Developmental Movement

This is the heart of my own current somatic movement practice, resourced from wisdom from Irmgard Bartenieff and Bonnie Bainbridge-Cohen. While we all learn to move in differing bodies, minds, and environments, there are common developmental processes that each young person undertakes, from breathing to walking to climbing. These challanges offer knowledge that we carry with us to a certain point in our lives. The built environment and socialization, however, often require us to suppress this knowledge to 'fit in'. We can remind ourselves of what we learned by returning to the floor and retracing thes steps. Witnessing this growth impresses upon the adult mover the heroism and brilliance of their own inner child. The significant helplessness of the reclining child who does not yet possess the upper-body strength to push themself to sitting, for instance, is matched with an equally significant curiosity and courage to experiment. They are likely to discover the relative difference in weight between their head and pelvis and use their superior spinal mobility to squirm their way to verticality. Most of us have forgotten this 'head-tail' connectivity. Recovering this knowledge is a powerful way to honor your past and prepare for your future: to ensure mobility for the rest of our lives. Never forget how to get up, after a fall for instance (in 2022, falls accounted for about a quarter of in-home accidental deaths in the US according to the NCHS). Beyond the important funtional applications of developmental movement, returning to these vulnerable early stages can bring back early feelings as well. The developmental process is full of snags, some of which may contitute a tauma. If this is triggered, we can create space for whatever release is needed through a trauma-informed process of movement along the "polyvagal ladder." This can offer healing for the wounded inner child and growth for your own inner loving parent.