LTSY Ep.6: Making Connections & the Role of Community with Thomas Greil

In episode 6 Ivan talks with Thomas Greil, one of the founding members of Moveus. Thomas is a certified practitioner and teacher of the Body-Mind Centering®️. After training at the School for Body Mind Centering®️ in the US (1995-98), Thomas became a teacher in accredited programs in France (www.soma-france.org), Germany (www.moveus.de) and Italy (www.lebensnetz.it), where he continues to work as a trainer and pedagogical coordinator for the Somatic Movement Education (SME) and the Infant Developmental Movement Education (IDME) Program. As a therapist and trainer with a strong focus on movement development, he has deepened the study of infant neuromotor development with particular attention to children with disabilities. Over the years, he has developed his personal approach to somatic re-education for people of all ages, from infants to adults, including different approaches to work with trauma, based on the methodological foundation of BMC®️. He is a practitioner and therapist of the “Jeremy Krauss Approach” (JKA), a somatic rehabilitation method that applies the principles of Feldenkrais in the field of infant movement development. Together with Carla Bottiglieri they found minima somatica (www.minimasomatica.org), a nucleus of practical and theoretical research in the pedagogies of bodily experience, in the analysis of movement and the dynamics of synergistic interaction between mind, organism and environment. Together they work with families with fragile family members, with the idea to facilitate change in the whole system, rather than focus only on the person with fragilities, and to develop further ideas about care and community. Besides traveling for work, they live and practice in Faenza, Italy. In 2019 he created the project “Making Connections – Body-Mind Centering®️ and Diversability” (www.making-connections.org) aimed at families, caregivers and professionals with the purpose of facilitating the acquisition of tools for reading and understanding movement, and expanding the possibilities for dialogue and interaction between all people involved in the constellation of care. The project Making Connections takes many forms now, with different collaborators (see www.making-connections.org/collaborators). With his colleague Anka Sedlackova, he offers week-long encounters in Bratislava, Slovakia; with Carla Bottiglieri workshops and intensive sessions in Italy and aboard, especially in Croatia and Romania.