Well the wind howled, and the rain poured, but 11 Dads/Male Carers and their babies came along to the second Rock & Roll Dads at Totnes Children’s Centre. It was busy! And so amazing to see all these men and their babies together in one space. Very unusual in our culture, and very special to […]
News
Meeting the Therapy Team @discoverhannahs
Great to meet the Therapy Team today @discoverhannahs and give a presentation about Somatic Movement Therapy. It was a lunchtime CPD session for the team. I was able to share the key elements of my approach – working through movement and touch; exploring emotions and images; building relationship through dialogue, both verbal and non-verbal. I […]
‘Somatic Movement Work with Children’ Workshop at UCLAN
I ran a session for MA Dance & Somatic Well-being students at the weekend at UCLAN in Preston. I was invited to share my work as a practitioner working in the field. The experiential session focused on the Somatic Resources I use. Here’s a taster of some of what was […]
Rock & Roll Dads Gets Started
Had the first meeting of this group at the weekend. Thanks for all who came along. We had a big clear space in the family centre. Lots of room to roll and crawl. Some great discussions about what we notice babies doing, and information shared about the significance of movement and sensory play for babies […]
Trust Is a Body Thing
Trust is a body thing. Can I lean back and be held? Can I fall forward and be caught? Can I rest, without needing to protect or defend? We feel trust in our bodies. We feel it in our bones and in our bellies. As a Movement Therapist and Bodyworker, as I make contact with […]
Newsletter September 2015
As we begin the new term, here is an update since my last newsletter. Details include my Movement Therapy work in Early Years Education, and Fostering & Adoption; a new group for Dads; work with adults and teaching further afield. Work with Babies & Children In July I ended my work as a Child Support […]
Rock & Roll Dads
Monthly movement play session for Dads/Grandads/male carers and babies. A chance to spend some time with your baby, move, roll and play together, and meet up with other Dads/Male Carers and their babies. The early months go so quick, and there is a huge amount of change happening for young babies. These informal sessions […]
Devon School of Yoga Article
A short piece about Somatic Movement Therapy I wrote for the Summer Newsletter of the Devon School of Yoga. You can read it here.
Somatic Movement Gathering 2014
Bookings are now being taken for this years gathering in London – Nov 7th – 9th. I’m running a workshop, and leading an opportunity for men at the gathering to get together. Details can be found here: www.somatic-movement.org
Baby Swimming, Infant Reflexes and Developmental Movement
Little Splashers Get in Touch A few months ago I was contacted by Jo Wilson, a Baby-Swim Instructor (www.littlesplashers.co.uk), who asked me about infant reflexes that she’d seen many times in the pool. We’ve had several conversations about what she’d noticed and how this related to the perspective of her baby-swim training. Our conversations led […]
Being with … silence, sound, sensory perception
At the weekend I went on a Dawn Quiet Walk, with Aunehead Arts and Tony Whitehead. Starting at 5.30am, we walked a short distance along the River Dart, near New Bridge. Light quickly came. Darkness fading, greyness growing, fading to colour, many shades of grey, blue and green. The multi-layered sounds of river, birdsong, planes, […]
Embercombe Sustainable Families
I spent this morning with a group of parents at Embercombe – offering a session on Developmental Movement, as part of their Sustainable Families project. My first time at Embercombe, and great to meet and be hosted by Joanna Watters, who facilitates this group, and be part of the mindful approach the group had. It […]
Somatic Movement Gathering UK
I’m just back from attending this event – a gathering of 30 people with an interest in somatic movement work, in education, healing and therapy. A weekend of workshops to share what we do, and lots of conversations about how we offer this to the wider world. Very valuable to be with peers in the […]
the dialogue of contact
Contact Improv Jam – First one I’ve been to in a couple of months – and it was so good – the strong meeting place of the dance – a visceral meeting of 2 moving bodies, finding the pathways, the dialogue of contact, the commitment of the connection, the listening & responding, taking responsibility for ourselves, […]
Further Study – Reviewing Developmental Movement Patterns
Time in the studio today: reading, moving, drawing, writing. Exploring early movement patterns, and how these relate to my movement and sense of my body now, as an adult. Tracing connections of where the movement starts and allowing it to flow through all of my body. Reading about how these evolving movements are directly related […]
Insight into a Baby’s Perspective
I’ve been reading this recently. An easy and insightful book – unpacking the layers of a baby’s experience, from the initial world of senses and feelings, through relating, to developing thoughts, words and stories. Fascinating to travel through these areas of development. I can see them in the babies I work with, and know how […]
Authentic Movement Practice
Further exploration with a colleague, tracking body, senses, feelings, and images as we move. Feeling our way, with not having met to move before, and refining how we speak about the movement we see. Important skills when working with others, being careful that our own experience of movement is not laid on those we work with.
Supporting Young Children
Working in an early years setting, I’m struck by how 3 children seek such different forms of contact, that comes totally through our non-verbal movement. Each one regulating what they need, in the moment, and finding their way. It is quite amazing to tune in to this, in their territory, in the movement space. Such […]
Tuning in
A weekend of training, focusing on how we tune into another, a child or client, and how this experience feeds into our sense of self – who we are, how we’re received by the world, and responded to, and in turn what we offer of ourselves into the world. Exploring boundaries, making eye contact and […]