As our world evolves, our vision of it does too. Today, we are integrating the commitments and concerns that so many of us realize. We recently incorporated as a Benefit Corporation. Our new corporate structure measures a triple bottom line:

People + Planet + Profit

Becoming a Benefit Corporation allows us to express our original commitment through our business structure.

In 2012, we formed a for-profit/non-profit partnership with generative somatics (gs). Through this partnership, we are able to powerfully enact our ethics of social equity and environmental sustainability by supporting embodied leadership in wider and more diverse circles.

Equity

The outcomes of embracing equity are immeasurable. We are committed to using our skills to further the advancement of equity, inclusion and belonging in our leadership work.

An embodied approach to change, grounded in a social equity commitment, lets us both learn how to undo what is oppressive, unleash the creativity and engagement of all people, and build the seeing and actionable skills to work together toward equity.

We view this work as necessary, useful, and a core aspect of our offerings.

Methodology

We propose a different approach to learning – embodied learning.
In a world of continuous change and constant social innovation, learning has taken on new meaning. We are now required to continually learn new skills, to partner with people of widely different backgrounds, and to be flexible enough to change roles, job positions and organizational directions, quickly and skillfully.

The conversation is no longer about learning over the course of our career – it is about learning over the course of our lifetime… Learning how to learn, so that we can adapt, change, take new actions and become more whole.

All learning in Strozzi Institute programs is based in embodied learning.

Our unique approach combines the latest in neuroscience, holistic practice, action-oriented communication and mindfulness. Through this methodology, we help people, teams and organizations learn to take new actions – ones they weren’t previously able to take, that are aligned with what they care about. We define transformation as the ability to take new actions, aligned with your vision and your values, even under the same old pressures.

Embodied learning involves our whole existence — our way of thinking, our physical bodies, our emotions and how we relate to others.

Embodied learning creates transformation.

Watch this video explaining SI Somatics +
Embodied Learning methodology:

The 3 Components to Somatic Transformation

Are your practices aligned with who you are and who you want to become?

Somatics invites us to look in a whole new way at the ways we change and transform — as you move toward the future life you desire. Join Strozzi instructor Staci Haines as she briefly explains how somatic awareness, somatic practices, and somatic opening impact your life.

Organizational Clients

Strozzi Institute offers customized programs for leaders, teams and entire organizations. Among the companies that have benefited from our programs are:

Strozzi Institute Associates + Coach Directory

Find a Strozzi Institute Certified Coach near you!

All Strozzi Associates have undergone extensive training and have years of experience working with our methodology. They work with individuals in both leadership capacities and for personal transition.

If you need help finding the right coach, please contact us for a referral. We look forward to working with you!