ABOUT SOMATIC MOVEMENT AND TOUCH THERAPIES

The body is the vessel that the mind inhabits.

The mind is like the wind and the body is like the sand;
if you want to know how the wind is blowing, you have to look at the sand.
Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen

Between 60 and 80 percent of our communication is nonverbal - spoken in the bodily languages of movement and touch - including conscious and unconscious movements, gestures, postures, and facial expressions. The whole encyclopedia of our moving experience is an intricate web of connection.

For most people, movement is functional - about going somewhere or doing something. In that doingness, much of the expressive world of our movement can be lost. We forget that we are all dancers. We forget to play.

My intention is to help others discover a deep, felt experience of their somatic selves by nourishing qualities of play and curiosity about one's bodily experience and responses. This work includes Somatic Experiencing®, Somatic Movement Therapy and Embodied Equine Experiential practices that help us feel and understand ourselves with greater clarity, experiencing our bodies in a continuous, feeling, conscious way - what I call "body presence".

My background of the past 45 years is as an improviser, dancer, choreographer, writer, rider, teacher, movement educator and therapist. In my experience, the most reliable and authentic teacher is the body. Learning to listen to what the body is expressing can help to unravel many of the patterns or beliefs that limit our pleasure, ease and creativity.

I am a Certified Laban Movement Analyst and a Master Somatic Movement Educator and Therapist (MSME/T) accredited by ISMETA (International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association). For the past 33 years, I have practiced and taught Authentic Movement, which is an integral part of my work as an artist and therapist. I am also a Somatic Experiencing® practitioner, and a Guild-Certified Tellington Equine Practitioner I. For the past four years, I have been assisting Somatic Experiencing® trainings at all levels. I have also been deepening my own practice in studying with and assisting Kathy Kain.

My training and certifications limit the scope of my practice to somatic practices, including touch, movement and regulation of the physiology and do not allow diagnoses, tests, prescriptions, or imaging. I may suggest that you consult with the appropriate medical practitioners to obtain diagnostic testing or medications that may be appropriate in your treatment and recovery.

ISMETA Master Somatic Movement Educator and Therapist

CO-REGULATING TOUCH LISTING

Download The Wisdom of the Moving Body

Paula has been an inspiration to me since my teens, when she taught dance in a summer theater arts program on Cape Cod that I participated in. Fast forward many years, and I discover she lives in Kent, CT, right in my neck of the woods. Like me, she pursued training in somatic movement therapy, as well as continuing her life as a movement artist. And adding her work with horses into the mix! She recently came to my house to do somatic movement therapy with me and my new hip, having been the person to recommend the surgeon in Boston that I used! What can I say . . . I love how she sees, how she communicates, how she uses her hands. I'm getting regular PT, but Paula's work adds so many dimensions to it, attending to my inner attitudes, stress, holding patterns, and strengths as well as to healing my post-op tissue damage. A woman worth knowing and following!
Sharon True

Click here to view the ABOUT video.


Finding Sanctuary in the Heart from Paula Josa-Jones/Performance on Vimeo.