Check out this fabulous video from our April Workshop!
Welcome to Eastwest Somatics Network. ESN is a professional organization supporting the work of its members and educating the public about the work of somatic movement therapy and education. We hope you enjoy the photographs of our students and graduates at the Eastwest Somatics Institute where we bridge somatic movement therapy with dance. Eastwest is a member school of ISMETA, International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association, our certifying body. Eastwest and ISMETA certified practitioners can be accessed through this ESN website.
We welcome members from other ISMETA schools and all those who wish to further the work of somatic education. To this end ESN sponsors a yearly conference and sends out calls for proposals. Soma means body, especially the body experienced by the self. Thus it involves healing therapies, communication, spirituality, movement, and the arts.
At Eastwest we navigate the field of somatics through mindful movement, attuning body, psyche, and spirit. We dance to create community in the environment as well as in the studio, and we develop sensitive bodywork through movement patterning. One of our favorite techniques is "Contact Unwinding," partners bodywork with one partner supporting the other in spontaneous movement, using hands-on Shin Somatics® techniques developed at Eastwest. (See photos on the left.) All Eastwest graduates are proficient in Shin Somatics Movement Patterning and Bodywork Techniques.
Eastwest graduates and certified practitioners teach group work in community settings and are certified in hands-on movement therapy with individuals. Many are certified to teach Shin Somatics® Land to Water Yoga, a gentle yoga that uses somatics principles for optimal living and healing.
--Jeanne Schul, Former ESN President, and Sondra Fraleigh, ESN Mentor
President Catherine Schaeffer specializes in dance and somatic bodywork which incorporates table work and movement therapy. Her private practice, “Therapeutic Touch” is located in Valdosta, GA. She works with dancers, professors, and anyone interested in holistic health modalities. She is also a licensed massage therapist and Reiki practitioner. She began her original wellness practice in 1983 while dancing professionally in NYC. Catherine has been developing methodology in somatic pedagogy over her past fifteen years as a dance professor. Somatics also influences her work as a choreographer. She has developed curriculum in Conditioning and Wellness at Valdosta State University that utilizes somatics, pilates, dance psychology, conditioning, and wellness information towards creating healthy dancers in body, mind, and spirit.
Founder and Advisor Sondra Fraleigh is professor emeritus of the State University of New York where she also served as visiting scholar for SUNY, a university-wide appointment. She continues to develop her unique work as an international leader in the field of dance and somatics.