Below the Neck: Body as Path to Personal Growth & Transformation

Description

Topics: Mind & Body, Myth & Fairy Tale, Self-Psychology

Below the Neck: Body as Path to Personal Growth & Transformation

Jung wrote, “The psyche and body are not separate entities, but one and the same life.” Yet one of our culture’s stories is that most of the important action of our lives takes place in our heads.  Frequently, we see the body as something ‘other’, something foreign that ‘does its thing’ or alternately, as a slave to do our bidding. Living in the head can enable values that seek control disconnected from the “messy sensations of the world”. Yet, the field of trauma therapy now recognizes that ‘the body knows the score’ of all that has happened to us’ and holds the keys to transformation and emotional change.  This ‘other’, when neglected, speaks in symptoms. In this interactive and experiential workshop, we will encounter our bodies and learn to ‘tune in’ to its sensations and symptoms, moving deeply into and through our emotional landscapes.  We will engage our bodies with physical movement, creative expression, active imagination and fairy tales to learn to live more fully in and with our body and its wisdom.

NOTE: This seminar is both lecture and experiential. The structure is one experiential, an hour of lecture, and a second experiential followed by discussion. The lecture portion is available in video, and the PowerPoint is included as a PDF in the download, as well as a poem that Amy gave as a handout. The experiential portions are audio only. The entire course is also included as a single audio file.

Sample

Learning objectives
This presentation is designed to help participants:
1)    Observe and work with physical sensations as a way to access and release emotions.
2)    Learn a technique for using the body and its sensations as a method for reducing anxiety.
3)    Summarize one or two fairy tales that focus on the relationship between body and mind.
4)    Apply a variety of body-based practices to daily living.

Recommended Reading and Viewing
•    Levine, Peter, In an Unspoken Voice:  How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness
•    Estes, C. P., Women who Run With the Wolves, chapter 7, “Joyous Body”
•    Shepherd, Philip, New Self, New World: Recovering our senses in the twenty-first century
•    Monte, C., “The Body and Movement in Analysis”, in Stein, M., ed., Jungian Psychoanalysis
•    Keleman, S., Emotional Anatomy and Your Body Speaks Its Mind
•    DVD – Woodman, Marion; Dancing in the Flames

Amy Sprague Champeau, MS, LMFT, is a Jungian psychoanalyst and licensed marriage and family therapist.  She is currently a staff therapist at The Family Institute at Northwestern University.  She is a certified level II provider of TRE (trauma releasing exercises), is a certified practitioner of Integral Bodywork, has taught intuitive painting for many years, and is a long-time practitioner of Zen meditation.