Co-Leaders: The workshop will be led by a multi-cultural group of IAAP colleagues who are working to develop movement as a form of active imagination: Joan Chodorow (San Francisco), Jacqueline Gerson (Mexico City), Tina Stromsted (San Francisco), Antonella Adorisio (Rome), and Margarita Mendez (Caracas)
Psyche is as much a living body as body is living psyche. It is just the same.—C. G. Jung
In the beginning, there was not the word, rather there was a union of body and psyche expressed through symbolic physical action. From the gesture and sound language of our early ancestors, to the rhythmic actions and interactions of infancy, the living body – the body as experience – is the foundation for subsequent development of emotion, multi-sensory imagination and intellect.
Interweaving theoretical, experiential, clinical, communal, and cultural, material, this workshop will explore dance/movement as a form of active imagination. Sometimes called authentic movement, this approach focuses attention on bodily sensations, images, and feelings, which are then allowed to develop into spontaneous movement. The work is done with one’s eyes closed in the presence of a witness, whose task it is to hold and contain the experience of the person moving.
Analysts use the connection between body and psyche as a central clinical tool, yet there may be few opportunities to further develop this dimension. This workshop offers a structure within which analysts can both have a practical experience of their own moving imagination as well as enrich their understanding of its application in analytic practice.
The mover-witness relationship offers a way to explore the ongoing flow of implicit experience, expression and communication of sensations and emotions, toward a more differentiated understanding of the nature of projection and projective identification.
Morning and afternoon sessions include lecture, discussion and movement experience. Participants are invited to bring a notebook and/or drawing materials to record their images and experiences.
For more information visit: http://www.iaap.org/content/view/262/73/ Please use the official IAAP registration from (download the form, or register online)