Body-Mind Centering^®& Yoga

The principles of Body-Mind Centering^® form the basis of a dynamic approach to the practice and teaching of yoga. Our programs are rooted in embodiment and provide a unique and fulfilling perspective on yoga. Whether you have just a basic understanding of yoga or have many years of experience, whether you are a student or a teacher, the courses in these programs will enrich your own yoga practice and give you a new foundation for teaching others. Through the exploration of how the body systems and developmental movement patterns support and initiate movement, you will learn ways to:

• Perceive the essence of each posture from a multi-body-system understanding.
• Enliven awareness of the evolutionary patterns from which the asanas arise.
• Experience greater depth, ease and flow of movement in forming traditional yoga asanas.
• Improvise new postures based on underlying principles of the different body systems and developmental movement.
• Change mind states as well as body states in transitioning between postures.
• Discover the body-mind relationship inherent in the movement forms.
• Develop a personal yoga practice based on your own specific needs and abilities.
• Analyze and facilitate the movement of others using this subtle and dynamic perspective.

We offer several study tracks in our yoga curriculum. Each of these tracks is briefly outlined here and described in more detail below.

Embodied Anatomy & Yoga - New York City (2009-2010) and Berkeley, CA (2010-2012)

Embodied Developmental Movement & Yoga - Berkeley, CA (2010-2011)

Yoga Teacher Training (200+ hour and 500+ hour trainings)

Individual Yoga and Yoga Related Courses

Most of the courses in our programs may be taken individually. Individual courses provides students with a way to take shorter sequences of courses and allows more flexibility in scheduling.

Click here to download our 2009-2011 brochure.

Embodied Anatomy & Yoga

Embodied Anatomy is a deep, internal study of the body which goes beyond intellectual and experiential approaches. Movement is explored through the direct experience of our own body systems, tissues and cells. The learning process takes place not just in the mind, but in the body itself and the experience is integrated at the cellular level.

In its application to yoga, Embodied Anatomy opens a door to the transformative aspects of yoga and takes asanas beyond a formulaic, external approach and into the subtleties of yoga practice.

Initiating asanas in this conscious, embodied way allows you to freely execute each posture as an expression of your present internal state of being. Your yoga experience is then shaped by the fullness of your cellular involvement rather than dictated by your ability to complete an external form. Static positions transform into dynamic patterns of movement and you, as well as your practice, become enlivened

There are fourteen courses in this program – twelve on the body systems and asanas and two on professional level subjects (movement repatterning and professional issues & competency).  The courses on the body systems and asanas may be taken individually in any order with no further commitment to the program.  The requirement for entry into these courses is a basic familiarity with yoga asanas.  No prior experience with Body-Mind Centering® is necessary.  To do the professional level courses, you must first complete a minimum of eight body systems courses plus the asana course.

Participants who wish to complete the program and receive a Certificate in Embodied Anatomy and Yoga must take all courses in the program, do written and practical homework, do additional outside tutorials, and must have 200 hours of yoga practice (in addition to the hours in our program).

This program will be offered in 2009 - 2010 in New York City and in Berkeley, CA in 2010-2010.    

Embodied Anatomy & Yoga
New York City
October 2009 - December 2010
Amy Matthews and Roxlyn Moret primary teachers

Location:
The Breathing Project
15 West 26th Street (10th floor)
New York City

9:30 AM - 12:30 PM  and  2:00- 5:00 PM 

Preregistration required.

2009-2010 schedule

*Lower tuition is for registrations received at least two months prior to the start of the course.

Embodied Anatomy & Yoga
Berkeley, California
January, 2010 - April, 2012
Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen primary teacher

Location:
The Sacred Space
  830 Bancroft Way
Berkeley, CA

9:30 AM - 12:30 PM  and  2:00- 5:00 PM 

Preregistration required.

2010-2012 schedule

*Lower tuition is for registrations received at least two months prior to the start of the course.

Embodied Anatomy & Yoga Courses

Skeletal & Muscular Systems

The skeletal system gives our body its basic form, upon which we locomote through space and with which we articulate other forms in space. It also provides the basic framework for the movement of our mind and provides the foundation for the psychophysical qualities of clarity, effortlessness and form. Muscles provide a tensile, three-dimensional grid for the balanced support and movement of the skeletal structure. Through this system, we embody our vitality, express our power and engage in the dialogue of resistance and resolution. There are three courses from the perspective of these systems.

  Appendicular Skeleton -- Lower Limbs & Yoga

• Grounding and articulating the feet, strengthening the ankles and awakening the spiral of the forelegs.
• Aligning the knees through articulation of the menisci and balancing the ligaments and muscles.
• Freeing the hips and pelvic halves and relieving stress on the lower spine through differentiating and balancing the iliopsoas complex, pelvic diaphragm and other hip muscles.
• Integrating the lower limbs -- feet through pelvic halves to spine in any asana.
  

  Appendicular Skeleton -- Upper Limbs & Yoga

• Articulating the hands, strengthening the wrists and awakening the spiral of the forearms.
• Balancing the elbows.
• Freeing and aligning the shoulders and shoulder girdle.
• Mobilizing and individuating the ribs & relieving stress on the spine.
• Exploring the thoracic diaphragm as a base for the movement of the arms in all planes.
• Integrating the upper limbs -- hands through ribs to spine in any asana.

  Axial Skeleton -- Head and Spine & Yoga

• Through the axial skeleton we experience the central core that we call 'self'. When our axial skeleton moves through space, we move through space. When our axial skeleton is still, we are still. When our axial skeleton is calm and soft, our mind is quiet and calm.
• Mobilizing and strengthening the spine, head to tail.
• Energy pathways of flow through the spine.
• Integrating and balancing the spine as a support for the back of the body, and the mandible, hyoid, sternum and pubic bones as supports for the front of the body.
• Finding spinal ease and calm in any asana.

Organ System & Yoga

Our organs are vital and alive. They provide us with a sense of personal self and organic authenticity. Organs support our postural tone and our feelings, and give volume to our movement.

• Basic Principles: breathing, sounding, softening, mobility, stability, three-dimensional movement, condensing and expanding, suspension and compression, organ roll.
• Relationship of the organs to developmental movement.
• Relationship of the organs to the skeletal system.
• Keystone of the arch in any asana.

Endocrine System & Yoga

The endocrine glands are the bridge between the organs and the nervous system and between the nervous system and the fluids. They create crystalline psychophysical states through which we are able to experience and understand the universal aspect of self.

• Location of the endocrine glands and their reflex points.
• Breathing, sounding and moving initiated from the glands.
• Energy centers and their support of the spine.
• Skeletal relationships and balance for any asana.

Muscular System  & Yoga 

The muscles establish a tensile three-dimensional grid for the balanced support and movement of the skeletal structure by providing the elastic forces that move the bones through space.  Through this system we embody our vitality, express our power, and engage in the dialogue of resistance and resolution.

• Basic principles: concentric, eccentric and isometric contractions; reciprocal innervation; agonist and antagonist in relation to gravity; muscle coupling and currenting for ease and balance; intrafusal and extrafusal muscle fibers for establishing autonomic effortless initiation of movement and building of strength; spirallic wrapping of muscles for 3-dimensional movement; proprioceptive initiation of timing.
• Pelvic, thoracic, shoulder and vocal diaphragms in breathing and movement.
•  Iliopsoas complex in the articulation and support of the spine, pelvic halves and legs.

Nervous System & Yoga

Experience first occurs on the cellular level. The nervous system records the experience and organizes it into patterns. It then can call forth the experience and modify the pattern by integrating it with the patterns of other experiences. The nervous system is the last to know, but once knowing, becomes a primary controlling system of the body.

• Basic components: Sensory/motor; central/peripheral; autonomic/somatic; enteric nervous system; superficial nervous system network, sympathetic mantle.
• Softening, releasing, energizing, containing and balancing of the nervous system.
• Autonomic balance and support of the central, lateral and peripheral ganglionic centers.
• Establishing the spinal axis in relationship to the central and peripheral nerves in any asana.

Fluid System & Yoga

The major fluids of the body are cellular, interstitial and transitional fluids, blood, lymph, synovial fluid, and cerebrospinal fluid. Their embodied psychophysical qualities underlie presence and transformation, set the ground for basic communication, and play a major role in the counterbalancing of tension and relaxation, rest and action.

• Cellular and extracellular fluids; blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF); rest and motion: gravity and space; fluid/membrane balance.
• Lymph, synovial, periorgan, transitional and interstitial fluids; focused, free-flowing and strong resistive movement.
• Fluid distinctions, blending and alchemy.
• Awareness of weight, space and time from a fluid perspective in any asana.

Ligamentous System & Yoga

    The ligaments coordinate and guide muscular responses and provide specificity, clarity and efficiency for the alignment and movement of the bones, When all of the ligaments of a joint are actively engaged, the movement of that joint becomes highly specific and is carried effortlessly to surrounding and successive joints.    

• Balancing  joints through approximation and elongation of the of the ligaments on all sides of the joint.
• Establishing spatial clarity and intent.
• Focusing on the ligaments of the spine for stability and flexibility.
• Focusing on the ligaments of the lower limb to ground standing postures.
• Focusing on the ligaments of the upper limb to strengthen the arms for supporting postures and to free them for reaching gracefully through space.

 
Breathing & Vocalization & Yoga

We manifest our state of being through our breath. Through the expressive qualities of our voice, we communicate to the outer world who we are. Breathing and vocalization support each other and are reflected in each other.

• External respiration (lungs) and internal respiration (cellular).
• Accessing the individual lobes of the lungs and their relationship to the nasal conchae.
• Balancing the pelvic, thoracic and vocal diaphragms in breathing and vocalization.
• The role of the lesser and greater peritoneal sacs in abdominal/pelvic breathing.
• Shaping the pharynx for clear overtones and vowel production.
• Distinguishing the production of pitch and intensity in the larynx.
• Freeing the breath and voice in any asana.

Asana Practice from a Body Systems Perspective

In the previously described yoga courses, the theme is the body systems material and how it can enrich yoga practice.  In the Asana Practice from a Body Systems Perspective, the focus is on asanas and how to  choose, build, organize, adapt, sequence and execute them based on anatomical principles.  Some of the aspects covered are:

• Building basic elements for ease of execution.
• Balancing and recuperating through associated counterpostures.
• Thematic sequencing of a common thread that weaves the asanas into a unified whole.
• Establishing a beginning, a middle and an end.
• Adapting postures based on individual needs.
• Encompassing three-dimensional space within the context of the three basic planes.
• Initiating movement through the  process of embodiment.
• Transmitting cellular consciousness.
• Utilizing asanas at different levels (lying to standing) in relationship to the earth.
• Varying body orientation in relation to gravitational forces of earth and heaven.
• Understanding of  body systems principles inherent in the asanas.
• The last hour of each day will cover yogic philosophy.

  Applications in Movement Repatterning - Embodied Anatomy & Yoga

In the body systems courses in this program, the emphasis is on establishing a foundation for the personal embodiment of the principles taught.  Applications in Movement Repatterning is a professional level course that builds on the skills gained earlier and applies those skills to facilitating others in their yoga practice.  The prerequisite for this course is completion of all previous courses.

Touch and movement are direct, subconscious pathways of communication.  There is a  synchronicity between them, that when integrated, allows us to help others to find a deep repatterning that bypasses habitual ways of moving.  AMR is of primary importance in transmitting the essence of our own embodiment to others and in opening the internal pathways that underlie the external movement of the body through space.

• Problem solving: recognizing and analyzing problems and guiding others in finding process-oriented resolution.
• Understanding common problems and how solutions vary with each individual.
• Transforming problems into pathways of exploration and learning.
• Finding ease in your own body while facilitating ease in others.
• Approaching movement repatterning as a mutual relationship between the facilitator and the student.

Competency in Embodied Anatomy & Yoga

This course includes a review of skills and an evaluation of competency.

Professional Issues in the Teaching of Embodied Anatomy & Yoga

    What does it mean to practice and teach Embodied Anatomy and Yoga and how do you transition into this role? 

• The student/movement educator relationship.
• Responsibilities of being a professional, including ethical guidelines and health precautions.
• Setting up and managing a professional practice, such as, finances, publicity, managing space and time, promotion, interfacing with other professionals, supervision and networking.

"Bonnie's work is deep, subtle and experiential. In my experience, it informs and deepens asana practice so profoundly that it becomes hard to imagine one without the other. This is truly a new frontier in Yoga." -- Patty Townsend, Director, Center for Yoga and Healing Arts of Amherst

  Embodied Developmental Movement & Yoga

Our volitional movement is built on a foundation of automatic movement responses that begin developing in the womb and continue appearing through the first year of life. The emergence and integration of these responses have an enormous effect on our movement, on how we relate to ourselves, others and the world, and on how we organize and process information. The experiential study of developmental movement allows us to consciously access and utilize these automatic patterns and gives us a path to understand and embody the developmental base of Yoga asanas.

There are ten courses in this program – eight on developmental movement and asanas and two on professional level subjects (movement repatterning; professional issues and competency).  The courses on developmental movement and asanas may be taken individually in any order with no further commitment to the program.  The requirement for entry into these courses is a basic familiarity with yoga asanas.  No prior experience with Body-Mind Centering® is necessary.  To do the professional level courses, you must first complete a minimum of five developmental courses plus the asana course.  

Participants who wish to complete the program and receive a Certificate in Embodied Developmental Movement and Yoga will also be required to do written and practical homework and additional outside tutorials and must have 200 hours of yoga practice (in addition to the hours in our program).

The Embodied Developmental Movement & Yoga (EDMY) program will be offered in 2010 - 2011 in Berkeley, CA.

Embodied Developmental Movement & Yoga
March, 2010 - September, 2011
Berkeley, California
Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen primary teacher

Location:
The Sacred Space
830 Bancroft Way (at Sixth St)
Berkeley, California

9:30 AM - 12:30 PM  and  2:00- 5:00 PM 

Preregistration required.  

2009-2010 schedule

**Applications in Movement Repatterning is a nine-day course taught in three sections.

Embodied Developmental Movement Courses

 Basic Neurological Patterns (BNP)

The Basic Neurological Patterns (BNP) are movement templates that first appear in the womb and continue emerging and integrating through infancy. Their emergence in humans parallels the evolutionary development of movement through the animal kingdom (prevertebrate and vertebrate). The BNP form the words of our movement and have extensive application in movement and psychophysical expression. Done in sequences, these patterns can also form the basis for a deep and ongoing personal movement practice.

  Basic Neurological Patterns & Yoga (Prevertebrate Patterns)

• Vibration, Cellular Breathing, Sponging, and Pulsation (rhythmic condensing and expanding, folding and unfolding.
• Navel Radiation (radial symmetry.
• Mouthing/Nosing/Analing and Prespinal (the beginning of bisymmetry and establishment of a central core (notochord)).
• Allowing the automaticity of these earliest patterns to support any asana.

  Basic Neurological Patterns & Yoga (Vertebrate Patterns)

• Spinal yield and push, reach and pull: distinguishing yielding as a basis for pushing, reaching and pulling; development of an integrated vertebral axis.
• Homologous yield and push, reach and pull; differentiating and integrating the upper and lower body; establishing midline orientation.
• Homolateral yield and push: differentiating and integrating the two sides of the body; establishing lateral line orientation.
• Contralateral reach and pull: differentiating and integrating the diagonals of the body; blending attention and intention in three-dimensional space.
• Exploring the essence of these basic patterns in any asana.

 Reflexes, Righting Reactions, and Equilibrium Responses (RRR)

Underneath ALL successful, effortless movement are integrated Reflexes, Righting Reactions, and Equilibrium Responses (RRR). The RRR are the fundamental elements, or the alphabet, of our movement and establish our basic survival patterns. They develop in response to the interaction of our internal state of being with gravity, space, and ‘other’ (people, objects and nature). The RRR combine to build the Basic Neurological Patterns (BNP). There are two RRR and Yoga courses.

 Reflexes, Righting Reactions, and Equilibrium Responses (RRR) & Yoga (Gravity & Space)

• Yielding into the earth and the awareness and depth of self.
• Expansion into space and discovery of other.
• Reaching, gathering, taking hold, letting go and experiencing relationship.
• Rootedness and the ability to be upright upon the earth in any asana.

 Reflexes, Righting Reactions, and Equilibrium Responses (RRR) & Yoga (Planes of Motion)

• Sagittal plane: forward and backward bending poses.
• Vertical plane: triangular and side bending poses.
• Horizontal plane: spirallic twisting poses.
• Differentiating and understanding movement in the three basic planes and their combinations for their full integration within any asana.

 Ontogenetic Development & Yoga

Ontogenetic development is the chronological study of how movement develops during intrauterine life through approximately 12 months of age. This period is an extraordinarily formative time for humans. It is then that we build the groundwork for our movement and perceptual skills and pass through the milestones by which we mark our development. These milestones are the templates for our future functional movement and form the patterns for the development of asanas. As the RRR are to letters and the BNP are to words, the Ontogenetic milestones are the sentences of our movement.

• The developmental steps that emerge through the first year of life.
• How these developmental steps establish a template for the asanas.
• The developmental thread that weaves continuously from the womb to standing and walking as expressed in any asana.

Senses & Perception & Yoga

The senses are our organs of receiving information from ourselves and from the outer world. Perception is the psychophysical process of interpreting sensory information. This process begins as potential and develops in response to experience. The Senses & Perception explores how we filter, modify, distort, accept, reject, and use sensory information to bond, defend and learn. Deepening and expanding awareness of our senses and perception opens the windows of transformation within our yoga practice and within our lives.

• The perceptual-response cycle.
• Movement and touch are the first senses to develop.
• The mouth and nose are the first extremities to reach into space, take hold, receive, let go, and say no and yes.
• The ears register body tone, movement and auditory tone.
• The eyes build on the experience of the other senses and perceive that which is beyond them.
• Perception as an integral part of any asana.
  

Embryological Development & Yoga

In exploring the embryological developmental process, we discover the primal roots of our structure, perception, respondability and presence.  This course will cover:

• Cellular unity and breathing.
• Inner and outer processes (self and other).
• The double-layered embryonic disk: distinguishing the endoderm (front body) from the ectoderm (back body).
• The triple-layered embryonic disk: development of the mesoderm (middle body).
• The notochord and the development of our central vertical axis.
• The development of the autonomic rhythm.

In the previously described yoga courses, the theme is the developmental material and how it can enrich yoga practice.  In the Fundamentals of Asana Practice, the focus is on asanas and how to  choose, build, organize, adapt, sequence and execute them based on developmental principles.  Some of the aspects covered are:

• Building basic elements for ease of execution.
• Balancing and recuperating through associated counterpostures.
• Thematic sequencing of a common thread that weaves the asanas into a unified whole.
• Establishing a beginning, a middle and an end.
• Adapting postures based on individual needs.
• Encompassing three-dimensional space within the context of the three basic planes.
• Initiating movement through the  process of embodiment.
• Transmitting cellular consciousness.
• Utilizing asanas at different levels (lying to standing) in relationship to the earth.
• Varying body orientation in relation to gravitational forces of earth and heaven.
• Understanding of developmental principles inherent in the asanas.
• The last hour of each day will cover yogic philosophy.

Applications in Movement Repatterning for Embodied Developmental Movement & Yoga (AMR)

In the developmental courses in this program, the emphasis is on establishing a foundation for the personal embodiment of the principles taught.  Applications in Movement Repatterning is a professional level course that builds on the skills gained earlier and applies those skills to facilitating others in their yoga practice.  The prerequisite for this course is completion of all previous courses.

Touch and movement are direct, subconscious pathways of communication.  There is a  synchronicity between them, that when integrated, allows us to help others to find a deep repatterning that bypasses habitual ways of moving.  AMR is of primary importance in transmitting the essence of our own embodiment to others and in opening the internal pathways that underlie the external movement of the body through space.

• Problem solving: recognizing and analyzing problems and guiding others in finding process-oriented resolution.
• Understanding common problems and how solutions vary with each individual.
• Transforming problems into pathways of exploration and learning.
• Finding ease in your own body while facilitating ease in others.
• Approaching movement repatterning as a mutual relationship between the facilitator and the student.

Competency and Professional Issues in the Teaching of Embodied Developmental Movement & Yoga

What does it mean to teach Embodied Developmental Movement and Yoga and how do you transition into this role?  This course includes a review of skills and an evaluation of competency as well as: 

• The student/movement educator relationship.
• Responsibilities of being a professional, including ethical guidelines and health precautions.
• Setting up and managing a professional practice, such as, finances, publicity, managing space and time, promotion, interfacing with other professionals, supervision and networking.

 "The study of Body-Mind Centering^® is an essential preparation for any serious yoga student or teacher." -- Donna Farhi, Yoga Teacher

Yoga Teacher Training

We are now offering two new Yoga Teacher Trainings, a 200+ hour training and a 500+ hour training. The 200+ hour training consists of either our Embodied Anatomy & Yoga (EAY) program or our Embodied Developmental Movement & Yoga (EDMY) program plus a few additional courses. The 500+ hour training consists of both programs plus a few additional courses.

Students already studying in our yoga application programs can also become yoga teachers simply by taking just a few more courses at the School. By simultaneously receiving credit for the EDMY (or the EAY) program and our yoga teacher training, students now can immerse themselves in the Body-Mind Centering^® material and become a yoga teacher at the same time!

Our yoga teacher training programs are structured to fulfill the requirements of the Yoga Alliance. If the Yoga Alliance approves these programs (our application is nearing completion), then our graduates will also be able to become registered yoga teachers through the Yoga Alliance.

Requirements for the Yoga Teacher Training at The School for Body-Mind Centering^®

*Anatomy & Physiology course is optional here because this subject is included in the Embodied Anatomy & Yoga Program course material.

*Anatomy & Physiology course is optional here because this subject is included in the Embodied Anatomy & Yoga Program course material.

Summary of Yoga Certificates Offered by the School