The Return to Embodiment: consciousness, culture, creativity and flourishing

In this conversation, I am speaking with Amelia Burns. I found Amelia through her masters thesis article, Embodiment and embedment: integrating dance/movement therapy, body psychotherapy, and ecopsychologyAs a body worker, a dancer and a somatic therapist/dance therapist, Amelia has gathered threads of a myriad different experiences and inspirations to create a tapestry of her work exploring embodiment in relationship with onself, others, and the more than human world. "In writing and reflecting on the themes of embodiment in my life, I feel inspired and excited about continuing to follow the embodied threads of deep listening and embodied conversing through attuning with my body, with others, and with the more-than-human world. Improvisational dance skills of embodyingly following the yes’s have long influenced my ways of being, and I’m sure will persist in guiding me in the future as I cultivate more and more embodied presence in my life and work." ~Amelia BurnsFor more information on Amelia's work and writings, visit: https://movingstillnesshealing.com

In this conversation Kristen Mennona is the guest host of the Return to Embodiment Podcast. Kristen interviews Rachel Lewis-Marlow, a somatically integrative psychotherapist dually licensed in counseling and therapeutic massage and bodywork. She is a Certified Advanced Practitioner in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy and has advanced training and over twenty five years experience in diverse somatic therapies. Rachel developed a protocol called Embodied Recovery for Eating Disorders as a way to enhance the effectiveness of current best practices in eating disorder treatment. The conversation is insightful, nuanced and passionate, exploring the connections between attachment, developmental reflects, nourishment and recovery. I am so delighted to share it with you. Kristen Mennona is a dance therapist, author, speaker and owner of Nurture Family Counseling LLC. Kristen is a licensed professional counselor, a board certified dance/movement therapist, a certified eating disorder specialist (CEDS), a certified specialist in OCD and a yoga instructor.  She has 20 years experience in the counseling field and specializes in the treatment of anxiety-based disorders, life transitions and grief. She is the author of the book titled, Body As Nature, a workbook designed to guide the reader home to the body.

In this conversation, I speak with Jenny Macke about the ways in which dance practice supports how we show up in our lives, relationships and the broader world. We examine some of Jenny's origins and inspirations, and her intentions in facilitation of conscious dance through open floor theories and her spacious capacity for presence with what is. For more information about Jenny, her facilitation and her educational opportunities, visit https://www.jennymacke.com/ and follow her on instagram at jennymackedance.

In this conversation, I am speaking with Dr. Suzi Tortora, Ed.D, BC-DMT LCAT LMHC CMA, NCC who is a dance/ movement psychotherapist, mental health counselor, author and educator. Dr. Tortora is a world-renowned specialist in the field of infant mental health, and has written two books, including Dance/Movement Therapy for Infants and Young Children with Medical Illness and The Dancing Dialogue: Using the Communicative Power of Movement with Young Children. She regularly trains, teaches and presents her work, including her two year advanced training program, Ways of Seeing method, all over the world. For more information, please visit her website:https://www.dancingdialogue.com/https://www.dancingdialogue.com/ways-of-seeing-international-training

In this conversation, Leslie interviews Kim about embodied speech as a practice that grounds conversation in the phenomenological experience of the body in the present moment, which tunes each of us into the truth as it arises within us and sensitizes us to the lived experience of others. We discuss the origins of this podcast, Kim's own cultural situatedness, and the applications of practices of embodiment which embed us more intimately into our relationships and into the broader world.Kim Rothwell LCPC, NCC, LMHC, CADC, BC-DMT, GL-CMA is founder and faculty at the Embodied Education Institute of Chicago.  With a professional dance movement therapy background spanning 20 years, Kim integrates dance/movement therapy and ecological belonging, invoking the body’s wisdom and the power of creative process to cultivate individual and collective healing. Kim’s expertise includes addiction, matriscence, body empowerment and somatic countertransference.  Kim utilizes authentic movement as a primary practice of mindfulness, interpersonal connection and healing. Leslie McCormick (Taravajri) is a licensed somatic psychotherapist, a registered dance/movement therapist, poet and ordained Dharmacharini with the Triratna Buddhist Order. To learn more about ways to connect with Leslie, visit: tucsonsomaticpsychotherapy.com

Elissaveta Iordanova, M.S., MFA, MA is New York State licensed creative arts therapist, and American Dance Therapy Association Board-Certified dance/movement therapist, and ADTA member. She obtained her clinical professional experience as a dance/movement therapist at Maimonides Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry, NY. Elissaveta opened her full time private practice Inspired Creative Arts Therapy in 2020. https://inspiredcreativeartstherapy.squarespace.com/ With her extensive experience in both traditional, and modern dance, she bridges Eastern and Western aesthetics and practices. She has been a returning presenter at ADTA conferences, as well as DMT student supervisor. Elissaveta also provides training of people who teach movement and exercise for  senior population to apply mental health component and awareness in their classes.  Elissaveta leads her own dance company ELEA GORANA DANCE COLLECTIVE in NYC and received numerous grants for her creative work. https://goranadance.com/ https://www.facebook.com/GORANADANCEIn the past 6 years she has been learning and practicing Argentinian Tango, and uses walking and weight shifts in her therapy work with partners. She initiated and co-hosts monthly social tango event. https://www.facebook.com/groups/943881446772033

In this conversation, I am speaking with Melanie Cooper Pennington. We talk about her own fraught experience of embodiment, how art has allowed her to move pain outside of her body, and how her love of bodies has propelled her sculpture.Melanie Cooper Pennington is an interdisciplinary artist living in Bloomington, Indiana. Pennington recently had solo exhibitions at the I Fell Gallery, (Bloomington, IN), International Center for the Arts, (Monte Castello, Italy) New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art, (New Harmony, IN) and at Artlink Contemporary (Fort Wayne, IN) and was featured in group shows at Distortion Gallery(Beacon NY), sUgAr Gallery at the University of Arkansas (Fayetteville, AR), ACRE Projects (Chicago, IL), and Manifest Gallery (Cincinnati, OH). She has presented public art projects at Indiana University (Bloomington, IN), Chicago Park District (Chicago, IL), and Indianapolis Art Center (Indianapolis, IN). Pennington teaches as a Lecturer in Sculpture at The Eskenazi School of Art, Indiana University Bloomington.www.melaniepennington.com@melaniecooperpennington 

an inquiry about how a podcast on embodiment fits within our current time. amidst wars and division. i am wondering. how do our acts of creation, of nurturing, of designing and building of gardening craft a future we long to leave our children?

Cuquis Robledo is a mental health counselor in Houston, TX with a passion for incorporating the arts, movement, and advocacy with her clients. Prior to her work as a counselor, Cuquis was a disability advocate and a documentarian, documenting the lives and empowering the voices of people of disabilities and other marginalized communities. Being disabled herself, specifically Cuquis is a Little Person, Cuquis takes pride in working on guiding those with and without disabilities to find their voices and find ways to create empowerment in their lives. Born in a Cuban-American family, Cuquis grew up learning Latin dance when she was two years old. However, a complication with a spine surgery left her almost paralyzed. Through her recovery she used Latin dance as a form of physical rehabilitation while also healing herself emotionally, mentally and spiritually. Since that moment in her life, she’s been incorporating Latin dance and dancing mindfulness in the work she does, inspiring others to find their sense of freedom, belonging and acceptance through life's circumstances using Latin dance.  Learn more about's Cuquis story at https://cuquisrobledo.com/ and her storytelling at https://www.cuquisrobledostudios.com/ and connect with her on instagram @standtallcuquis

Rebecca Barnstaple is a dance researcher and clinician who brings dance therapy to people with chronic pain, Parkinson's Disease and Alzheimer's disease. As a postdoctoral fellow at York University in Toronto, Rebecca conducts research on the neurbiological effects of dance on health and disease.

In this conversation, Kristina traces ways her own body and development interfaced with limitations of the dance world, and how she has found home in practices of intenttionally dismantling harmful conditioning and building movement from a posture of love and seeking pleasure in the body. Kristina talks about the therapeutic dance certificate offered through EEIC and the honor of facilitating the unique artistry of each person's unique and changing embodied expression. Kristina states, "we will never know everything about the body. We have to come in here with respect for the mystery of, of all the processes that are always happening that we may never understand and still be with ourselves deeply without knowing why."

In this conversation, I am speaking with Tārāvajrī. Leslie McCormick (Taravajri) is a somatic creative, licensed somatic psychotherapist, registered dance movement therapist, poet, and ordained Dharmacharini with the Triratna Buddhist Order. In this conversation we discuss poetry as companion, our shared love of our teacher, Zoe Avstreih, and the phenomena of touch and sound in authentic movement. Tārāvajrī is passionate about embodiment as political resistance: moving from the inside-out and supporting movers into loving relationship with their authentic somatic expression, she denies the patriarchal gaze, fights sexual consumerism, and disappoints Eurocentric, anthropocentric, and heteronormative expectations; instead, she centers felt experience as gateway to personal and transcendental truths. As a long-time practitioner of both authentic movement and Buddhism, Leslie is committed to sharing an embodied spirituality. Keenly interested in the role of beauty in human development and transformation, Leslie regards Truth as the greatest beauty and the simplest, effective expression of Truth as, perhaps, the highest art. She runs workshops and groups in which movers shape works of choreography and writing from the raw material of somatic exploration.Leslie maintains a private practice and makes her home in Tucson, Arizona, the lands of the Tohono O’odham and Pascua Yaqui people. For more information, visit tucsonsomaticpsychotherapy.com.

Ashley Fargnoli is a dance/movement therapist, a licensed psychotherapist, a dance performer, a choreographer, a film maker, a researcher, and a Fullbright scholar. In this conversation, we explore the multicultural origins of embodiment and the ways in which parts of ourselves and are accessed and healed through different styles of dance. Ashley describes working with a performance as therapy model, the importance of creative process in the life of a therapist and also reflects on belonging as a function of participation within a dance community. For more information, visit Ashley's website: https://ashleyfargnoli.com/

Molly Shanahan is a Canadian-born, U.S.-based choreographer and dancer, educator, thinker, and writer about movement, body, and healing. She makes dances. She supports movers in reinhabiting their own bodies in relationship with other movers, prioritizing deep exploration of movement and inquiry into what human experience and response drives our movement choices, especially within the phenomenon of being seen. For more information about Molly's teaching, performances, writings, and experience, visit https://www.mollyshanahanspiralbody.com/about

In this conversation, Dr. Amber Elizabeth L. Gray asks a series of questions, which deepen us into the question of embodiment and its function to sensitize us to one another and cultivate respect and reciprocity within the more than human world. Dr. Gray is a Dance/Movement Therapist, Somatic & Human Rights Psychotherapist, and long-time yoga and Continuum teacher. She works with survivors of war, torture, human rights abuses and historical trauma and oppression, in the US and in active and post conflict zones, refugee camps, and disasters.  Equally activist, artist, advocate, author, mystic and therapist, her clinical, healing, educational and organizational work endeavors to promote reciprocity and empowerment and incite meaningful change. She brings her Polyvagal, Heart & Spirit-informed Right to Embody somatic human rights framework and Body of Change eco-somatic regenerative retreats to communities of therapists, artists, global citizens and change maker world-wide. Amber originated Polyvagal-informed Somatic & Dance/Movement Therapy through 25 years immersive mentoring and exploration of Polyvagal Theory. This work is a survivor-centered, multi-cultural & social justice framework that reflects many years of co-inquiry with her clients to understand how Polyvagal Theory promotes restoration and healing in the body-heart-mind-spirit for survivors of egregious human rights violations. She has been teaching this work globally since 2003 and is the inaugural member of The Polyvagal Institute’s Editorial Board. https://ambergray.com/ Gray, A.E.L., Kennedy, J.R. Marian Chace Foundation 2022 Lecture & Introduction from the 57th Annual American Dance Therapy Association Conference, Heartlines: Gathering Wisdom from Many Streams; Montreal, Canada. Am J Dance Ther 45, 88–108 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10465-023-09384-7

In this podcast, I reflect on time spent in the middle of the night with a green sea turtle in the southern great barrier reef, witnessing her toil and labor and eventually, without completing the work of laying her eggs, return to the ocean. I am aware that this podcast itself is a digging a nest, a gathering together stories, and perhaps it will in this new year expand beyond my voice and vision as we adapt into a future not yet imagined. Thank you Josie Rothwell for the mandolin song, "Going Across The Sea" Thank you for listening.

In this conversation, I am speaking with Román Baca. Román is a U.S. Marine Iraq war veteran as well as the co-founder and artistic director of Exit12 Dance Company in New York City. Román was invited to do a TEDx talk in San Antonio in 2013 (⁠https://youtu.be/EjwFMgsQmBI⁠). When I learned of his work, I took the opportunity to visit New York to see his company rehearse and talk with him about his vision. Since then, Román has been a recipient of a Fulbright Award, completed an MFA at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London and is now a PhD Candidate at York St. John University in York, UK. His most recent work was called Truths Colliding, an eight week series of workshops at the Intrepid Air and Space Museum in New York brought military veterans, victims of war and civilians together to move and create a final dance performance on the aircraft carrier. I am delighted to share the exciting work Román is doing bringing dance to the stories of soldiers and those impacted by war.

Kamahria Hopkins, is a therapist, coach and consultant who offers "online therapy for the modern mystic." Kamahria integrates somatic and transpersonal practices including dance therapy and psychological tarot/astrology. In this conversation, Kamahria shares about her work in hospice, as a doula, and as a journalist and how these roles have prepared her to work with clients to reignite their magic and realign their body, mind and spirit.

In this conversation, I am speaking with Selena Coburn BC-DMT, LMHC, LCPC, who is currently serving as the ADTA Standards and Ethics Chair. We discuss the challenges the ADTA is facing as an organization and how the change and growth often involve discomfort and negotiating difference. Selena is a mental health and dance/movement therapist in Great Falls, Montana and an adjunct professor at Lesley University. She is a descendent of Blackfeet, Klamath, Cree, and Pitt River tribes. She earned her BFA in Dance from SUNY Purchase College in Purchase, NY. Selena's dance/movement therapy training includes the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan, NY, and Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. As a registered dance/movement therapist, she believes in the importance of decolonizing dance as therapy, and culturally inclusive processing as the primary therapeutic principle. Selena has worked with adolescents in the residential treatment center setting and experienced the power of incorporating cultural healing elements in helping adolescents navigate social, emotional, physical, and relational developmental changes. Coburn has presented on Blackfeet cultural dances, Native American perspectives, and participated in panel discussions locally, regionally, and internationally. Selena founded the Native American Affinity Group as part of the Multicultural Diversity Committee of the ADTA and received the Leader of Tomorrow Award in 2020. She has previously served on the Texas Chapter board.

As a student of art, yoga and Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen's Body-Mind Centering® work since the 1980's, Lisa Clark describes the how the creative process aligns with embodiment as a practice that begins in subtle movement, incubated with patient curiosity, and expands to engage the myriad relationships within and beyond the body. She describes how this lemniscape of self, other, and the broader world apply both within and beyond the studio. Lisa offers both online and in person learning opportunities to bring fresh persepective and depth to your movement practices. https://www.lisaclarkyoga.com/

In this conversation, I am speaking with Lauren Elise Peterson, a dance therapist and body image coach who uses beginner friendly dance to help people feel confident in their own skin. She combats the messages that emphasize the need to change the body: to tighten, to diminish, to take up less space, to be more like the virtual avatars we are often bombarded by in our social media. Instead, she invites folks to inhabit the body with a focus on what feels interesting, pleasureful or curious. She offers gentle, easily modified movements that build a vocabulary for movement in the body that helps to build an appetite for movement as play, thereby transforming the possibilities found moving and relating. www.laurenelisepeterson.com. instagram: laurenelisepeterson

In this conversation, I am speaking with Lea, owner and executive director of Body Language Studio and Jeromeskee, co-director and creator of Body Rock Breaking, a championship breaking training program. We talk about the origins of their passion for dance, their past successes professsionally and how they currently channel their experience to prioritize joy, authenticity and leadership through dance education at Body Language Studio. These values also undergird their parenting and support them in cultivating community of excellence and celebration of all students, regardless of age, gender or body type. If you are interested in learning more about their dance education programs, check out their website: https://www.blsdance.com/ The summer 2023 offerings at Body Language Studio are here: https://www.blsdance.com/_files/ugd/9bdc0e_b1e17bb3b93741a99dbabaef84b9e71e.pdf

In this conversation, I am speaking with Ebony Nichols.  Ebony is a somatic mental health and wellness practitioner, Board Certified Dance/Movement Psychotherapist, Licensed Creative Arts Therapist, licensed cosmetologist, and entrepreneur. She completed her Bachelor of Arts at The College of New Rochelle in psychology and a Masters degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling with a specialization in Dance/Movement Therapy. She was awarded the presidential scholarship to attend Lesley University's Doctorate program in Counseling and Psychology: Transformative Leadership, Education and Applied Research, where she plans to continue her research and work rooted in cultural/race identity, trauma-informed healing care, centering Black Aesthetics of the African Diaspora through cultural movement narratives, non-verbal communication, and somatic-based healing practices.  Ebony has been the proprietor of Locks of Nu Natural Hair Spa since 2003. Utilizing their mission of "Healing the Community Follicle by Follicle"; her primary focus was to create a therapeutic environment within the African American community; this was her genesis for connecting artistic/cultural aesthetic expression, self-care and psychology. Trained in ballet and modern dance, Ebony found her love for the freedom of movement in the NYC house dance community. In 2005, she co-founded Afro Mosaic Soul Dance Collective, using social dance and music as a tool for emotional healing and expression. In addition, Ebony has experience in partial hospitalization/inpatient psychiatry and mental health care facilities working with individuals who present with psychotic and behavioral health concerns, as well as with individuals who are developmentally diverse and experience physical, emotional, and sensory challenges. She has also worked with a non-profit organization in partnership with New York City public schools to develop social-emotional resiliency from an anti-oppressive strength-based lens. Ebony’s international experience includes  Ghana and Togo West Africa, Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic, and Nicaragua utilizing various techniques of expressive art therapy toward personal/communal healing while exploring the dynamics of underrepresented communities. Ebony has co-presented her research, Moving Blind Spots: Cultural Bias in the Movement Repertoire of Dance/ Movement Therapists at the American Dance Therapy Association's (ADTA) Annual Conference (2018) and co-facilitated the American Dance Therapy Association's 2019 Plenary, Honoring Multiplicity: An Embodied Keynote Experience. Ebony is the Multicultural and Diversity Committee Chair Elect for the ADTA and was awarded the honor of the "Leader of Tomorrow Award" (2019) and “The Innovation Award” (2021) for her research in the Africanist Aesthetic in Movement Observation, by the organization. In addition to the American Dance Therapy Association, Ebony is also a professional member of The Association of Black Psychologist (ABPsi) and The American Mental Health Counselors Association (AMHCA). For more information, visit her website: ayacreativewellness.com. I also want to name Tricia Hersey as the author Ebony mentiones who wrote Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto

In this conversation, I am speaking with Julia Rae Antonick and Jonathan Meyer, executive & artistic directors of Khecari (https://www.khecari.org/).   Khecari ‘creates dance works furthering the transformative power of live bodies witnessing live bodies and advocates for the essential role of art within society, of dance within the arts, and of all artists working within the dance ecosystem.’ Please, visit their website, see the images and videos, and read about their vision.  Better yet, experience them perform. And in doing participate in art that engages and transforms.  

In this new season of the Return to Embodiment, I am delighted to share the treasures of these conversations, wistfully holding them as a garden from which I ask: take what nourishes & leave for the compost heap what is not for you.  May we explore the pathways that lead towards curiosity and delight and hope. Forgive any parts that show up clumsily with mismatched socks.  We are but these brief moments.

In this conversation, we talk about embodiment from the perspective of acting practice, examining our shared roots in an acting community and the applications and understandings that grew from those roots.  Andy reflects on how the creation of the treatre is a humanizing force, which connects people to themselves and others, crafts shared story and community.  Andy Mangin has been at Wheaton since 2005, teaching students how to produce theater in a liberal arts environment. He manages the productions, designs and builds sets, acts, teaches and directs.  Some of Andy's favorites have been Will Eno's Middletown and Tony Kushner's The Illusion. He teaches Devised Theater, Directing and Acting classes. With an MFA in Acting from Southern Methodist University and a hammer in the other hand, Andy crafts the actual sets as well as the performances for Arena Theatre. Mango Woodworks Link :www.instagram.com/p/Clj4lo1OdUu/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link An article about Andy's woodworking: www.twohandsinteriors.com/journal-page/2020/4/21/working-with-a-talented-maker Here is a video about Andy's shakesphere in the park project from 2016. https://youtu.be/Eq-FY6Lvnak

In this conversation, I am speaking with Alicia Patterson.  Alicia is a dance/movement therapist, a somatic therapist and a massage therapist trained in abdominal and pelvic massage.  Deep wounding exists in this area, both personal and collective.  The womb and the root have been exploited, neglected, and denied education and support. Shame too often silences desperately needed conversations, and teaches people to over-ride, endure and numb rather than respect, own or understand their own body cues.   In this personal interview, Alicia traces the origins of her interest in this work, shares about her own resistance to stepping into touch work, and acknowledges the ongoing challenge of providing this desperately needed care, which falls on the fringes of several fields of practice.  Alicia's approach to working with massage clients draws upon all her skills as a somatic therapist so that the psychology of embodied consent becomes an opportunity to dismantle the shame and reaccess the wonder of this region.   For more information, check out Alicia's website: www.alicianpatterson.com/ Check out Alicia's vlog and interviews with other practitioners on her youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClZy4vQycuMm2QAY0-Gz3dA/videos

Deanna James is a Licensed Professional Counselor, a Certified Eating Disorder Specialist and a Registered Dance and Movement Therapist. She has worked with clients with Eating Disorders, Trauma, Mood disorders and life adjustment issues for over 15 years, incorporating the creative arts therapies, internal family systems therapy and cognitive behavioral therapies in a holistic approach to healing. Deanna obtained her Master of Arts in Dance Movement Therapy and Counseling from Columbia College Chicago and has completed level I training in the Internal Family Systems model of therapy.  She combines evidence-based approaches with creative interventions, specializing in the treatment of eating disorders, attachment and trauma-based disorders, religious trauma, body image issues and general life adjustment issues. She is a member of the International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals as well as the American Dance Movement Therapy Association. She serves on the board for the Oklahoma Eating Disorders Association. Deanna has a passion for working with clients with eating disorders and trauma and helping them find hope and healing.

In this conversation, I am speaking with Amarillis Vazquez, president of the Puerto Rican chapter of the American Dance Therapy Association.  Amarillis Studied Dance Movement Therapy at Columbia College Chicago from 2001-2003. She has a Post Degree in Play Therapy and is candidate for a Doctorate in Transpersonal Psychology with concentration in Consciousness and Creative Studies at Sofia University. She wasrecognized as the Outstanding Professional by the ADTA in 2021. In her 15+ years as a Dance Movement Therapist she has worked with several populations with conditions such as autism, behavioral problems, domestic violence, anxiety disorders, PTSD, trauma, children of the state, and more.  In aspiring for greater exposure of the profession, she participated in the creation of the Puerto Rico ADTA Chapter since 2015, which was approved in 2016.  Amarillis's private practice, Souls in Motion serves the population of the island through the creative arts therapies. She is fully committed in advocating the use of the arts in particular DMT to help aid others in the transformative process of healing. https://www.facebook.com/soulsinmotionpr [email protected] https://soulsinmotionpr.com/index.php

ERICA HORNTHAL is a licensed clinical professional counselor, board-certified dance/movement therapist, and the CEO and founder of Chicago Dance Therapy. Since graduating with her MA in Dance/Movement Therapy and Counseling from Columbia College Chicago, Erica has worked with thousands of patients aged 3-107. Known as “The Therapist Who Moves You,” Hornthal is changing the way people see movement with regard to mental health.  In this conversation, we explore embodiment from the perpective of those without words, those whose voices and expression are through their bodies.  Erica describes the inspiration for her book and the honor of supporting those older adults with dementia in their journey. 

In this conversation, I am speaking with Mariah LeFeber. Mariah's doctoral research explores how supervision occurs within dance/movement therapy education.  We discuss some of her findings, aspects that make dance/movement therapy unique in the world of supervision, and the richness found in returning to roots, to mentors, and to our own breath. For more information on publications, clinical offerings and trainings, visit http://www.mariahlefeber.com/ To support the labor of love that is The Return to Embodiment, visit https://www.patreon.com/returntoembodiment

In this conversation, I am speaking with Susan Aposhan.  As a student of Bonnie Baimbridge Cohen's body mind centering work, Susan formed one of the first somatic psychology programs in the United States in the 1990's at Naropa University.  In addition, Susan has authored three books, Body-Mind Psychotherapy, Natural Intelligence, and the most recent, Heart Open, Body Awake, which is the culmination of decades of research, learning and practice.   For more information on trainings in body mind psychotherapy, books, or to join an online embodied spirituality class, visit https://susanaposhyan.com/ Through the pace of the conversation, an invitation into presence, is palpable.  Susan shares her own evolution with regards to embodiment across time, emphasizing the need for practice and the potential delight found in embodied spirituality.  To support the labor of love that is The Return to Embodiment, visit https://www.patreon.com/returntoembodiment

In this conversation, I am speaking with Julie Brannen.  Julie's mission is to restore, rewild, + reunite humanity with nature via the avenues of creativity, community, education, health + wellness. Her greatest joy comes from guiding folks into an organic + compassionate practice of fiercely approaching vulnerability + embodying whole-hearted living.  Her goal is to create brave, inclusive spaces in order to allow for radiant expression, courageous liberation, + uplifting connection. Currently, as a performing artist, she shares her self-love journey in the form of burlesque + erotic dance as persona Frann Fatale. As a somatic counselor + dance/movement therapist, she is the Founder of her own private practice Hues of Wholeness. As a trained birth doula, she supports mothers + families during pregnancy + childbirth. She also facilitates transformative festivals in the Chicago // Midwest area + hosts retreats, trainings, + immersions internationally. Additionally, she is the Founder + “Mama Wolf” of SheWolf Sacred, an intersectional, socially responsive, artistic community dedicated to honoring the embodied Divine Feminine. She is a Certified Reiki Master Teacher (Usui + Holy Fire), Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor, Registered Dance/Movement Therapist, with a Master of Arts in Dance/Movement Therapy + Counseling, + Graduate Laban Certificate in Movement Analysis from Columbia College Chicago. Julie's all encompassing link : linktr.ee/onbeingjulie/ Julie's Parkinson's performance video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nHBX3C9cBw Uptown Rhythm Festival : linktr.ee/uptownrhythmfestival/  To support the labor of love that is The Return to Embodiment, visit https://www.patreon.com/returntoembodiment 

Kyle Koch is a former IT software technician turned nature nerd. Since leaving the office in 2011, Kyle has dedicated his life to helping others reconnect with the natural world. He has been facilitating transformative experiences in nature for almost a decade: inspiring youth and adults to connect to their gifts through experiential play and natural curiosity. Kyle has taught nature connection skills to all ages in a multitude of environments all over North America. When not instructing, you can find him exploring ways to deepen his connection with himself, others, and the Earth.   Kyle offers retreats focused on cultivating connection with ecological place, including Core Routines of Nature Connection. (www.evolvemoveplay.com). To support the labor of love that is The Return to Embodiment, visit https://www.patreon.com/returntoembodiment

Jamila Kekulah Kinney (she/they) is the creator of The Moving Soul, a holistic movement practice that utilizes curiosity, focus and self observation to explore body awareness, body conditioning, and self-inquiry. Jamila's multifacted body and movement training includes GYROTONIC® & GYROKINESIS® methods, Pilates, dance, dance/movement therapy, mindfulness training, somatic meditation, Reiki, yoga and Zen Shiatsu.   As a life long learner they believe that "uncovering the gifts of being human can occur through developing a relationship to self through mindfulness and the body."  In our conversation, Jamila begins by describing her embodiment as originating through suffering and pain; in order to manage the discomfort, Jamila moved. They emphasize the importance of acknowledging what we don't know so that we may "be open and curious to meeting ourselves and what is, in the moment."  Jamila observes and interacts with the forces both internal and external that restrain and constrict how we are allowed to exist and move in our bodies. In follow up conversations, Jamila and I have discussed how internal forces include but are not limited to personal/familial traumas or mental habits of self-criticism or fear. Although Jamila doesn't specify in this conversation the external forces that disempower, this is invitation to identify all conditions –-systemic, intergenerational, social, and cultural-- that live in our collective consciousness and often separate us from the possibility of flourishing together. In particular, I want to call out the dominant cultural forces that oppress bodies, especially for Black, Indigenous and people of color, for women, for LGBTQIA+folks, for those with disabilities and anyone who deviates from the prescribed ideal fostered by industries and structures that capitalize on the insecurity and shaming of our bodies.  As the United States reels from yet another white supremacist act of violence, I want to also remind us all that violence against others begins in the mind, in the consciousness, in how we conceive of bodies of others. This work, the work Jamila does, offers a way through. Jamila offers online and in person classes and individual sessions through her website: "https://www.themovingsoul.com/" https://www.themovingsoul.com/ She can also be found on instagram: @themovingsoul To support the labor of love that is The Return to Embodiment, visit https://www.patreon.com/returntoembodiment

In this interview, I am speaking with Damien Norris, who I met at an Evolve Move Play retreat in Washington in Fall of 2021.  We were placed in a group together, called the Vikings, and shared interests drew us into conversation about how embodiment within nature can combine to transform individual and collective experience and perspective.   Damien is completing a PhD at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada that explores the links between human movement, philosophy (phenomenology), embodiment, nature connection and human wellness. In his twenties Damien retired from a career in elite gymnastics and began working as a community development and international aid worker and later as a criminal and civil lawyer, public guardian, university lecturer, philosopher and human rights consultant.  After twenty years of working a desk job Damien became a dad and was forced to confront his “fitness”. Desk bound and de-conditioned he reclaimed his fitness through practicing parkour in nature and urban settings. The story of Damien’s return to fitness was captured in a TEDxPerth2018 presentation, “It’s time to rewild”. This project set in motion a much deeper exploration of human movement, world travel and research that lead to his current PhD and a foundational understanding of the meaning of movement.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGNKHmt34gk Damien teaches, presents, mentors and leads workshops, in person and online, on subjects related to his PhD and can be contacted via email: [email protected]  To support the labor of love that is The Return to Embodiment, visit https://www.patreon.com/returntoembodiment

Kristen Mennona  is a licensed professional counselor, a board-certified dance/movement therapist, a certified eating disorder specialist (CEDS), a registered yoga instructor (RYT 200) and a BTTI trained clinician for pediatric OCD.  Kristen owns Nurture Family Counseling LLC, a counseling practice designed to treat pediatric eating disorders, ocd and anxiety within the context of the family.  Kristen is offering a course through EEIC titled "Pediatric OCD and Eating Disorders: A DMT Approach to Evidence Based Interventions" for clinicians and aspiring dance/movement therapists.  She also hosts an Instagram account called, “The_Body_As” to inspire others to work on body image acceptance and to pass that acceptance on to the next generation. She has presented nationally on the topics of self- acceptance, eating disorders/body image distress and reconnecting to the body. Kristen combines best clinical practices with ancient, embodied experiences for her clients. She believes in the inherent wisdom of the body to bring forth that which needs healing with humor and courage.    Become a patreon of the Return to Embodiment Podcast: www.patreon.com/returntoembodiment

Marissa Voytenko seeks to bring comfort and beauty through her paintings and sculptures. Marissa has been painting with encaustic, a molten wax medium, for over a decade.   In this conversation, Marissa shares about how her art practice is a practice of meditation, of prayer in which she holds within her consciosuness the suffering in our world as she creates.  Although our conversation took place before the invasion of the Ukraine, where she lived for three years and has many loved ones, her current instagram shares about her art process during the current tragedies of the war. She is selling art to raise money for Doctors Without Boarders in Ukraine.  Originally from California, Marissa received training at the California State Summer School for the Arts.  In 2003, Marissa earned a Master of Fine Art in Studio Teaching at Boston University. She has exhibited work both nationally and internationally.  Marissa resides with her family in the Chicago area and is an adjunct professor at Wheaton College.   Marissa's work can be found online at www.marissavoytenko.com/ or on instragram at www.instagram.com/marissavoytenko/.  Become a patreon of the Return to Embodiment Podcast: www.patreon.com/returntoembodiment

David is a contemporary artist who creates sculptures, installations and archetectural experiences that usher the participant into deeper awareness of themselves, others, and the world we share.  David describes the origins and theoretical underpinnings of his passion for art and music as encounters of meaning and awakening, of his practice of creating spaces of comfort as a child.  He also speaks about bringing the sky down to earth with his ongoing Skycube series- the latest of which is part of his current artist residency and ongoing exhibition activating the 60 acres surrounding Mies van der Rohe’s internationally celebrated mid-century glass home: the Edith Farnsworth House in Plano, IL. Through these encounters of gentle disorientation, David draws participants into intimacy with our own embodied selves as a tender grounding place for beholding one another and the spaces we inhabit.  I am delighted to share this expansive conversation offering an invitation into wonder and the intimacy of interrelational beholding.    David Wallace Haskins: Landscape + Light is on view now through December 2022, for more information please visit EdithFarnsworthHouse.org For more information, visit David at https://davidwallacehaskins.com/ on Instagram: @davidwallacehaskins  Become a patreon of the Return to Embodiment Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/returntoembodiment

In this conversation, I am speaking with Grace Bella Harman LPC, R-DMT, an embodied grief guide. Grace traces the origins of her pull to this work, sharing her own experiences of loss and transformation have equipped her to trust that grieving is a sacred process that requires the intentional engagement of the body. Grace holds sacred space for people to utilize their bodies to move through, process and ultimately be transformed by their grief.  In fact, her facilitation is driven by the belief that your body is the most primary, vital and intelligent resource for navigating the waters of grief.  Grace offers individual and group sessions for people who are in the midst of grief, both old and new, and she is offering a training this year for therapists who are interested in deepening their skillfulness and experiencing their own transformtion so that they can better guide others through the waters of grief. For more information on sacred grief groups for therapists and clients, you can visit her website at: https://www.gracebellaharman.com/  Become a patreon of the Return to Embodiment Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/returntoembodiment

In this conversation, I am speaking with Melissa Walker MA, LPC, R-DMT about the integration of the worlds of somatic psychotherapy, dance/movement therapy and sex therapy.  Melissa takes us along her personal journey of how a full body "yes," arose in relation to witnessing bellydance as a teenager, which propelled her on the path that lead to publishing of her book, Whole Body Sex: Somatic sex therapy and the lost language of the erotic body in January 2021. Melissa describes the importance of cultivating safe-enough space for conversations and experiences to unwind the harmful conditioning that has been inherited from a sex-negative culture to free us to access pleasure and cultivate intimacy.  She invites us into the magnificence of the body and the language of the erotic self, which is a world of discovery and a foundation for learning to relate lovingly to another. Melissa can be found online at www.embodiedrelationshipscenter.com/, and in addition to clinical work with individuals, couples and groups, Melissa provides trainings for therapists on her method of somatic concentric sex therapy, with trainings coming up in February in Boulder, Colorado and August, 2022 in Bellingham, Washington.  For more information or to join us, visit:  https://embodiededucationinstituteofchicago.hubspotpagebuilder.com/sex-therapy-training  For trainings and clinical support, visit Melissa at https://www.embodiedrelationshipscenter.com/concentric-sex-therapy Become a patron of the Return to Embodiment Podcast at https://www.patreon.com/returntoembodiment

In the fourth season of the podcast, I am so delighted to share the ongoing conversation that inspire and enlighten me, specifically for this episode the importance of ecological belonging.  This season the podcast is full of conversational inqueries about how the lived experience of our bodies informs the essence of how we understand our lives and our being within the world.  Welcome and thank you for joining us.  

In this conversation, I am speaking with Paul Sevett BC-DMT, LICSW. When Paul was elected president of the ADTA in 2017, I reached out to him to have a conversation about taking on this role, but our conversation was delayed as 2020 unfolded and Paul decided to step down from the role of president.  This year I had a chance to sit down with him to hear his experience. Paul has been studying dance/movement therapy for over fourty years, and in our conversation, he speaks to the experience of being a man in a field that is predominantly female, and the extraordinary priviledge of learning and practicing dance/movement therapy.  We trace the origins of his interest in movement and dance, and he names teachers and influences, who offered him a "luxurious" education through dance.  Paul reflects upon the decision to decline the role of the ADTA president, and he offers a hopeful vision for the future of the field.

In this conversation, I am speaking with Susan Imus MA, LCPC, BC-DMT, GL-CMA, about her attempts to create language and theoretical scaffolding for the field of dance/movement therapy.  Susan was motivated by a question: how does dance/movement therapy work?  In her most recent article, Creating Breeds Creating. In H. Wentgrower and S. Chaiklin (Eds), Dance and Creativity Within Dance Movement Therapy: International Perspectives. Susan suggests several models for understanding the work of dance/movement therapy including Nine Funamental Mechanisms, A-FECT Model of Aesthetics and Culture, and The Continuum of Interdisciplinary Approaches.  Susan writes about how the field of dance/movement therapy spans the realms of the somatic, the aesthetic, and the psychological, and each of these realms explain aspects how dance/movement therapy works. Susan has created these models as offerings to the field, with the hope that they can bolster education, research and collaboration within the field internationally.   Susan is Associate Professor and the former Chair of the Department of Creative Arts Therapies in the School of Fine and Performing Arts at Columbia College Chicago. Susan has practiced, educated, and consulted in dance/movement therapy and the creative arts throughout the U.S. and abroad for 33 years. Susan is the former chair of the Education, Research, and Practice Committee for the American Dance Therapy Association (ADTA). She received the first Excellence in Education award by the ADTA in 2006. Susan, originally trained in nursing, has been employed as a dance/movement therapist by 10 different hospitals throughout her career in the Midwest and on the East Coast. Prestigious institutions include Harvard University’s McLean Hospital and Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare, where she was recruited to assist in the development of chronic pain services through the Department of Medical Specialties. Susan teaches a course called Embodiment: A Way to Know Your Patient at Rush University Medical College and in the recent past at the Bioethics and Humanities Department in the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. Susan is active in the Arts in Health community working with Rush Generations; a wellness program through the Social Work and Community Health Department at Rush University Medical Center. Susan and the studentsa (arts in health minor) received the Community Engagement Award by the organization in 2017.

In her definition of embodiment, Dr. Angela Grayson connects to rootedness through both African and Native American ancestors as well as each of her grandmothers, highlighting also how embodiment is a manifestation of spirit and ancestory and a culmination of all the experiences that have choreographed into the present moment.   Dr. Angela Grayson is a Clinical Psychologist, a Licensed Professional Counselor, a Board Certified Dance/Movement Therapist, Executive Stress Management Coach and a Licensed Minister of Dance.  In her private practice, Angela seeks to enhance the quality of life through verbal and nonverbal creative expression, as well as, educate, support and provide opportunities for transformation of self along a spiritual journey of healing and wholeness.  She is the newly inaugurated president of the American Dance Therapy Association, and she is the first Black president of the organization. She implements a combination of Humanistic, African-centered, and Transpersonal psychology which helps to uncover, explore, express, and heal the whole self.   She is an educator, writer, public speaker and creator of The Girlfriend Retreat Experience which provides a safe transformative space for women to enhance their relationships with the women in their lives. https://goodfruitexpressivearts.com/

Chad Alcorn PsyD is the first clinical psychologist with whom I shared my early understandings of dance/movement therapy as a graduate student, which have grown into the deep knowing found in this podcast.  He has been a steadfast encourager of my professional development, and even of this podcast as a practice of inquiry.  Chad's clinical training includes Adlerian psychology, Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy, EMDR, ACT and mindfulness practices. Chad prioritizes the cultivation of a holding environment within which clients can grow through the implicit experience of a healing relationship.   When Chad was diagnosed with stomach cancer at the end of 2019, facing a life-threatening illness propelled him to track his own process of disconnection and to build resources for integeration and reinhabiting the body.  In this podcast, Chad shares with us the hard earned lessons gleaned from this journey including rituals of music-making derived from the rich tradition of the Blues, which foster both individual and collective embodiment in the face of suffering.  

Sarahi Lay Trigo is a dancer, researcher, and film maker.  After a sudden illness in 2008 left her immobile, with a prognosis that she would never walk again, Sarahi's love of dance provided both inspiration and a concrete practice for reinhabiting and rehabilitating her body.  With the support and love of her family, Sarahi began to move, to speak, and to dance again. Through that experience, Sarahi recognized movement as essential, to survive, to shift out of immobility into life and to generate hope.  During onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Sarahi once again felt immobilized, this time out of fear and the social isolation, and recognized the need for dance once again as an inquiry into healing. Thus, Sarahi created an experiential dance film with her brother, Carlos Lay, as composer, a movement practice that transformed the stuckness of fear into creative impulse.  This film, Spiritual Battle Trilogy: Facing Covid-19 fear through dance film, traces her healing process of awakening, battling and returning to self.  https://www.strangelovefestival.com/winners/2020/9/25/y79wc8urs2d25wbr13mcxlfyemw4gc 

In this season of the return to embodiment, I welcome you into another season of conversations about embodiment, trusting that learning and knowing in this area is never finished yet many of us dont realize all that we know because we do not take the time to notice.  This year has been one of deceleration, of stalling out, of grieving, of relocating, and retreating from the pressure to create on a time line disconnected from an embodied sense of timing. Although this introductory musing was created in June, I wasnt prepared to publish until July.  Yet, in reclaiming my sense of timing, and giving permission for life to unfold with a different pace, questions arose:  What purpose does living a rushed life serve?  Is being busy a way of making ourselves useful? What if time was a friend, a beloved, rather than something we fight or attempt to wrestle into submission?  Perhaps living into embodiment is a practice of allowing ourselves to decelerate into all that we do not know, moments of 'useless' presence, so that we can begin to know and to move aligned with the flow of time itself.  Could it be that in useless moments, the boredom and the mystery can coexist.

There are times when a teacher offers perpective you cannot find on your own.  If one listens, with an open mind, an open body, in this episode, Jeff walks us through his journey into the richest ecosystem on earth, the Amazon River basin.  He describes the dieta, his apprenticeship with the plants and the Shaman, including the hardship as well as the joy, weaving observations of his changing self in relationship with the environments within which he finds himself. Jeff's journey has lead him to integrate his past experiences and study including dance/movement therapy, organizational development, and bodywork with his own healing and awakening to our shared ecological condition, with a vision for the present: to be fully alive, which means noticing when ecotrauma causes us to numb ourselves.  Yet, his vision extends beyond the wounds and the suffering to a hope of true freedom, to move towards community and to find the joy found in right relationship with the earth, with ourselves, and with one another.  

Peggy Hackney is co-founder of Integrated Movement Studies (www.imsmovement.com) and teaches in their Laban/Bartenieff Certificate Program.  As a registered somatic movement therapist (ISMETA), a certified massage therapist, and a teacher of labanotation, Peggy Hackney has been working in the world of movement and embodiment for over fifty years. She teaches globally and has written the seminal book "Making Connections: Total body integration through Bartenieff fundamentals" which was inspired and formed by the almost fifteen years she worked alongside Irmgard Bartenieff, who shared the motto: "Constant Change is Here to Stay."  Peggy acknowledges the source and practices which support her ability to find aliveness, and to move with the unknowns of change.