Accredited by ‘International Practitioners of Holistic Medicine’ and associated with ‘The Association for Somatic Movement Dance Therapies, United Kingdom & Éire’

 

 

Level 3:
Somatic Movement Dance Therapy: Connection to body, breath, earth and community 
In level 3 students are invited to bring SMDT to community, widening access and participation. Students are invited to form a community group and find two clients to work with in their geographical area. They are also invited to revisit and synthesize knowledge from across the course, working with the principle that health is not something we achieve, but rather health needs ongoing support and can be nurtured via daily self-regulatory practice. Level 3 invites students to develop as somatic movement/dance artists, taking their work out into the community, with support from peers and staff. Somatic knowledge settles in the body-mind through continued experiential practice, and hence revisiting and layering knowledge in cyclical and spirilloid ways is key to this level.
 
Level 3 has two interrelated supportive modules:
Module 1: ‘Contemplative and Integrative Learning’. 150 hours
This module is an integrative module that revisits key areas offered in level 1 and 2, with the aim of synthesizing course content and layering knowledge. The module provides time to hone facilitation skills in key areas such as body-mind health, movement meditations, slow-time community health, gravity, breath, heart and earthing, cranio-sacral movement, somatic touch, matrifocal spiritualities, principles, values and processes, and key dyadic and group facilitation skills. The module provides time for revisiting, layering, reflecting, contemplating and integrating somatic knowledge. This is a staff-led module where students will have time to practice one-on-one and in groups, in preparation for module 2. Students will learn through lectures, seminars and studio-practice, and additionally explore how to document practice and collect qualitative embodied data in unique creative ways. This module holds the students in a supportive environment, and offers opportunities for students to meet other staff and practitioners from uksmdt.com
 

The module covers the following areas in theory and practice:

The UKSMDT scope of and ethics of practice

Experiential awareness of anatomy and physiology in movement

Self-regulation and co-regulation

Body-centered anatomical and physiological meditations

Slow-time movement health (being and non-doing)

Parasympathetic ease-and-release (Polyvagal theory and the vagus nerve)

Myofascial release and soft-tissue rolling (muscles, soft-tissues)

Cranio-sacral movement (midline health)

The Somatosensory system, the integumentary system, and the ethics of touch

Fulcrums of support and soft-tissue reorganization

Heart-centered dyadic and group offerings

Skeletal-muscular health: gravity, body, breath, bones and earth

Elemental movement work (earth, fire, air, water and ether)

Collecting and organizing data and reflections

Pre-reflection, reflection and analysis in dyadic and group work

Matrifocal symbolism and values (earth-centered moving values and principles)

South-east Asian influences and movement meditations

Research ethics in community work

 
The module comprises 150 hours, 120 hours practical, 30 hours  reading, reflecting, on-line lectures, seminars and contemplative peer support groups. The modules requires students to develop daily practice at home with applying somatic journalling as a central reflective and contemplative tool. Students are required to travel to Cornwall for 3 five-day retreats, dates TBC.  
Assessment is practical, comprising continued self-assessment and supervisory support in the studio.
Module 2: ‘Slow-time community health’ 150 hours
This module invites students to set up a practice group in their geographical area, with peer support and staff supervision. The students are invited to offer work within their local community, offering 4 group sessions and 4 one-on-one sessions. The students will also  gather reflective data from their participants, in order to share their findings in the form of a presentation, leading to graduation.
This module comprises 100 hours student-led facilitation in the community (to include meetings, ethical considerations, reading, preparation, reflection, publicity etc., ) and a further 50 hours that are on-line and staff-led, to include lectures and seminars covering the vital importance of arts-based therapeutic research and qualitative embodied research in the  field. Visiting staff from uksmdt.com will offer guest lectures, expanding awareness of how somatic movement/dance is applied in different contexts across the UK.
Assessment: ongoing self-assessment with supervisory support, and presentation sharing findings.
 
On completion of level 3, students can register with The Association for Somatic Movement Dance Therapies, United Kingdom & Éire, as a Somatic Movement Dance Therapist’. Through this organization students can access CPD trainings, find continued community support and connect with other practitioners.
 
Guest lecturers: Vanessa Tucker, Karin Rugman, Rebecca Sillence