Learn to move; move to learn
Ideals of movement and posture often take the form of mechanical and unrealistic models. Society presents false choices such as slouched and comfortable versus upright and forced. There is often a way other than any of the limited choices on offer.
Subjective experience of posture and movement is tied in with gestures, attitudes, visual or dynamic images, and long-term habits, many acquired without realizing it. Movement is an interface between the subjective aspect of self, "I am," and the objective aspect of physicality, "my body," along with surroundings. Between this experienced interior and visible exterior, much can be lost in translation. With poor movement habits evolved over the years with little conscious direction, activities can seem harder than they need to be. Over the longer-term, pain and even health damage can develop in daily life, work, and sports alike.
Using Spacial Dynamics® movement therapy, I work with individuals of all ages and occupations to help them go from difficulties and pains toward easier, healthier, and more effective ways of being, moving, working, and playing. I have worked with business people with aches from sitting at desks, athletes and coaches with pain from repetitive movements, the elderly struggling to regain some lost ease in everyday activities, and children with various challenges in school.
In each case, the commonality lies in identifying and claiming, or re-claiming, the most natural movement patterns, which can fade from accessibility with time, trauma, stress, misleading movement images, and unconscious habits. One of the common results reported after changing movement habits is an improved feeling of ease and sense of confidence. When we begin with changing what we do, how we feel can also then shift.
In sitting, for example, between slouched and comfortable and a held uprightness is a third possibility: naturally upright and energetic without artificial strain. How to get there and then how to change the relevant habits for good takes coaching, direction, and practice. By addressing and changing habits, we look for a lasting new natural.
I also teach movement exercises in individual and group classes, including Spacial Dynamics exercises as well as some exercises as taught today by Spacial Dynamics founder Jaimen McMillan that were first developed by Fritz Graf von Bothmer (1883–1941). I enjoy Spaceball, a team sport developed using Spacial Dynamics principles to include many different types of players in the same game, all within a context of safety, fun, and challenge for all levels.
Spacial Dynamics helps to transform movement, being, posture, perception, and interaction toward more effective forms. Its several sub-disciplines combine around a single theme: experiencing one's self as an integral blend of subjective experience, objective physicality, change, and connection.
Training in Spacial Dynamics since 2003.
Certifications:
Spacial Dynamics Level III Diploma: Trainer, 15 August 2013, Mechanicville, NY.
Spacial Dynamics Level II Diploma: Movement Therapist, 15 August 2013, Mechanicville, NY.
Bothmer Gymnastics Diploma, 10 February 2010, Mechanicville, NY.
Spacial Dynamics Level I Diploma: Practitioner, (IS-8) 15 August 2009, Mechanicville, NY.