Touch Archives - Somatic Therapy Asia https://www.somatictherapy.asia/tag/touch/ Movement, Inquiry, Embodiment Sat, 26 Feb 2022 08:49:09 +0000 en hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://i0.wp.com/www.somatictherapy.asia/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/cropped-favicon-e1619080933140.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 Touch Archives - Somatic Therapy Asia https://www.somatictherapy.asia/tag/touch/ 32 32 202510029 Somatic Workshop Series: Navel Radiation (2/3) https://www.somatictherapy.asia/somatic-workshop-series-navel-radiation-2-3/ https://www.somatictherapy.asia/somatic-workshop-series-navel-radiation-2-3/#respond Tue, 22 Feb 2022 15:40:24 +0000 https://www.somatictherapy.asia/?p=4935 Navel Radiation Workshop 2/3 The second class of the navel radiation series. Click the link to watch the full class on youtube https://youtu.be/GKTokdJALho This session starts off with a developmental explanation of how we come to become who we are – from the meeting of the sperm and egg, implantation, development of fetus, vital organs, […]

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]]> Navel Radiation Workshop 2/3

The second class of the navel radiation series. Click the link to watch the full class on youtube https://youtu.be/GKTokdJALho

This session starts off with a developmental explanation of how we come to become who we are – from the meeting of the sperm and egg, implantation, development of fetus, vital organs, and intricate features. We hear how the navel is our centre, and the seed by which intrinsic movement gives rise to extrinsic movement – and bi-directionally, from extrinsic movement to intrinsic movement.
The session starts off with the use of touch, to bring greater felt sense to the different parts of our body and their relationship to the navel centre. We then engage in different movement sequences to engage the entire body (all our 6 limbs), with the focus on initiating movement from the navel centre.
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Props required:

  • 1 yoga mat
  • 1 pair of socks
  • 1 weighted ball (or water bottle)
  • 1 cushion (or bolster)
  • 1 blanket

This post was previously posted on Yogawithdaphne.com on December 17th 2021.

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]]> https://www.somatictherapy.asia/somatic-workshop-series-navel-radiation-2-3/feed/ 0 4935 Sensory Awareness as Therapeutic Tool https://www.somatictherapy.asia/sensory-awareness-as-therapeutic-tool/ https://www.somatictherapy.asia/sensory-awareness-as-therapeutic-tool/#respond Sat, 19 Feb 2022 08:51:34 +0000 https://www.somatictherapy.asia/?p=4830 Last 2 spots left for this weekend’s mini-immersion in Trauma-informed Somatic Yoga. As yoga becomes increasingly popular in therapeutic settings, it’s important that teachers and professionals understand not just that yoga offers healing opportunities to those recovering from trauma, but how and why it can help. This course offers the unique opportunity to learn basic […]

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]]> Last 2 spots left for this weekend’s mini-immersion in Trauma-informed Somatic Yoga.

As yoga becomes increasingly popular in therapeutic settings, it’s important that teachers and professionals understand not just that yoga offers healing opportunities to those recovering from trauma, but how and why it can help. This course offers the unique opportunity to learn basic foundational frameworks, apply this knowledge to both individual and group cases, and identify how yoga can meet the needs of diverse populations.

This course is designed for yoga and mental health practitioners seeking to share yoga with people who have experienced trauma.

You might be teaching in a studio, private practice, or less conventional setting, or you may be a practitioner seeking depth in your personal practice. If you’re looking for a grounded, practical understanding of how you can use movement and touch work to support folks with trauma recovery, this workshop will serve as an excellent introduction to this work
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Thank you @mandalapsychology for the quote feature.

This post was previously posted on Yogawithdaphne.com on January 18th 2021.

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]]> https://www.somatictherapy.asia/sensory-awareness-as-therapeutic-tool/feed/ 0 4830 First Covid Training Completed https://www.somatictherapy.asia/first-covid-training-completed/ https://www.somatictherapy.asia/first-covid-training-completed/#respond Fri, 18 Feb 2022 08:33:27 +0000 https://www.somatictherapy.asia/?p=4809 This post was previously posted on Yogawithdaphne.com on December 2nd 2020.

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This post was previously posted on Yogawithdaphne.com on December 2nd 2020.

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]]> https://www.somatictherapy.asia/first-covid-training-completed/feed/ 0 4809 Nolstalgia https://www.somatictherapy.asia/nolstalgia/ https://www.somatictherapy.asia/nolstalgia/#respond Fri, 05 Nov 2021 17:28:12 +0000 https://www.somatictherapy.asia/?p=3937 They say nolstagiais akin to a journey back in timewhen things made sensewhere we knewour place in the world...Perhaps it’s also when our livescan’t get any more mundanethat we lose our compassand our ground...The triumph of waking upto another groundhog day .16 more hoursin front of the screen.Blue light solace at my fingertipsWork, exercise, shop, […]

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]]> They say nolstagia
is akin to a journey back in time
when things made sense
where we knew
our place in the world.
.
.
Perhaps it’s also when our lives
can’t get any more mundane
that we lose our compass
and our ground.
.
.
The triumph of waking up
to another groundhog day .
16 more hours
in front of the screen.
Blue light solace at my fingertips
Work, exercise, shop, socialise, youtube
Repeat.
.
.
Choices.
Are they freedom or dilemma?
To stay in or go out?
Solitude will always be served
as the main dish.
.
.
6 feet apart.
Eyes exposed
but be sure to avert my gaze.
My lungs laboured
underneath the cotton covering of
sweaty recycled breath.
.
.
Oh, the yearning to be seen
and heard!
and touched!
Overshadowed by the anxiety
of ending up as a snapshot
shamed and fined.
.
.
A nation locked down
but united in fear.
Fighting the invisible war of numbers
against the enemy crowned virus.
.
.
Masked vigilantes
armed with smartphone and app
Incognito but bestowed with power
to defend and protect.
.
.
Stand in line for nasi lemak and bubble tea
Essential recharge for our ammo
A balm for the caged mind
in this urban Disneyland
.
.
In the silence of empty construction sites,
a figure stooped in his neon green shirt .
The sound of bristles on concrete.
Broom in hand
He looked up
and smiled through his armour
“I’m okay” his eyes spoke.
He sweeps our dwellings
while his brothers locked away
their homes out of reach.
.
.
So we march on,
to a promised vaccined land
where business is as usual
An utopia with
no distancing
no violence
no debts
no sovereigns2we

This post was originally posted on Yogawithdaphne.com on May 27th 2020

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]]> https://www.somatictherapy.asia/nolstalgia/feed/ 0 3937 Our embodied self-image https://www.somatictherapy.asia/our-embodied-self-image/ https://www.somatictherapy.asia/our-embodied-self-image/#respond Fri, 05 Nov 2021 16:21:58 +0000 https://www.somatictherapy.asia/?p=3934 This week’s sharing on #somawithDaphneandLucy: YOUR SELF IMAGE.How long are your arms? How wide is your chest? What does it mean to straighten your knees? And how accurately are your answers meeting your physical reality?.It almost comes as a surprise, after living with and in our body for so long, that we’re not born with a […]

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]]> This week’s sharing on #somawithDaphneandLucy
: YOUR SELF IMAGE
.
How long are your arms? How wide is your chest? What does it mean to straighten your knees? And how accurately are your answers meeting your physical reality?
.
It almost comes as a surprise, after living with and in our body for so long, that we’re not born with a defined self image. We’re not born knowing we have a body.
.
When a baby is born into this world, their knowing is still of union (with the mother). Through experience they begin to recognise that there’s a differentiation between “self” and the “other”. This differentiation is gradually learnt through the senses.
.
Through touch, movement, and gravity, along with sight, smell, hearing and taste, our sensory system put together a complex map of references, creating and ever refining our self image.
.
How many times have you seen a baby with his hands and feet stuck in his mouth? Since the mouth is extremely rich in sensory receptors, and the baby’s source of finding nourishment through the oral rooting reflex, it also becomes a key starting point to begin exploring our environment. Figuring out the world by putting objects close to the mouth and the lips to learn about shapes and textures, and also investigating whether that object is or isn’t a part of “self”. Measuring the body’s length and size by bringing the distal limbs to the centre of the inner mapping (head and torso), examining the shape of the body through rolling, the ground offering a mirror as the body is being touched by the surface underneath, and thus distinguishing the outside world by touching something we don’t feel as part of “self”…Through touch we learn about the environment we inhabit in, and by being touched we learn about ourselves.
.
Our self image is being crafted and refined day by day. And there’s many more factors contributing to it like the vestibular system (sense of gravity, balance, and proprioception), vision, our muscular-skeletal system including the tendons and ligaments, our experiences of pain, emotions, social and cultural conditioning, belief systems etc..
.
Our perceived sense of what is an “upright” posture, having our arms “straight”, our perception of length, width, distance, depth or even what is “normal” will also differ from person to person.
.
The knowing that this process is not just inherent but gained through experience, allows us to look at ourselves through fresh perspectives. Is my self-image complete? Do I know where every part of my body is? Is where I think I am relative to space and gravity accurate?
.
Our sensory and motor neurons work hand-in-hand in a constant feedback loop, always communicating with each other. The way we stand, move, act and execute our desires through our muscular-skeletal system is based on this inner sensory map we’ve drawn. While we might plan with our body’s self image in mind, we execute through our actual body. If our self image is not accurate, there will also be a difference between the intended and the actual outcome of our actions.
.
In order to improve the quality of your movement, address chronic pain and tension etc. we first have to explore what is actually there. Begin by mapping out your body and you’d be in awe with what you will uncover.
.
“You cannot change what you do not know” ~ Moshe Feldenkreis.

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~ written by Lucie Krobova, edited by Daphne Chua 

This post was originally posted on Yogawithdaphne.com on May 25th 2020

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]]> https://www.somatictherapy.asia/our-embodied-self-image/feed/ 0 3934 The Covid19 Bodies of Pain https://www.somatictherapy.asia/the-covid19-bodies-of-pain/ https://www.somatictherapy.asia/the-covid19-bodies-of-pain/#respond Fri, 05 Nov 2021 13:32:11 +0000 https://www.somatictherapy.asia/?p=3924 Since the beginning of the lockdown (or Circuit Breaker as they call it in Singapore), I’ve been closely watching the more unquantifiable vectors arising out of the pandemic, particularly the psychological effects of isolation and social distancing on mental health, and how these measures to protect our mortality relates back to our physiology and our […]

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]]> Since the beginning of the lockdown (or Circuit Breaker as they call it in Singapore), I’ve been closely watching the more unquantifiable vectors arising out of the pandemic, particularly the psychological effects of isolation and social distancing on mental health, and how these measures to protect our mortality relates back to our physiology and our body when we are deprived of the most basic human need to socially engage – to see, touch, feel, laugh, share a meal, make eye contact, with other human beings. And there’s also the other polarity of those who are locked into one space with the same bodies day in and day out. While most family homes are safe spaces, some are cages of abuse.

We can’t look at the mind without also looking at the body as an integral piece. Most of our interactions outside of our immediate bubble are now screen-based and one-dimensional, our escape from reality is more screen time on social media, over Zoom drinks and Netflix binge. Our bodies relegated to being moving parts so as to carry our brain around. Some might even argue the body is the vulnerable conduit for transmission if we were to come too close to another.

The article I’ve appended is a valuable long read from the perspective of a psychologist in the UK. She examines the individual body, the corporate body, and the state body. If you’re interested in bodies as an inseparable part of our mind’s deepest reaches, perhaps you might dwell in her words and draw your own parallels.

Read here: 

Picture

This post was originally posted on Yogawithdaphne.com on May 12th 2020

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]]> https://www.somatictherapy.asia/the-covid19-bodies-of-pain/feed/ 0 3924 The roar of awakening https://www.somatictherapy.asia/the-roar-of-awakening/ https://www.somatictherapy.asia/the-roar-of-awakening/#respond Fri, 05 Nov 2021 12:34:11 +0000 https://www.somatictherapy.asia/?p=3892 Fire became speech and entered the mouthWind became breath and entered the nostrilsHeavens’ vibration became sound and entered the earsThe sun became sight and entered the eyesPlants became touch and entered the skinAnimals became movement and entered the sinewsWater became the sea and entered the cellsThe moon became mind and entered the heartEarth became blood […]

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]]> Fire became speech and entered the mouth
Wind became breath and entered the nostrils
Heavens’ vibration became sound and entered the ears
The sun became sight and entered the eyes
Plants became touch and entered the skin
Animals became movement and entered the sinews
Water became the sea and entered the cells
The moon became mind and entered the heart
Earth became blood and entered the feet
Air became cerebral spinal fluid and became the hands
Darkness became sleep and entered hidden places
Light becomes awareness and entered everywhere
Stars become self and entered the centre of our perineum
Life became the in-breath and entered the navel
Death became the out-breath and entered the crown of the head
Space became love and entered our essence
Time began to pulsate and create cycles of being

“The Roar of Awakening” ~ Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen
​
#bonniebainbridgecohen#embodiedyogasummit#bodymindcentering#awakening#circuitbreaker#asongofcreation#yogatherapy#naturessong

This post was originally posted on Yogawithdaphne.com on April 22nd 2020

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]]> https://www.somatictherapy.asia/the-roar-of-awakening/feed/ 0 3892 Soma, Somatics & Embodiment https://www.somatictherapy.asia/soma-somatics-embodiment/ https://www.somatictherapy.asia/soma-somatics-embodiment/#respond Fri, 05 Nov 2021 12:29:57 +0000 https://www.somatictherapy.asia/?p=3889 Somatics and Embodiment are buzzwords in the yoga and movement community.With our combined experiences in Yoga, dance, and bodywork, both Lucie Krobová @explore_dance_movement and I hope to contribute a little more to the understanding of Somatic therapy and embodiment in this series of informative posts titled #somawithDaphneandLucyWe feel this is particularly pertinent during this volatile period in which […]

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]]> Somatics and Embodiment are buzzwords in the yoga and movement community.
With our combined experiences in Yoga, dance, and bodywork, both Lucie Krobová @explore_dance_movement and I hope to contribute a little more to the understanding of Somatic therapy and embodiment in this series of informative posts titled #somawithDaphneandLucy
We feel this is particularly pertinent during this volatile period in which we find ourselves having to surrender our individual agency in serving the greater good of the community we are a part of.

The word “Soma” comes from a Greek origin which translates to “The Living Body”, it’s the cosmic biological intelligence of our life force to self-organise, self regulate through the relational being of our body-mind the moment we are conceived.

Through inquiring into our soma, we begin to explore relationships between the microcosm and the macrocosm we inhabit through processes and body systems. We uncover our self image and gain insights into our habits and neurological patterning to create more choices in our responses to elements and people around us. The practice of embodying our soma calls upon our curiosity to sense and feel and be guided through what is arising from moment to moment.

Working with movement, breathwork, visualisation, touch and sound, this practice helps to regulate the nervous system, boost our immune system, and rewire our brain to move with greater ease and grace through life.

Is there a difference between Somatics and Embodiment?
Somatics is an embodiment practice and to become embodied means we are attuned to our soma. I guess they are inter-related but not exactly synonymous. Meaning that it’s both contextual and conceptual, i.e The embodiment process requires a somatic perspective so that our actions are guided by an authentic, relational intent.
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#somatics #embodiment #embodiedpractice #yogatherapy #soma #movement #breathwork #somaticmovement #somaticyoga #visualisation #bodywork #soundtherapy #therapy # nervoussystem #education #livingbody #bodyintelligence #innerknowledge #somaticeducation #yogaeducation #dancetherapy #yogawithdaphne #exploredancemovement #movingfromwithin20

This post was originally posted on Yogawithdaphne.com on April 21st 2020

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]]> https://www.somatictherapy.asia/soma-somatics-embodiment/feed/ 0 3889 The case of Yoga & Therapy https://www.somatictherapy.asia/the-case-of-yoga-therapy/ https://www.somatictherapy.asia/the-case-of-yoga-therapy/#respond Tue, 02 Nov 2021 14:19:26 +0000 https://www.somatictherapy.asia/?p=3819 The IAYT model of Yoga Therapy (often 1:1) integrates the whole being through relationships in the Pancha Maya Kosha model, i.e the physical body, the energetic body (e.g chakra system and pancha vayus, prakriti and vikruti etc), our emotional afflictions, our thought patterns, cultural / moral beliefs and frameworks, as well our core essence. These […]

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]]> The IAYT model of Yoga Therapy (often 1:1) integrates the whole being through relationships in the Pancha Maya Kosha model, i.e the physical body, the energetic body (e.g chakra system and pancha vayus, prakriti and vikruti etc), our emotional afflictions, our thought patterns, cultural / moral beliefs and frameworks, as well our core essence. These relationships are always in flux, each aspect flowing into or resisting another, a creative play of the conscious and unconscious.

In a therapeutic setting, we are working with the Soma or the living body – recognising our body is the construct of our relationships within and without will help us to find different access points. Through movement, breath, visualisations, sound, touch, or simply holding space, we allow our cellular intelligence to come out of the shadow, a window for change and homeostasis to take place.
As teachers / therapists, we need to juxtapose the insatiable quest for knowledge, while simultaneously honouring the liminal, unique, spiralling, blueprint of each person. We are co-regulating, co-creating, co-existing in each moment that unfolds.

The biggest challenge is often realising that this is not a linear process, that healing isn’t fixing, that therapists / teachers are merely facilitators – so we can keep uncovering, inquiring, connecting, titrating, supporting.

This post was previously posted on Yogawithdaphne.com on August 10th 2019

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]]> https://www.somatictherapy.asia/the-case-of-yoga-therapy/feed/ 0 3819 Movement. Inquiry. Embodiment 2.0 https://www.somatictherapy.asia/movement-inquiry-embodiment-2-0/ https://www.somatictherapy.asia/movement-inquiry-embodiment-2-0/#respond Tue, 02 Nov 2021 10:26:28 +0000 https://www.somatictherapy.asia/?p=3751 I’m pleased to be facilitating the next instalment of Embodiment and Bodywork Immersion once again at the gorgeous MalaDhara retreat centre in Chiang Mai this July.  This program keeps evolving year after year as I continue to morph and grow as an educator, therapist, practitioner, and most importantly, a human being. Many people ask me what kind […]

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]]> I’m pleased to be facilitating the next instalment of Embodiment and Bodywork Immersion once again at the gorgeous MalaDhara retreat centre in Chiang Mai this July. 

This program keeps evolving year after year as I continue to morph and grow as an educator, therapist, practitioner, and most importantly, a human being. Many people ask me what kind of Yoga do I teach now, and what do I mean by calling it Embodiment. So this is my attempt to shed some more light on this immersion.

Movement. Inquiry. Embodiment. These 3 words have been the guiding pillars of my content and offerings the last 3 years. In these deeply personal journeys, I hope to hold a sacred space for inquiries to take place, through movement, through touch, through curiosity, through connections – to delve into the relationships with our body, with our self and with others. To offer a safe space to explore, to question, to challenge and to let go. 

This program is NOT about scoring quick fixes.
It is NOT about perfecting your alignment in Yoga poses.
It is NOT a promise package to finding your bliss.

BUT.
This program will help you –
Learn more about your habitual patterns in the body-mind
Cultivate awareness, acceptance and spaciousness from within
Learn to listen so you can transition from a dogma / goal-oriented movement approach to one that is informed by body intelligence 
Rest / Restore / Rejuvenate 
Learn / Relearn / Retrain / Rewire 

And therefore, it is not Yoga of any lineage or any style. It is about coming home to our being, curated through the lens of wholeness, an embodiment of body-mind-spirit.

Not for the faint-hearted.

http://www.yogawithdaphne.com/embodimentyogabodyworkimmersion.html​

This post was previously posted on Yogawithdaphne.com on February 20th 2019

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