Special Applications

Applications for the Performing Artist

My training as a professional dancer and performer has afforded me a unique insight into the particular technical problems and injuries that can effect dancers of all ages. I have taught courses in injury prevention for dancers at the American Dance Festival and I have worked with some of the most well known dancers and dance teachers today. Understanding and changing patterns of movement that make one susceptible to chronic injury is one of my specialties and I particularly enjoy working with seemingly intractable issues that are obstacles to the development of one’s physical technique.  For an in depth look at a unique approach I have developed for dancers called Compression Therapy please see the article in the 2001 Fall issue of Contact Quarterly Magazine

For many years I have enjoyed working with a New York based Vocal coach by providing her students with individual work in experiential anatomy and body work that supports and clarifies the vocal process. The hands-on work releases unnecessary tension, strengthens supporting structures, and integrates the process of sounding within the deeper tissues of the body. For more information see the source material on  “Body-Mind Centering (R) and the Vocal student”.

My work with actors encourages them to develop a full range of movement choices and psychophysical expression. Actors can get locked into habitual modes of emotional response. By bringing to awareness and somatic experience all the varying qualities inherent in the systems and tissues of the body the actor develops confidence and ease in transitioning through emotional and physical states. This is accomplished through hands-on work, verbal dialogue and movement that focus on direct perception of the skeletal, muscular, organ, fluid, gland and nervous systems.

Applications for the Athlete

From 1983 to 1989 I was a movement analyst and trainer at Sports Training Institute and Director of Movement Training at Plus One Fitness Center’s in NYC. During that time I worked with numerous professional athletes and fitness aficionados developing sports specific protocols, injury prevention, and therapeutic exercises etc. Some of my clients included: Nets basketball player Bernard King, Tennis pro Billie Jean King, and Olympic Lightweight boxer Mark Breland. The hands-on work I do for athlete’s focuses on smooth coordination of muscle and fascia to balance strength and flexibility, releasing and articulation of major joints, and the repatterning of movement sequencing for greater efficiency and flow. I also develop individual sports specific exercise protocols and postural analysis profiles.

Applications for the Psychotherapy Client

In 1989, I was a co-founder along with Nicki Dayley of the Center for Mind Body Resources, a group of highly trained professionals in the areas of mental health & somatic-movement disciplines. Our goal was to offer integrated mind-body care for clients & training for professionals. Since then, I have had the opportunity to work in consultation with psychotherapists and directly with their clients to increase the benefits of verbal based therapy by complimenting it with a body based approach. Many people express distress through their thoughts and emotions but they may also manifest many body based symptoms such as chronic pain or dis-ease, lack of sensory awareness and feedback, postural and movement coordination problems and poor breathing and circulation. By combing body focused techniques with mental health work the mistaken split between body & mind can be healed and the client’s innate wholeness can be more directly experienced. Essential to this experience of wholeness, is the cultivation of awareness within an atmosphere of trust and openness. To develop that essential trust, I work slowly and sensitively proceeding from the more outwardly manifesting symptoms to the more hidden, core body issues. The use of skillful, non-invasive touch is a powerful tool for changing patterns of body & mind. To touch and be touched lies at the heart of how we experience our world. Along with the hands-on work, I use verbal suggestions and dialogue to guide the client towards heightened body awareness & insight. Part of the session might also include instructions on how to integrate one’s experiences on the table with daily life and activities. My 25 years of training in mindfulness-based meditation gives me the experience to provide interested clients with meditation instruction and guidance. Grounding the emotions in the body, balancing the need for both support and mobility, bringing what was previously unknown to the surface and calming & recuperating what has been stressed are some of the goals of my work with clients in ongoing therapy.