Somatic Medicine Course
At The Trauma Recovery Institute we believe that body and mind are directly related and through movement we find a healthy balance and sense of wholeness. We are born into bodies that are relatively fluid and free; bodies that express instinctively the circulation of life force through movement. As babies, and then through childhood and adolescence we often encounter circumstance and emotion, which we are unable to accommodate into this elemental fluidity. In subtle and invisible ways we freeze and harden. Our bodies hold the experience within us, locked up as immobile or stagnant energy. This pattern of holding and hardening becomes habitual In many ways we feel and get stuck. The practice of Somatic Medicine supports and encourages ways in which to free this trapped vitality to give us more movement and more freedom in our lives. The more we can learn how to absorb and digest the power of all our experience the more fully and creatively we can live, the more fluid we become mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually. Dance is a very effective way to raise moral and well being. It is a fun and safe way of deepening and exploring ones sense of self. In a safe and creative way we can also explore how we relate to others, enabling us the courage to reconnect or deepen our relationship with our community. Everyone moves at his or her own unique pace and the facilitated journey through movement catalyzes shifts when they are ready to occur.
Dance, when you’re broken open. Dance, if you’ve torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you’re perfectly free – Rumi
Dance involves the culturally mediated body, emotion, and mind. So do illness and pain. Dance may promote wellness by strengthening the immune system through muscular action and physiological processes. Dance conditions an individual to moderate, eliminate, or avoid tension, chronic fatigue, and other disabling conditions that result from the effects of stress. Dance may help the healing process as a person gains a sense of control through
(1) possession by the spiritual in dance,
(2) mastery of movement,
(3) escape or diversion from stress and pain through a change in emotion, states of consciousness, and/or physical capability, and
(4) confronting stressors to work through ways of handling their effects.