WHY WORK WITH THE BODY-MIND?

Who Is the Group For?

The group is for women who want to experience the joy, aliveness and wisdom of the moving body in a supportive, held space. It’s open to movers new to embodied movement or Dance of Awareness, as well as those who already have experience and want to deepen their practice.

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What Does It Involve?

Across six sessions over 3 months, we’ll move through the Dance of Awareness cycle: Sensing; Grounding; Expressing; Releasing; Connecting and Completing.

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Informed by psychodynamic theory and developmental psychology, the DoA cycle is designed to evoke childhood stages of development from pre-birth through to around 5 years. This formative period is when the growing sense of self becomes embodied through interaction with its environment, setting the patterns for adulthood.

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Using dance, embodied movement exercises and somatic awareness, we will listen to the stories held in our bodies, witnessing how early childhood experiences have shaped who we are.

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As much of our early history is pre-verbal and unconscious, working bottom-up through the body (rather than top-down through intellectual understanding) provides a more direct access to our embodied and relational patterns.

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By letting these patterns surface and move through us, what was hidden or repressed can start to be consciously recognised and engaged with.

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This process opens up the opportunity to:​

• express buried feelings

• reclaim lost parts of our younger selves

• recognise strengths and resources that have evolved

• let go of self-limiting beliefs

• reconnect with the vitality and spontaneity inherent in our true nature (as opposed to the survival-based, adaptive self)

• experiment with more congruent ways of relating to others

• make space for new ways of being to emerge

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Overview of Sessions

In the first session, there will be an introduction to the 6 phases of the DoA cycle to get a sense of the whole developmental map. After this, each session will focus primarily on one of the consecutive phases of the DoA cycle to allow an in-depth exploration of its developmental themes.

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There will be guidance from myself, some structured exercises in pairs/small groups and time for free movement and dancing. For most of the session, we will let our bodies do the talking but there will be opportunities for verbal sharing and integration in the circle at the end, as well as time for reflection in pairs and small groups after the exercises. The group will have a maximum of 16 participants to create a safe, well-held environment. This is not a therapy group but it aims to be therapeutic in that it promotes self-awareness, healing and growth.

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Benefits of a Closed Group

The consistency of a closed group meeting over 3 months creates a container for trust and safety to build organically. This supports movers to go deeper into their personal process, allowing more uninhibited, authentic self-expression and congruent relating to others.

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About Lucy

I am a relational body psychotherapist and have been working with individuals and groups for over 30 years. I have an MA in Humanistic and Integrative Psychotherapy and have done extensive further training in Somatic Trauma Therapy and Embodied Relational Therapy which emerged from Reichian body work and body-centred psychotherapy. I am a full member of the European Association of Body Psychotherapy (EABP). When I discovered Dance of Awareness™, I immediately knew I’d found a home for myself: it brings together two things I feel passionately about, embodied movement and body psychotherapy, and in 2017 I qualified as a licensed facilitator. In 2022, I became a certified breathwork practitioner and run regular Conscious Connected Breathwork groups in Findhorn.