WHY WORK WITH THE BODY-MIND?

As infants and young children, we had to adapt to what was available, shape ourselves to an environment that was not always able to meet our needs. We learned to suppress desires and impulses (to cry, to yell, to run away, to reach out for love) that were deemed unacceptable and to banish from conscious awareness impermissible and unbearable feelings. We developed ‘armouring’: the Reichian term for the combination of emotional repression, chronic muscle tension and blocked breathing which over time becomes an unconscious habit built into the structure of our bodies and our sense of selves, as familiar and 'comfortable’ as a well worn pair of shoes.

 

As children, this was an intelligent survival strategy when our resources and choices were limited. As adults, however, we pay a high price for this protective armouring: it blocks the flow of life energy, leaving us feeling numb or stuck in restrictive emotional patterns and cut off from being able to connect authentically with ourselves and others.

 

In this Dance of Awareness workshop, we will explore how we can identify and release these defences still held in the body-mind using the power of embodied movement, dance, somatic awareness and breath. Over the course of 2-days, we will move through the Dance of Awareness cycle (Sensing, Grounding, Expressing, Releasing, Connecting and Completing) designed to revisit childhood stages of development from pre-birth to 5 years. Drawing on Reichian body-centred concepts and techniques, we will work from the head down through to the pelvis with the corresponding ‘belts of tension’ where developmental trauma gets held.

 

We will engage in a process of 'unbecoming', letting go of who we are not and restoring our capacity for vitality and connection.

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What Is Dance of Awareness?​

Dance of Awareness  is an embodied movement practice that explores early developmental patterns through a dynamic movement journey. It invites a rich and joyful exploration of what it is to be a body in the world, moving in response to inner awareness and outer connectedness. It draws on several influences: Post-Reichian body psychotherapy; Five Rhythms; Authentic Movement and Mindfulness Practice. Set to music, the Dance of Awareness cycle takes you through six sequential phases: Sensing; Grounding; Expressing; Releasing; Connecting and Completing. Informed by ideas from psychodynamic theory and developmental psychology, the cycle is designed to evoke childhood stages of development from pre-birth to around 5 years. Throughout the process there is a strong emphasis on body awareness which provides the ground for our experience. By revisiting imprints from our formative years, we can celebrate strengths and resources that have evolved, let go of self-limiting patterns from the past and discover more authentic ways of relating to others. 

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About Lucy

I am a relational body psychotherapist and have been working with individuals and groups for over 25 years. I have an MA in Humanistic and Integrative Psychotherapy and have done extensive further training in Somatic Trauma Therapy and Embodied Relational Therapy which emerged from Reichian body work and body-centred psychotherapy. I am a full member of the European Association of Body Psychotherapy (EABP). When I discovered Dance of Awareness,  I immediately knew I’d found a home for myself: it brings together two things I feel passionately about, conscious dance and body psychotherapy, and in 2017 I qualified as a licensed facilitator. Most recently, I became a certified breathwork practitioner and run regular groups in Conscious Connected Breathwork in Findhorn.