SOMATICS
Somatics is the living body as experienced from within. What you feel and experience. Noticing when your attention is with yourself, or when your attention gets pulled outside of yourself or into internally driven thoughts and projections. So it is a Mindful practice of moving,of paying attention. A Somatic approach to movement enhances well-being and self-regulation. Helping to improve the functioning of the individual through integration of psychological, emotional and physical factors.
Somatic Movement sessions
Integrative movement and bodywork sessions give support in cultivating mindfulness and awareness of our bodymind. As we enter into this exploration with an attitude of openness curiosity and acceptance, we can find the inner world of the body reveals a deep knowing; beyond the thinking analysing mind we can be in touch with a deeper self, finding that old habits drop away and we find ourselves anew.
Sessions can include hands on bodywork, checking in with ourselves by moving,talking, drawing,or writing. The practice of Authentic Movement informs all that I do. The contemplative movement and witnessing, the relationship between the mover and witness can be transformational as we are seen and heard in a non judgemental holding, cultivating our inner witness to stay present
Sessions maybe meditative, playful, insightful and used for support in the creative process and releasing new ideas.
Our bodies have an innate intelligence right down to the cellular level, so there is no mind that is also not the body. When we slow down enough to listen, an unravelling can occur.
Mindful Pilates
We usually start out in a Pilates class by spending a little time to arrive in the body, paying attention to your own subjective experience. Cultivating awareness, checking in with ourselves, directing breath and allowing the body and mind time to settle. With the pace of life speeding up we can find ourselves continually in our heads, so to slow down like this is a way of developing a Mindfulness practice, to be present in the here and now with the very direct experience of the body, accessing the Wisdom of the body and with the practice of allowing, accepting and non judgemental awareness we can start to let go of habitual patterns of holding and tension. Developing a mindful movement practice is beneficial for general health and well being.
Baby massage
“By working on the movement patterns with the baby as it’s developing, you can help infants on a continuum to have stronger, more balanced alighnment, action and integration” Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen
My interest in mums and babies has grown from my studies of Infant Movement Development. It was when I was studying for a three year diploma at the Institute for Integrative Bodywork and Movement Therapy that I realised how much babies know and how little I had known about babies when I had mine, and more importantly that this information is still not mainstream. I remember thinking Wow I wished I had known all this when I was preparing to have a baby and if I had what an enriching experience it would have been.
My key area of interest is in babies first year of life, and the emerging relationship between mother and baby. The first year because this is when non-verbal behaviour is the primary means of communication. Movement is your baby’s first language, the mother and baby relationship emerges through this language of movement. A baby’s brain develops through movement and its environment. From conception a baby’s brain is wired by its environment, and born wired to relate and connect with others.
In cultivating your relating and communication with your baby you will also become more attuned and effective in other relationships in your life.
In my Understanding Baby sessions we explore the infant movement patterns and look at what your baby is doing now. We observe without judging or pushing them to achieve. In slowing down and increasing your body awareness you will be better able to regulate your own internal states, feel calmer and more relaxed, find trust in your intuition of how to best parent your baby and notice that you have a calm happy baby too.
I work one to one or with small groups in people homes.