For the past three days I have been working with my autistic godson Jacob.  Because my new grand baby daughter Laila has been visiting for the past month, I have been revisiting the developmental and systems work of Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen. 

Body-Mind Centering^® is an integrated and embodied approach to movement, the body and consciousness. Developed by Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, it is an experiential study based on the embodiment and application of anatomical, physiological, psychophysical  and developmental principles, utilizing movement, touch, voice and mind. Its uniqueness lies in the specificity with which each of the body systems can be personally embodied and integrated, the fundamental groundwork of developmental repatterning, and the utilization of a body-based language to describe movement and body-mind relationships.

I have been using touch and movement focusing on the fluids and on awakening some old developmental patterns that are missing in Jacob.  The results have been breathtaking over the past three days.  Jacob has started to be much more intentional and specific in his use of focus, much more deliberate in the way he walks and has begun to modulate the speed with which he moves.  It is like seeing the sun come out and illuminate the landscape in new ways.

The other half of this is that it requires us – his parents and me – to be softly and clearly intentional  and aware of what we are offering with touch, voice and movement.  So all of us are awakening to ourselves in new ways – a beautiful,breathing, improvisational reciprocity and opportunity moment-to-moment.  An invitation to see thing from a different perspective and invite ourselves more fully into the dance.  Thank you Jacob!