Body-Mind Centering®

Somatic Movement Education sessions focus on skeletal alignment and breath motion as the basic underlying support for the body to find comfort, ease and healing. The muscles often work against the body, pulling the bones away from a natural easeful alignment; finding the clarity of the bones and their innate response to gravity provides a way to re-pattern and release holding patterns that may have built up in response to acute or chronic injury or unhelpful postural habits.

The bones also provide the underlying architecture for all body structures and functions: well aligned bones lead to well aligned blood vessels, nerve pathways, lymphatic vessels, glands, organs, and muscles! In terms of breathing it is possible to identify and release holding patterns in the area around the ribs, shoulders and upper arms leading to more natural, full and free breathing - the very basis of all healthy human functioning. Working to embody your own unique postural alignment is not about imposing an ‘ideal’ form, it is an enlivening and surprising process of discovery and recovery.

WHAT TO EXPECT DURING A SESSION?

After an initial discussion about the nature of the health issue, injury or movement restriction, and any other relevant information, your practitioner will then facilitate the embodiment process through various techniques which include:

  • Guided visualisation to help clients relax and quiet down the busy thinking brain so that it becomes possible to ‘hear’ the body’s signals
  • Hands-on listening and responsive touch to help with structural awareness and to support and encourage repatterning
  • Ongoing dialogue so that the client experience is fully integrated into the direction of the session
  • Sharing of images and anatomical knowledge to support clients as they begin to inhabit the body landscape more fully
  • Recommendation of movement patterns and sequences which can be practiced at home

Please wear comfortable loose-fitting clothing, suitable for gentle moving, bare feet or socks.