A Wonderful Opportunity Awaits you (and Your Client) When Working with a Yoga Student

Friday, April 21st 9:00 AM-10:15 PM Pacific
Lisa Tatham

When working with an injured yoga student, you have the opportunity to help them get out of pain and, more fundamentally, change the way they are practicing to avoid future injury.  To understand how an injury can occur in a practice that is meant to be conscious, it’s important to recognize what's commonplace in many 'yoga' classes today—fast, repetitive movements that are done with the cerebellum (unconscious) and do not leave time to receive the sensory feedback from movement. Students can be injured before they even perceive a warning sign.  In many classes, students are watching someone else do the movements at the same time as they, themselves, are moving, which serves to further separate them from their own first-person, present-moment, lived experience.  They are not sensing or even seeking their soma.  In this presentation, we'll look at four common yoga postures and apply the principles of Hanna Somatics to them.  In this process, you will see that the ways of somaticizing a yoga posture and practice are limitless and do not even require a knowledge of yoga.  In teaching your client the principles of HSE, you will help them to heal as well as give them the tools to practice yoga in a way that is healing and holistic and leads to joy.  In learning Hanna Somatics, your client can reconnect with their soma in a way that it becomes a guiding force in all parts of their life.

Lisa Tatham, CHSE, has been teaching mindful practices in New York City for over 15 years. Upon completion of the Somatic Yoga Training with Eleanor Criswell and the Teaching Team at the Novato Institute, she began the three-year Hanna Somatic Education program and was certified in 2021. During this time, she also completed her certification in Trauma-Informed Yoga Therapy with Sundara Yoga. The knowledge and experience gained in these programs enhanced Lisa's understanding and practice of yoga. This prepared her to develop class curriculums for prenatal, oncology, and psychiatric patients, which she has the pleasure of guiding through the Weill Cornell Center for Health and Wellbeing. She is currently developing a class curriculum for medical students and residents of Weill Cornell Medicine. This is designed to support their own self-care practice, as well as inform the care they provide to their patients.

Website: http://yogainmovement.net
Phone: 212-679-0717
Email: lctatham@gmail.com

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Eleanor Criswell Hanna Demonstration with Client

Friday, April 21st 10:30 AM-12:00 PM Pacific
Eleanor Criswell Hanna

In this session, Eleanor will be working with a client of her choice. Eleanor will be on Zoom from her office and her client will be on Zoom from their residence. Eleanor will be choosing a client to provide an excellent learning experience for us all.  You’ll see how Eleanor moves through the session from opening welcome, to assessment, to working with the client, to closing movements and remarks. She’ll leave plenty of time for feedback and questions. Enjoy this great learning opportunity!

Eleanor Criswell Hanna, Ed.D., is emeritus professor of psychology and former chair of the psychology department, Sonoma State University. Founding director of the Humanistic Psychology Institute (now Saybrook University, Pasadena, CA), she is editor of Somatics Magazine, the magazine-journal of the mind-body arts and sciences, and director of the Novato Institute for Somatic Research and Training. Her books include Biofeedback and Somatics: Toward Personal Evolution, How Yoga Works: An Introduction to Somatic Yoga, and she is editor of Cram’s Introduction to Surface Electromyography. She is past president and board member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists and is a fellow of the American Psychological Association. She is also on the board of the Association for Hanna Somatic Education and is the originator of Somatic Yoga and Equine Hanna Somatics. Eleanor is the author of "One Woman's Path," The Humanistic Psychologist, an American Psychology Association journal (2022). This is a special issue entitled Being and Becoming: Celebrating Women in Humanistic Psychology. The special issue was sparked by the desire to honor the women of humanistic psychology and the awarding of the first Eleanor Criswell Hanna award celebrating the women of humanistic psychology.

Website:  http://www.somaticsed.com
Phone: (415) 897-0336
Email: info@somaticsed.com

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Movement Collage

Session 1

Friday, April 21st 1:30 PM-2:30 PM Pacific

• Astrid Cruse 1:30-2:00

• Lisa Sack 2:00-2:30

Our movement collage tradition continues by popular request! In this session, two presenters will guide us in somatic movement sequences of about 30 minutes each. Presenters typically select movement sequences that have been personally important in their own somatic development. They are always inspiring for our work with classes and clients!

Astrid Cruse, CHSE, is a recent graduate of the Novato Institute. She is an alternative and complementary health care practitioner in southern Germany, specializing in healing modalities that reactivate the neural connections between the brain and muscles. The basic premise of her approach is that body, mind, and spirit are one, and if the mind and spirit are to be well, the body must also be relaxed, flexible, and malleable.

Website -https://hp-cruse.de/
Phone - 49+08807/9478117
Email -praxis@hp-cruse.de

Lisa Sack, E-RYT 500, C-IAYT, C-AHC, and certified ViniyogaTM therapist, is a long-time practitioner, student, and teacher of yoga and meditation in the lineage of T.K.V. Desikachar, who emphasized a breath-centered approach to practice adapted to the needs of the individual. She trained as an Āyurvedic Health Counselor in the lineage of Dr. Vasant Lad. Āyurveda is the sister science to yoga; it focuses on preventing and curing disease by living in harmony with the rhythms of nature using diet and lifestyle to promote health and longevity. Lisa is also working towards her certification as a Hanna Somatic Educator with expected completion in January, 2024. She maintains a private practice offering Hanna Somatics, Āyurvedic Health Counseling, and Yoga Therapy both on-line and in-person in addition to teaching a weekly somatic movement class and occasional workshops.

Website:  https://www.clearsightyoga.com/
Phone: 917-697-7080
Email: flourish@clearsightyoga.com

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AHSE Annual Meeting

With Member Forum

Friday, April 21st 2:45 PM-4:30 PM Pacific

At our AHSE Annual Meeting you’ll be invited to sit in and also participate as Board members share a lively review of the past year’s activities – decisions and discussions that have served to shape our organization for the coming years. And you’ll have a chance to be part of our process as we elect and confirm various members to open positions on the Board of Directors. Finally, we’ll spend some time discussing questions that are important to our members.

Get to know the AHSE Board of Directors

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Moving from the Center

Saturday, April 22nd

Larry Goldfarb

• Part 1 9:00AM - 10:45 AM Pacific

• Part 2 11:00 AM-12:00 PM Pacific

Igoro Kano, the founder of Judo, created a martial art that didn't rely on how big or strong you were. Instead, this gentle way of self-defense depends on physical awareness, coordination, and efficient action. Using his understanding of physics and engineering, Moshe Feldenkrais decoded the biomechanics of Judo to develop a functional framework of how we move when we move as well as we can. 

In this workshop, we use one of the central tenets of this model —moving from your center—to understand optimal human biomechanics and examine its central role in Moshe's methodology. Fundamental to every martial art, this proficiency requires precise coordination of the body's largest muscles and the ability to articulate the hip joints and lower lumbar vertebrae with finesse. After doing a classic experiential Feldenkrais lesson, we will explore its inner workings, organizing principles, and practical applications. You will then apply what you've learned about mobilizing this area, also known as the hara or dandien, to realizing your inherent strength and improving your self-use while working hands-on with others.

Larry Goldfarb, Ph.D., is a movement scientist, certified Feldenkrais® trainer, pioneering educator and author. A practitioner for over 40 years, Larry has taught the Feldenkrais Method® in a wide range of contexts including rehabilitation, the arts, education, and on-the-job injury prevention. Larry directs teacher trainings and post-graduate courses, as well as mentorship programs in North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. Beyond the illuminating models he developed to articulate the method behind the Feldenkrais method, making it easy to understand, Larry is highly regarded for his warm and personal teaching style. He maintains a private practice based in Santa Cruz, California.

Website: https://mindinmotion-online.com/
Phone: (831) 818-5277
Email: larry@mindinmotion-online.com

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Somatic Meditation for the Visceral Cranium

Saturday, April 22nd, 1:30 - 3:00 PM Pacific

Mary Bond

Experiential understanding of our own patterns of expansion and compression clarifies what we see in our clients’ bodies and refines our approach to somatic therapy. In this short presentation, Mary offers explorations within and around the maxilla and mandible that pertain to balance of cranium on spine in standing and walking, and to respiratory ease. (Participants should arrange to be comfortable lying supine, have a chair that seats the hips higher than the knees and room to walk six paces or more.) 

Mary Bond studied with Ida Rolf, PhD from 1969 to 1972. Emeritus Faculty of the Dr. Ida Rolf Institute, she has been involved in the development of movement education for SI from the early days with Judith Aston to the current evolution through the work of Hubert Godard. She has taught somatic movement workshops throughout the USA, in UK, Europe and Australia. Mary is the author of Balancing Your Body, The New Rules of Posture, and Your Body Mandala: Posture as a Path to Presence. She has also produced a DVD: Heal Your Posture. It is her joy to share her perspective of movement education. You can read Mary’s blog at:

Website:  www.healyourposture.com
Phone: 818-427-6777
Email: mary@healyourposture.com

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It’s a Lot Like a Backpacking Tent

The functional properties of human upright posture, why they’re mostly absent in adults, why that is important, and what we can do to restore them.

Saturday, April 22nd, 3:15 - 4:30 PM Pacific

James French

In this session, we’ll discuss human posture with an eye to understanding it in terms of its functional properties. To aid understanding, we’ll draw analogies to man-made objects that share some of these properties. We’ll then compare pictures of children to adults, making the claim that in adults, these properties have tended to be compromised, but that it is possible, with knowledge and skill, to restore them to function. Then, based on knowledge of the functional properties we’d like to restore, we’ll talk through some strategies for doing so, and then implement some practical procedures with the goal of restoring these properties in ourselves.

James French is a teaching assistant at The Dimon Institute. He began studying Alexander Technique in 2011. Seeking to deepen his understanding of F.M. Alexander’s work, in 2013 he began training full-time with Dr. Ted Dimon in New York City. Given his teaching certificate by Dr. Dimon in 2016, James has continued to work, train, and teach at the Institute since then. James is also a member of the American Society for the Alexander Technique (AmSAT).

Website: https://dimoninstitute.org
Phone: (570) 362 3129
Email: james@dimoninstitute.org

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Discover the Self-Healing Powers of the Somatic and Biodynamic Osteopathic Approach

Sunday, April 23rd, 9:00 - 10:30 AM Pacific

Brian Siddhartha Ingle

In this session, you will be guided through a somatic meditation and presentation enabling your self-correcting capacity to show itself from within. The awareness practice will draw from your midline outward to the periphery to include the bioelectric field, creating a secure and balanced interior foundation in which you can continue to build optimal health. We will focus on embodying the Iliopsoas as a sense organ through the embryological midline from a Biodynamic Osteopathic perspective, discovering this muscle as an organ of proprioception, how it gives support from the inside and how it relates to the midline.

The workshop will focus on ways to embody and understand your ability to self-heal and the biodynamic concept of how the movement of health feels throughout your system. We will explore the Iliopsoas as a sense organ and its prime function—the sensorial pleasure of being embodied. The core philosophy and strategies of Osteopathy and Somatic movement, will also be addressed.

Brian Siddhartha Ingle ND., DO., CHSE, RSME, is a licensed Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine and a Naturopath. He is a Hanna Somatic Educator, Equine Hanna Somatic Educator, Somatic Yoga teacher, and a practitioner of the Feldenkrais method. Siddhartha is a certified aqua bodyworker and has developed his own method of SomAqua. He is a co-founder of Living Somatics and a co-host of the online Somatic Movement Summit. Siddhartha is a registered somatic movement educator (RSME) with the International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association (ISMETA). He has brought Hanna Somatics to Ireland, and together with his team he has also introduced the work to India and the Russian speaking countries. Siddhartha is an avid surfer and singer-songwriter.

Website:  www.livingsomatics.com
Phone: +353-87 638 9380
Email: livingsomatics@gmail.com

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Hip and Shoulder Rolls with Enhancements

Sunday, April 23rd, 10:45 - 11:45 AM Pacific

John Loupos

This presentation focuses on enhancements to certain hip and shoulder patterns that many Hanna Somatics enthusiasts are already familiar with. I will not be teaching new movement lessons outside of our existing repertoire of HSE patterns, but will focus instead on exploring already established patterns more deeply. Our focus will be divided between what you move, how you move it, and how you sense what you move, as I provide guidance in shifting your awareness of certain actions from the implicit to the explicit realm.

Sifu John Loupos, M.S., CHSE, owns the Jade Forest Kung Fu/ Tai Chi training facility and the Pain and Mobility Clinic in Cohasset, Ma. He has an extensive background in martial arts dating back to 1966. His areas of martial arts training include; Praying Mantis, Northern Shaolin, and Choy Lai Fut styles of Kung Fu, Yang style Tai Chi, and Liu He Ba Fa, as well as assorted meditation and qigong practices. John also has a background in Classical Homeopathy. He is a Certified Hanna Somatic Educator and a member of the AHSE Board of Directors. John has written several books on Tai Chi Chuan and on Somatics along with other learning media and has been widely published in magazines and trade journals. His most recent book was The Sustainable You—Somatics & the Myth of Aging

Website:  https://painandmobility.com/
Phone: (781) 383-6822
Email: jadeforest@comcast.net

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Case Studies—Hanna Somatics during Pregnancy

Sunday, April 23rd, 1:15 - 2:30 PM Pacific

Danny Burke

In this session, we will look at several cases of women referred to me by Birth Teachers/Doulas. We will discuss how Somatics is helping women from early, mid, and late stages of pregnancy. The benefits of somatic work add up! Somatics can help by easing back pain, helping to shorten labor time, and by encouraging proper positioning of babies. In addition, there is evidence that the baby is having a session at the same time as the mother. Somatics helps mothers to be safer and more comfortable, and their babies are born healthy and have well-developed nervous systems with high-functioning senses.

Danny Burke, CHSE, in addition to being a Hanna Somatic Educator, is a certified Hanna Somatic Yoga teacher, Level 2 Equine Hanna Somatic Educator, and a Canine Hanna Somatic Educator. He says, “I love to help people and animals. We all have moments of being stuck in life, without even knowing how or why. I admire clients who have the courage to ask for help. I like teaching them a practical way to use their own central nervous system to make rapid change and long-lasting improvements, following the concepts and philosophies of Thomas Hanna and Eleanor Criswell. I believe there is no limit to how much we can improve." One of Danny's niches in his Somatics practice has been helping women during pregnancy. It wasn't until his expecting daughters-in-law were on his table, that he realized the session benefitted both mother and baby. When he is not playing with his grandkids, he enjoys birdwatching, stand-up comedy, and camping in West Texas. In his own words, “I'm getting better at enjoying my precious little time on this planet.”
Phone: (504) 915-7200
Email: danburke57@gmail.com

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Movement Collage

Session 2

Sunday, April 23rd, 2:45 - 4:15 PM Pacific

• Samantha Holland   2:45 – 3:15

• Mary Badon, MD       3:15 – 3:45

• Janet Jacobson        3:45 – 4:15

Our movement collage tradition continues by popular request! In this session, three presenters will guide us in somatic movement sequences of about 30 minutes each. Presenters typically select movement sequences that have been personally important in their own somatic development. They are always inspiring for our work with classes and clients!

Samantha Holland, PhD, Samantha Holland, PhD, is a Certified Clinical Somatic Educator and Certified Essential Somatics® Movement Teacher (EMST). Her background is in academia (philosophy, anthrozoology, film and literature) and as a practicing barrister, overseas volunteer, bereavement counselor, and more. Having practiced yoga for 25 years and tried many things to combat chronic neck pain and other symptoms, it was a short "somatic yoga" workshop that revealed pandiculation as the technique that would actually work! Samantha started training with Martha Peterson and her team at Essential Somatics shortly thereafter, to learn to change her own life and the lives of others. Based in the Scottish Highlands, she teaches both online and in person. She's created several School of Somatic Awareness "SoMA" programs for those battling with stiffness, discomfort, and pain, and also delivers training to counselors and psychotherapists wanting to improve their own comfort and learn about the whole, embodied person from a Somatics-informed perspective. 

Website:  www.somaticsamantha.com
Phone: +44 (0) 7546 666135
Email: hello@somaticsamantha.com

Mary Badon, MD, is the owner of SOMA Movement Studio in Connecticut. She has focused her career on helping her clients feel better within their own bodies through movement. After medical training at Yale School of Medicine, she studied multiple movement systems including the Pilates Method, GYROTONIC Expansion System, and most recently began Somatics training. Her style of teaching combines her depth of knowledge of the human body with perspectives from the movement systems she has studied.

Website:  https://www.somamovementstudio.com/
Phone: (860) 402-1261
Email: mary.badon@gmail.com

Janet Jacobson is a CNA/HHA, Certified Nursing Assistant/Home Health Aide, RNA/Restorative Nursing Assistant, and a certified ACE/American Council on Exercise Personal Trainer and Behavioral Change Specialist working with people of all ages at all levels of physical awareness and ability.  Fusing dance with lifestyle, she and her colleagues brought a healthy body consciousness into the therapeutic power of recreation, sport, and relaxation practices.  She is a qualified Somatic educator, grounded in her practice called "Creative Movement".  She teaches this in Memory Care Communities; a powerful imagination is her primary tool when helping people with Alzheimer’s and Dementia.  Her career spans five decades.

Phone: (510) 965-3090
Email: janetsue.jacobson@gmail.com

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