Somatic Education Australasia

25/08/2025

REGISTRATION IS OPEN!Our breath is both a survival process and a consciousness practice. It links us to ourselves, to those around us, and to the environment...

21/08/2025

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10/08/2025

A recent interview with SEA program director Olive Bieringa.

In the 17th episode of LIFE THAT SAID YES conversations Ivan is joined by Olive Bieringa in a lovely exchange about awakening the senses and opening the perc...

08/08/2025

Would you like to join our next cohort of Body-Mind Centering® Somatic Movement Educators or Infant Developmental Movement Educators in Melbourne?
Join us for our next Basic Neurocellular Patterns Course

Send a message to learn more

08/08/2025

Would you like to join our next cohort of Body-Mind Centering® Somatic Movement Educators or Infant Developmental Movement Educators in Melbourne?
Join us for our next Organ System Course next month!

Send a message to learn more

16/07/2025

"My body hears many voices, not one voice.
My body seeks comfort but not for long.
My body enjoys jokes, riddles, and games.
My body engages in work."
The timeless words of Deborah Hay - brought to us by our friends at Contact Quarterly (follow the link for more)

Excerpted from Deborah Hay’s “My Body, The Buddhist:”
“how I learned my body is a buddhist body
My body benefits in solitude.
My body finds energy in surrender.
My body hears many voices, not one voice.
My body seeks comfort but not for long.
My body enjoys jokes, riddles, and games.
My body engages in work.
My body is limited by physical presence.
My body commits to practice.
My body knowingly participates in its appearances.
My body learns through devotion.
My body likes rest.
My body is bored by answers.
My body seeks more than one view of itself.
My body trusts the unknown.
My body equates patience with renewal.
My body feels weightless in the presence of paradox.
My body delights in resourcefulness.
My body relaxes when thoughts abate.
My body is held in the present.”

Read more of Hay’s book in CQ Vol. 23 No. 2 (Summer/Fall 1998) which is available to purchase in PDF format: https://contactquarterly.com/cq/back-issues/index.php =vol-23-no-2

Image Description: A vertically narrow image of Deborah Hay’s profile in “Viola,” set on the right side of a white background. Image is in black and white. Photo by Todd Wolfson.

16/07/2025

Body-Mind Centering® is a unique somatic approach that can enrich and enliven a wide range of practices, provide a rich body-based vocabulary, and offer tools and perspectives for presence and transformation. Our students and faculty apply the principles and approaches of BMC to dance, theatre and performance-making, yoga and Pilates teaching, visual arts and music, therapies and counselling, engineering and landscape architecture, writing, academic research, community leadership and more!

Here at Somatic Education Australasia you can take a single course for personal and professional development or work towards certification as a Body-Mind Centering® Somatic Movement Educator (SME) or Infant Developmental Movement Educator (IDME).

All classes are held in-person at the Abbotsford Convent for a learning process that is immersive, community-based and hands-on. We learn together, through movement, touch, engaged lectures using anatomical images and models, conversation and reflective practices, guided by a faculty with decades of experience in somatic movement.

Coming up next:

Develop your touch and movement skills through embodied anatomy in our 7-day Organ System course: 29 August – 5 September (day off 2/9)

Dive into the foundations of somatic movement development in our 7-day Basic Neurocellular Patterns course: 8-15 September (day off 12/9)

(This one is also part of the IDME program - essential learning for anyone interested in working with babies and their carers)

Read the full newsletter here: https://tinyurl.com/4chxz25f

16/07/2025

There is still time to register for the Organs course in Melbourne with Somatic Education Australasia.

Our organs are vital and alive. They provide us with our sense of self, full-bodiedness, and organic authenticity. They support our postural tone and our feelings, and give volume to our movement

The course runs 29 August – 5 September 2025 with teachers Kim Sargent-Wishart, Otto Ramstad and Olive Bieringa. This course can be taken independently or as part of our 500 hour Somatic Movement Educator program.

Send a message to learn more

16/07/2025

There is still time to register for the Basic Neurocellular Patterns course in Melbourne with Somatic Education Australasia. The development of these patterns in humans parallels the evolutionary development of movement through the animal kingdom. The Basic Neurocellular Patterns are the words of our movement. They are the building blocks for the phrases and sentences of our activities. They also establish a base for our perceptual relationships (including body image and spatial orientation) and for our learning and communication.

The course runs 8-15 September 2025 with teachers Kim Sargent-Wishart, Otto Ramstad and Olive Bieringa. This course can be taken independently or as part of our Somatic Movement Educator or Infant Developmental Movement certifications.

Send a message to learn more

27/05/2025

Latest newsletter!
https://mailchi.mp/fe47b3b7b629/sme-program-update-oct-2023-march-2024-course-dates-14064265