Photo : Cécile Lopes

Body-Mind Centering^® Somatic Movement Education Program 1st Cycle : Somatic Movement Education

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500 hours of class spread over three years

This program explores the richness of the relationship between body, mind, movement and touch in the context of our dynamic Embodied Anatomy and Embodied Developmental Movement approach to Somatic Movement Education.

Students are introduced to the foundations and fundamentals of embodiment in working with themselves and others. This 500+ hour program requires three years of study.

Goals :

• Being able to demonstrate an embodiment of the body systems and the developmental process, and to share these principles verbally.
• Understanding the function of body systems, and their role in movement’s initiation and expression.
• Being able to explain the goals of Somatic Movement Education.
• Being able to share the basic principles of BMC^SM with others in an experiential way.
• Learn to integrate the BMC^SM approach in your profession.

 

Course content

 

Senses and Perception 1/ Introduction to Body-Mind Centering^®

Our senses begin as potential and develop in response to stimulation and experience. The senses of touch and movement are located throughout the body — in every cell. The senses of vision, hearing, taste and smell are located in the head. It is through our senses that we receive information from our internal environment (ourselves) and the external environment (others and the world).

How we filter, modify, distort, accept, reject, and use that information is part of the act of perceiving. Perception is a global experience. It is the psychophysical process of interpreting information based on past experience, present circumstances and future expectations.
When we choose to absorb information, we bond to that aspect of our environment. When we block out information, we defend against that aspect. Learning is the process by which we vary our responses to information based on the context of each situation. This course will include:

• Exploration of the six senses (movement, touch, taste, smell, hearing and vision).
• Analysis of the perceptual-response cycle as the process of perception.
• Bonding, defending and learning as psychophysical processes based on your perceptions.

4 days; 28 contact hours

 

Skeletal System

This system provides us with our basic supporting structure. It is composed of the bones and the joints. The bones lever us through space and support our weight in relationship to gravity and the shape of our movements through space. The spaces within the joints give us the possibility of movement and provide the axes around which the movement occurs.

The skeletal system gives our body the basic form through which we can locomote through space, act on the environment, and sculpt and create the energy forms in space that we call movement. Through embodying the skeletal system, the mind becomes structurally organized, providing the supporting ground for our thoughts, the leverage for our ideas, and the fulcrums or spaces between our ideas for the articulation and understanding of their relationships. It provides the foundation for the psychophysical qualities of clarity, effortlessness and form. This course will include:

• Skeletal principles that enhance effortless movement.
• The relationships between bones and joints and how they integrate through the whole body.
• Evaluation and repatterning of skeletal alignment and movement imbalances.
• Techniques for facilitating the repatterning of the internal structure of bone.

9 days; 63 contact hours

 

Organ System

Our organs are vital and alive. They provide us with our sense of self, full-bodiedness, and organic authenticity. Organs are the contents within the skeletal-flesh container and carry on the functions of our internal survival — breathing, nourishment and elimination. Organs are the primary habitats or natural environments of our emotions, aspirations, and the memories of our inner reactions to our personal histories. They support our postural tone and our feelings, and give volume to our movement. This course will include:

• Initiating breath, voice, movement and touch from the organs.
• Analyzing imbalances in individual organs and the organ system as a whole.
• Techniques to facilitate access to and balance in the organs.

7 days; 49 contact hours

 

Basic Neurocellular Patterns

The Basic Neurocellular Patterns are the words of our movement. They are the building blocks for the phrases and sentences of our activities. They also establish a base for our perceptual relationships (including body image and spatial orientation) and for our learning and communication.

The BNP are one of the foundations of Body-Mind Centering^® and are interwoven with the Embodied Anatomy (body-systems material) in later courses. The BNP have extensive application in the areas of movement and psychophysical expression. Done in sequences, the BNP can also form the basis for a deep and ongoing personal movement practice. This course will include:

• Exploration of the prevertebrate patterns: vibration, cellular, sponging, pulsation, mouthing, and prespinal.
• Exploration of the vertebrate patterns: spinal, homologous, homolateral, and contralateral.
• Distinguishing and integrating the actions of yield, push, reach and pull.
• Combinations of the vertebrate patterns that facilitate their integration.
• Facilitating developmental repatterning in yourself and others.

7 days, 49 contact hours

Primitive Reflexes, Righting Reactions and Equilibrium Responses

If the Basic Neurocellular Patterns are the words, the Primitive Reflexes, Righting Reactions and Equilibrium Responses are the fundamental elements, the alphabet, of our movement. Underneath all successful, effortless movement are integrated reflexes, righting reactions and equilibrium responses. The reflexes are the most primitive patterns that occur in response to specific stimuli, and they establish basic survival patterns of function. The righting reactions are important in establishing a vertical or upright posture against gravity and a continuous head-torso axis. The equilibrium responses are patterns which maintain balance of the whole body in the dynamic relationship between the shifting of one’s center of gravity through space and one’s base of support. This course will include:

• Fundamental building blocks of human movement (the alphabet of movement).
• Postural tone and physiological flexion and extension.
• Differentiating the RRR in relation to the three planes of movement (horizontal, vertical, sagittal).
• The roles of the RRR in readiness for relating, relating to earth and heaven, gathering and reaching, taking hold
  and letting go, weight bearing, rolling, vertical uprightness, locomotion and equilibrium.

6 days; 42 contact hours

Ontogenetic Development

The period from intrauterine life through approximately 12 months of age is an extraordinarily formative time for humans. Our basic movement patterns emerge in utero, are present at birth, and develop through the first year of life. It is during this time that we build the groundwork for our movement and perceptual skills and pass through the milestones by which we mark our development. This course will include:

• Developmental milestones including: foetal movement, nursing, head control, eye-hand coordination, rolling, cricumduction, belly crawling, quadrupedal creeping, sitting, kneel-sitting, kneel-standing, half kneel-sitting, half kneel-standing, squatting, standing, cruising, walking).
• The sequence of development that allows the infant to progress through each and all skill levels during its development process.
• Patterns of movement that inhibit more integrated skills from developing.
• Facilitating integrated movement skills and inhibiting patterns which limit full development.

5 days; 35 contact hours

 

Endocrine System

The endocrine glands are the major chemical governing system of the body and are closely aligned with the nervous system. Their secretions pass directly into the blood stream and their balance or imbalance influences all of the cells in the body. The glands are the keystone between the organs and the nervous system and between the nervous system and the fluids. They create crystalline psychophysical states.

This is the system of internal stillness, surges or explosions of chaos/balance and the crystallization of energy into archetypal experiences. The endocrine glands underlie intuition and the perceiving and understanding of the Universal Mind. This course will include:

• Initiating breath, voice and movement from each of the following glands and bodies: coccygeal body, gonads, adrenals, pancreas, thoraco body, heart body, thymus, thyroid, parathyroids, carotid bodies, pituitary, mammillary bodies and pineal.
• Distinguishing their reflex points.
• Aligning their energy centers along the spine.
• Establishing their relationships to bones and joints.
• Analyzing the glandular support of the spine and head.

5 days; 35 contact hours

 

Nervous System

Experience first occurs on the cellular level. The nervous system is the recording system of the body. It records our experiences and organizes them into patterns. It can then recall the experience and modify it by integrating it with patterns of other previous experiences. The nervous system is the last to know, but, once knowing, it becomes a major control center of psychophysical processes. It can initiate the learning of new experience through creativity and play. The nervous system underlies alertness, thought, and precision of coordination and establishes the perceptual base from which we view and interact with our internal and external worlds. This course will include:

• Distinguishing experientially the organization of the nervous system: central/peripheral; somatic/autonomic; sensory/motor.
• Differentiating and integrating from a psychophysical perspective the enteric nervous system of the gut, the parasympathetic and sympathetic pathways, and the somatic nerves.
• Assessing and releasing blockages in the nerve pathways. (brain and spinal cord, autonomic nerves, major somatic and autonomic plexes and their peripheral pathways).
• Understanding the principles of nerve reversals and methods of releasing them.
• Exploring balance of the autonomic nervous system as a calm support for intentional movement.
• How intentional movement provides the container of expression for autonomic movement.

7 days; 49 contact hours

 

Fluid System

The fluids are the transportation system of the body. They underlie presence and transformation, set the ground for basic communication, and mediate the dynamics of flow between rest and activity, tension and relaxation. The characteristics of each fluid relate to a different quality of movement , touch, voice, and state of mind. These relationships can be approached from the aspects of movement, mind states, or from anatomical and physiological functioning. This course will include:

• The major fluids of the body (cellular, interstitial and transitional fluids, blood, lymph, synovial fluid, and cerebrospinal fluid).
• Distinguishing the qualities of specific fluids through movement and touch.
• Initiating movement from each of the fluids.
• Identifying individual psychophysical characteristics of each of the fluids and their various combinations.
• Gaining awareness of your own fluid affinities and recognizing their embodiment and expression in others.

6 days; 42 contact hours

 

Ligamentous System

The ligaments set the boundaries of movement between the bones. They coordinate and guide muscular responses by directing the path of movement between the bones and provide specificity, clarity, and efficiency for the alignment and movement of the bones. When all of the ligaments of a joint are actively engaged, the movement of that joint becomes highly specific and is carried effortlessly to surrounding and successive joints. The ligaments support the psychophysical quality of detailed specificity. This course will include:

• Initiating movement from the ligaments.
• Facilitating freedom, resilience, strength and integration of the ligaments through touch and repatterning.
• Releasing ligaments from the restrictions of surrounding tissues.
• Integrating ligaments into their corresponding fascial planes.

7 days; 49 contact hours

Muscular System

The muscles establish a tensile three-dimensional grid for the balanced support and movement of the skeletal structure by providing the elastic forces that move the bones through space. They provide the dynamic contents of the outer envelope of flesh encompassing the skeletal structure. Through this system we embody our vitality, express our power, and engage in the dialogue of resistance and resolution. This course will include:

• Innovative muscle principles (proximal and distal initiation, muscle coupling and currenting, A and B muscles, four stages of a muscle action, eight functions of a muscle).
• Embodying muscles and initiating movement at the molecular level (actin and myosin).
• The embodied functions of proprioceptors (muscle spindles and Golgi tendon organs).
• Analyzing the actions of individual muscles and of groups of muscles from the perspective of one’s position in relation to gravity.
• Interrelationships between muscles in different parts of the body and as they pass through different fascial planes.
• Techniques of muscle re-education and training.

9 days; 63 contact hours

 

SME Competency

Competency : 1 day, 7 contact hours

Professional Issues 1

What does it mean to be a professional and how do you transition into this role? This course will cover some of the important issues facing professionals in the somatic field. This course will include:

• The student/movement educator relationship.
• Responsibilities of being a professional, including ethical guidelines and health precautions.
• Setting up and managing a professional practice, such as, finances, publicity, managing space and time, promotion, interfacing with other professionals, supervision and networking.

2 days, 14 contact hours

To graduate as Somatic Movement Educator, all students need to complete specified homework requirements. A homework pack is available to all students during the course and copies can be requested. Each course may be taken individually without any prerequisites except for the very last course of the cycle – Competency

 

Certification

To obtain the Somatic Movement Education certificate, all the modules in the first and second year must be completed.

The following must also be completed:

• 5 Guidance Sessions with a BMC Practitioner or Teacher
• 2 Private Sessions with a BMC Practitioner or Teacher
• 10 Study Sessions and 5 Somatic Movement Education classes
• 100 hours of movement practice, and 50 hours of meditative practice outside of class time

A complete description of these requirements will be given to students at the beginning of the session.

Note: The cost of the individual work with a BMC^SM Practitioner or Teacher is not included in the tuition prices of the modules, since it only concerns participants who wish to obtain the certificate.