Intrigued, fascinated and endlessly questioning how, what, where – that’s how I feel about the discovery process of bodymind consciousness and the embodiment journey each of us lives. Words that convey our kinesthetic experience are sometimes elusive, yet worth finding because they give us a way to connect to one another, and to even more deeply hear ourselves. In this blog I’ll share my insights and questions as I explore including how current experiences and reading/workshops are stimulating my process. I hope these posts serve as prompts to your questions and that you’ll write back with your discoveries and curiosities so that as a community we stimulate growth and wisdom in one another.

I endlessly feel a beginner even though I’ve been on this path a long time. In 1989, I began work as a psychotherapist, work that I continue part time now. In my approach I consider mind as it arises through our bodies as essential as working with specific thoughts, emotions and behaviors. My doctorate in developmental psychology added perspective on early patterns of “being,” “doing” and relationship to physical and interpersonal environment. In 1990, I began a six-year course of study at the School for Body Mind Centering, completing practitioner certification. Although I did not continue to formally work as a practitioner I periodically attend workshops with the program’s founder, Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, who continues to be my model for joyful endless questioning. The many clients and colleagues who have shared their experiences with me have also been my teachers. I have been strongly influenced by many streams of mindfulness practice and believe compassionate witnessing of ourselves an essential cornerstone of the journey.

I write to you from my newly built yurt studio, a four-minute walking commute from our home in the mountains just outside Missoula, Montana. I live with my husband, Dudley Dana, a photographer whose images you’ll often see on the blog. Right now our 4 year-old black lab Chloe sleeps in front of the woodstove, patiently waiting for the sunset walk I’ll take to look out over the larch turning gold. Gibbon, our old-timer dog, is too lame from arthritis to make it to the studio and anxiously awaits his favorite activity – a full food bowl.