Archive of Expressive BodyWork
Self-Support: Grounding in the Body
Being grounded and feeling supported in your being provides a sense of security that one can learn to return to at will. It is a powerful reference point from which to focus awareness on your body, the world around you, and your own internal world. Often, we incorrectly seek support outside of ourselves: if others support us financially, physically, emotionally, intellectually, etc., we need not learn to rely on our own internal strength. Additionally, external demands by others to support them can be a profound drain on our ability to maintain our own self-support.
Grounding provides clarity and calmness because one learns to rely primarily on oneself for strength, security, and acceptance. When our thoughts and actions begin internally, they more truly represent who we are, allowing us to be more truly present with others. The focus of this workshop will be to work at a body level to help us each discover tools for developing greater awareness of our bodies and our environment. The aim is to create a stronger connection to the inherent internal support system we each have.
Anger in the Body
Anger is s signal and a powerful tool for creative transformation in our lives. Too often in our culture, repression of anger has been valued; challenging us to stuff this emotion back inside our bodies where it cannot be seen. Sometimes the result is a smoldering blister inside us and sometimes the result is unexpected or inappropriate outburst. In either extreme, the attempt to repress can lead to physical and emotional pain. Repression also alters how we see ourselves and how we relate to others.
In this workshop, we will explore the value of expression of our feelings of anger to provide freedom from pain and room for movement toward better choices and richness in our lives. The focus will be to question the messages we receive about anger and to begin to experience the sensation of anger in our bodies as a force that can be explored creatively. Through group process and bodywork, we will aim to revitalize our selves through opening repressed or closed down parts in an effort to strive toward wholeness.
Expressive BodyWork Group for Men -
The focus of this group is on innovating and exploring the masculine through bodywork and group process. As gender roles have changed dramatically in the past 30 years many attempts have been made to define and understand what it is to be male in today's world. By bringing our attention down into our bodies we discover the roots of the masculine principle and can then innovate new ways of being for ourselves and being in the world.
Bodywork Improvisation
Join a free-flowing day of expression that is shaped by the fluid wisdom within each participant. Awareness of our aliveness and connection to others, the cosmos, and ourselves can sometimes be heightened with increased attention and exploration
inside our bodies where it cannot be seen. Sometimes the result is a smoldering blister inside us and sometimes the result is unexpected or inappropriate outburst. In either extreme, the attempt to repress can lead to physical and emotional pain. Repression also alters how we see ourselves and how we relate to others.
In this workshop, we will explore the value of expression of our feelings of anger to provide freedom from pain and room for movement toward better choices and richness in our lives. The focus will be to question the messages we receive about anger and to begin to experience the sensation of anger in our bodies as a force that can be explored creatively. Through group process and bodywork, we will aim to revitalize our selves through opening repressed or closed down parts in an effort to strive toward wholeness.
The Feeling Body
Feelings and emotions belong far more to the kingdom of the body than to the conceptual realm of the mind. When we focus on our bodies as the starting point for knowing ourselves, we can literally get “in touch” with how and what we are feeling. Most of us are more familiar with using the mind as a starting point to analyze our thoughts, feelings, and emotions, to “figure ourselves out” or to “understand” ourselves. Often in this analytical process, we leave our feelings behind.
The goal of this workshop is to increase awareness of self and how we interact with others using the body as a starting point rather than the mind. When we become attuned to the feelings and sensations in our bodies, we tap into an intuitive wisdom that allows us to be in each moment without analysis. We will use self-touch and contact with others in the group tools for experiencing sensation at a physical and perhaps emotional level without “figuring out” the meaning of the sensations. Touch gives us our sense of form, space, and substance. We will learn to value touch as a different way of seeing and being.
Bodywork Improvisation
Join a free-flowing day of expression that is shaped by the fluid wisdom within each participant. Awareness of our aliveness and connection to others, the cosmos, and ourselves can sometimes be heightened with increased attention and exploration internally. This awareness can be uniquely amplified while carrying out such explorations within the context of a group.
The goal of this workshop is to build an even deeper sense of wholeness and fluidity of being. Awareness, touch, movement, and sound will be our inspiration. Creative exercises and the flow of the workshop will be facilitated by the leader only when a way of being as individuals and as a group does not unfold. In other words, much of the direction will come from the participants being in the moment, observing what is happening internally and within the group -- what each person’s body wants and needs.
Embracing the Shadow
Often we seek peace, joy, and light while averting ourselves from shadow and darkness. Yet, without encompassing these more negative aspects -- of life and of ourselves -- we miss out on the whole. In our search for light, we must also embrace dark to be complete. Shadow gives dimension and depth to form. It is in the welcoming of dusk that we can see the sunrise, love ourselves, and be available to love others.
Sometimes it is difficult to find the dark corners lurking inside us, and sometimes the darkness assaults us like a bottomless abyss. In this workshop, we will focus on revealing what is hidden and identifying the structure and edges of those spaces we find. Working with breath, sound, and movement, we will seek to linger and find acceptance within the shadow. In this way, we will seek totality rather than letting fear and anxiety dictate our relationship to these aspects of ourselves. To give shape to the unknown can open the door to understanding and change. There will be ample time for sinking into ourselves as well as processing and exposing shadows to the light within the group.