Workshop
Making Connections
Somatic Movement Education and Therapy with Children with Special Needs
From the Perspective of Body-Mind Centering®
September 13 & 14-15, 2019
Jardin et Mouvement - Grenoble
avec Thomas GREIL, BMC®practitioner and teacher
« In order to effect change, we start at the beginning and build gradually, successively, and consciously to stimulate the development that occurs naturally when there are no restrictions. Then redirect and recreate the process of effortless learning through acceptance, desire, curiosity, comfort and love. » Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen
The first weeks and months of life lay the foundation for later learning, for how we perceive and act in the world. If certain developmental steps are not taken in this time, there is still access to making it up later in life. Having a deep understanding of development has the advantage that we are looking at potentials, which have not fully developed, rather than what is missing. There is always something new to discover, no matter what the abilities or limitations may be, or fitting into norms.
The BMC approach is gentle, non-intrusive, and enticing rather than demanding. It is highly specific to the individual child. BMC does not force, but engages, interacts and seeks to spark the child’s inherent curiosity and interest. BMC supports self-directed learning, stimulating, independent of the abilities of the child, the process of discovery. It always looks at the whole person and fully embraces the process of each child and their caregivers, parents and family.
Body-Mind Centering is based on the study of human development from an embodied and experiential perspective, from everybody’s own experience: Life, from conception to walking, from embryonic stages to adult anatomy and physiology.
This workshop investigates movement organization and touch through explorations and demonstrations, as well as the transmission of some basic principles to professionals in the field of care.
Price : 50€ (13/09)* + 200€(14+15/09/2019)
Total : 21h (3j x7h)
• 13 september : Exchange laboratory between BMC professionnals
* Public : only people certified BMC program.
• 14 & 15 september : Training workshop opened to everyone interested,
Public : especially for parents, educators, therapists, students with or without BMC®experience, including any other somatic practices
Workshop in English with French translation
Learning objectives
- Experiencing developmental steps and processes in one’s own body
- Getting an introduction to a dynamic approach to working with infants and children with special needs and their families
- Understanding of dormant potentials to facilitate development
- Understanding the importance of touch for development and change
- Understanding the meaning of care and being touched with care
- Facilitating in a non-intrusive way
- Working through play and enticement
- How to use the senses to stimulate the child’s curiosity and sense of discovery
- Enhancing the child’s sense of self and relationship to others
- Facilitating with respect for the child and the family
- Getting a basic understanding how to transmit movement and touch principles
Thomas GREIL
Thomas teaches in BMC Certification Program in Europe and the US since 2003, as well as in the Program for Infant Developmental Movement Education (IDME). His interest in working with children with special needs and their families comes from the long experience of working with diverse abled children, from playing with babies and accompanying families, as well as from his research of human development from the embryonic stage on, phylogenetic evolution and the research of the application of neuroscience in relation to growth, healing trauma and embodiment. He lives in Salerno, Italy. He created SOMA, the french BMC program in 2006