Therapist, trainer, writer

Welcome

Linda HartleyI live near the North Norfolk coast, in a village nestled between water meadows, ancient woodlands and farmland. Balancing my deep gratitude for the beauty of planet Earth, our home, with grief at all that challenges the health of the Earth, Nature and our global community at this time, I hold the question – ‘what more am I called to offer, as I embrace my elderhood?’

After many years of teaching, travelling, and practicing as a somatic and transpersonal psychotherapist, I now focus my life and work close to home - writing, teaching and leading retreats in the Discipline of Authentic Movement, and occasionally offering workshops that explore embodied myth and the relationship between body, earth, and spirit. As well as writing and my personal movement practice, I love to walk by the sea and in the ancient woods, tend my garden, read, sing and spend quality time with friends.

Linda Hartley MA, BMCA, ISMETA MSMT, CTP Dip Psych, Teacher of the Discipline of Authentic Movement


News

This autumn I stepped back from my role as Director of the Institute for Integrative Bodywork & Movement Therapy (IBMT). In September 1990 I began to teach what would become the IBMT three-year Diploma Programme.

The first programme began in Berlin when a colleague invited me to teach a year-long introduction to Body-Mind Centering®. Because of the enthusiasm and commitment of those first German students, the programme was able to grow and eventually expand into the evolving community that we have today. Many students have passed through our Diploma Programmes in Germany, the UK, Lithuania and Russia, and IBMT graduates are now practising in many countries across Europe (see www.ibmt.co.uk).

September 1st 2023 marked the end of a 33-year cycle for me, when I handed over the Directorship of the Institute to Jane Okondo and Paul Beaumont. We had been preparing for this over several years, making a gradual and gentle transition into a new phase of the IBMT Institute’s life, and I know that it is in very good hands under the co-Direction of Paul and Jane.

I could not have imagined this growth when I began that first course in Berlin thirty-three years ago, and am deeply grateful to every student, assistant, teacher, organizer and co-ordinator who has worked with us – each one has helped to shape and support the development of IBMT and its rippling out into ever widening circles in our communities.

In the spirit of the changing times we live in, IBMT is now supported by collective leadership, with Jane and Paul holding the administrative centre with care and skill. I send my heartfelt wishes and support to them as they step into this new role, and my deepest gratitude to all our Programme Directors, whose hard work and careful guidance is enabling IBMT practice to grow and flourish. Today’s world needs embodied relational practices, such as we offer, more than ever!

If you are interested in exploring the IBMT approach to somatic movement, and maybe joining the training programme, please check out www.ibmt.co.uk. And if your interest is in diving more deeply into the Discipline of Authentic Movement and maybe preparing to become a teacher one day, please visit www.disciplineofauthenticmovement.com. I am sorry not to be able to offer new workshops or retreats at the moment, but hope this will change in the future.

Meanwhile, I am putting the finishing touches to my new book Embodied Spirit, Conscious Earth, which will be published by Triarchy Press later in 2024. I look forward to sharing news of its arrival with you then.


Receive a 25% discount on The Fluid Nature of Being

My latest book, The Fluid Nature of Being (2022), a collection of writings and artwork by twenty-one IBMT practitioners, is available from bookshops, online outlets, and the Singing Dragon website.

Please see Non-Fiction Publications for information about the book and how to receive a 25% discount.

Read a review by Roz Carroll

View the Book Launch recording