The Fluid Nature of Being
Extracts from Preface and Introduction by Linda Hartley
The Fluid Nature of Being is a collection of writings by practitioners of Integrative Bodywork & Movement Therapy (IBMT), an approach to somatic movement education and therapy. The cultivation of consciously embodied movement is at the heart of somatic movement practice. Through embodiment practices, soma – the subjectively experienced sense of embodied self – becomes a vital, living reality and a foundation through which healthy relationship to others, to Nature, and to life as a whole can be nourished.
Integrative Bodywork & Movement Therapy
The Fluid Nature of Being describes the practice, thinking, research and creative work of twenty-one IBMT practitioners. Each has also trained in other disciplines and their writing weaves together their broader learning, passion and professional practice within the IBMT approach to somatic work. In this volume we offer a collection of expressions with a rich diversity of themes and styles, bringing these voices from a new generation of somatic movement practitioners, writers and leaders to a wider audience.
An experiential training is always an Initiation, where often deep and profound embodied learning and change takes place. To honor the impact their personal encounters with IBMT have had on them, some of the writers refer back to experiences as trainees, writing in a moving and convincing way from, rather than about, their experience of somatic practice. Some offer explorations for the reader to try, or client case material that gives a sense of their inner process as practitioner. In this way, I hope the reader will receive a deep and embodied sense of IBMT somatic practice, one which touches them in a sensory and feeling way, as well as intellectually.
The book covers topics such as IBMT in therapy, education, early years learning, dance and theatre; the integration of this approach to somatics with psychotherapy, psychoanalytic thinking, and somatic trauma therapy; and the connection between individual healing and the healing of the Earth and Nature during this time of planetary crisis.
My own training in the fields of somatic dance, somatic movement education and therapy, and Authentic Movement has been primarily with Mary O’Donnell Fulkerson, Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen and Janet Adler, along with many others. Their inspiring teaching, together with training and practice in transpersonal and body-oriented psychotherapy, has led me to develop an integrative approach to health and wellbeing rooted in the belief that we each hold within us the seeds for our own growth and healing. I have been developing and teaching professional training programs in IBMT since 1990. Programs have been offered in the UK, Germany, Lithuania and Russia, and this collection reflects the international scope of our practice, with contributors from several countries.
There are many aspects of IBMT practice described in this book that are shared with somatic practices in general, though there are also aspects which are specific to this approach. The IBMT Program uniquely integrates in-depth studies in Somatic Psychology and the Discipline of Authentic Movement into a foundation of Body-Mind Centering® training. At the core of the practice is the quest to deepen connection with self, and from there, connection with others and the world around us. Whilst there are many interventions available to the practitioner, practice is client-led and sensitive to the needs and circumstances of the moment to moment arising of process, within the client and through the relationship between client and practitioner. Therapeutic and educational process is a co-creation, a shared journey of discovery rather than an expert-led treatment, so that the student or client is empowered to access their own inner authority, agency and wisdom.
Body-Mind Centering offers innumerable principles, practices and somatic skills which can serve as keys to unlocking a person’s potential for healing and integration. Students and clients learn to attend to a wide range of subtle nuances of expression that the bodymind reveals, from cellular motility, to an immense variety of qualities of movement that specific body tissues, organs and systems express. The study of embryology, the development of infant movement patterns, and the embodied learning of the anatomical body systems through focused awareness, touch, mindful movement, voice and creative expression, form the basis of this core aspect of the work. Through these processes we seek to increase integration, support, flow and ease within a student’s or client’s bodymind, seeing body and mind as an intrinsically connected and constantly interacting whole.
Accessing the somatic key which will unlock this particular person’s potential for healing in this specific moment requires attentive listening and witnessing on the part of the teacher or therapist. The ability to witness in an open, receptive, non-judgmental and compassionate way is learnt through study and practice in the Discipline of Authentic Movement; developing the capacity to witness with clarity and compassion enables practitioners to deepen their capacity to be with all that their students and clients may bring.
The development of embodied presence, and its application in embodied relating, is core to the practice of IBMT. We address blocks to this process through the study of our own psychological patterning: through an approach that is rooted in somatic practice we explore psychological models to better understand our own resistances, limitations, qualities, strengths and growing edges as practitioners, as well as those of our clients. Somatic Psychology offers maps and pathways to guide us through this process of discovery and integration. It offers understanding and interventions that can help to orient and hold a client’s process when challenging emotions and psychological patterns are evoked through somatic practice.
The Book
During the period that this book was coming into being the world was plunged into crises on many levels. A global pandemic caused our human community to be largely shut down, and we were impelled to turn inwards whilst also looking out, wide and long, at the conditions we have collectively created in our world, and the kind of future we want to see. Threats and injustices in the ecological, climate, social, racial and political spheres finally began to be acknowledged more fully and publicly; moving beyond the concerns of minority groups and campaigns, they could no longer be ignored.
Living at a threshold moment in time brings added urgency to what we do. I believe, as some of the contributors to this book describe, that somatics has an important part to play in the re-envisioning and regeneration of the world that so many of us want to see. We are part of a much wider movement of regeneration, and add our voice as one small but integral contribution to the collective turning towards respectful, sustainable and compassionate ways of relating – to our own inner self, to each other, and to our home the Earth. When we touch into our own authentic embodied self, with care, respect, curiosity, and compassion for our suffering and limitations, we cannot help but become more attuned to and concerned about the natural world we inhabit. In the first section of the book, Body, Earth, Nature, and Connection, four contributors explore this wider context …..
The next sections explore the theme of Moving into Life from several different perspectives including Embryology, Birth, and Movement and Psychological Development ….. Then six practitioners describe various Therapeutic Applications, weaving into their work theory and practice from other disciplines that they are also trained in …..
Like many somatic movement practices, IBMT’s creative, open, and process-oriented approach to embodiment attracts many dancers and artists. The final section of the book explores the interface between Somatic Movement and Dance Research, including discussion of the similarities and differences between educational, therapeutic, artistic, and spiritual practice within dance …..
To conclude
Each contributor to this book has developed their responses to IBMT practice in their own unique ways. The work is not about teaching set protocols for practice, but rather about learning principles and processes that support the creation of a space in which each person can become more truly and authentically themself. When the core of self is touched, creativity can flourish and individual pathways of expression are revealed. In response, their offerings have taken many different forms and directions, reflecting the open and inclusive nature of this work. The interplay of form with formlessness, key skills and knowledge with open enquiry into the ‘fluid impermanent nature of being human’ (Collinson, in this collection: 127) in an ever-changing world, is the challenge we engage with when we enter embodied relationship with our students, clients, or audience, inviting curiosity, exploration and courage to go beyond the known and familiar, where we might discover something that feels truly authentic and sustaining, and of real value to ourselves and others.
Although the majority of the contributors to the book are women, IBMT and somatics in general are practiced by all genders. In these chapters, unless a specific gender is indicated, the authors’ intention is to include all, and we hope every reader will feel this, whether the designation he, she, and/or they are used.
The book is intended for practitioners and students of somatics and related fields of practice, including body-based psychotherapies, bodywork, dance movement therapy, and eco-psychotherapy; yoga, dance and the creative arts; therapists, educators and parents interested in somatic approaches to early years learning. It is hoped that there will be much to interest the lay reader and student too. Our wish is that these writings might inform, inspire, encourage, and make you curious to explore further.
Whether you choose to follow the narrative of the book set out here, or dip into the sections that invite you most strongly, perhaps you will find places to pause, breathe, experiment, and taste some of the expressions of somatic practice offered here. May this have benefit for you, and for those you work and engage with.
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