The work is a blend of five aspects of movement study: Qualities of Attention; Sensory Awareness Skills and Experiential Anatomy; Evolutionary Movement; Structural Integration; and Applications. All use movement, breath, sounds, touch, and imagination to naturally expand the sense of our physical experience. The work starts from what we feel in this moment, in our bodies. No previous experience is necessary to participate, and the work is accessible to people of all ages and abilities.

Qualities of Attention means noticing the different ways we can use our sense of attention. We can, for example, drop our attention inward, we can focus it outward, or we can notice both in inclusive attention. A movement class lets us become a different observer of sensation, relationship to space and ground, and each other.

Sensory Awareness Skills and Experiential Anatomy are presented to bring fundamental body perceptions into focus and ground us in sensing basic information about the body and its parts. The capacity to notice sensations ‘grounds’ our experience and is a contrasting resource to thought. Capacity to notice sensation is also an essential skill for trauma work. Differentiating the perception of our skeleton helps make our movement articulated—more parts of our body can begin to move. The ability to articulate a body part follows from being able to perceive it.

Evolutionary Movement uses the metaphor of evolutionary biology to inspire a deeper relation to our human design and to the natural world. The evolutionary story organizes the history of life’s adaptations in shape and movement. Starting with the single cell, we take a journey that includes the first primitive gut body, the emergence of an axial organization, the fish, amphibian, reptile, and finally mammal. In the process, we visit a variety of life forms and elemental events of Earth and Cosmos and feel the possibility of these fundamentals of movement in our human body.

Structural Integration (S. I.) is a holistic approach to body therapy and education, based on the body’s response to gravity. Pioneered by Dr. Ida P. Rolf, S.I. is an approach to shifting how people stand, move, and perceive. Hubert Godard has further defined this approach, and linked it to historical and ongoing research into development, perception and rehabilitation. Structural integration is a way of making sense out of why our work is effective and has as its goal the improvement of human function.

Applications are links for connecting attentional, sensory, and movement resources to places in our personal and professional lives. Some examples include the following:

You are using movement as a resource when you amplify the perception of your tail and feet to relieve strain in doing household chores or to help relieve back pain; Primitive fluid movements may enable you to find grace and flow in sports and recreation; In teaching movement, dance, or yoga, you can feel and see fundamental patterns of movement in your students because you feel them in yourself; A developed sense of inclusive attention becomes important in difficult relational situations—such as with one’s partner or family, or at work. Class time includes making the link to these sorts of applications. Integrating movement is an ongoing discovery of one’s creative capacities.

The format of each gathering varies, but all include demonstrated material, individual and group exploration, and discussion. Experience shows that when perception changes movement changes, and perception changes most easily through playful and creative shifts in context. Therefore, classes are conducted in an atmosphere of curiosity and improvisation so we are most likely to learn and make new discoveries.

Participants who find this work useful include people living with bodily pain or restriction, bodyworkers, therapists, dancers, practitioners of yoga and martial arts, and others interested in creative strategies for body/mind awareness and well being. The natural resources of a class location sometimes provide opportunities for explorations in nature, as well as in the studio. The studio in Holderness, NH is on rural property next to a small quiet lake.

For information or to request mailings, contact: Resources in Movement at 5 Franks Lane, Holderness, NH 03245 or call 603 968-9585.

Caryn McHose has taught creative movement for people of all ages for 35 years. Her experience includes teaching dance, experiential anatomy and kinesiology at Middlebury College. She collaborated with Andrea Olsen on the book, Bodystories: A Guide to Experiential Anatomy, and co-founded the Resonant Kinesiology Training Program in Burlington, VT. Her work is influenced by her study of developmental movement with Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen and Continuum with Emilie Conrad and Susan Harper. Other influences are the Somatic Experiencing approach to trauma healing, developed by Peter Levine, and her study of cranial/sacral and visceral technique.

Caryn's Brochure - (PDF - File 1Mb)

Kevin has written about Godard’s Tonic Function theory for Rolf Lines and Kevin and Caryn are the authors of The Evolutionary Sequence: A Model for an Integrative Approach to Movement Study, also published in Rolf Lines.