Life that said Yes

In the 22nd and final episode of Life That Said Yes Conversations, I am honoured to be joined by my teacher Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, a movement artist, life-time explorer, and creator of Body-Mind-Centering. We explore how to meet ourselves in the present moment, the practice of embryological breathing, yielding through change and suffering, the importance of touching another without interrupting their awareness, and the joy of staying curious and learning late in life. I hope you enjoy this one! Much love, Ivan

In the 21st episode of Life that Said Yes Conversations Ivan is joined by Susan Aposhyan.

In the 20th episode of Life that Said Yes Conversations, Ivan is joined by Patty Townsend, a yoga teacher and the creator of Embody Yoga. Patty opens up about her incredible journey, from teaching Transcendental Meditation to meeting Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen which has made a profound impact on her.In this episode, we explore:- Why hierarchy is "the poison of embodiment" and how to practice a non-hierarchical yoga.- The profound shift from being goal-oriented to becoming a "teacher of process."- How to keep a practice fresh by embracing curiosity and cellular intelligence.- The power of vibration and sound in guiding somatic work.- Patty's deeply personal perspective on facing illness and finding a place of nurturance beyond the fear of death.This conversation is a must-listen for anyone interested in the intersection of yoga, somatics, and the wisdom of a life lived in deep inquiry. Tune in now!

In the 19th episode of Life that Said Yes Conversations, Ivan is joined by somatic educator and author Abigail Rose Clarke. We move beyond the buzzword of "nervous system regulation" to explore what it truly means to come home to our bodies. Abigail offers a powerful critique of how capitalist narratives of control and calm productivity have co-opted healing spaces, and instead invites us into a practice of awe and curiosity.Discover her GROW/L framework, a tangible method for grounding, relating, and widening our perspective - all rooted in love. We also discuss the vital importance of honoring teachers and lineage (her "somatic mom" Patty Townsend and "grandmother" Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen) and how tools like tarot and storytelling can re-enchant our embodied experience.https://www.abigailroseclarke.com/

In the 18th episode of LIFE THAT SAID YES conversations, Ivan is joined by Satu Palokangas for an exploration of how somatic practice serves as a vessel for supporting profound change. They delve into creating shared learning fields where discovery happens in the moment, the principle of "support preceding movement," and the vital repatterning of our relationship to knowledge itself. The conversation also ventures into decolonizing somatic language, the essence of eco-somatic practice as a prayer for reconnection, and the radical act of orienting toward collective well-being and health.Satu Palokangas is a Body-Mind Centering® Teacher and Practitioner, an Infant Developmental Movement Educator, Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analyst, Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapist, an ISMETA registered somatic movement therapist and educator and the current Board President of Body-Mind Centering® Association. Originating from Finland, Satu teaches Body-Mind Centering®, Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy and ecosomatic and critical somatic practices in various settings and holds a private practice in somatic and craniosacral therapy. www.satupalokangas.com, www.criticalsomatics.org

In this guided somatization, we explore the profound connection between our breath, our body, and the space around us. This practice is a journey inward, beginning with grounding and setting an intention.We will bring mindful awareness to the cycle of breath - feeling the inhale as we receive oxygen-rich air from the outer world into the "inner universe" of our bodies, and the exhale as an offering back. You will be guided to feel the breath on a cellular level, noticing how it nourishes every part of you and creates space within.This session is an invitation to witness the automatic, life-sustaining process of breathing, to find balance between groundedness and spaciousness, and to connect with the silent rhythm that links us to the wider ecosystem.

This is a somatization from the Living Body Online Series which took place on June 22nd, 2025. This somatization was a part of a live Zoom class, where we discussed the following topics:- healing & wholeness - embryological journey - undifferentiated cells - stem cells - what is health? - finding layers of support- acceptance & hope- Source vibration (the Spark) & quantum perceptionYou can watch the recording here:https://youtu.be/OBNvVZpumyQA big thank you to all the participants.What is a somatization? Somatization is form of guided meditation through which we direct our consciousness into our living body-mind and the myriad of processes that exist inside of us. LIVING BODY is an ongoing online series of somatic explorations and studying. It takes place every Sunday at 6PM CET through Zoom. If you want to participate live contact me at [email protected] for all the details.

This is a somatization from the Living Body Online Series which took place on May 11th, 2025. This somatization was a part of a live Zoom class, where we discussed the following topics:- waters of the world and internal waters- fluids of the body - support of the Earth - amniotic fluid - embryonic breathing - digestive tract and embryonic nutrition - inner and outer fluid space- membrane supportYou can watch the recording here:https://youtu.be/YHcqjEe9OSIA big thank you to all the participants.

This is a somatization from the Living Body Online Series which took place on May 4th, 2025. This somatization was a part of a live Zoom class, where we discussed the following topics:- spirals of the bones - embryological spiral of humerus and femur - bone marrow - front and back body - connection of bones and glands - cellular breathing - mitochondria - the cosmic jokeYou can watch the recording here:https://youtu.be/n5AaXKJIkYoA big thank you to all the participants.What is a somatization? Somatization is form of guided meditation through which we direct our consciousness into our living body-mind and the myriad of processes that exist inside of us. LIVING BODY is an ongoing online series of somatic explorations and studying. It takes place every Sunday at 6PM CET through Zoom. If you want to participate live contact me at [email protected] for all the details.

This is a somatization from the Living Body Online Series which took place on April 13th, 2025. This somatization was a part of a live Zoom class, where we discussed the following topics: - sternum, manubrium, xiphoid process as the tail in the front - organs and bones of the thoracic cavity - countermovement of the lungs and the heart (ball and socket joint) - lungs embracing the heart - connection of heart and arms - thymus - cherishing and protecting the jewel of the heart - the essence of Life inside us - Dragon and Warrior archetype - personal practice and integration into everyday life - the healing power of the group - support we receive from many levels of existenceYou can watch the recording here:https://youtu.be/jQ_zyflyICIA big thank you to all the participants.What is a somatization? Somatization is form of guided meditation through which we direct our consciousness into our living body-mind and the myriad of processes that exist inside of us. LIVING BODY is an ongoing online series of somatic explorations and studying. It takes place every Sunday at 6PM CET through Zoom. If you want to participate live contact me at [email protected] for all the details.

In the 17th episode of LIFE THAT SAID YES conversations Ivan is joined by Olive Bieringa in a lovely exchange about awakening the senses and opening the perception, new ways of learning, rewilding of the human spirit, performance art and resisting extinction through ecosomatic practices.Olive Bieringa is a dance maker, somatic movement therapist and cultural producer who grew up in Wellington, New Zealand. She is a Registered ISMETA Somatic Movement Therapist and Educator, a Certified Practitioner and Teacher of Body-Mind Centering®, Shiatsu practitioner and certified DanceAbility teacher, working with dancers of all abilities. She holds an MFA in Performance and New Media from Long Island University in Brooklyn, NY and a BA from the European Dance Development Center in the Netherlands. She is currently based in Oslo, Norway.Olive teaches internationally in Body-Mind Centering® trainings for Moveus/Germany, Leben nuova/Italy, Moving from Within/USA, Soma/France, Sonder/USA and in universities and festivals such as Oslo National Academy of the Arts, Praxis Festival/Oslo, Impulstanz Festival/Vienna, Movement Research/NYC, and for dance companies Lyon Opera Ballet, Footnote Dance, Touch Compass/New Zealand. As a curator & producer she has developed projects such as SEEDS Festival (Somatic Experiments in Earth, Dance and Science) at Earthdance/USA and Public Art St Paul’s City Art Collaboratory, bringing together artists and scientists.For twenty years she has been collaborating with Otto Ramstad as the BodyCartography Project creating dances, performances, films, installations, and festivals. BodyCartography’s offerings have functioned to deepen the conversation in experimental and somatic practice to give value to other ways of experiencing and making dance. Their work lives in the collection of Te Papa Tongarewa National Museum of New Zealand. Their performances have presented at the Walker Art Center/Minneapolis, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, PS 122 and American Realness/NYC, amongst other places. Together they run Embodied Performance intensives for performing artists.https://bodycartography.org/

This is a somatization from the Living Body Online Series which took place on April 6th, 2025. This somatization was a part of a live Zoom class, where we discussed the following topics: - Being overwhelmed by the world and its events- Healing- Transformation & Repatterning- Allowing rest- Nature as support- Finding the roots- Regeneration & restoring energy- External & internal breathing- Mitochondria- Anchoring in the heart- Kindness & Trust- Developing a personal practiceYou can watch the whole class here:https://youtu.be/foR1F0LEom4A big thank you to all the participants.What is a somatization? Somatization is form of guided meditation through which we direct our consciousness into our living body-mind and the myriad of processes that exist inside of us. LIVING BODY is an ongoing online series of somatic explorations and studying. It takes place every Sunday at 6PM CET through Zoom. If you want to participate live contact me at [email protected] for all the details.

This is a somatization from the Living Body Online Series which took place on March 30th, 2025. The topic was Being Present and Facing the World (Pelvis-Heart-Brain connection). It was a part of a live Zoom class, where we discussed the following topics: Glands and glandular chainAttention and being presentImportance of lower glands and rooting for being present and coming into momentGlands and perceptionSeeing, meeting and facing the world and the fear that can come out of itOpening the sensesYou can watch the whole class here:https://youtu.be/6Xn08nJ-i7gA big thank you to all the participants.What is a somatization? Somatization is form of guided meditation through which we direct our consciousness into our living body-mind and the myriad of processes that exist inside of us. LIVING BODY is an ongoing online series of somatic explorations and studying. It takes place every Sunday at 6PM CET through Zoom. If you want to participate live contact me at [email protected] for all the details.

In the 16th episode of LIFE THAT SAID YES conversations Ivan is joined by Linda Hartley, in a rich conversation about our relationship to nature and our own embodied being, hearing the voice of Earth, slowing down, Authentic Movement, connection of personal and transpersonal experiences, how to embrace both beauty and sadness, holding the healing space, redefining relationship to dying, and many other topics. For five decades Linda has been involved in the study, practice and teaching of somatic movement and embodied awareness practices. She is a Teacher of Body-Mind Centering® and the Discipline of Authentic Movement, a somatic and transpersonal Psychotherapist, Author, and Founder (1990) of the Institute for Integrative Bodywork & Movement Therapy (IBMT). The three-year IBMT Diploma is an ISMETA Approved Training Program, currently running in the UK, Lithuania and Russia. Linda’s first loves were nature and moving in the natural world, then writing. She had the good fortune of studying Dance and Creative Writing at Dartington College of Arts, UK, in the 1970s, and since then these threads have evolved and woven throughout her life’s work. She has authored several books including Wisdom of the Body Moving (1995) and Embodied Spirit, Conscious Earth (2024). www.lindahartley.co.uk www.ibmt.co.uk Timestamps: 00:27 - Introduction. 01:04 - Relationship with nature and our own embodied being. 04:35 - Hearing the voice of  Nature and Her messages. Listening through all of our senses. Slowing down to Nature’s pace. 13:00 - Intimate connection with immediate environment. Little changes towards our own health and wellbeing and dedicating that to the whole. 16:17 - The discipline of the Authentic Movement. Personal healing and a potential for touching and widening into the transpersonal and the mystical. Relationship and connection of personal and transpersonal, embracing both. Spiritual bypassing. Releasing the story of personal trauma. 23:52 - Widening embrace of the transpersonal view. Creating a container for trauma in order to deal with it when we are ready. Being released from the narrow perspective of the ego mind. 26:33 - Authentic Movement as a way to express our story and pain, but also to widen into a more transpersonal experience. The beauty of knowing both. How to be present and hold both beauty and sadness. Finding the balance. 31:40 - Servants of the Sacred Dream. Healing coming through inner work, but holding the healing space. Nurturing the feminine aspect. The myth of Inanna. Healing the wounds of the masculine. The archetypal underworld journey. Role of the witness. 43:12 - The challenges of descending into the underworld. Need for gentleness and a more subtle modulated process. Being in the life-long process. Listening, sensing, feeling the movements in our body. The embodied myth. The archetype of being in the birth passage - coming out of the underworld. Collective midwifing of something new and grieving the old. 51:55 - Redefining our relationship to dying. Midwifing the transition. 01:00:45 - Novel “The Broken Line”. Writing fiction. 01:03:26 - Embodies Spirit, Conscious Earth. Using somatic practices to allow our consciousness to open wider. Weaving somatics and spirituality. 01:08:50 - What more am I called to offer as I embrace my elderhood? The role of the elders.

In the 15th episode of the LTSY Conversations Ivan is joined by Lisa Clark. Lisa offers an embodied experience of yoga and movement. Her approach explores the many layers of our form, the deepening of consciousness through ongoing inquiry into the body, and embodiment as a pathway of liberation. She is Program/Educational Director of the School For Body-Mind Centering® Yoga Immersion Series. She is one of the leading innovators of the integration of Yoga and Body-Mind Centering®, actively engaged in the teaching, training, and development of this form for over 40+ years. She began her studies of BMC® in 1984, and has worked directly with Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen for over four decades. Lisa is Co-Program Director of the BMC® Somatic Movement Educator Program in Taiwan. She is a certified Teacher/Practitioner of Body-Mind Centering®, Infant Developmental Movement Educator, and a registered International Somatic Movement Educator. Her workshops and advanced trainings have been taught internationally at studios in the United States, Europe, Taiwan, and China. Her online platform www.lisaclarkyoga.com offers live and recorded classes, in-depth workshops, and professional trainings. Lisa's website: https://www.lisaclarkyoga.com/

This is a somatization from the session 15 of the Living Body Series (December 22nd, 2024). The topic was Nourishment, Regeneration and Vitality. It was a session to end the year, calm down and land in our body, and feel the regenerative and nourishing power of our fluids and our cellular consciousness. A big thank you to all the participants. What is a somatization? Somatization is form of guided meditation through which we direct our consciousness into our living body-mind and the myriad of processes that exist inside of us. LIVING BODY is an ongoing online series of somatic explorations and studying. It takes place every Sunday at 6PM CET through Zoom. If you want to participate live contact me at [email protected] for all the details.

In the 14th episode of the LTSY Conversations Ivan is joined by Marina Tsartsara, in a conversation about the connection of arts and somatics, and how it reflects to our wellbeing. Marina is a Somatic Movement Therapist (ISMETA Registered), Body-Mind Centering® Teacher, co-director of ISTOS (Official BMC® training in Greece and Greek Cyprous), a Dance & Visual Artist (MSc). The interdisciplinary nature of her practice led her to create the methodology of Somatic Art Practice®. She has performed and taught internationally since 2007.

Everything is VIBRATION. An emanating essence leaving its imprint in space. A drone tone radiating and modulating, touching other vibrations, making infinite varieties of creation. Frequencies making love. Creation is vibration. Sound and movement. Alive and palpable. Ranging from the finest, subtlest and rarefied, to the densest, condensed into matter. What is your drone? What is your essential tone? The imprint of your soul? A specific code pertaining only to you, born directly of the Source? I dive into the ocean of my vibrations and explore them, get to know them intimately, sort them out, befriend them, melt them, modulate them and tune them. Cultivating my music and my imprint. Allowing my Soul sound to take the lead and compose my true freedom. Embracing my Heart and deeply listening to it’s quiet and gentle hum.

This is a somatization from the session 14 of the Living Body Series (July 28th, 2024). The topic was Lymph, Lymphatic (Immune) System. We were exploring the fluid of lymph, how it flows through the body, from the interstitial fluid around the cells (our inner sea), all the way to the neck area of subclavian veins where it enters the bloodstream and the heart. Exploring specific directionality and quality of lymph. Looking for fluidity of lymph and the lymph nodes. A big thank you to all the participants. What is a somatization? Somatization is form of guided meditation through which we direct our consciousness into our living body-mind and the myriad of processes that exist inside of us. 

This is a somatization from the session 13 of the Living Body Series (July 21st, 2024). The topic was Embracing - Rooting - Balancing - Connecting. We started the exploration by becoming aware of our body and personal energetic space. Then we were playing with the Embrace Reflex (Moro), the reflex of opening our arms/body/perception to embrace the world, and its polarity of embracing ourselves, tapping into self-love and acceptance in the process. Establishing the central axis in the process and putting special focus on rooting deep into the ground. Feeling our heart and our arms embracing the world and ourselves as a continuation of our heart. Then we put focus on the pelvis and feeling the organ of uterus (which can be done in a male body as well). After that we played with establishing connections between brain, heart and uterus (pelvis), feeling these three points, connecting them and balancing them. Ending the exploration with feeling the connection with the living planet we are a part of. A big thank you to all the participants. What is a somatization? Somatization is form of guided meditation through which we direct our consciousness into our living body-mind and the myriad of processes that exist inside of us.

This is a somatization from the session 12 of the Living Body Series (July 14th, 2024). The topic was Endocrine Glands as Connection of Heaven and Earth. We were exploring endocrine glands from the Body-Mind Centering perspective, from the lower ones in the pelvis, all the way to the glands of the head. We were using sounding to activate the vibration of the glands (unfortunately, this hasn't been captured in the recording as it should have been, but the idea is that you yourself try releasing your voice from these structures). We explored how the glands (and other structures with the glandular mind) enliven our tissues, provide lightness of movement, influence our perception, and serve as a form of central channel connecting us to Heaven and Earth. Glandular pyramid explored in this somatization: Perineal Body - Coccygeal Body - Gonads - Adrenals - Pancreas - Heart-Body - Thymus - Thyroid - Pineal - Pituitary. A big thank you to all the participants. What is a somatization? Somatization is form of guided meditation through which we direct our consciousness into our living body-mind and the myriad of processes that exist inside of us.

This is a somatization from the session 11 of the Living Body Series (June 23rd, 2024). The topic was Support of Space & Skeletal System. We were exploring the support of Space (external & internal), how we can move through Space, but also how Space can move us. Releasing the weight into the ground, and establishing the support of the Skeletal system as our basic bodily architecture through which the weight pours towards the Earth. Becoming aware of the fluidity of the bones and the joints for more lightness. Differentiating the central axis and the periphery (limbs). Initiating movement with different parts of hands (claw & blade) and feet (ankle-foot & heel-foot). Allowing the contents of the skeletal container to soften. A big thank you to all the participants. What is a somatization? Somatization is form of guided meditation through which we direct our consciousness into our living body-mind and the myriad of processes that exist inside of us.

This is a somatization from the session 10 of the Living Body Series (June 16th, 2024). The topic was Receiving (Deep listening) & Giving/sharing. We explored our brain as an organ, and then went into the nervous system, opening the back of our brain and the spinal cord, practicing how to receive incoming impulses from outside and inside of our body into that area and deeply listen (exploring sensory nerves which go into the back of the spinal cord). Then how to give back (motor out) through the front of the nervous system.  One important element of the exploration was going into cellular consciousness, and deeper into subcellular level to experience the wonder of our mitochondria.A big thank you to all the participants. What is a somatization? Somatization is form of guided meditation through which we direct our consciousness into our living body-mind and the myriad of processes that exist inside of us.

This is a somatization from the session 9 of the Living Body Series (June 2nd, 2024). We are again exploring the wonder of our lungs, this time not from the lens of embryology, but experiencing our present lung tissue and all the beauty and pain that it holds. We started the exploration by going into the three lobes of the lungs - upper, middle and lower lobe. Sounding and moving from each lobe, separating the lobes and feeling how they communicate among each other. Then we focused on lungs as a whole, and how the energy of the lungs radiates into our arms and hands, and also into all of our limbs.  A big thank you to all the participants. What is a somatization? Somatization is form of guided meditation through which we direct our consciousness into our living body-mind and the myriad of processes that exist inside of us.

This is a somatization from the session 8 of the Living Body Series (May 26th, 2024). We are exploring our the wonder of our lungs, from the embryological perspective and how it developed from our yolk sac; we explore how our LUNG BUD is formed, out of which our lungs eventually develop; we were playing with sounding this time as well, to embody the vibration of our lung bud and our lungs, feeling the specific organ quality of it in our grown bodies, it also being an organ of nourishment (through breath). We also explored the separation of windpipe from the oesophagus, the branching of lungs from trachea into bronchi, bronchioles and alveoli. A big thank you to all the participants. What is a somatization? Somatization is form of guided meditation through which we direct our consciousness into our living body-mind and the myriad of processes that exist inside of us.

This is a somatization from the session 7 of the Living Body Series (May 12th, 2024). We are exploring our digestive system, from the embryological perspective and how it developed from our yolk sac; and the organ quality of it in our grown bodies, it being a central axis of the front body, connecting our mouth and anus as one continuous tube, providing support and feeling of nourishment. A big thank you to all the participants. What is a somatization? Somatization is form of guided meditation through which we direct our consciousness into our living body-mind and the myriad of processes that exist inside of us.

This is a somatization from the session 6 of the Living Body Series (May 5th, 2024). We are exploring our senses, and how to integrate them and awaken them. We also started the session with the navel radiation pattern from last time and from there went into the exploration of the six senses: TOUCH, MOVEMENT, TASTE, SMELL, HEARING & VISION. A big thank you to all the participants. What is a somatization? Somatization is form of guided meditation through which we direct our consciousness into our living body-mind and the myriad of processes that exist inside of us.

This is a somatization from the session 5 of the Living Body Series (April 21st, 2024). We are exploring navel radiation - finding one's centre in the belly and allowing radial expansion from that centre into six limbs (two arms, two legs, head and tail). A big thank you to all the participants. What is a somatization? Somatization is form of guided meditation through which we direct our consciousness into our living body-mind and the myriad of processes that exist inside of us.

This is a somatization from the session 4 of the Living Body Series (April 14th, 2024). We are exploring the development of our blood and blood vessels, embryonic circulatory system, front and back body being surrounded by the protective layer of extraembryonic mesoderm. A big thank you to all the participants. What is a somatization? Somatization is form of guided meditation through which we direct our consciousness into our living body-mind and the myriad of processes that exist inside of us.

This is a somatization from the session 3 of the Living Body Series (April 7th, 2024). We are exploring our front and back body through the lens of embryological development. Nourishment and protection that these processes provide. The development of our organ and nervous system. The flow of blood and CSF. A big thank you to all the participants. What is a somatization? Somatization is form of guided meditation through which we direct our consciousness into our living body-mind and the myriad of processes that exist inside of us.

This is a somatization from the session 2 of the Living Body Series (March 31st, 2024). We are exploring different fluids inside our body (intracellular, interstitial and transitional fluid), and their qualities of consciousness and movement. Feeling our container and fluid internal content. Exploring the flow of fluid through the membranes in and out of cells. Using the image of a sponge to bring fluidity into all parts of body and tune in to the pulsation of our natural impulse. A big thank you to all the participants. What is a somatization? Somatization is form of guided meditation through which we direct our consciousness into our living body-mind and the myriad of processes that exist inside of us.

This is a somatization from the session 1 of the Living Body Series (March 24th, 2024). We are coming into contact with our essential vibration, and embodying early embryological processes that had created us, starting with the egg and the sperm, and the moment of our conception. After that we are exploring external and internal respiration - the breath of our lungs, and the breathing of every cell. A big thank you to all the participants.

In the 13th episode of LIFE THAT SAID YES conversations Ivan is joined by Diane Elliot, in an inspiring conversation (and song) about the gift of body, creativity, power of voice/language, spirituality of somatics and the Tree of Life. Diane is a ritual leader, spiritual director, writer, and teacher of Jewish embodiment based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Previously trained as a modern dancer, choreographer, and somatic movement therapist, Diane performed in venues across the U.S. and Europe and received numerous choreographic grants and commissions. She trained in Body-Mind Centering® with Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, maintained a private bodywork practice for 30 years, and taught in the School for Body-Mind Centering Practitioner Trainings from 1996-2012. Ordained as a rabbi through the Academy for Jewish Religion, California in 2006, Diane has been active for more than 25 years in the Jewish Renewal Movement; has served as a Project Director for ALEPH Alliance for Jewish Renewal; is a founding steward of Taproot; and serves on the Advisory Council of The Shalom Center. She has authored three books of poetry, most recently The Voice is Movement (Hakodesh Press 2020). You can learn more about her work at www.whollypresent.org.

In the 12th episode of LIFE THAT SAID YES conversations Ivan talks with Jaap van der Wal, a Dutch phenomenological embryologist, teacher, and author who provides a counterweight against the reductionist scientific vision of human existence and the embryonic journey that each of us has taken. They talk about the unity of soul and body, moment of conception, transition of death, parenting, mortality and overcoming scientific reductionism. Jaap van der Wal PhD is a medical doctor and until his retirement in 2012 he was Associate Professor and Senior Lecturer in Anatomy and Embryology at the University of Maastricht, The Netherlands. After his medical training in 1973, he specialized in the functional anatomy of the so-called musculoskeletal (or: locomotor) system with (later) emphasis on the architecture of connective tissue and fascia and their role in proprioception. Gradually, he developed into a teacher of philosophy of science and medical anthropology. "My passion, however, was and still is human embryology. The human body is a process that develops and functions over time. The embryo moves and behaves in forms. In this field I came across anthroposophy and Goethe's phenomenological approach. I use the method of dynamic morphology to understand what we actually do as human beings when we are embryos. With respect, I can find in the embryo tentative answers to questions about the meaning of human existence. "After his retirement, he put all his energy into Embryo in Motion, a global project to teach Embryosophy. He now teaches his 'Embryosophy' in Europe and the USA in institutes for cranio-sacral therapy, osteopathy, polarity therapy, but also prenatal psychology and trauma therapy, etc. Official website: https://www.embryo.nl/en/

In the 11th episode of LIFE THAT SAID YES conversations Ivan is joined by Bob Lehnberg for an amazing conversation about embryology, qigong and the Life force that animates All. Bob Lehnberg received his certification as Practitioner of Body-Mind Centering® (BMCsm) in 1990, and in 2002 Teacher of Body-Mind Centering. Since then, Bob has received teacher certifications for BMC Yoga, Integral Yoga and Supreme Science of Qigong. He has been teaching in schools of massage therapy and programs of somatic training since 1990 and has had the good fortune to teach BMC and somatic practices throughout the US and internationally in Europe, Canada, China, and Taiwan. Bob is a co-founder of Kinesthetic Learning Center in Durham, NC and has been on faculty teaching and coordinating the BMC Somatic Movement Educator (SME) and Practitioner certification programs since 2007. He has coordinated SME courses for Esprit en Mouvement in Montreal, Canada, and is a co-director of the SME program in Taitung, Taiwan. He teaches Embryology Qigong and other systems of qigong in person and online. Bob’s site: www.boblehnberg.com

In the tenth episode of LIFE THAT SAID YES conversations Ivan talks with Gloria Desideri. Gloria Desideri is a Certified Teacher/Practitioner of Body-Mind Centering®, Somatic Movement Educator and Infant Developmental Movement Educator. She is also a certified Kinetic Awareness™ Teacher and a practitioner of Somatic Experiencing® (Dr. Peter Levine's work on the resolution of post-traumatic stress symptoms). She integrates her experience as a professional dancer and choreographer (1977 - 1992) with numerous movement practices and studies on the body-mind continuum. From 1984 to 1998 she lived in New York where she trained and worked first as a dancer and choreographer and then in the field of somatic-oriented practices. She became particularly interested in development in the age of development, first observing Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen's work with infants and children with special needs, then gaining experience for two years as a volunteer at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Beth Israel Hospital in New York, in a special programme for children born to drug-addicted mothers. Back in Italy, from 1999 to 2006 she collaborated with the Complex Operative Unit of Child Neuropsychiatry of the ASL of Viterbo, conceiving and directing innovative projects based on the BMC® approach and aimed at children with severe disabilities, their parents and carers. He has also collaborated with municipal nurseries in the city of Viterbo, with training programmes for educators. In 2005, in Tuscania, she founded the Cultural Association for Social Promotion Leben and in 2009 Leben nuova, a centre she directed and the only one in Italy to be authorised by The School among Body-Mind Centering for BMC® training programmes. In collaboration with Piera Teatini, she edited the Italian translation of Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen's book 'Sensation, Emotion, Action' (SomaticaEdizioni 2011). From 2013 to 2015 she coordinated the Italian team in the European partnership project SPARKS - Somatic Practices, Art and Creativity for Special Needs. Since 2014 she has been President of the Kinesfera Social Promotion Association and since the beginning of 2015 she has been managing the multifunctional space called Supercinema in Tuscania, where, in addition to the training activities managed by Leben nuova, Kinesfera organises and promotes cultural events, conferences and social activities aimed at the territory. In Rome and in Tuscania, Gloria privately carries out educational and therapeutic counselling activities for children and adults.

In the ninth episode of LIFE THAT SAID YES conversations Ivan talks with Anka Sedláčková, an inspiring and experienced movement teacher, therapist, artist, dancer and choreographer from Slovakia, about nature, self-acceptance, creating a safe space, working with children and parents and many more interesting topics. Anka Sedlačková has been active on the Slovak dance scene as a dancer, choreographer and teacher since 1987 and has significantly influenced contemporary dance in Slovakia. She has been studying BMC®️ since 2000 and graduated as an Infant Development Movement Educator (2006), BMC®️ Practitioner (2013) and BMC®️ Teacher (2019). In 2003 she started to work with babies and children with special needs. The specificity of her artistic work is the use of a somatic approach (movement shaped from the inside) in relation to choreography and dramaturgy to the functionality and expressiveness of movement, open dance forms, improvisation. Since 1996, he has been teaching modern dance at the Department of Dance Creation of VŠMU. She actively works on the topics of connecting dance art with scientific and social topics, as well as on various forms of international cooperation.

In episode 8 Ivan talks with Katy Dymoke. Katy has been teaching BMC in the UK since 1997 and on other European programs. She integrated BMC into her practice as a Dance Movement Psychotherapist in the NHS where she was a specialist in touch and non-verbal methods in adult learning disability services for 9 years. Currently working with children and adults in education and health settings and in private practice. She has presented at conferences, and has published her writing on touch based working methodology and integrated dance. Katy is completing a PhD on the impact of touch in Movement Psychotherapy and BMC. Katy established the Body-Mind Centering certification programs in the UK and Poland, she believes in the innate intelligence of the body, and the application of BMC in therapeutic contexts and research. As a professional dancer and director of Touchdown Dance Katy creates dance theatre and film. Touchdown Dance is unique for integrating blind and sighted dancers in a professional touring and workshop company based in Contact Improvisation. Collaborating with musicians, actors and dancers for 30 years, she has been an advocate for integrated arts practice.A lover of the outdoors and physical activity she has a 3rd Dan in Jujitsu.

In the episode 7 of the LTSY Conversations the guest is Amy Matthews, a respected therapist, teacher of yoga and somatic movement. Extremely eloquent and full of knowledge, Amy talks about her own path, freedom, choices, respect for individuality and spirals of movement. Amy Matthews, CMA, IDME, BMC Teacher, RSMT/RSME has been teaching movement since 1994. She is a Certified Laban Movement Analyst, a Body-Mind Centering® Teacher, an Infant Developmental Movement Educator, and a movement therapist and yoga teacher. Amy leads the Embodied Developmental Movement and Yoga and the Embodied Anatomy and Yoga BMC℠ programs in the United States. She co-taught with Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen in Berkeley, CA for five years and was on the faculty of the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies for ten years. She has taught embodied anatomy and movement workshops for programs in New York, Philadelphia, Berkeley, and Nebraska, and internationally in Canada, Switzerland, Ireland, England, Israel, Slovakia and Japan. Amy co-authored with Leslie Kaminoff the best-selling book Yoga Anatomy, and together Amy and Leslie teach The Breathing Project's Advanced Studies courses. Amy also works privately as a movement therapist and yoga teacher, integrating Laban Movement Analysis, Bartenieff Fundamentals, yoga, Body-Mind Centering® and Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF). Amy is certified as a yoga teacher by Yoga Union and Heart of Yoga, and as a Motherhand Shiatsu practitioner. She is registered with ISMETA as a Somatic Movement Therapist and Educator, with IAYT (International Association of Yoga Therapists) and with Yoga Alliance as an E-500 RYT (Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher). Amy has studied with a range of inspiring teachers: dissection workshops with Gil Hedley, neuro-muscular reeducation with Irene Dowd, Body-Mind Centering with Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, full-contact karate with Michelle Gay, and yoga with Alison West, Mark Whitwell, Genny Kapular and Kevin Gardiner.

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.

In episode 5 Ivan talks with Friederike Tröscher, one of his teachers in the BMC® SME program and one of the founding members of Moveus. Friederike lives in Rhöndorf (near Cologne). Her background is in occupational therapy, new dance, contact improvisation and rebirthing, with further experience in Biodynamic Massage, dance therapy and meditation practice. Many years she has worked with children with developmental challenges. She was trained at the School for Body-Mind Centering® under the direction of Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen from 1995-2002. Since 1995 she teaches this work in different contexts (workshops, conferences, dance and music programs in universities) and is involved with holding the licensed trainings since 2003. She is part of the founding team of Moveus and a director since then. She offers workshops, individual sessions and a one-year BMC training in Cologne.

In this episode Ivan talks with Mariko Tanabe. Mariko Tanabe is inspired by the healing powers of human movement and expression. She has been performing and presenting her choreographic works during the past 25 years in Asia, Europe, and North America. Mariko teaches workshops to dance companies and at universities, art centers and schools throughout the world. She mentors artists and maintains a private practice working with individuals of all backgrounds. For 12 years she worked with American dance master Erick Hawkins in NYC as a principal dancer, teacher and rehearsal director. She is the founder and director of the Body-Mind Centering® Licensed Training Program in Montreal, a Certified Teacher and Practitioner of Body-Mind Centering®, as well as an Infant Developmental Movement Educator, Yoga teacher and Registered Somatic Therapist. https://marikotanabe.com/

Second part of Ivan's conversation with Jens Johannsen. Jens is a is a dancer, movement teacher and therapist from Germany. Since 1978 he has been exploring the relations of body and mind on personal, social and global levels. For many years he studied with teachers in the fields of theater, dance, voice, ritual, humanistic and Buddhist psychology, yoga, meditation, body-therapy and others. Among his teachers are Lama Chime Rinpoche, Bonnie Bainbridge-Cohen, Matt Mitler, Grotowsy-Laboratorium, Carl Rogers, Ron Kurtz, Bob Rease, Tim Buckley, Martha Moore, Aja Addy, Upledger Institute, Suprapto Suryodharmo, Amos Hetz. Jens has performance experience since 1980 and has been teaching internationally since 1982. Jens is a senior BMC® teacher, teaching in the trainings of the School for Body-Mind Centering® since 1993. He directs BMC® trainings since 2003. For 15 years Jens has been leading his own BMC® training groups that run from one to several years. He works with clients of all ages. He is interested especially in meditation in and through movement and has also been co-developing an application-program of BMC® to alpine skiing. Jens in his work integrates detailed knowledge about the physical body and the process of embodiment with humor, joy of movement and expression, with a spiritually open approach.

In the second episode of the Life that said Yes Coversations Ivan talks to Nina Wehnert. Nina is a dancer and certified Body-Mind Centering® Teacher and Practitioner. She lives in Berlin and is teaching Body-Mind Centering® in classes, workshops, dance and yoga training programs and at dance festivals around the world. She has studied Contemporary Dance at Bewegungs-art, Freiburg and at SEAD, Salzburg. For over 25 years she has been dancing, researching and enjoying Contact Improvisation, and also teaching it for the last 10 years. She is also a yoga teacher and has learned yoga at OM Yoga, a yoga school that combines Vinyasa Yoga with precise alignment and Buddhist meditation. Early in her movement career she discovered a passion for anatomy, movement research and the many layers of being human and studied BMC® with Moveus in Germany and Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen in the USA. Since 2019 she is a teacher in the licensed certification programs and part of the core staff of Moveus, the BMC® certification training program in Germany. She is also offering her own BMC® training programs in Berlin and Bavaria as well as workshops and classes. She is regularly teaching in the Dance Intensive program of Tanzfabrik, Berlin. CONTACT: - official website: https://ninawehnert.com/

In the first episode of the Life that said Yes Conversations Ivan talks with Jens Johannsen. Jens is a is a dancer, movement teacher and therapist from Germany. Since 1978 he has been exploring the relations of body and mind on personal, social and global levels. For many years he studied with teachers in the fields of theater, dance, voice, ritual, humanistic and Buddhist psychology, yoga, meditation, body-therapy and others. Among his teachers are Lama Chime Rinpoche, Bonnie Bainbridge-Cohen, Matt Mitler, Grotowsy-Laboratorium, Carl Rogers, Ron Kurtz, Bob Rease, Tim Buckley, Martha Moore, Aja Addy, Upledger Institute, Suprapto Suryodharmo, Amos Hetz. Jens has performance experience since 1980 and has been teaching internationally since 1982. Jens is a senior BMC® teacher, teaching in the trainings of the School for Body-Mind Centering® since 1993. He directs BMC® trainings since 2003. For 15 years Jens has been leading his own BMC® training groups that run from one to several years. He works with clients of all ages. He is interested especially in meditation in and through movement and has also been co-developing an application-program of BMC® to alpine skiing. Jens in his work integrates detailed knowledge about the physical body and the process of embodiment with humor, joy of movement and expression, with a spiritually open approach.