Health Practitioner’s Movement and Empathy Workshop in Athlone, Ireland January 2025.
“When moving I realised just how much I need to quieten my mind, it was an incredible experience, it was so peaceful, there was no internal chatter. Usually internal chatter gets in the way of so much for me. It was a huge revelation for me, being peaceful focusing on my internal bodily responses. It’s so helpful, I’m so grateful for having learned something so quickly, I think it’s really effective.
Thank you.”
“I definitely appreciated learning to focus on my internal bodily responses. In my family, I care for others and I do that in my work too, and the role was completely reversed. That was huge learning curve. At the end of the session in our discussion my partner felt that I had left the room energetically while going into a meditative state, it was wonderful, I concentrated on me. As the witness, I felt honoured, really, to be her protector, and I felt that I was nurturing her. So the whole thing was a lovely experience.
I learnt a lot. Thank you.”
“I valued being able to move, having the freedom to do that and to share the experience with somebody else. I valued the lessons I learned from this experience so much, in the sense of the internal sensations prompting me to move, to roll around the floor, and then to move more. Witnessing it was a more a feeling and a connection, you know, just going with the flow of my partner’s movements to protect her.
I really loved it. Thank you.”
“Such a sense of release, I finally was in control to do what I want to do, and I felt very protected by both Mags and my partner. That felt great.”
“This for me was an experiential exercise on being open minded. Everybody’s different. Everybody moves at their own rhythm and pace. I love that. It helped me to appreciate that everybody has their own perspective. Empathy is action.”
“This was a great revelation for me that there’s more ways to engage with your body, than exercise. I previously only thought about movement in terms of exercise, and that seems restricted now. These movements opened up the possibility of deeper understanding, which has potential to change how we feel and behave.”
“Listening to everybody highlighted for me the difference between internal experience and external experience. I thought that was interesting, because everybody had a different internal experience, but we also have a different external experiences. This exercise helped me understand that real empathy is when you actually metaphorically step into the shoes of another person. I will look at experiential engagement differently now. Brilliant!”
“What I learned when moving was not to feel judged, to move for me, to do what feels natural to me, instead of worrying about how that’s affecting other people. And then what I learned as part of that is the value of somebody trusting me, to be able to trust somebody you have never met before within a few minutes is amazing! It’s amazing.
Thank you.”
“As the mover, I valued the freedom to move and that I could just be 100% myself, without any judgment. I also learned that I’m not as
free to move as I thought. It got easier when I focused on my internal responses. As the witness I valued the honour that I was given to protect my partner.”
“Thank you! This was so new to me, and ordinarily I would have hated it, but it really was thought provoking about both empathy and linking that to my role as a practitioner. I felt there were different stages beginning with being a little bit uncomfortable, then allowing myself to settle into it and then really enjoy the movement aspect of it. That helped me understand how clients must feel when they first attend a session, it’s a bit daunting to not know what will happen and what to expect. I really appreciated feeling supported and confident in Mags’ teaching. ”
“Moving is so powerful, when you feel safe, empathetically connected to another person it really has the potential to reduce pain.
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