'Lying as relating' by Isabella Shirley-Miller
Courses at SOEL
exploring the dynamic relationship between mind & body
Courses at SOEL include the study of experiential Anatomy & Physiology, Developmental Movement & Embryology, Ecosomatics, Teaching practice and Facilitation from a multi-disciplined approach informed by somatics, Body-Mind Centering®, Whole Person Learning and Reflective Practicum.
SOEL are currently offering the following courses:
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Holistic Studies in Human Anatomy
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Experiential Anatomy Online
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Somatics Experiential Learning Facilitator (SELF)
Holistic Studies in Human Anatomy
two year course, in person, Devon UK
October 2023 - March 2025:
click here for course information: Dates, fees, registration
For more Information scroll down
Somatics Experiential Learning Facilitator (SELF):
3 year course: in person, Devon UK
October 2023-2026: dates & modules click here
Summer Modules 2024:
Module 11: Infant Developmental Movement
Saturday 11th - Wednesday 15th May 2024
click here for module information, teachers, venue
Module length: 5 days: 30 class hours
Module 12: The Embryo in You
Sunday 21st - Wednesday 24th July 2024
click here for: module information, teachers, venue
Module length: 4 days: 21.5 hours class hours
(Modules 11 and 12 are prerequisites for the Third Year Facilitation Modules)
Experiential Anatomy Online:
Series III: Our organs and the endocrine system
October 2023 - March 2024: click here for course dates
For more information scroll down
"The separation of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual faculties in our culture is a direct reflection of our by-passing the need to survive on an automatic physical level. This means on one hand that automatic physical defense mechanisms on the low brain level are minimally stimulated to develop, while on the other hand, high brain mental consciousness is greatly emphasised.
Less and less time is spent on low brain development. For example, many of our infant rearing practices are emphasising early and out of sequence eye-hand and bipedal activities (infant seats, baby bouncers, early walking), less and less time is devoted to prone, supine, and quadrupedal development which stimulates lower brain. Infants are being placed in advanced postures before they have developed the means to move in and out of them on their own. Without fully developed automatic physical survival mechanisms, higher brain consciousness lacks a balanced grounding."
Developmental Movement Therapy
by Margret Mills & Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen.
All courses are modular and include the study of experimental anatomy, infant developmental movement, embryology, ecosomatics (SELF only), Facilitation, Teaching Practice and Evolutionary Mentoring (SELF only).
The teaching and learning includes guided explorations in embodied practice, hands-on touch & somatics movement practice complimented by traditional anatomy and physiology, current theory, film, academic articles and podcasts supported by a wide range of books, access to SOELs library, module handouts, handbooks, anatomy models, charts & maps.
Courses are based on a holistic teaching and learning approach that begins with knowing our self and learning through self discovery.
At SOEL we feel that knowing will be more valid if it is grounded in our experience, expressed through our stories and images, understood through theories which make sense to us, and expressed in worthwhile action in our lives.
Staff at SOEL incorporate and give equal value to the many ways of knowing our self and our world that include: experiential, theoretical, practical, intuitive and creative modalities.
" This style and method of learning has been life changing for me.
For the first time in my life, I felt the ability to learn by feeling, experiencing and embodying.
Exploring and sensing the body in such a profoundly beautiful and nurturing way [...] has deepened all forms of relationship to myself, others and this incredible earth we are so privileged to inhabit [...]
truly nourishes the soul."
Pippa, anatomy student 2018-2019
"I really appreciated the clarity in the approach to the work – the clarity in the language – the care and support of the language – and the warmth and the invitation in the manner of the teachers to join them in exploration. Valuable and deep. Thanks."
Paul, workshop participant, Skeleton, 2016
Holistic Studies in Human Anatomy
two year course, in person, Devon UK
October 2023 - March 2025
Starting Sunday 15th October 2023
Module 1
Cells, Tissues, Organs & Systems: Human Being
Course Information
This course is a unique interdisciplinary approach to the study of western science and anatomy fostering our felt sensory capacities to experience the dynamic, innate intelligence of our own biology through the holistic nature of our body-mind.
The course focuses on cultivating greater conscious awareness of our internal and external environments and the intimate exchange between them in maintaining well being, resiliency and sense of self.
The course explores how we know our self, how we learn, how we think, feel, sense, intuit and how we are always in flux, and changing. Based on the experiential anatomy of Body-Mind Centering®, Reflective Practicum, Evolutionary Mentoring and Whole Person Learning this two year course is a pre-requisite for the three year training SELF: Somatics Experiential Learning Facilitator.
Students are supported to discover and develop their own learning interests, research and practices through their own experiences. This approach is rooted in a somatics practice and informed by Whole Person Learning. Teaching includes the following modalities:
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Anatomy models and images
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Articles, film, podcast, books
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Hands-on-touch upon ourself and in partners
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sounding, breath work
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Guided movement meditations
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guided improvised movement integration in silence and with music accompaniment
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Reflective dialogue
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Somatics drawing and writing
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People who have studied the course include the following professions: Teachers & Lecturers, body work therapists, Play Therapists, Yoga teachers, Cranial Sacral Therapists, Writers, Visual Artists, Performance Artists, Arts Managers, Biodynamic Practitioner & growers.
Course content in brief:
200 hours taught content
10 weekend modules over 2 years
4 private one-to-one tutorials
Library membership with access to over 300 books
Additional articles & module handouts
Film screenings
Course Handbook
SOEL Certification
Access to Saturday Somatics workshops
Access to BMC® Study Groups
"SOEL offers a refreshing and rare learning environment."
Isabella Lazlo Course Grad 2019
Further details:
TASTER WORKSHOPS
Taster group workshops in Devon &/or via zoom
Practical workshops in experiential anatomy followed by course information & questions for October 2023 intake.
Sunday 6th August 2023: 3pm-5.30pm
Caddaford Barns Studio, Devon
Saturday 23rd September: 2pm-4pm
Other options to experience SOEL teaching and visit the studio include: Saturday Somatics, BMC study Groups, or private BMC session in person or via zoom
Graduate Feedback
The pace, different learning styles and non-judgemental approach is something precious. To slow down in the learning and trust myself to know has given me a different outlook on learning. The tutorials were so generous and personal. I felt so seen and known. The richest experience was with the lungs and the touch on my back.
Dr Abigail Jackson 2018 Academic
I have been able to draw out and examine creativity, trauma, new and more joyful ways of being, inspiration, grounding, kindness…It continues to be a beautiful, fascinating…process of discovery and undoing. Annabie Daly 2017 Artist & musician
I come away from this course with a deep sense of longevity in that there were many aspects of my learning that I feel I will be able to carry far into the future. Participating in this course had clear impacts on how I entered and responded to life beyond the course. Helen Williams. 2016 Director Being in Circle, Arts Manager & Stage Manager.
Experiential Anatomy Online: Series III
exploring the dynamic relationship between mind and body
Body-Mind Centering® classes via zoom
The Organs and our Endocrine System
One Sunday per Month
October 2023 – March 2024
Starts: Sunday 8th October 2023
10am-5pm
A Series of six Sundays exploring the organs and our endocrine system; their resonance and their inter-relationships as the primary habitats of our emotions, aspirations, memories and energy.
We will take time to slow down and discover our own personal relationships with these two systems, to embody and reflect upon the specific qualities that are revealed in our responses, our memories, personal histories and the nature of universal myth and mind.
Series III will focus on exploring our inner sense of balance and wellbeing through our:
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our heart as organ and gland,
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our kidneys and adrenals,
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glandular support of our digestive process,
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our reproductive cycles,
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and our Immune System
Through sound, breath, hands-on touch upon ourself, and gentle guided movement mediations in silence and with music accompaniment we will discover how these systems support and resource us, complimented by: somatics drawing, writing, the study of traditional anatomy and physiology, and shared reflective dialogue.
“The endocrine glands underlie intuition and the perceiving and understanding of Universal Mind... It is through this recognition that empathy is established, that universal feelings are recognised within the context of one’s own life, and that we understand and know...”
Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen
Module 1: Organs and Our Endocrine System
Introductions from an embryological perspective
Sunday 8th October 2023: 10am - 5pm
This series of six online classes also includes:
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access to zoom recordings
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one private online tutorial (optional)
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readings & handouts prior to each class
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two teachers and zoom host
FEES: £600
To register: info@tsoel.org.uk
Bursaries available please contact us directly
Hosting on zoom: Joni Brown form the Argyll Arts Collective: joni@argyllartscollective.com
Teaching: Rosalyn Maynard and Daisy Martinez
“What is my boundary today, how is my boundary. How am I meeting this boundary and what lies under or beyond it. What do I allow in, or reject. This fluid, and natural and empowering question.
To swim freely in a sense of disorganisation. Trusting the articulate cleverness of the body. The gut-brain and nervous system. The skin. The interconnectivity. To meet and be breathed by my 'baby' self. Compassion and humour.
Thank you for holding the course. It felt very thorough, thoughtful, and safe. With [a zoom host] too, it felt organised and well held.”
Course Participant: Willa Faulkner
Experiential Anatomy Online Series II: 2022-2023
Testimony
“In a world where disease and pain has become so normal this approach to learning and knowing ourselves offers a key for our health, by listening to the wisdom of our bodies, we learn to embody a new paradigm, one where ease and grace are at the heart.”
"As a Cranial Sacral therapist it has been very meaningful to enter the consciousness of my own cerebrospinal fluid, (on the first year module: Fluids), this is a familiar consciousness that I enter every time I work with a client, and yet I had never been simply guided into the experience of my own CSF. Resting in my Cerebrospinal fluids I am filled with a luminous light, at one with the cosmic universe. I am peace and I am resting in stillness. (Fluids module: February 2018)
Course graduate, Isabella Lazlo 2017-2019
Excerpt from article June 2018