Changing The Language Of Body ~ Movement As Medicine

Essay Eight, Movement as Medicine, is a tribute to the legacy of Emilie Conrad
and her contribution to my understanding of body as process.

Engaging movement as medicine, Emilie Conrad pioneered a somatic inquiry into the power of the fluid system and its capacity for recapitulating neuro-sensory information in order to regain healthy tissue, specifically within spinal cords severely damaged by injury. By discovering how activating fluid through sound vibration and micro-movement changes the quality and adaptability of tissue, Conrad’s sphere of influence and her specific approach reframes concepts of health and consciousness, including how paralysis is perceived. Conrad was certain that the only thing actually paralyzed is our own process of thinking.

Decolonizing our static, mechanistic perspective of body is not only a cognitive process requiring the re-evaluation of language, assumptions, and intentions but also a sensory process requiring a shift in our awareness toward subtle impressions that evoke new experiences of self.