The lush green forests of alder, Douglas fir, madrone and dogwood of the
Siuslaw watershed provides a sanctuary for the personal nature of this work.
This serene environment offers a haven for the transformative potential
of internal explorations. It is the nest from which each participant can
explore, rest, replenish and grow.
A safe and secure environment is fundamental in facilitating change. Support,
respect and alliance is essential in diving into the fertile lands of personal
growth. For this reason, the workshops are limited to small groups of six
to ten participants. This ensures an intimate format, personal interactions
and a sense of spaciousness around the subject of self and other.
The workshops are an integration of several bodies of work including Body-Mind Centering®, Developmental Patterning, Authentic Movement and Laban Movement Analysis™. Although workshops may be weighted more toward one of these areas, there is an overall unifying motif of experiential movement. The goal is to personalize and integrate themes of the body such as individual anatomy, early patterns of growth and physical expression, and metaphors emerging through active imagination in movement from the personal unconscious to the collective unconscious .
Somatic explorations are a vital aspect of these workshops. The root word “soma” means body. Value is given to the body as the physical manifestation of the individual in all wholeness. The body is the vehicle for change. It is the physical representation or mirror of the mind. It is the vessel for essence, energy or spirit. As the body changes, the mind changes and the energy changes. Somatic explorations involve moving, feeling and sensing. They offer choices for a new way of being. Non-judgmental witnessing fosters a deep level of experience. This encourages physical expression to unfold in any number of ways. Movement can and does take on many forms from small to large, gestural to full-body, internal to external, quiet to vigorous.
