Authentic Movement | Dance Therapy | Body Based Psychotherapy

Authentic Movement studies are integrated with Jungian psychology, elements of Marion Woodman's BodySoul Rhythms® approach, embodied dreamwork, Somatics, voice, and creative arts therapy. Programs include ongoing groups, week-long intensives, workshops, and consultation. Open to professionals and laypeople, this transformative process offers participants the opportunity to enrich their explorations of body, psyche, and spirit. Sessions support the development of embodied consciousness and the ability to be present with oneself and another, individually, in community, and in the natural world.

WHAT IS AUTHENTIC MOVEMENT?

“Movement, to be experienced, has to be “found” in the body, not put on like a dress or a coat. There is that in us which has moved from the very beginning. It is that which can liberate us.”
- Mary Whitehouse, Founder of Authentic Movement

Authentic Movement is a subtle yet powerful therapeutic practice that allows individuals to explore the relationship between the creative, psychological and sacred dimensions of their experience through bodily expression. Developing kinesthetic awareness, interpersonal skills, empathy and a sense of embodied presence are often natural outgrowths of the practice. The sensing world is awakened, perceptions clarified, and feelings affirmed - restoring a sense of authority to one’s own bodily-knowing. The approach supports individuals in connecting to a deeper life force that can bring an enhanced sense of meaning to daily experience. The somatic unconscious often becomes more available for awareness and reflection, and a more secure interpersonal attachment style may develop. Group work explores the dynamics of belonging and enhances one’s awareness of one’s unique place and contributions to the wider human community.

Authentic Movement was originated by pioneer dance therapist, Mary Starks Whitehouse in California. The approach developed as Mary integrated her studies at the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich with her dance experience and training with German modern dancer Mary Wigman and myth-inspired dancer and choreographer Martha Graham. With its foundations in these disciplines, the practice of Authentic Movement has continued to evolve, providing a process for awakening the spirit in the body and a container for midwifing the soul in psychotherapy, meditation and creative work.

Also called “Movement in Depth” and “Active Imagination in Movement,” Authentic Movement invites a descent into the inner world of the psyche through natural movement and can be practiced in both individual and group settings. In the therapy room, dance studio, or other safe, private environment the mover/client closes their eyes, waits, and then moves in response to body-felt sensations, emotions, memories, movement impulses, and/or images. As they bring awareness, expression and form to the body’s wisdom, they are observed by their therapist/witness. Through her attentive presence and sensitive tracking, the witness holds and contains the experience of the mover, allowing the mover to engage the depth invited by the psyche. Rejected, forgotten, or new, potentiating images, feelings, and energies can then surface and be brought to consciousness through expressive movement. Body-related issues, unresolved developmental material, preverbal memories, and transpersonal experience may emerge, leading toward integration and wholeness.

WHO BENEFITS FROM THIS WORK?

"The body is the physical aspect of the personality and movement is the personality made visible."
- Mary Starks Whitehouse

Authentic Movement can be applied in psychotherapy, as a resource for artistic endeavor, or as meditation/sacred dance, providing insight and enhancement of one's daily life and relationships. The transformative power of this work has roots in Jungian Depth Psychology, developmental psychology, Somatic psychotherapy, dance ethnology and mystical studies. Healing and growth are facilitated through seeing and being seen as one is in the presence of a witness. Awareness is brought to owning interpretations, judgments and shadow material as it emerges, freeing the mover to engage his/her experience directly. In the process, mover and witness together can achieve a level of perception of self and other that evokes deep respect and empathy. No experience in dance is necessary -- only curiosity, respect, and a bit of courage to open to the unknown.

Therapists benefit from explorations that nourish and replenish them. They also gain an embodied understanding of how movement can evoke feeling and effect change in patterns of attitude, thinking, imagining and behaving. Insight emerges from the direct experience of the somatic underpinnings of the transference/countertransference relationship.

Artists can return to the well of their own creative impulse, finding ways to move through stuck places, as they re-connect with a deep inner source.

Educators may rediscover a primary source of knowledge, returning to the wisdom of the body as our original text.

Those who seek have an opportunity to engage spirit in matter, accessing cellular knowing that resonates beneath constrictions of personality. Spontaneity, creativity and a profound sense of authenticity become more available as we become more genuinely who we are. Embracing paradox, we learn that the more authentically ourselves we become, the more readily we can connect with something deeply universal.

Group Participants have an opportunity to grasp some of their basic issues, often stemming from family of origin and early cultural experiences, noting how these may effect current body perceptions, movement patterns, feelings, and behaviors within relationship. One can also further the ability to integrate words, experience and action, and discover how working with repressed “shadow” material can promote compassion for self and “other.”

"The roots of this work can be traced to earliest human history when disease was seen as a loss of soul and dance was an integral part of the healing process."
- Joan Chodorow, Jungian analyst and Dance Therapist

Workshops in Authentic Movement in San Francisco and abroad. Dates and location TBA; please check the workshops page for further updates.

A text of Authentic Movement writings features writings on the body, psyche, spirit, creativity and healing by Authentic Movement practitioners from around the world. Tina Stromsted's contribution includes a chapter on working with dance and the body in psychotherapy, and a chapter, co-authored with Neala Haze, outlining major elements involved in Authentic Movement training.

Pallaro, P. (Ed.) (2006). Authentic movement: Moving the body, moving the self, being moved, a collection of essays. Levittown, PA Jessical Kingsley Publishers
400 Market Street, Suite 400
Philadelphia, PA 19106 USA
Tel (toll free ordering): (866) 416-1078
Fax: (215) 922-1474
Email to orders@jkp.com

DREAMDANCING™ GROUP
Affiliated with the Marion Woodman Foundation.

This group is designed for women engaged in deepening their bodysoul explorations. Now in its eleventh year, there are openings for the 2012-2013 session, beginning in September.

Beginning with an introductory weekend, monthly three-hour sessions (Friday, 10am-1pm) offer participants the opportunity to enrich their explorations of body, psyche, and spirit through an integrative Jungian depth-oriented approach. Elements include working with dreams in the body (Dreamdancing™), Authentic Movement ("active imagination in movement"), Somatics and creative methods from Marion Woodman's BodySoul Rhythms^® approach. We may also call on myths, fairytales, and Jungian theory to inform our discoveries.

Bring your desire to feel more at home in your body, and the courage to live your dreams! In an atmosphere of acceptance, curiosity, and care we engage the body's vital energies, contacting the deep feminine and learning to live her wisdom in our daily lives.

Meeting Dates: 2012-2013: Our orientation weekend is Friday, September 21, 10am-5:00 pm & Saturday, September 22, 3:30-6:30pm.

Monthly meetings thereafter: 10:00am-1:00pm Fridays; Oct. 19, Nov. 9, Dec. 14, 2012. Jan 11, February 8, March 1, April 12, May 17, 2013.

Location: A lovely, private dance studio with skylights in the Upper Market/Castro area of San Francisco, California.

Participants: This is an experiential & educational group. Participants have experience in Authentic Movement and dream work. Additional background in Marion Woodman's BodySoul Rhythms^® approach, expressive arts therapy or other forms of embodied creative exploration that engage conscious attention is helpful. Ongoing analysis or psychotherapy with an outside therapist is required.

Registration: If you are interested in applying for possible openings in the new series beginning September 2012.

Click here to download application and return by July 1st to Tina@AuthenticMovement-BodySoul.com. Please write 'Dreamdancing Group' in the subject line. An initial consultation meeting will also be a part of the application process if you are new to the instructor ($155/hr.). Thank you.

Tuition: $150/session for 8 months & $350 for the initial weekend (with a one time $50 materials fee). The entire tuition for the series must be paid, even if you miss a session, and is due at our first meeting. Monthly payment plans are also available - please post-date your check(s) and submit them at the first session.

CEU's available for MFTs, LCSWs, and LPCCs: 35hours; $20 CEU registration fee.

Further Resources:
For information about the Marion Woodman Foundation contact: http//www.mwoodmanfoundation.org or http//www.mwoodman.org

"Body & Soul: Honoring Marion Woodman", Spring Journal #72 includes chapters by Marion Woodman and other authors investigating the deep interrelationship between body, pysche and soul. To view table contents and/or to purchase go to: www.springhournalandbooks.com

Tina Stomsted's chapter provides an overview of Marion's life and work. To download please visit: www.mwoodman.org/mw_interviews.html

DREAMDANCING™
Tina Stromsted, Ph.D., BC-DMT

Our bodies and dreams may be our closest links to the unconscious, expressing the soul’s longing through image, breath, gesture, the rhythm of our step, and the music of our speech. Unresolved physical and emotional wounding is often held in the body, in stasis, until it can be brought to consciousness. Once contact is made, the flow of unconscious material can find expression through the body, so we can come to terms with it. Movement that emerges from a genuine source within us, when made conscious and integrated into lived experience, is by its very nature transformative.

From our earliest beginnings, empathic relating by the other is an essential component in the formation of the self. Affective mirroring and embodied presence provide a foundation for the development of consciousness in the cells, and a sense of well being and belonging in the world. Recent advances in developmental neuroscience underscore this, pointing to the right brain’s receptivity to nonverbal elements such as facial expression, voice tone, movement, affect, music, imagery and the play of symbols in dreams and poetry (Schore, 2003; Wilkinson, 2006).

Dreamdancing integrates verbal dream sharing with embodied methods such as Authentic Movement, structured movement explorations, somatic awareness, vocal work, drawing and writing. These practices engage the energies, feelings and action of the dream to help bring the dream’s message to consciousness. Through sensitive, inner listening, gestures emerge in a dance that speaks directly from the nonverbal, emotional midbrain where the images are formed. Dreams, says Somatics pioneer, Stanley Keleman, can be understood as rehearsals for action -- the body speaking its mind (Keleman, 1975, 1999). As she crystallizes a sequence of movement that gradually engages more of her body, the dreamer is able to commit herself more fully to the action. It is within this dialogue of gestures that the conflict or message of the dream is embedded.

During Dreamdancing, each dancing woman has a silent witness who attends to her dreamdancer’s dance and to her safety in the room. (The dancer’s eyes are closed, to better attend to her inner experience.) As the witness watches the mover’s dream unfold, the witness also pays attention to the dream’s impact on her own body and feelings (somatic countertransference). It is the attitude and experience of the witness that invites the body of the mover into the room, where potentials held in the dream may touch and awaken both women. Community is also nourished by Dreamdancing. Many times, group themes and stories emerge from the collective body (Adler, 1994), seeking insight and integration into daily life.

Early shamans and traditional peoples from many cultures respected dreams as oracles. Ancient Greeks made pilgrimages to Aesclepian temples where dreams were incubated to assist in the diagnosis and treatment of physical and soul illnesses (Meier, 1989). Today, Dreamdancing and body-sensitive psychotherapy can provide a temenos where dreams may be further explored through movement that springs from an inner source (Stromsted, 1984, 1998, 2001).

References:

Adler, J. (1994). The Collective Body. In P. Pallaro (Ed.), Authentic Movement: Essays by Mary Starks Whitehouse, Janet Adler, and Joan Chodorow (pp. 190-204). Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 1999.

Keleman, S. (1975). Your body speaks its mind. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Kelerman, S. (1999). Myth & the body: A colloquy with Joseph Campbell. Berkeley, CA: Center Press.

Meier, C. A. (1989). Healing dream and ritual. Einsiedeln, Switzerland: Daimon Verlag.

Schore, A. (2003). Affect Regulation and the Origin of the Self & Affect Dysregulation and Disorders of the Self. (2 Volume Set). NY, NY: W.W. Norton & Company.

Stromsted, T. (1984). Dreamdancing: The use of dance/movement therapy in dreamwork. Unpublished master’s thesis. John F. Kennedy University, Orinda, CA.

Stromsted, T. (1998). The dance and the body in psychotherapy: Reflections and clinical examples. In D. H. Johnson & I. J. Grand (Eds.) The Body in Psychotherapy, Berkeley & SF: North Atlantic Press & California Institute of Integral Studies.

Stromsted, T. (2001, January). Re-inhabiting the female body: Authentic Movement as a gateway to transformation. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 28(1), 39-55.

Wilkinson, M. (2006). Coming into mind. The mind-brain relationship: a Jungian Clinical Perspective. East Sussex, England & NY: Routledge Press.