The heart of my practice is a holistic framework focusing on four primary parts around which circulation is central to the experience of bodymind integration and health. It requires a body that is sufficiently stable, adequately supported, and spacious enough to maintain dynamic equilibrium. The heart as both resting-place and centre of activity has an energetic field reaching far beyond the physical body. When its tissues and those around it are soft and receptive the power to extend this chi or life force via the flow of blood and breath to every part of the body is phenomenal. Its musculature spirals around itself in infinite figure eight loops reflecting those of DNA in the heart of each cell. This is the basis of resonance, the subtlest form of communication within the body that is invited through the use of touch and intention.

I understand the necessity of constant flux and change where grasping can be released with trust and ease can be found through open enquiry. In itself this indicates why I enjoy this work and the intuitive approach of my working methods. Whatever and however the issue is presented, I am convinced utterly in the wisdom of the body and adhere to this as my primary indicator for therapeutic intervention. I always respect a client's readiness and preference for the ways in which they wish to work and feel part of the challenge for me is to find the means, with gentle encouragement, to hook their interest so that we can collaborate together in the unfolding of their somatic process. I see circulation spiralling around the myriad aspects of the human body creating patterns of movement that are ever forming and reforming. Dis-comfort and dis-ease are then the manifestations of qualities and levels of compromise that affect circulation to the point of restriction. These are the reference points against which to gauge my intentions and the working methods and principles I use to achieve them.

Flow is the coursing of integrated movement and its embodiment addresses issues where restriction on any physiological level results in stagnation, tension and tightness, shadow, coldness, or harsh, abrupt lines. Images of 'Water' arise as pounding rivers and long, cool waterways ebb into clear pools and tidal oceans. Arterial blood supports perseverance and sagittal energy where emotional reluctance or physical reticence exists. Cerebral spinal fluid accesses unbounded space and the slow, subtle opening and closing of the body that melts tension and delivers a deep sense of peace. Painful joints are often relieved by synovial fluid that oils the spaces between bones for effortless movement. And interstitial fluid, the ocean of our being into which all other fluids merge, unites disparate parts of the body to bring wholeness and fullness of breath.

Secure foundations invite a sense of 'ground' and 'being'. Without the support of 'Earth' upon which to stabilise our intentions there is often fragility and disintegration, or evasion and withdrawing from life. Cellular breathing captures an integrating experience from which to begin those movement explorations. Lying and moving across the floor can do much to re-instil this bond to the primordial 'Mother'. I am moved by how often this sense of 'holding one's ground' is so tentative or lost and with it the ability to 'be' in a place of knowing. Bones play an important part in creating that experience as, connected to the root chakra and to ancestry they form the bedrock within which to rest. This is an important principle from which to find the impetus to move with clear, direct intent. The dynamic process of alignment that requires weight drop centrally through the axis of each joint enhances vertical energy with feelings of both stature and ground as they rise and fall between Heaven and Earth.

Organ support is that deep inner substance and volume necessary for well-balanced posture and movement. Accessing tone by holding, hissing and sounding into organs encourages fullness there and relieves collapse. Alongside gentle and steady release of tension I work to access and build these inner resources. Organs express polarities of emotion and there may be need to encourage balance between, for example, anger and sadness. As a result breathing may become easier, digestion more nourishing and physical and emotional holding can let go. Organ integrity is essential for movement that has lightness and presence. Their fluid contents cushion easy and pain-free turning, that simultaneously awakens the surfaces of skin, the surface boundary that both separates and unites us. Skin is directly related to issues around flexibility and communication echoing the whispering between cells and the permeability of their membranes. As our primary boundary through which we must sustain ourselves and our relationships I find so many issues here at skin-level. A lack of physical clarity at this edge may result in either merging into unbounded space or building a wall of defence behind which to hide and from out of which to peer. Boundaries that are neither too rigid nor too loose are vital to ensure that new experiences do not overwhelm a client emotionally or psychologically. Placing my hands skin deep draws us into its enveloping qualities and the potential within that. Its ability to stretch and accommodate us, to feel texture, heat or pain, heightens inner experience of felt edges as well as outer experience of touch.

Based around the theory and patterns of Infant Movement Development, the 'Fire' of dynamic balance requires that yielding into organic support is sufficiently well established before an individual can effectively push and reach for what she truly desires. A fundamental lack of balance may be reflected in tense muscles that contract in an effort to retain body uprightness. Breath becomes restricted so that movement along the spine and out through the central core becomes restricted to the extent that expression in every other part of the body is affected. Sensory motor co-ordination that integrates intention and action is also pivotal as these explorations begin. The initial expression of these patterns is often unconscious, maybe through Authentic Movement for example, and may indicate therapy through emphasis on a particular body system or movement re-patterning that will allow them to emerge fully into expression. Alternatively the use of a large gymnastic ball is sometimes helpful and can bring humour to a session as hands and feet reach out to push and pull against the floor. Muscle and blood are powerful catalysts generating the energy for these efforts and strengthening rebound and resilience. Early movement patterns embody physical and emotional stamina and, for me, have the ability to consolidate therapeutic progress as well as to indicate where next to go.

The subtle and constant changes inherent in breath are powerful indicators of physical and emotional states that reflect the capacity for life as permission to breathe the 'Air' around us is found or not. A full deep breath is evidence to me of satisfaction and that a degree of completion has been achieved. In contrast shallow breathing, or even sometimes what may appear to be a total absence of breath, suggests difficulty or reluctance on some level that is often reflected elsewhere in the body. For example, restriction in the joints and muscles of the arms curtails not only expression but also their connection to heart and readiness for relationship. Working directly with breath through exercises or awareness practices often addresses that lack of readiness, or listlessness, and brings vitality and vigour with brightness to movement and light behind the eyes. I follow a client's breathing closely throughout a session and in response monitor the work we do balancing their needs between external and inner cellular breathing.

Other contributing frameworks, presented during my training, are also valued, absorbed and reflected in my work. The emergence into consciousness of the Core Process model and Buddhist Psychology is deeply felt as a truth in my own experience and observation of others. It provides a ground for psychological understanding in which awareness of experience is enhanced through mindfulness of the present moment. Resonating with somatic awareness it compliments the Vasomotoric Cycle of Biodynamic Massage and The Perceptual Response Cycle as described by Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen in Body Mind Centering®, (BMC). As the energetic and neurological charge of a thought or idea rises into expression and then to rest, so too must the sympathetic activity of the autonomic nervous system be resolved with parasympathetic activity and relaxation. Likewise, I am concerned by how well a client feels met and their issues addressed and that, by continually engaging with their somatic experience, the process we explore together is as well expressed and resolved as possible within the limitations of time. Infant Movement Development offers a framework through which to explore the unfolding of physical, psychological and emotional development and a pathway to consolidate a client's growing edge.



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