Why get certified in Shin Somatics®
-
Enhance
your skills as a therapist, performer, teacher
or athlete.
Release
self-defeating habits of movement and mind.
Discover
joyful healing dances in moving with nature.
Help
people discover the healing power of mindful
movement.
Learn
how to design and teach simple Core Movement
Patterning lessons
-
Learn how to relieve pain, relax
tension, and improve performance.
-
Learn
how to translate your talent and creativity
into hands-on therapeutic bodywork. Become a registered Shin Somatics® hands-on therapist or teacher
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Become certified to teach Shin Somatics® Land to Water Yoga
The Eastwest Certification Program with
Registration through ISMETA
REQUIREMENTS
Become Certified with 7 levels of Workshop Study, or through an individually designed certification program that includes independent study. Choose any seven workshops toward certification. Workshops may also be repeated for credit and taken in any order through advisement. See also the link to individually designed programs at the end.
Each level of workshop study represents 36 contact hours and 26 reading and home study hours for a total of 62. The workshops are multilevel. More experienced students in the workshops become mentors while continuing to advance in the shin somatics techniques and processes that provide the core of the program. See Summary of Requirements page.
Background courses are prerequisite to the program, but may be taken concurrently with study at Eastwest. These may be college or professional courses. Some are available at Eastwest, and some may be undertaken through home study. See Background Courses page.
The
7 level program toward certification is designed for people who already have
experience in some form of therapy, dance, bodywork,
yoga, psychology, sports and movement education,
or music and theater.
-
Eastwest
Somatics is an approved school of the International
Movement Education and Therapy Association (ISMETA).
-
Graduates
of Eastwest qualify for the designation Registered
Somatic Movement Therapist RSMT and Registered
Somatic Movement Educator RSME through ISMETA.
Seven Eastwest Somatics
Certification Workshops
featuring SHIN
SOMATICS® & EASTWEST LAND TO WATER YOGA
Shin is
Centeredness in Japanese, also Core, Body, Mind, Spirit,
Tree Trunk
Shin
Shin Ichijo: Body and Mind are One is
the Eastwest Logo Calligraphy
DVD film of a Shin Somatics workshop available from Eastwest Somatics Institute, includes dances at the workshop and Sondra Fraleigh's demonstrations of somatics techniques. Email: workshops@eastwestsomatics.com
1.
Dancing Down the Bones Course Description
Dancing Down the Bones introduces students
to the work of Eastwest Somatics for Dance and
Movement Therapy. It includes Guided movement
practice, Core movement patterning, experiential
anatomy, Shin Somatics® Land to Water Yoga, and Hands-on Movement
Therapy.
History: Dancing Down the Bones has been
taught as the introductory material in the Somatics
Course for college credit at SUNY Brockport for
the last 9 years. It was taught in March of 2004
in Shreveport LA at the Arodasi Dance Center,
in 2003 in San Francisco at AOV Dance Center,
and in 2003 at Sadlers Wells Ballet in
London. It also provided the basis for a course
in Fukuoka Japan in 2003.
Learning
Outcomes: Students Learn:
-
Healing
movement patterns that encourage awareness through
the senses
Simple
dance phrases with attention to the bones as
the basis for hands-on bodywork Interruption
of habitual movement to create new pathways
in somatic life
Conscious
attention to intrinsic pleasure in movement,
the feeling, not the look
Partners
bodywork through the weight of bone and the
articulation of joints.
Protocols
for a full lesson of hands-on somatic therapy
Untangling
of intrinsic dances waiting to emerge
Japanese
Butoh techniques for therapeutic benefits
-
Expressive movement and radiant breathwork for
effective communication
Professional Benefits Include: Enhanced skills as a teacher, therapist, dancer,
or creative artist. Ability to convert core movement
patterns into hands-on therapy. An opportunity
to receive credits toward becoming a registered
movement therapist. Time
Frame:Course
meets 7 ½ hours a day, including 1 hour
for lunch, and 15 minute breaks, one in the morning,
one in the afternoon.
Content
over the five-day period
-
Day
One Emphasis: Guided Movement Practice explorations
based on functional movement
Day
Two Emphasis: Core Movement Patterning with
attention to flexion and extension of the spine,
rotation and spiraling, breath patterns, pelvis
integration, relation of the head, neck and
back.
Day
Three Emphasis: Experiential Anatomy
Day
Four Emphasis: Eastwest gentle yoga with postures
achieved according to individual structure
-
Day
Five Emphasis: Hands-on Movement Therapy. Use
of movement patterns derived from guided movement
practice and core movement patterning for hands-on
movement therapy.
Credit: One Full Level Toward
Certification through Eastwest and ISMETA Continuing Education
Credit: For 2 CE Credits in three days, students
will be introduced to guided movement practice,
experiential anatomy, core movement patterning,
and learn some basic applications to hands on
work. For 3 CE Credits in five days students
will be introduced to the processes above and
learn hands-on protocol for a full lesson on the
last day. Presenter: Sondra Fraleigh or Associate Faculty as Approved
Providers
Teaching
Strategies:
-
Participation
of students in the movement, dance, and bodywork
processes
Lecture/Demonstrations
Group
Discussion
-
Group
Practicum Partners Bodywork Practice
Learning Environment: Dancing Down
the Bones has been taught
in most locations where Eastwest Somatics is based:
It is taught consistently as a first workshop
for Eastwest Somatics, and in Brockport NY at
the dance department with its state of the art
facilities for dance and bodywork, including a
health pool that participants can use.
2.
Expression & Myth Course Description
Expression & Myth is a course that utilizes the techniques taught
at Eastwest while also teaching students how to
work with the imagination. This includes work
that relates expression to imagery and myth.
History: It has been taught at SUNY Brockport in the Somatics
Course for college credit in 2003, and was offered
in 2004 in the May-June Brockport workshop. It was taught in Shreveport in 2006.
Learning
Outcomes:
-
Students
learn how to focus in silence with a partner,
to encourage and draw upon the images and movements
that are waiting to be expressed.
Students
further learn how to use the emerging material
in teaching through touch to facilitate healing
in themselves and others -- emotionally and
physically.
Students
learn Core Movement Patterning and Hands-on
Somatic Release in relation to Movement &
Expression.
-
Students learn lessons for spinal
Rooting of the head and limbs.
-
Students
experience Six Integrated Lessons called “Walking
on Air.” These can also be downloaded from this web site (See homepage).
Program Content/Time Frame:
The
Course meets 7 ½ hours a day, including
1 hour for lunch, and 15 minute breaks, one in
the morning, one in the afternoon.
-
Day
One Emphasis: Core Movement Patterning &
and Silent Focus with a partner (Holding Presence)
Day
Two Emphasis: Hands-on Somatic Release through
Silent Focus (Holding Presence)
Day Three Emphasis: Contact Unwinding in Partners
Day
Four Emphasis: Spinal Rooting of the Head and
Limbs (Working with a partner)
-
Day
Five Emphasis; Walking on Air (Six integrated
Lessons to do with a partner).
-
Walking on Air,
Six Somatic Lessons by Sondra Fraleigh, is published
with full instructions on the ISMETA web site
www.ismeta.org and this Eastwest website.
Presenter: Sondra Fraleigh or Associate Faculty as Approved
Providers
Teaching
Strategies:
-
Participation
of students in the movement, dance, and bodywork
processes
Lecture/Demonstrations
Group Discussion and Group Practicum
-
Partners
Bodywork Practice
Learning
Environment: Expression &
Myth is one of the new courses at Eastwest and is taught
in most locations where Eastwest Somatics is based: It is taught consistently as an intermediate/advanced Eastwest Somatics course
in Brockport NY at the dance department with its
state of the art facilities for dance and bodywork,
including a health pool participants can use.
3.
Dancing on Your Path Course Description
Dancing on Your Path teaches intrinsic dance, movement
patterning, and hands-on bodywork applications
of movement in an environment that supports the
development of self and community through movement. It often includes butoh and Land to Water Yoga.
History: Dancing on Your Path was offered at Lucky Buck Ranch Retreat Center and Dance Deck in Healdsburgh CA in 2007. It will be offered there again in 2008. It was offered at Brockport NY in the dance department
in May of 2005, and at
Green Gulch Zen Center In June of 2005. It was
taught in Japan in 2004, In Hawaii in 2001, 2002, and 2003. Dancing
on Your Path is included in the somatics course
for college credit at the dance department at
SUNY Brockport. The course is offered once a year. DANCING
ON YOUR PATH RETREAT is sometimes offered in
Hawaii.
Learning
Outcomes:
-
Learning
how to feel the weight of bone through simple
movement patterns and rhythm
Learning
how to translate the feeling for bone into hands-on
bodywork with movement patterning and awareness
of joints in motion
Visualizing
our body-as-teacher on our path and gaining
respect for the beauty and power of the body
in motion
Learning
how to sense the pelvis and spine as a central
support for movement and dance with the help
of music
Celebrating
the body in simple rhythmic patterns that translate
easily to hands-on work in standing and on the
table
Paying
attention to the legs as they move us through
space, and the structure of the hip joint.
-
Experiencing
through dance how the head mirrors the basin
structure of the pelvis
Creating
phrases of dance to remember each day, and translating
key elements to hands-on work
Experiencing
how the leg moves in the hip joint, how the
arm relates to the shoulder girdle and the heart
space
-
By
the end of the workshop, each person will have
gathered and remembered their short phrases
from each day, and we perform them together
– as we experience this also in brief
episodes along the way.
-
Performances are often open to the community.
Performing together builds community. We learn
about aesthetics, arranging our short dances in
various ways – like a flower arrangement
of few elements. It is fun for three people, for
instance, to arrange their remembered phrases
in a way that makes sense to them, or for 2 or
4 people to put their dances in a story sequence. The combinations are endless, and the combined
stories of how the communal body teaches us extends
our personal stories. The shaping of the remembered
phrases can have both choreographic and improvisational
elements. This performance isn't about being impressive;
it is about learning from one's own body-self. IN
HAWAII, we dance for each other in our colorful
sarongs. There is a way that men also wear the
sarong around the hips in a masculine way in Hawaiian
culture.
Program
Content and Time Frame of Dancing on Your Path: The Course meets 7 ½ hours a day, including
1 hour for lunch, and 15 minute breaks, one in
the morning, one in the afternoon. The following
techniques and processes are included in the time
frame: Intrinsic Dance Core Movement Patterning
Application of Movement Patterning to Hands-on
work, in standing and on the table. Optional Performances
for each other.
Time
Frame for Retreat in Hawaii is arranged differently and announced in advance. It includes evening Water Dance in the Watsu Pool.
Presenter: Sondra Fraleigh or Associate Faculty as Approved
Providers
Teaching
Strategies:
-
Participation
of students in the movement, dance, and bodywork
processes
Lecture/Demonstrations
Group Discussion and Group Practicum
-
Partners
Bodywork Practice
Learning
Environment:Dancing
on Your Path has been taught at
Kalani Eco-resort in Hawaii and in Brockport at
the dance department, and in Healdsburgh CA at Lucky Buck Ranch Retreat Center.
DVD film of Dancing on Your Path available from Eastwest Somatics Institute, includes dances at the workshop and Sondra Fraleigh's demonstrations of somatics techniques. Email: workshops@eastwestsomatics.com
4.
Eastwest Yoga at Any Age - Course Description
Eastwest Yoga teaches creative use of yoga as
it bridges with somatic movement therapy, movement
patterning, and hands-on bodywork. This course includes
Sondra Fraleigh's invention of Land to Water Yoga based on infant developmental movement. In a flowing path from land to water, we explore how human movement forms arise and associate these with other life forms. Land to Water Yoga is based on adaptations of traditional yoga, creative use of somatic principles, and is suitable for all ages.
History: Eastwest Yoga is included in the course content
of the somatics course for college credit that
Fraleigh teaches at SUNY Brockport. It has been
taught once a year for the last 8 years. It was taught in London in 2005 and is frequently
taught in small group tutorials.
Learning
Outcomes:
-
Increased
energy and flexibility with particular attention
to relief of pain through yoga postures and
flowing movements that anyone can do
Learning
basic somatic bodywork through
creative yoga
Experiencing
The Feldenkrais Method of Awareness Though Movement
Psychological
Clearing
Experiencing
Breathwork
Centering
through Dance Meditations
-
Releasing
tension through Watsu Water Therapy (Watsu in
Brockport NY, St George Utah, and Hawaii locations)
Program Content and Time Frame: The Course meets 7 ½ hours a day, including
1 hour for lunch, and 15 minute breaks, one in
the morning, one in the afternoon.
Time
frame includes practice of Land to Water Yoga. Application of yoga patterns to hands-work in standing, moving through space, and on the table.
Three days of participation and study, plus 2 hours
of group practicum for .5 Level of Credit (or
2 CE Credits.
Five
days of participation and study for One full
Level of Credit (or 3 CE Credits)
Three
days will give students the basics of Eastwest
Yoga
-
Participation
of students in the movement, creative yoga,
and bodywork processes
Lecture/Demonstrations
Group Discussion and Group Practicum
Partners
Bodywork Practice
-
Watsu
Water Therapy (as facilities permit)
Learning Environment: Eastwest Yoga
at Any Age has been taught at Kalani
Eco-resort in Hawaii And in Brockport at the dance
department with its state of the art facilities
for dance and bodywork, including the health pool.
Eastwest Yoga is offered in Hawaii and in Brockport
(and other locations as facilities permit)
5.
Seven Core Lessons in Somatic Kinesiology,
Description
This course in somatic kinesiology
utilizes the somatic techniques taught at
Eastwest Somatics, especially as they apply to
infant developmental movement; breathing from
the core; ease in lying, sitting, and standing,
and spiraling through the spine (3 day program
for 2 CE Credits); pelvic integration, postural
sway, and intuitive dances (full 5-day program
for 3 CE Credits).
History: This course has been taught as part of the Somatics
Course for college credit at SUNY Brockport for
8 years in a row. In addition, it has been taught
at Exeter University in the UK (2003) and in the
Spring Somatics Workshops at SUNY Brockport, 2004.
Learning
Outcomes:
-
Students
will learn rolling motions of infant life
Students
will learn how to breathe with core support
of the diaphragm through voice and touch
Students
will learn how to orient their motions for ease
in lying, sitting, and standing
Students
will learn how to balance a moving spiral through
the spine, and how to adapt this to hands-on
work
Students
will learn how the pelvis functions in walking
and in integrated motions relative to the iliopsoas
Students
will learn how they stand in relation to gravity
-
Students will experience the above in Intuitive
Dance Explorations
See Addendum #3 of Eastwest Program Description
Booklet for detailed description of movement lessons
Program
Content/ Time Frame: The Course meets
7 ½ hours a day, including 1 hour for lunch,
and 15 minute breaks, one in the morning, one
in the afternoon. Daily Content as follows:
-
Day
One: Moving with nature Infancy: Baby Rolls
and Baby legs. Body of earth and spirit, darkness
and light, weight and weightlessness, effort
and ease, timespace and change
Day
One: Breathing from the core Function of the
primary diaphragm, touching the breath, voicing
the breath through the upper respiratory tract
and head, then downward into the chest and abdomen,
resonating with the open center of present-centered
movement through voice and touch
Day
Two: Ease in Lying, Sitting, and Standing Feldenkrais
Awareness Through Movement (ATM) and orientation
to the environment, Introduction to the concept
of "the ecological self" in cognitive
psychology, balancing a spiral from lying to
sitting and standing (and back down)
-
Day
Three: Through the Spine in Arcs and Spirals
Creating and touching a moving spiral. Partners’
observations and discussion of changes in balance
and ease of motion. Hands-on spirals in Contact
Unwinding
The Above is for .5 Level of Credit or 2 CE Credits
(3 days) and the full program including the following
is for 3 CE Credits (5 days).
-
Day
Four: Pelvic Integration Its physics and metaphysics,
engaging the iliopsoas in relation to the deep
rotators of the hips, the breath and abdominals;
pelvic integration in moving (walking, running,
rolling, reaching, falling, lifting) with support
from the core
Day
Five: Postural Sway Postural sway is a natural
exploratory movement that allows the person
to learn about how he stands in relation to
gravity. Performative movements are oriented
toward accomplishment Exploratory movements
are moment-to-moment movements
-
Day
Five also: Intuitive Dances Moving from the
quiet mind of neutrality. Waiting for momentum.
Allowing the movement to form though silence
and Postural Sway. Guiding Concepts: Staying
connected to the breath and letting movement
unwind naturally. Not censoring. Witnessing,
painting, and sharing the moment of movement
Presenter: Sondra Fraleigh or
Associate Faculty as Approved Providers
Teaching
Strategies:
-
Participation
of students in dance/movement lessons
Partners
hand-on bodywork processes
Lecture/Demonstrations
-
Group
Discussion and Group Practicum Learning Environment
Seven
Core Lessons in Somatic Kinesiology can be taught in any of the locations where Eastwest
Somatics generally meets. These would be resort
and retreat location, or in community or university
facilities that support work with movement, dance,
and bodywork. It has been taught in Brockport
at the dance department with its state of the
art facilities.
6.
Intrinsic Dances & Integrative Bodywork Course
Description
Intrinsic
Dances & Integrative Bodywork is a course that utilizes all the techniques taught
at Eastwest. It is usually
framed for intermediate/advanced work, but is
sometimes taught for beginners at retreat locations,
introducing the basics techniques and processes
of Eastwest Somatics. History: This program has been taught in major locations
of Eastwest Somatics:
Brockport and San Francisco, and will be taught
in London in September 2005. The intermediate
level content was taught in Japan in 2006.
Intrinsic
Dance includes the following:
Bridging
Dance and Somatics through Contact Unwinding,
Core Movement, and Repatterning. Suggested Reading:
Irene Dowd, Taking Root to Fly: Articles on
Functional Anatomy (ISBN 0-9645805-0-0)
Active
Imagination and Imagery in Butoh. Experiencing the “becoming of the body through
“awkward movements.” Suggested Reading:
Sondra Fraleigh, Dancing into Darkness: Butoh Zen and Japan
Painting
Intuitive Dances
Being
Seen
Being
Present through Listening, Identifying
Feelings and Needs. Suggested Reading: Marshall
Rosenberg, Non-Violent Communication
Being
present to the story of another
Releasing
our stories
Moving
on
Integrative Bodywork includes:
Further
development of Core Movement, SomaticRelease,
and Contact Unwinding through integrative bodywork
Summary
of skills learned
Emphasis
on giving a full hands-on SomaticRelease Movement
Lesson
Introduction
of Case Study outline to guide the SomaticRelease
Movement Lesson
Learning Outcomes: Learning ABCD
SomaticRelease Hands-on Movement Lessons: Observation,
Facilitation, Integration, Findings
-
A.
Observing what the person is already doing and
how it frames his or her potentials .Listening
to the self-perceptions of the client, starting
and ending with these.Not projecting the self
into the process while still being present to
the feelings, needs, and perceptions of another
B.
Facilitation of emerging potentials through
listening with the hands. Following patterns
already present, and facilitating new patterns
in lines-of-least-resistance
-
C.
Integration of the body through keeping in touch
with the whole of the client’s movements,
how a movement travels throughout the body, and
what effects the client experiences and expresses.
Matching the body (bodymind) that emerges in the
lesson without trying to fix it. Matching through
attention to one’s own feelings and use
of self, especially how one organizes ones own
body in giving the lesson
-
D.
Finding ways of framing the final phase of the
lesson to summarize what has been gained or learned,
what has changed in the client/student’s
perceptions. What feels easier, lighter, heavier,
etc? Are there any surprises? Has there been positive
change according to the client’s goals?
If so -- how can these be reinforced by practicing
given patterns at home?
Course Content/Time Frame: The
Course meets 7 ½ hours a day, including
1 hour for lunch, and 15 minute breaks, one in
the morning, one in the afternoon. This course
takes the full 5 days and is for One Level of
Certification or 3 CE Credits. Presenter: Sondra Fraleigh or Associate Faculty as Approved
Providers
Teaching
Strategies
-
Participation
of students in the movement, dance, and bodywork
processes
Lecture/Demonstrations
Group Discussion and Group Practicum
-
Partners
Bodywork Practice Learning Environment
