As I touched on last week, the first task during my recent work trip was teaching a movement session at Lissa Rankin MD’s Transformations and Transitions retreat to around 25 healthcare professionals.
We all sat down in a circle at 8.30am on a Saturday a few weeks ago in Mill Valley, California. My intention was to make the session accessible, fun, and instructive, so immediately plunging into movement felt a bit extreme. Instead, I began with a story a patient told me about the role movement played in their recovery from chronic pain. We then had a discussion about posture and non-verbal communication. How does posture impact our confidence, and our understanding of self? What messages might we be sending non-verbally without realising it? What interpretations do we make from the non-verbal signals we receive from others?
Me and Lissa Rankin MD
In the next part of the session I asked everyone to find a partner, which helped to form introductions and get people working together at the beginning of the retreat. We experimented with core stability work, before moving into the main movement session, during which one partner took the opportunity to move without constraint and the other acted as witness, watching out for them. I was really impressed by how caring each witness was towards their partner. There is never a right or wrong way to move in this context, and there was a huge range of movement from quite static small movements mainly in the arms, to large movements involving the whole body – sometimes rolling across the floor, requiring vigilance from their partner to keep them safe.
The final part of the session offered an opportunity for everyone to discuss their movement experience. The feedback from the session was positive, with some extracts below.
Jamie Hale: “It was an innovative and integrative mind and body experience – and it was interpersonally bonding, empowering and fun!”
Mary VanLaarhoven: “I found myself moving organically, guided by the wisdom of my body rather than the constraints of my mind. The emotional releases witnessed in other participants were profound, revealing deep connections between movement and healing.”
Tori Maricich: “I really enjoyed the core stability and awareness exercise that Mags taught. Getting to move with my eyes closed, and reciprocating being a witness, while somebody moved initiated from inside their body felt uplifting.”
Rachel Gilgoff: “It was so beautiful to connect to my body in a purposeful, energizing, supportive, and patient way. You have translated the art of movement into an inspirational, authentic healing strategy that allows the clinician and the patient to feel empowered, capable, and trusting of our own body and inner strength.”