Below you will find a list of articles by Liz Koch available on other website’s and publications. Each of these articles will open in a new browser window.
Loading...The Animals Are Calling Council: A Conversation with Susan Eirich
Dr. Susan Eirich is a licensed psychologist, biologist, educator, and the director of the Earthfire Institute. Her goal is to widen the conversational circle around conservation to include the voices of all living beings. She summons us to hear other species so that we may tap into a broader, deeper nourishment of life, self, and other. Liz Koch and Susan Eirich discuss the mutual life supporting benefits of a dynamic multispecies initiative toward finding new ways of being on the Earth. (photo is of Earthfire the wolf and her brother Red).
Stalking Wild: The Animals Are Calling Us to Council
The Wilderness is inside you
streaming through your blood, vibrating your tissue, resonating in your bones…
Join me for a conversation with Dr. Susan Eirich, Founder and Executive Director of Earthfire Institute Wildlife Sanctuary and Retreat Center live May 9th. A licensed psychologist, biologist and educator, Dr. Eirich’s goal is to widen the circle of conversation about conservation to include the voices of all living beings.
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“In this difficult time for all beings on our Earth we are called to speak and act from our deepest selves, our deepest wisdom, our deepest resources. We are called to lead, each in our own way, and to participate with others, all leading together. These times are actually a call to become fully alive, awake, and to participate in Life.”
Stalking Wild: The Animals Are Calling Us to Council is an opportunity for Susan and I to discuss a dynamic multispecies initiative toward finding new ways of living on the Earth. This subject is vital to me and the work I do with core intelligence. It is what Dr. Eirich refers to as innate creative intelligence. Human beings are part of a larger field recognized in physics and geometry as unification principles, Resonant fields, and the Living Connected Universe. By listening to other species we tap into a broader, deeper more nourishing experience of life, self, and other.
“As my awareness expanded I realized I had to do right by all Life. Falling in love deeply opens channels through which all kinds of information can flow and I saw each living being; plant, tree, animal, as a source of wonder if only I was able to connect with each on its own terms.”
Stalking Wild Psoas embraces the recognition that within each one of us there is a core intelligence that is not limited, isolated, or local but expansive, inclusive, and global. It demands that humans make the paradigm shift from objectifying ourselves, nature, and all Life, to perceiving our unique expression and inter-inter-cponnectedness as a dynamic living body.
“Every now and then a new scientific discovery is made that is so exciting, so paradigm-shifting, that we need to share it as widely as possible; to think about it; discuss it, absorb it into a new world view of the nature of Life. The good news–it is a worldview that, if we adopt it, will help with our environmental crises. It is so amazing it can’t help but foster respect and wonder for all life… Things used to be simple. There were two kingdoms, plant and animal, and one kind of real intelligence – human. Then we discovered that Life is creative and complex…enter the brilliant slime mold.
NOTE: All italics are quotes by Dr Eirich taken directly from http://earthfireinstitute.org/
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Food For Thought: Becoming Porous
” …a ‘threshold’ appears first as a boundary and then once approached, you realize that it is only the limit of one layer of understanding while, at the same time, it acts as the doorway to the next, deeper layer.”
Quote by English Professor Michael Chambers
The boundary that defines my body from other is my skin, the boundary that defines my thoughts are my intentions, and the boundary that separates my heart from the unknown is my fear. Thresholds are access points between boundaries, between what I understand to be self and other. Whether I create distinctions between physical boundaries, conceptual boundaries, or emotional and energetic boundaries, there is a commonly held perception that a boundary will help provide personal safety, define a range of motion, and articulate a spatial parameter. The most protective boundary is dense as this functions as an interior and exterior shield. Why then entertain the idea of becoming porous?
When I was emerging as a young woman I felt no clear boundaries between myself and my family’s disturbing behavior. Where did I begin and their anger, fear, pain, and acting out end? All I knew was that it felt scary and painful to be around them. Creating clear boundaries was my first intention that I exercised by separating from my family as soon as I was old enough to leave home. It proved, however, to be a conundrum: in an attempt to protect myself, I ended up feeling isolated and alone.
As a conceptual artist teaching flexible sculpture, I explored thresholds as a theme with my students. There was this creative curiosity I had with the shifting sand and the water’s edge, the inner womb and outer home, and the edge of a ledge and the space beyond. When I began exploring the world of sensation (what is currently referred to as Somatic studies), I discovered that boundaries definitely clarify intentions, articulations, and differentiations. Where I placed my attention could, quite literally, help define an experience: the expression of an organ, the movement of a joint, the flow of my blood. Spending time intentionally sensing helped me feel contained while separating me from other. I began to be my own person and this boundary helped me feel at ease, less fearful, and more grounded in my life. I discovered within the depths of my sensory system a bio-intelligence that I came to trust. It’s what I now refer to as coherency. But the exploration of thresholds continues as a living inquiry into the larger question of who am I.
Forty-five years have passed, and my inquiry has manifested into a fluid system (for lack of a better word). A vast terrain of non-form and non-distinction. The discoveries are an immersion into a new way of sensing self, the world, and other. Originally the specificity of the self was my container that allowed me to be moved by a wave, a current of internal fluid. What resulted, however, was the experience of feeling my own limitations. Years of articulating have allowed a freedom to emerge — what might even be perceived as the essence of diversity — but it has not directly challenged the density of my being. Similar to a log floating on a vibrant rushing river, what I really wanted was to become the sea. Skin, I have been told, is a boundary that tells our embryological story, revealing our lived stress, shock, and trauma. Hydrating tissue by using sound and micro-movements I started to awaken my skin, cells, organs, and tissue. As my tissue awoke through the invocation of fluid movement, I slowly became more porous, my being breathed, opening beyond any defined boundary. I was moved in ways that felt incredibly supportive, non-personal, and even global. My longing to become porous increased exponentially.
I continue to explore the threshold between containment and porousness in multiple threads of my life. Each thread weaves a story where there are thresholds between protection and innovation — a continual paradox of growing desire. Culturing food and composting are two simple dynamic processes of interactive permeability that merge within and without. Multiplicity, an architectural project I discovered online focusing on permeability of structures such as living roofs by growing materials using microbiome material, excites my conceptual threshold. Spending time in the inner city of St Louis, MO brought home a deep sadness as I recognized that my white privilege has starved my soul from others that offer rich cross-cultural pollination. I am the isolated one as boundaries can over protect and constrict. Whether these boundaries place me on one side or the other of a definitive wall, being human is a visceral disconnect from dynamic living. So, I begin again evoking thresholds and immersing my articulated self in a process where bones float in connective tissue; wave motions flood my heart and then recede; where porous tissue breathes life into dense attitudes; new thoughts appear; and where longing thrives as it is moved by forces unimaginable that playfully coax the interactive flourishing of all living beings.
Photo Credit: Samuel Scrimshaw on Unsplash
Introducing Martin Grasby
Martin Grasby is a licensed Acupuncturist and certified Bowen therapist with a thriving clinic in Warwickshire, England. Martin attended his first psoas workshop in 2004 in the UK and later journeyed to Mexico to participate in the 10-day Professional Application Course. Instrumental in hosting workshops in the UK, Martin introduced me to leaders in the somatic, health, and bodywork fields. In February 2007, we co-authored an article “Balancing Your Internal Climate,” which focuses on understanding the psoas from an elemental, expressive, and energetic perspective. It was published in the United Kingdom Positive Health Magazine. (an online version is available at both Core Awareness™ and at The Positive Health website http://www.positivehealth.com/article/chinese-oriental-medicine/balancing-your-internal-climate. With Martin’s recommendation, I was invited to be the Keynote Speaker at the International Bowen Conference in London (2008) where I had the opportunity to present my “Stalking the Wild Psoas: Changing the Language of Body from Object to Process.” I have a deep appreciation for Martin and his British sense of humor. It’s been a great pleasure to witness how he has challenged his personal and cultural conditioning in order to embody his somatic knowing, develop his professional skills, and flourish in both love and life.
Tell the readers a little about why you trained as an Acupuncturist and then as a Bowen practitioner. What in particular drew you towards these two particular forms of work?
Ever since I first experienced acupuncture, I was fascinated by how such minimal intervention could bring about profound results on multiple levels. The time came when I felt my career was due for a change and it was one of those moments of “knowing;” what I really wanted was to study 5 Elemental Acupuncture. It felt right, no question about it, though I was unsure of what exactly I was going into.
Bowen came along some years later when a friend, who was just starting as a Bowen teacher, invited me to join her for a course. Again, I was struck by this minimalistic approach that could achieve seemingly unlikely results. All sorts of issues miraculously resolved. Coming from an engineering background, I felt challenged by the somewhat esoteric nature of both these two therapies. At first, I couldn’t necessarily see what was happening but clearly something was occurring, and the clients knew it too. Now I trust this process and the part I have in it. Ultimately it is the body’s own unfolding which seems to be gently prompted into action.
Explain to our readers your outlook on healing and health. In what ways does the Five-Element Theory and Chinese Medicine shape your outlook on life?
Being from a conventional background it took time for me to eventually come to realize and appreciate the value of the individual, synchronistic functioning of the body, and that nothing happens in isolation. 5-Element Acupuncture has nature at its root. It expounds that we should be in tune with the cycles of life and its natural laws. For example, as Spring follows Winter so too in 5 Element principles Wood follows Water with their interdependent impulse of energy. If the cycle is interrupted then, as the Classics predict, illness results. In other words, what occurs externally in nature also occurs internally within our selves. Similar to the ups and downs of the natural environment, we too have our internal variable landscape.
Bowen is a very gentle hands-on treatment that affects acupuncture meridians. Its effect on fascia is also currently being explored and readily accepted as valuable. Whilst I don’t often combine the two, I find in my practice that they inform, develop, and deepen one another’s application.
Please elaborate on your professional goals. Explain to the reader what you focus on with clients and why it is important to your work.
The conventional medical model often tells patients nothing more can be done. It tells them that they’ll be on medication or in pain for the rest of their life or that surgery is their only option. This may of course be true, but I have found many conditions can be improved or, at the very least, there are ways to help the patient find an inner resilience to handle what they’re coping with. It is said that we shouldn’t give false hope, but clients should not be given false despair either.
I’ve noticed that many people are physically unaware and that unless they’re in pain they have little concept of how their body is functioning. And in a sense why should they feel anything else? Through various approaches many of my clients actually become interested in what is happening and why. Bodywork can be a subtle way of connecting with oneself and nature without the need to verbalize.
How & why has the psoas played an important part in your professional and personal life?
An acupuncture teacher once told me “if a client wakes up with a painful or stiff low back it might be their psoas muscles.” Later I discovered Liz Koch’s work with the psoas and from 2004 on was lucky enough to host her UK visits. This opportunity led to experiencing and understanding that this tissue has more than just a mechanical function. Muscle memory and emotions are there to be discovered and learned from. An important insight I had from learning her approach is that we should work respectfully with the psoas and indeed with the whole person. It’s too easy to think we know best as to how our client’s body and mind should be. Forcing change invariably leads, at best, to only temporary relief. Fortunately, both Acupuncture and Bowen enables the body’s innate wisdom and potential to be realized. My time in the treatment room is always an ongoing process as I continue to learn from my clients. Most of my clients are now familiar with the Constructive Rest Position and the Core Awareness™ website as an additional reference.
What have you gained from working with Liz Koch’s approach to the psoas?
This work introduced me to how profound a subtle approach towards the core tissue can be. I find more and more people are in “fight or flight” mode — not on the front line of a war zone but in the busyness of life: deadlines, financial worries, relationship issues, social media, competitive sports. They are in a constant state of low level trauma and thus exhausting their psoas, the messenger of the autonomic nervous system. I remember Liz saying, “Don’t shoot the messenger” and this is a constant reminder to me that the last thing they need is a deep, invasive intervention that only adds to their trauma.
Introducing Katie Drubel
Katie Dubel is a U.S. Registered Practitioner of Ortho-Bionomy ® in the Chicago area focusing on restorative bodywork, trauma resolution, and the development and maturation of the proprioceptive and autonomic nervous systems. Katie joined me for her first workshop in 2010 in North Carolina. Since that time, she has attended a variety of workshops and online courses, completed my Application Course for professionals, and joined me for my intensive Advanced Core Awareness Course in Lawrence Kansas. I have personally experienced Katie’s style of hands on work and appreciate her sensitive and profound ability to follow the bio-intelligence of the human organism. Ortho-Bionomy
® is a system of work I deeply respect. I was honored to be their keynote speaker at the 2008 International Ortho-Bionomy ® Conference held in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Tell the readers a little about how and why you became an Ortho-Bionomy® practitioner. What in particular drew you towards this particular form of work?
My earliest experience of health care was with my grandfather who was a Chiropractor. A peer whom my grandfather corresponded with regularly was Major DeJarnette who created a cranial reflex system called sacral occipital technique (SOT). My grandfather utilized SOT exclusively in the later years of his practice. The system seemed like magic to me. The shifts, movements, and releases all came from within and I felt my body’s “knowing.” There was no need to force the body to do anything. I realize now I was experiencing the innate intelligence of my body. I had conversations with my grandfather about following him into the Chiropractic field, but it was not my path.
In the mid 90’s I began training to become a massage therapist. I picked my school for its diverse electives, such as reflexology, which was my love at that time. My first hands-on class was in Ortho-Bionomy®. It was packed with over 30 students, some of who were taking it for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th time. They talked about how ‘OB’ had changed their lives and that they used the principles every day. During the first class, I felt my reflexes engage in a way that was similar to when my grandfather worked with me. My body’s knowing was again being supported. Ortho-Bionomy® gave me a context for what once seemed like magical changes. We learned to support and resource patterns, engage reflexes, and support nervous system responsiveness. It is now 20 years later, and I am still living the principles of Ortho-Bionomy®, which enriches my life every day. Even before I graduated from massage school it was clear to me that the ease and effectiveness of Ortho-Bionomy® was what I wanted to be practicing and that Ortho-Bionomy® was my professional path.
Explain some of the history and the basic premise of Ortho-Bionomy® to our readers. In what ways is it unique from other massage and bodywork systems? Explain how it relates to increasing or promoting proprioception.
Ortho-Bionomy® was developed by Arthur Lincoln Pauls, a British trained Osteopath. Pauls was influenced by a paper written by Dr. Lawrence Jones called “Spontaneous Release Through Positioning.” Pauls held a black belt in Judo, a martial arts system that espouses the principle of not opposing strength with strength. It was from this perspective that Paul’s began developing his techniques for releasing muscle tension through the proprioceptive nerves found in every joint of the body. The term Ortho-Bionomy comes from the “ortho,” which means correct or straight, “bio” meaning life, and “nomy” meaning the laws of or study of. Pauls defined the term as “the correct application of the laws of life.” He discovered various ways to engage the reflexive response and evolved the work to include cranial sacral relationships, neuro-lymphatic points, and energetic connections to the basic reflexes. He started teaching in the U.S. in 1976 and taught worldwide until shortly before his death in 1997. Pauls left us with amazing gifts: clear ways of engaging the reflexes of the nervous system that support the body to “self-correct,” clear principles for guiding our intention, and a desire for the work to continue to evolve. The principles of Ortho Bionomy® include:
Less is more
Structure governs function
Exaggerate the pattern
Non-judgement
Working ‘with’ vs ‘working on’
Going with the ease of movement
Be present for others
Meeting in right relationship and where people are
Honor what arises
Self-recognition
Since my time with Ortho-Bionomy®, the instructors and practitioners that have followed in Pauls’ wake continue creating cutting edge applications for trauma, scar work, lymphatic drainage, scoliosis, and equine positional release to name just a few. The Society of Ortho-Bionomy® International’s website www.ortho-bionomy.org provides additional information.
Please elaborate on your professional goals. Explain to the readers what you focus on with clients and why it is important?
Professionally, I offer my clients the opportunity to have the feeling of a “right relationship” within themselves. This is a system that educates clients on the potential that exists within each of us. I want to support a client to make supportive changes in a session and employ that awareness outside of the session. During an Ortho Bionomy® session the client does not need to remove their clothing. In my practice finding the right relationship for working with a client may include standing, sitting in a chair, laying on a massage table or using a mat on the floor. The different perspectives also offer opportunities for different relationships and thus increase proprioception. Supporting and resourcing “what is” creates an environment for the innate intelligence of the reflexes to express themselves. Exploring and exaggerating patterns is a gentle noninvasive way of respecting proprioception, which is unique to each client. Every client comes with their own experiences, responses, and reactions to experiences. Meeting my clients where they are, on any day, at that specific time, is an attractive part of being a practitioner. My client is also asked to communicate about their comfort or experience. A session therefore is a collaboration between client and practitioner. It may be the first time a client has had the opportunity to experience themselves in such a mindful way. Highlighting what is working well and what moves with ease is a lovely side effect of the work. After a session, a client often reports feeling more peaceful, grounded, and aware of themselves as well as their surroundings. In addition to working with the physical structure, OB is also working with the lymph, fluids, neurology, organs, and endocrine system. The art of OB is a healing system that feels quite complete to me. By 2019 I hope to expand by offering small self-care classes utilizing OB principles, psoas restoration, and nutritious movements.
How & why has the psoas played an important part in your professional and personal life?
I have experienced the importance of the psoas as it relates to the autonomic nervous system both professionally and personally. Being with a client’s psoas provides not only information about the nervous system but also provides access to the patterns that organize us from the core midline out to fingers and toes. Personally, I dislocated my sacroiliac joint when I was 17 years old and it has been a long healing process. The results of the injury, and my athletic career in college and beyond, took its toll on my psoas. I attended my first 18-hour Psoas workshop in an attempt to have a relationship with my psoas. During that workshop I gave my psoas rest, sound, and fluid movement. I explored the relationship of my psoas to my upper back, hips, and pelvis. I felt hope when Liz explained how long it took her to sense her psoas. All I was feeling at that time was sore and exhausted. Everything felt stuck together. I was astounded, overwhelmed, and felt like I just needed time to digest. Several introductory, advanced, and application workshops later, I can say I now feel my psoas, and although it still enjoys rest, sound, and movement what it ultimately wants to do is play. So, when I think of Liz, I am reminded to play!
What have you gained from working with Liz Koch’s approach to the psoas?
I was introduced to Liz Koch’s work by my first Ortho-Bionomy® teacher and advisor. He had taken a workshop with Liz and it influenced how he spoke about the psoas. The Psoas Book was suggested reading and he created a wonderful OB class focusing on the psoas. So, I had read Liz’s book, published articles, and listened to her CDs and podcasts before ever venturing into a workshop. Liz has impressed me as a teacher whose mission it is to educate people about this misunderstood, misclassified, misused, hardworking tissue. I can’t even call it a muscle anymore. I refer to the psoas as a juicy, supple, soulful, responsive, communicator that is a core part of the autonomic nervous system. I feel restorative work with my psoas is ongoing and a necessary part of my everyday life.
Every workshop I’ve taken with Liz continues to expand my understanding of my psoas and has helped my ability to support and provide resources for my clients. When I speak to clients about their psoas it is from this biodynamic model. The insights and applications taken from the Core Awareness™ workshops are easily placed within the principles of Ortho-Bionomy®.
Ortho-Bionomy® is a registered trademark of the Society of Ortho-Bionomy International, Inc. and is used with permission.
Stalking Wild Psoas Workshops ~ Activating Core Integrity
Stalking Wild Psoas: Awakening To Our Creative Self
“When life is recognized and felt-sensed in flesh and blood, the longing for a new way of communicating becomes paramount.”
“What if instead of identifying myself with objects, I felt my heart as a large oscillator emanating far beyond my physical skin: a complex, nonlinear “conductor of depth information” from the external world to be felt and heard? What if I sensed my gut as a center of intelligent life where “I am” cohabitate with a profundity of microorganisms? What if I fully comprehended that I am elemental, a biosphere of living substance and that I am shaped, quite literally, by more microorganisms than human cells?
Such realizations surely would redefine health protocols and might spark an awakening on a global scale.”
Excerpt from Liz Koch’s new manuscript, Stalking Wild Psoas: Changing the Language of Body from Object to Process (North Atlantic Books, 2019).
People often email to ask what will I do in a Stalking Wild Psoas Workshop? How does the Stalking Wild Psoas Workshop differ from the functionally-based 12-Hour or 18-Hour Psoas Workshop?
I typically start by saying that Stalking Wild Psoas is a process-oriented workshop. I attempt then to explain the importance of such a process by employing the following metaphor: our psoas is like a pot-bound houseplant that has been forced into a way of being. This answer may feel shallow and somewhat mundane; perhaps my words seem to lack substance, reason, and purpose.
What I really mean to say is that I don’t do anything and neither do you. Rather we begin with an invitation to awaken into a different consciousness from the one society has provided us. We evoke a different experience of existing under the cultural and historical terrain that has been going on since the beginning of time. Our presence and awareness change our sense of being, shifting our focus. This process helps us emerge from the isolation of separation and subsequently dissolves our insistence on being a thing called a body, and allows our participation in the larger biological processes of life. When we allow ourselves the opportunity to simply explore, evoke, and call forth bio-intelligence, we discover for ourselves a deep inner knowing that elicits profound conductivity, vital meaning, and delicious playfulness.
This process entails creating a safe container (my job and yours) in order for our blood to ignite desire and our hearts to synchronize into coherent membranes reaching toward awareness. A fertile ground of landing is sown where primordial movements prevail, slowing us down and quieting our mental chatter so we can hear the cilia talking to each other and the mitochondria excitedly deconstructing the colonization embedded within living tissue, dissolving and healing our inherited wounds and awakening imaginal cells that innovate new creative ways of being. We begin to flourish and become more than our defended, fearful thoughts can ever fathom.
When choosing which workshop to attend, I do understand that people wish to be practical, to gain tools for their trade, and be able to apply these tools with their clients and students. Or perhaps a person solely wants to rid themselves of a psoas problem and feel more comfortable. My experience over the past 45 years of exploring the core tissue called psoas is that the quickest way to resolve discord, recover integrity, support integration, become functional, and flourish creatively in one’s life is to turn towards our bio-intelligence through primal expression.
Because we are self-organizing and self-healing organisms struggling with our cultural story, more reps will not necessarily create better function or take a person’s deeply faceted, soulful fears away. From my experience, there is no shortcut in gaining integrity. One way, however, to expedite the process is to collide with the elements of the earth through somatic play. The Stalking Wild Psoas Workshop emphasizes self-efficacy so that a person can become self-aware, feel more alive, and sense safety through being nourished.
Photo Credit: Scan electron microscope image of cilia John Wallingford – Wallingford Lab https://www.wallingfordlab.org/
Introducing Mina van Brunschot
Mina van Brunschot is a Restorative Exercise Specialist, Pilates Instructor, and Movements Educator working in Belgium and the Netherlands. I first met Mina at a 12-Hr Psoas Workshop conducted in the Netherlands in 2009. Mina has gone on to take many of my other workshops and completed my Application Course for Professionals in 2010. She introduced me to her Pilate colleagues, helped me locate studios, and sponsored private sessions for her community in Amsterdam. Mina also handles my books and CDs for local distribution and continues offering invaluable help in building my outstanding psoas community in the Netherlands. As a functional-based educator engaging in practical movements that provide quick and measurable results, Mina has just begun to dip her toes into the more soulful aspects of the psoas. Her strength and honesty in answering my questions and revealing her personal process is deeply moving and very appreciated.
Mina, please tell our readers a little about how and why you became a restorative exercise specialist. How has your journey shifted between its start and now?
It all started 18 years ago when I felt “burned-out” and depressed. I decided to try Pilates. During my first class I instantly felt better! I was so excited by the results that I signed up and completed my certification in Classical Pilates. I wanted to “spread the word.” I began traveling the world attending Pilates courses and Fitness conferences. While a Pilates Instructor, I read an article in a fitness magazine about Katy Bowman’s alignment principles. It peaked my interest. However, it was not until I listened to the podcast interview on the Core Awareness website with Liz Koch and Katy Bowman that I felt steered towards Katy’s trainings. When I started reading Katy’s blog, I finally found the answers to questions that seemed unanswerable within my Pilates bubble. In 2011, I became certified in Katy Bowman’s training as a Restorative Exercise Specialist. I am now celebrating my 10th anniversary teaching movement.
You also own a pop-up business distributing books, exercise tools, and a variety of support for alignment and health. What got you started?
I have lived most of my life in the Flemish-Dutch speaking part of Belgium. Here in Neerpelt, I have my studio, alignmentLAB. In addition to teaching, I offer my clients and colleagues a variety of tools, materials, and books that I love. I really like to play shopkeeper: boxing up the products and sending them off. I know people really appreciate these goodies!
I sell educational and functional tools for psoas explorations, Pilates, Yoga, and Restorative Exercise. This includes balls in many sizes and densities, rollers, straps, and proprioceptive tools with soft or firm spikes. It also includes my favorite books, CDs, and DVD’s by authors such as Liz Koch and Katy Bowman. Many of the tools available on my website www.alignmentlab.eu including the Squatty Potty®, Correct Toes®, Alignment Socks®, and the Back Vitalizer™ pillow help people get more of their movement during their day, without any special planning or time wasted.
Please elaborate on your profession. Explain to our readers what you focus on and why it is important?
I love helping people understand how they can best support the self-healing properties of their own “bodily vessel.” My current level of knowledge allows me to teach restorative exercises, lifestyle changes, and body awareness. I focus on movements that are often missing from our modern day lives. Currently, most people are experiencing an unprecedented daily dose of sitting. Sitting in cars and public transportation, on a bike, at a desk, fitness equipment, at the dinner table, during meetings, and in waiting rooms. Sitting in and of itself is not the actual problem because everyone needs rest. It is the chronic sitting position that contributes to so many physical ailments. First and foremost I teach my clients to sit differently, move more, and to move in varied ways while they are at work, home, play, or even while asleep! Although all movement is good, adding micro and varied movements can increase your overall functioning that makes you feel more alive. Clients tell me they need less physical therapy, osteopathy, and even insoles! Their sleep improves, they feel alive, pelvic issues and joint aches lessen, and even disappear. Understanding the importance of movement empowers my clients and improves their self-care. I get goosebumps when someone tells me: “I felt this ache coming up, but now I know how to take care of myself and the ache goes away.”
How & why has the psoas played an important part in your professional and personal life?
I first learned about the psoas while reading The Psoas Book. It had puzzled me why I could not do a Pilates roll-up without huffing and puffing or using momentum even though I had picture perfect abdominal muscles. Reading the book helped confirm the complexity of the psoas. I knew deep down that the psoas had to be much more than a mere hip flexor. My first psoas “release” and accompanying emotional breakdown was during a prone Pilates exercise. After this experience I felt empowered to make some important life-changing decisions. I attended Liz’s Core Awareness Application Course for professionals in Langeland, Denmark and started to introduce psoas explorations into my own classes and private sessions.
What have you gained from working with Liz Koch’s approach to the psoas?
My father died of Alzheimer’s symptoms in 2005. Every year about a week before the date of his death, I would get anxious and feel depressed. When I finally realized how significant this date was, I decided to consciously treat myself to a holiday retreat. The first time I did was in 2010. On my way back from the USA, I planned a layover in Denmark where I attended the week long Application Course on Langeland island at a retreat setting. It was a beautiful location: the food was lovely, the company great, and the learning experience deep. I think I relaxed completely for the first time in many years. Getting in touch with my psoas and listening to my frazzled nervous system was quite an experience! I remember how light my body felt when I got on the plane to go home. It took a few more workshops to take down some of the barriers of my past trauma. I learned a great deal about myself: the way I respond to stress and how to support myself when I sense a flight or freeze response. I have continued to explore my psoas and doing so helps me find myself, my voice, and my body. This past year I spent an amazing weekend with Liz and Anna Verwaal at the Stalking Wild Psoas Womb To World workshop. I highly recommend this collaboration as they explore how profoundly our prenatal and perinatal experience influences our personal lives.
I am particularly impressed by the way Liz can read a person’s psoas. At first, I felt disbelief and maybe even some skepticism. I definitely could not see myself sensing other people’s emotions. However, over time I have become more available. I sometimes get a buzzing sensation deep down in my belly when I am working with a client. I can feel their sadness, fear, or numbness. During the Application Course (and really all of her courses), Liz demonstrated how she is moved by the core psoas expression, allowing her deep belly brain to emerge. I remember being surprised when one participant commented after watching the demonstration, saying: “it was as if you were having a pleasurable experience” because what I had just seen was a raw, fearful expression and I wanted to immediately comfort and console her. I now recognize that what I call my innate instant-fix-it reflex, an act of doing or telling something to help another, is actually my sympathetic nervous system’s knee-jerk reaction to feelings of helplessness and vulnerability. Knowing this helps me be more present to myself and to allow another person to just “be.” My psoas, or belly brain, has become a means for sensing the field of my clients. Liz’s approach has given me new insights about myself, nourishing my personal growth and increasing my self-knowledge.
Introducing Lene Guldbech Uttrup
Lene Guldbech Uttrup is a Danish psychomotor therapist working with body awareness, sensory integration, and stress reduction. She is the owner of the CoreTools™ series (www.coretools.dk ) of balls and rollers that I use in all my workshops. Lene introduced me to her colleagues in Copenhagen in 2009. She has studied with me in Warwickshire England, Ojo Mexico, attended my professional trainings twice, and completed my advanced course for professionals. Lene is a vital part of my community and has continued to support my work not only by sponsoring workshops in Denmark but also by assisting in the organization of incredible retreat settings for my advanced course for professionals.
Please tell our readers a little about the skin as an organ of perception, specifically the tactile experience and why is it so important for landing, orienting, and feeling safe?
The tactile system begins developing in the sixth fetal week. As we grow in our mother’s womb space becomes increasingly restricted within the uterus. We are surrounded by soft pressure, especially during a vaginal birth when we are squeezed, pushed, and pressed through the birth canal to find ourselves outside, in a limitless world – where there is no longer soft pressure or containment. Being physically close to our caregivers normally provides the touch and sense of safety needed to serve, so to speak, as our extended womb. Through this skin contact well-being is triggered by the release of the hormone Oxytocin. Professor of Physiology Kerstin Uvnäs Moberg (Sweden) describes oxytocin as one of the brain’s most important substances in terms of both survival and healing. (Kerstin Uvnäs”, Afspænding, ro og berøring” Akademisk Forlag, 2006 / “Oxytocin Factor,”Pinto & Martin Ltd, 2. edition, 2011).
The skin is our largest organ extending over approximately 2 m2, and serves, amongst other things, as a membrane. It is one of the first organs to receive messages from other people. In countries where there is a tradition of infant massage, using strokes, gentle pressure, squeezing, bending, and stretching, babies gain a sense of their own boundaries. Touch that is tuned to fit a baby’s needs releases oxytocin, calming and building trust. When touch is missing or out of sync with a baby’s needs, however, an infant may become anxious and restless activating a protective system that triggers warding off responses which increase muscle tonus. Our need for touch is with us our whole life, especially when we are feeling “lost”. In Denmark there is a growing awareness of “hudsult”, which can be translated to “skin hunger”. When we are not touched enough we can become disoriented. There are a thousand nuances to touch, so I collaborate with each of my clients to find out how they need their touch to be in order that they can “locate” and find themselves in their own skin.
How do the tools that you employ support proprioception, sense of self, and creativity? How do you like to use these tools?
I got involved in developing my own tools because I did not like the tools that were available in the marketplace. I felt they were too hard and that they left me with too few options for leaning into my sensation. I wanted to be the one in charge of when my exploration stopped rather than have it determined by the hardness of the tool being used. I also wanted to increase movement, not my sense of restriction. The hardness of the tools available annoyed me so much that I began to develop the CoreTools™ series of rollers and balls. Very important to me is that these tools are produced with EU standards that follow strict regulations and rules and contain no phthalates (or BPA). I started with the roller I call Wake ‘n Move, which is designed to wake up the receptors of the tactile system and inspire movement. It is soft yet has a bite to it. The more air you add, the more bite it has. I like that the user can customize the tool to meet his or her needs, which is what these tool are all about! The tool adjusts to your needs rather than you having to behave in a certain way to have your needs met.
I work primarily with touch using my hands but I also like using the tools with my clients because a tool can help a person stay focused on the process of finding “home.” Using the tool stimulates the tactile system. When clients learn to do this for themselves, it becomes a skill for life. For instance, stimulating the soles of the feet fires up the receptors in the muscles and joints not only in the feet but also all the way up to the top of the head. For clients with stress and excessive thoughts, focusing on only one thing at a time, such as maintaining balance by rolling on the Wake ‘n Move,or ball, is a gift. Working with one foot at a time offers a comparison that helps a client regain trust that change really can happen. After both feet have been rolled, my clients often feel calmer, more grounded, and connected to the earth. In addition, there is no one-way to use the tools or just one outcome. I tell my clients “it is your exploration and your sensory system, and the same tool or exploration might feel different tomorrow.” Change is a part of the process of getting to know your self better through sensory awareness.
As a somatic educator how do you incorporate somatics into your work with other people and for what reason? For those who may not know there is an amazing use of somatic education in the health and wellness community in Denmark that does not exist in the States or in many other countries.
As a psychomotor therapist, my work is all about building bridges between how a person feels physically and mentally. I stand with one leg in the natural science field and the other in the humanistic field. This means that I benefit from all of the knowledge related to human anatomy (all you can see with your bare eyes), the physiology (all you need a microscope to examine), and I benefit from all of the knowledge related to psychology and pedagogy. I work from a phenomenological point of view, which basically means that a person’s experience and preferences lead the way. As a professional, I have my knowledge in my back pocket, but I do not have a “one-size-fits-all” agenda. Clients come to me to learn about their body and their way of being present in life.
I work primarily with people with overactive nervous systems – people with stress or sensory processing imbalances. I work one on one and in small groups, as it can be very beneficial for people to learn about how other people experience an exploration or situation. I also educate foster parents about appropriate touch for their foster children, so that their touch can help heal early experiences these children carry with them. As a mother to a special needs child (a young man now), my work has proven its worth many times. My son was diagnosed with autism as well as ADHD and is sensitive to stimuli. Knowing how to calm the level of arousal present in his body or help him let go of his many thoughts has been such a fantastic way of staying present to myself and at the same time helping my nearest kin.
How and why has the psoas played an important part in your professional and personal life?
I find being in contact with my own psoas is essential for being authentic and present with my family and clients. The awareness of being present in me, rooted in me, helps me be a better psychomotor therapist. I came across Liz’s website in the early 2000s when I was still studying to become a psychomotor therapist. Her work made perfect sense to me. One has to be respectful towards the psoas. I sometimes compare improving psoas issues with trying to gain a timid child’s or animal’s trust. You have to be trustworthy and authentic. You have to be kind and patient. You have to let the information come to you and let go of any predetermined ideas of how and why. You also have to be able to simply be with the moment. For me, being aware of how my own psoas is responding helps me become a better somatic educator.
What have you gained from working with Liz Koch’s approach to the psoas?
I have attended many workshops with Liz, and I always learn something new. It is truly inspiring being with a person such as Liz, who never stops being curious and inventive.
The Gesture of Becoming: an Interview with Jaap Van der Wal
Jaap Van der Wal M.D., Ph.D. is a Dutch phenomenological embryologist, teacher, and author who provides a counterweight against the reductionist scientific vision of human existence and the embryonic journey that each of us has taken. Exposing the dogma of anatomy as false, Jaap reshapes our mainstream objectification of self to expose the truth of being human as a lifelong process performed. Liz Koch and Jaap Van der Wal met in the Netherlands informally at the kitchen table to talk about the embryological model for understanding core integrity, the expression of psoas, and the importance of changing our perception of body.
Finding Center When Devastated
1) Put your belly to the ground.
2) Curl onto your side and slowly rock: add long exhales using the sound “shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.”
3) Roll to your back, knees up, feet on the floor, to reset your nervous system
