Somatic therapies bridge the body-mind connection through movement, resonant touch, breath and mindfulness. Light play — or deep inner exploration — or simple relaxation — you take the lead on where a session will go. Given your goal, I will facilitate.
Willow
If we want to see the mind, we can waken to the inner movements of the body.
In our inner world a multitude of rhythms call forth to us. We find anew each breath, the familiar pulse of the heart and blood. Here is the bounded flow of lymph. We find permeable membrane filters – not rigid – but clear, adaptable boundaries between self and other, between what we take in and what we give out. The spacious floating realm of the cerebral-spinal fluid, bathes, nourishes and calms the nerves.
Each whisper and gesture of movement gives voice to the inner experience of mind & body.
- – In gratitude to Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen
Somatic therapies and somatic education includes a fertile field of approaches and practices; some ancient (yoga) and some freshly articulated (Body Mind Centering ®). All somatic approaches take a common perspective on movement awareness as a primary connection between body and mind. All somatic approaches share in bringing awareness to the direct, felt experience of the body as a place of exploration, creativity, development, healing and humanity.
Inner awareness in motion
Somatic approaches are about movement awareness. I help you bring attention to your experience of the moment. Movement includes movement through space, like walking, as well as movement internally, like breathing. Movement includes the earliest developmental movements we each did as babies which first formed our minds. Movement includes your senses and perceptions, like movements of the eyes in vision, the vibration of the inner ear and the resonance of touch. With your perceptions of pleasant and unpleasant sensation, you move towards and away in your relationships and in the world. With somatic therapy I also tend the movement of the mind with its ever arising and dissolving emotions and thoughts, drawing on the great wisdom and insight traditions. With mindfulness practices you can reference your direct experience of movement for an authentic sense of self in relationship. Your child can form a healthy sense of self as she is developing.
Somatic therapy and education intrinsically trust the wisdom of your body-mind with its multitude of healing functions. Your body-mind is able to self-correct if you go off course, when you give mindful attention to your activity. In this way you can trust the unfolding of your own healing process and development.
Pathways in
I offer gentle, hands-on touch therapies that provide relief from physical discomfort and allow both body and mind to relax, settle into inner connection and undertake deep healing.
With the light touch of craniosacral therapy and myofascial toning, I restore alignment, balance, tone and rhythm. I awaken internal support and nourishment for the brain, the nervous system, and the whole body. Depending what is calling to be healed within you, I access specific body-mind systems with awareness and touch.
I draw on Hakomi emotional processing and mindfulness to serve as facilitator of emotional release when experience is held in tissue memory, such as birth trauma and abuse history.
Movement play is a lifelong resource for all of us from childhood through the continuous changes of adulthood. Developmental movement in the first years underlies every arena of an individual’s development; physical, emotional/social, attention/cognition and emerging sense of self. With developmental movement therapy at any age we can revisit and renew ourselves with simple, engaging activities. I tailor a program that enables you or your child to come into your own.
I support women during childbearing and for life changes. I help children from newborn days through the early years.
As a Registered Professional Member of the International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association, I meet the high Standards of Practice and uphold the Code of Ethics of a somatic practitioner. For more information visit www.ISMETA.org
