Dancing Body Stories: The Embodiment of Self 

An In-Depth Movement Awareness Exploration 

This workshop takes a somatic approach, using movement to connect the body, mind, and emotions. Its purpose is to guide participants on a journey of self-discovery, empowerment, and transformation within a supportive, therapeutic environment. Through this process, participants will have the opportunity to revisit and re-experience the formative stages of early development. 

The workshop is designed to give voice to the body, allowing it to express unconscious and unspoken material stored as memories, emotions, sensations, images, and patterns of behaviour. These may show up as tension, limiting beliefs, self-doubt, chronic fatigue, or even illness. Each of these patterns holds unexpressed parts of ourselves—stories waiting to be told. By exploring these stories through movement, participants are supported in moving toward wholeness and beginning a conscious healing journey. 

My inspiration for creating this workshop comes from over twenty years of study and practice in body language, embodiment, somatic healing, embryology, and trauma therapy. 

At its heart, this work is an inquiry into body awareness as a path to healing. Through movement, participants will explore old imprints, discover new ways of moving and relating, and develop tools for self-empowerment. The intention is to support participants in “taking charge” of their inner states—both in relationship to themselves and in connection with others. 

The foundation of this work lies in the six stages of the Dance of Awareness practice. This developmental model invites participants to explore human growth from pre-birth through approximately five years of age—a crucial period during which our sense of self takes shape through early experience, setting patterns that often carry into adulthood. 

The practice is supported by Somatic Movement Education, including explorations of embryological movement stages. This approach offers a way to connect with deeper layers of the self, integrating somatic and healing concepts to create opportunities for inner connection and integration. 

Over the course of 20 sessions, the support system draws on the Somatic Experiencing approach, which offers tools for releasing traumatic shock as well as early developmental and attachment trauma. Participants will have the opportunity to explore whether they are “stuck” in fight, flight, or freeze responses, and will be safely guided to access resources already present within the body. 

Pricing 

£200 for the full 20-day workshop 
£75 for a single 5-day themed workshop 

Workshop Structure 

The 20-day workshop is divided into four themes, each running for five days. Every Wednesday, 7:00–8:30 PM 

Dance of Awareness 

6 May – 3 June 

Dance of Awareness works with six cycles: Sensing, Grounding, Expressing, Releasing, Connecting, and Completing. These cycles follow an energetic wave of charging and discharging over the course of each session. The structure is similar to the Five Rhythms wave developed by Roth (1999), adapted to incorporate psychodynamic theory and developmental psychology. The phases of the cycle reflect themes of human development from pre-birth through approximately five years of age—a foundational period during which the embodied sense of self is formed, and life patterns are established. 

Senses and Perception 

10 June – 8 July

Our senses develop in response to experience, beginning in utero, where our fundamental patterns of perception are established. Each sense requires its own autonomy in order to integrate fully with the others. Through the senses, we receive information from both our internal and external environments.  

Perception is the physical and emotional process of interpreting this sensory information. In this module, we will explore the senses of taste, smell, hearing, and vision (located primarily in the head), as well as touch and movement, which are distributed throughout the body. 

Embodying the Diaphragms 

September TBC

The diaphragms form a support system for the body’s connective tissue and are essential for movement, motility, and breathing. These structures lie perpendicular to the body’s central axis and function as horizontal stabilizers. Highly innervated by the autonomic nervous system, they can either restrict or free the core. 

As with the senses, each diaphragm requires autonomy in order to integrate effectively with the others. The diaphragms explored in this module include the respiratory, pelvic, cervical, cranial, plantar (feet), and hand diaphragms. 

Embodying Space 

October TBC 

In this workshop, we are going to explore the prevertebral movement patterns that develop in utero within an aquatic environment (space). These are shadow movements carried from our deep ancestral and animal evolution. The patterns explored include Cellular Breathing, Navel Radiation, Mouthing, and Pre-spinal Movement. 

Interview with Clare and Tim, creators of Dance of Awareness. Listen here