Private Sessions in Somatic Movement Education and Therapy

Touching hands are not like pharmaceuticals or scalpels. They are like flashlights in a darkened room. The medicine they administer is self-awareness. And for many of our painful conditions, this is the aid that is most urgently needed.

--Deane Juhan, Job's Body

As somatic movement educators and therapists, BodyMindMovement practitioners work with individual clients to create the conditions in the body and mind for internal healing processes to take place. Attending to a client's fundamental health, rather than a specific pathology, we assess the flow of movement and energetic patterns through the body, then facilitate the physical transformation of those patterns toward pathways of greater ease, noting changes in the emotional, psychological, and spiritual layers of being as well.

In order to facilitate change, we work with several skills

An understanding of human anatomy and body systems, with the ability to initiate movement and touch from specific systems, such as the skeletal, organ, endocrine, or nervous systems.

An understanding of the patterns of human developmental movement and how those patterns express in daily life.

An understanding of how deviation from a path of ease in one system or movement will affect other systems or movements in the body.

An awareness of how the body is influenced by the mind and how the mind is influenced by the body.

BodyMindMovement somatic movement education dictates no protocols for sessions; practitioners work improvisationally with the client in each session to uncover layers of movement, sensation, and understanding which will contribute positively to the integration of body, mind and spirit. A session typically includes hands-on work, movement observation, and discussion of anatomic principles. The client is requested to wear loose, comfortable clothing, and is invited to play an active role in the session.

“After a car accident four years ago, doctors said I would never dance professionally again. I experimented with many traditional and non-traditional therapies and was left with pain and limited mobility in my left foot. Some days I could not even plie. After one session with Mark, my plie seemed to double, the pain decreased, my jumps have improved, and my overall awareness and understanding of my body has increased. I’ve left each session with a totally new body, more grounded and fluid. I believe that my continued work with Mark might even result in more mobility than I had prior to the accident. Regardless, this work is making me a more aware and full mover in all of my activities.”

--Melanie Miller, Choreographer and Dancer

“I came to this process with hope for change. That hope was merited, as Mark creates a safe space without judgment, and the experience of individual work with Mark provides ongoing learning beyond the time spent in each session. He has been fully present in his work with me, and is a keen observer of my body mechanics, my learning style, and the emotions that have impacted my freedom of movement (or lack of it). Sometimes the sessions include movement to improve awareness and help repattern my neurobiology for more efficient and effective fine and/or large movement. Sometimes he guides me verbally to increase my kinesthetic awareness, which affects specific movements that previously were awkward or painful. At other times when appropriate, due to fatigue, injury or hesitation, Mark does hands on gentle touch or models micro movement which helps to reconfigure my particular neural patterns toward improved movement and ease. I come away from my sessions with enhanced awareness and skill for navigating space, gravity, and the numerous body system-minds, all of which frees me more and more to walk the planet with increased awe, lightness, and integration.”

--Bracha Fenster, Poet and Photographer