Re-sourcing the body: Embodied presence and self-care in working with others

Abstract

This chapter proposes that embodied presence is central to Somatic Movement Education (SME), and describes its explicit and subtle nature within a co-creative practice in which both educator and participant open in a deepening awareness to their bodies in motion. It describes how the relationship between educator and participant is dynamic, ‘live’; and how each is present to the other through sensation, image, and movement, where present moment awareness opens us to emerging phenomena within ourselves.

The chapter describes the varying nature of bodily experience as it arises in practice, and as we reflect upon it. Finally it focuses on embodied presence and the nature of ‘self-care’. It asks how the practice of embodiment may benefit professionals, in a range of practices and disciplines, to restore and resource themselves in their work with clients/service users.

This chapter aims to contribute to the growing body of inter-disciplinary somatic inquiry. In doing so I address, in part, a concern and commitment to disseminating such embodied knowledge across disciplines, such as Health and Social Care, broadening its application and contributing to making SME more widely recognised.