Details

Dates/Times:

Zoom meetings every Tuesday and Thursday from 4:00pm to 6:30 PM PT 11/12/2024 through 12/17/2024. Class will meet on the following dates: 11/12, 11/14, 11/19, 11/21, 11/26, 12/3, 12/5, 12/10, 12/12, 12/17. Thanksgiving (11/28) will be a day off.

The work of massage and bodywork professionals, manual therapists, movement educators, and structural integrators increases client well-being by relaxing muscle tension and releasing restrictions in myofascial tissues These bodywork approaches can begin to improve posture and introduce clients to more fluid coordination. Following a bodywork session, a client may temporarily experience a more dynamic way of balancing themselves in the gravity field.

To empower clients to build coordination skills more consistently, however, practitioners need additional tools, techniques, and client self-care practices.

Questions to consider:

• Is balance static?
• How do we stabilize ourselves?
• Can we sense ourselves as we try to stabilize ourselves in the gravity field? Is it like arriving at a place and then just trying to hold completely still?

The act of balance is not a static event but rather a dynamic experience as we adjust continually to achieve stabilization. We are constantly moving, shifting, and re-positioning, even when we're standing still. When walking, our feet are continually making small, subtle adjustments while the sensory-motor part of our nervous system gathers and processes information.

Students in this class learn to engage more fully with the sensory-motor cortex, deepening our perceptive capacity and enhancing our sensory awareness. We explore ideokinesis (using guided imagery and metaphor to enhance movement) to become more fully embodied and better able to transmit this capacity to our clients, guiding them to notice and thereby change outdated postural habits and body image.

In "Dynamic Stability," students learn in-depth, complex movement integration strategies enabling them to perform 45-60-minute movement sessions with clients. Students will practice using tools and props (Therabands and hiking poles, etc.) and ways to guide clients through interactive practices (pushing their feet against a wall, etc.) while learning to effectively communicate through evocative and directional language. By practicing the clear use of language to enhance client motor control, students learn to offer clients the sense of optimal coordination. Such coordination registers in the client as physical confidence which then spreads to all aspects of the client's self and becomes psychological confidence.

Whether you are a yoga teacher, Pilates Instructor, massage therapist, or structural integrator, "Dynamic Stability" will enhance your interaction and effectiveness with your clients. Adding imagery, evocative language, and movement prompts to your therapeutic interventions will empower your clients to enhance their coordination and heighten their expressivity.

WHAT THE CLASS ENTAILS:

Students will meet on Zoom for 2.5 hours twice per week for 5 weeks. Classes will be a combination of lectures/ discussions, movement session demos, and experiential explorations designed to enhance students' perception and deepen their embodiment.

Lectures and Discussions will cover topics such as:

• What does normal stability look and feel like?
• How do anatomical structures contribute to stabilization?
• How do we include self-care in our work with clients?
• How can we help clients learn to discern and value non-effortful stability?

Experiential Exercises
Students will be guided through exercises to deepen their own body awareness.

Therapeutic Techniques
Students will be provided with links to a series of videos showing 45-60 minutes long sophisticated movement integration sequences. These movement integration sessions will also be demonstrated with a live model during the Zoom meetings. As they perform these movement sequences with their own clients between class meetings, students learn how to use evocative language and directional movement prompts, gaining confidence in using this interactive, dynamic, and creative style of movement education. Detailed, step-by-step written guides will be provided for easy recall of all information presented.

Lectures and Group Discussions
Through lectures and group discussions, students' understanding will be strengthened in areas of movement theory, anatomy/physiology, and neurology of movement and coordination (including Hubert Godard's Tonic Function Model and Gracovetsky's Spinal Engine theory).

About the Instructor

Per Haaland is a Certified Advanced Rolfer™, Rolfing® Instructor, and Rolf Movement® Instructor. Per received his basic Rolfing® training in 1989 and completed his advanced training in 1994. Studies with Hubert Godard and Kevin Frank shaped his understanding of structural integration as interactive somatic education, highlighting perceptual and coordinative processes. Per's inclusive teaching style enables practitioners to easily and confidently expand their skills into movement education applications.