Newsletter No.42 - Body Wisdom

Hello, everyone. I hope you all have been well. It is exciting to see the day getting longer; it feels warm and sometimes hot in the daytime. How is everyone feeling about the end of the year coming soon? I already feel that I need a proper break from everything, but I also know that a lot is happening in October! In this newsletter, I would like to talk about the Somatic Body Mapping Intensive that I facilitated this month.

Somatic Body Mapping

I was so honoured to facilitate the two-day intensive Somatic Body Mapping. I was able to witness the participants’ movements, bodily expressions, and artmaking, and listen deeply to their personal stories and insights. Somatic Body Mapping is a sensitive and personal process, yet we share a sense of belonging and cohesiveness. There was a dynamic flow in the process where the participants presented the attachments and disconnection to the maps and how they individually allowed themselves to meet the authentic selves that the maps held. I witness in an SBM process that the body holds the wisdom (Bacon, 2010) and narrates what has been compartmentalised, suppressed, or unexpressed. I find SBM is a holistic, unique, and powerful process as self-realisation happens through the body, artmaking, witnessing, sharing, and listening. I would like to share some pictures and feedback with the participants’ permission.

Since the Somatic Body Mapping Intensive, I feel cleansed, lighter, and more relaxed. Mioi created and facilitated the process with great care and attention, and held us in very safe therapeutic space. I recommend this process to anyone seeking transformation.

NEW – SBM for further professional development

I will facilitate two intensives in 2025. I will elaborate on this program on another level for professionals; I would like to offer a post-SBMI reflective space for you to reflect on the process and think about how you may like to incorporate this learning into your clinical practice. It means after the 2-day workshop, we will meet again either in person or online to discuss the process through the lens of clinical practice. This is an optional opportunity for you to strengthen your clinical skills and practice. Please let me know if you would like to participate in this professional and personal development program. If you have done this before and would like to do another one, you are welcome to bring the existing map or create a new one. If you are travelling interstate, please let me know as I can organise a reasonable accommodation for your convenience.

PACFA CPD – 16th October 2024

I am going to facilitate a CPD organised by the PACFA (Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia) South Australia Branch on the 26th of October 2024. This event is open for non-members too. I aim to bring bodily awareness and somatic practice to professionals by introducing Movement Response and Authentic Movement skills. Please see the details here. Early bird tickets is available until the 16th of October.

Embodied Group Supervision 2025

I will continue to offer embodied group supervision in 2025. As I witnessed this year in the work with the creative arts therapists, the body clarified their clinical questions and navigated the practitioners into a deep understanding of the clients and themselves. Shaun McNiff (2004) speaks about how artmaking involves dynamic movements and gestures and how important it is to allow them to emerge with the body, not with thoughts. I believe whatever medium we are using in a therapeutic relationship, whether we are talking, artmaking, doing music, or drama, there are two or more bodies in the room that are constantly intersubjectively meeting. I believe this embodied process helps us to become more present with our bodies and to meet another body.

Thank you for reading my newsletter. 

References

Bacon, J. M. (2010). The voice of her body: Somatic practices as a basis for creative research          methodology. Journal of Dance and Somatic Practices, 2(1), 63–74. DOI: 10.1386/jdsp.2.1.63_1

McNiff, S. (2004). Art Heals. How Creativity Cures the Soul. Shambhala. #dancemovementtherapy #dancetherapyadelaide #SA #somaticbodymapping #BodyMapping #mentalhealth