Chi for Two - The Energetic Dance of Healthy Relationship

10/19/2024

I was asked recently, "What about that workshop you've been developing, the one that deepens the work of Robert Bly?" My answer, "We'll do it in November."

You can read the details about the development of this workshop on the website.

09/20/2024

My fifth peer-reviewed article just came out in the American Journal of Dance Therapy. Thank you, co-authors Mukti Mia Jarvis and Fred Shelton for the honor of working with you on this!! Mukti is a long-time couple therapist in Australia and Fred is the Chi for Two Director of Diversity Marketing. This paper offers polyvagal support for what Resmaa Menakem speaks to in Monsters in Love (formally Rock the Boat) helping lovers understand, "You are not each other's baby." RESMAA ROCKS. It focuses the lens of dance/movement therapy (Southern Chapter of the ADTA, Illinois Chapter of the American Dance Therapy Association, NYS American Dance Therapy Association) on the dance of the mouth and teeth and tongue as we bite off air to create language in an effort to better communicate with one another.

When lovers sense anxiousness in their bodies—and want to “bite each other’s heads off,” they might go to couples counseling for help with communication. Like parents trying to help siblings “use their words,” counselors try to help lovers talk. In couples dance/movement therapy, it is h...

09/05/2024

Hello All. We have one space, possibly two, available for the Chi for Two Training group beginning October 31. This is the 8th cohort for the two-year training. Groups are 5-7 people with two trainers. 😊

There is a group portion to the training, which is virtual and a One-on-one portion, which can be virtual or in-person depending on where you are located. The group portion of this training will meet on Zoom on Thursdays 1-2:30pm. Somatic therapist and Chi for Two co-developer Caroline Gebhardt and I will be the trainers for the group portion.

Caroline will be offering One-on-one training for some members of this group. Somatic therapist and Chi For Two co-developer Mary Lou Davidson is also available to offer the One-on-one portion of the training. Mary Lou is a long-time Bodyworker and somatic educator. Caroline, Mary Lou and I are located in Atlanta, GA, US.

I could possibly fit one other person into my schedule for One-on-one work if you are passionate about polyvagal theory and therefore my level of polyvagal expertise would make the most sense for you.

Chi for Two offers advanced training that synthesizes many trauma healing methods. For instance, Chi for Two helps trainees identify Four Emanations of Embodiment.

The Chi for Two developers (Caroline, Mary Lou and my son Stephen) and I spent a lot of time finding the word "emanation."

We chose the word "emanation" because it can create a picture of the radiating ripples that occur when you drop a pebble in water.

The Emanations are Navel Radiation, Contralateral Movement, Gesture and Handling.

Bainbridge Cohen among other somatic therapy elders invites exploration of Navel Radiation as well as Contralateral Movement. Contralateral movement coordinates our right and left brain.

Pesso Boyden System Psychomotor trainer Gus Kaufman explains that emotion is motion in the body, which creates actions that are designed to get a reaction—Gesture that needs Handling.

When we are infants, we need someone who can carry us to resources who responds when we reach out for them. When our reach is met adequately, we learn to reach mindfully. If not, we reach desperately for a while, and then we might stop reaching.

When our reach becomes inhibited, Chi for Two helps us recognize that inhibition of navel radiation correlates with sluggishness in the rhythm of tension and flow in the unmyelinated dorsal branch of the vagus.

If you want to interview for the available spot, you can reach out to me at mdeewag@gmail.com. You can let me know about your background and why you want to train in Chi for Two. We will respond to everyone of course and pick a few people to interview to find the best fit for this group.

07/12/2024

Orit Sônia Waisman and I wrote Stirring up health: polyvagal theory and the dance of mismatch in multi-generational trauma healing. My son Stephen loved this article.

Orit Sônia is a long-time dance/movement therapist in Israel. What has been happening in Israel lives alongside the ending of Stephen's embodiment.

Years ago, Orit Sônia recognized mismatch of gesture and words in conversations of conflict between Israeli Jewish and Palestinian college students. Developmentally, gesture proceeds words in our infant efforts to communicate with our parents.

Chi for Two invites clients to mindfully practice with their coaches the major infant developmental movements identified by Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen along with the major infant development rhythms identified by Judith Kestenberg and colleagues. Practicing these moves with a coach allows us to integrate primitive reflexes that ideally resolve in infancy like the moro reflex.

When we Push into a coach as you see Stephen doing here with me, that movement provides a symbolic redo of an important infant developmental dance. Can you see by the shape of my body that I am providing resistance for Stephen's Push?

My supervisor Gus Kaufman is a long-time trainer in the healing method Pesso Boyden System Psychomotor. Gus says, "Emotion is motion in the body. That motion causes action that is designed to get a reaction." As the baby's hands come forward to Push into the parent because they don't want that bite of food on the spoon until they have dropped the last cheerio, the baby is developing their personal space—their bio sphere.

It can be hard for men to do the symbolic redos of their unfinished infant developmental dances because boys from most cultures have been told, "Don't be a baby." Boys as young as five years old have been told that it is their job to care for and protect their mother.

Stephen was a co-developer of Chi for Two along with somatic therapist and counselor Caroline Gebhart, mother of three boys. Caroline's husband Nick Gebhardt is a certified Chi for Two Embodiment Coach and they have used the practices in their family since the boys were babies.

The third co-developer is Mary Lou Davidson. Mary Lou is a long-time massage therapy teacher, bodyworker and musician. Mary Lou appreciates the knowledge of the vagus that helps us recognize what is happening when a bodyworker's hands provide the symbolic redo of parental support for the infant head. It is ideal when bodyworkers have consciousness of this dance, which replicates parental support for the infant's head. The first thing this infant/parent dance does is to help the myelinated vagus facilitate the pharynx's coordination of breathing and swallowing after the umbilical cord is cut.

06/27/2024

I am ready—our family is ready—the Chi for Two community is ready for me to share some deeply sad news.

In early April 2024, my son Stephen Wagner, one of the co-developers of Chi for Two died. In the wake of his death, Stephen’s beloved wife of ten years appreciated how the Chi for Two practices for romantic partners helped them have the joyous and adventuresome life they had. Chi for Two® - The

04/03/2024

Always an honor to be interviewed by VoyageATL because I am a long-time Atlanta native. This time the interview is for a series called Bold Journey. Originating Chi for Two has been a bold journey. Push into Stephen Porges to share my understanding of his theory has required boldness. Embodying my understanding of the Kestenberg Movement Profile's first 4 developmental rhythms and how they relate to multi-generational trauma has required boldness.

While I have felt the vulnerability that accompanies being bold, I have held my Hula Hoop 😊 ...and the result has been a deeply spiritually-fulfilling journey. Putting our ideas out there and catching the feedback from others helped me and the co-directors develop Chi for Two and the Chi for Two Embodiment Coach certification training now approved by ISMETA. What an honor.

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dee Wagner a few weeks ago and

03/29/2024

Conversations are happening in the polyvagal community about primitive reflexes—infant reflexive movements—for instance the birth crawl, the hip wiggle side-to-side that is called the spinal Galant reflex after Johann Susmann Galant who first identified this newborn movement, and the palmer grasp that makes a newborn hold your finger, .

In Chi for Two, we talk about unfinished infant/parent dances to bring together the work of...

-Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen (infant movement)
-Judith Kestenberg and colleagues (infant rhythms),
-Chace, Whitehouse and Adler (dance/movement therapists who teach kinesthetic empathy and the role of the non-judgemental witness)
-Pesso and Boyden (dancers who created Pesso Boyden System Psychomotor, which helps us see that our infant actions seek a particular reaction)

I am working with a Chi for Two Embodiment coach who is an occupational therapist to write a blog post naming which of the Chi for Two practices for client and clinician seem to create symbolic redos of the infant/parent interactions—dances—related to various newborn reflexes. In the meantime, this older blog post could also give those who are interested a sense of how Chi for Two addresses movements like the newborn grasping, helping Reach/Grab/Pull evolve into the Push.

Over my many years of doing dance/movement therapy and counseling, I have developed partner practices that I now call Chi for Two®- The Energetic Dance of Healthy Relationship. To give helping professionals an understanding of these partner practices, I am sharing stories from sessions with clients...

03/22/2024

Registration Deadline, April 19th

Register: https://ismeta.org/course/the-chi-for-two-take-on-polyvagal-theory-mobilization-with-play-dance

Chi for Two®– The Energetic Dance of Healthy Relationship, is a polyvagal-informed, trauma healing method. The physiology of the rhythmic braking and releasing of the vagus nerve, key in trauma patterning, creates an active state called Play/Dance. In this workshop, participants will explore somatically how the infant developmental rhythms identified by Kestenberg and colleagues align with the anatomical awareness of Dr. Stephen Porges' Polyvagal Theory, using 6 Chi for Two Play/Dance partner practices—5 for client/therapist or student/teacher, 1 for lovers. This workshop is also informed by Cultural Somatics, identified by Resmaa Menakem, author of My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies and Monsters in Love: Why Your Lover Sometimes Drives You Crazy—and What You Can Do About It.

In this workshop, participants will learn:

to use the Chi for Two “Map” of nervous system functioning to help clients normalize sensations that occur when the body shifts between Fight/Flight and Shut-down—bouncing back and forth between anxious urges to “do something” and a lack of energy that feels like, “I can’t do anything.”
to utilize five partner practices for client/coach or student/teacher that help when movement expressions formally inhibited by dorsal vagal Shut-down awaken.
to utilize one practice to help in romantic dances when urges to control the lover arise.

Live Online Workshop in two sessions

Registration is limited to 12 participants for this 2-session class series. Because the live synchronous energetic dance between participants and presenters will be an important part of the recorded version, participants in this workshop are asked to be present with cameras on and with the willingness to be recorded.

03/12/2024

Tomorrow is the free Intro Session for those interested in the next two-year Chi for Two Embodiment Coach training. You can come and experience some of the client/clinician practices that create the symbolic redo of the key infant/parent dances that wire our nervous system functioning multi-generationally.
Wednesday, March 13, 1:30-2:30pm ET
Zoom link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89898498273...
Meeting ID: 898 9849 8273
Passcode: 758096

03/09/2024

We are proud to announce that the Chi for Two® Embodiment Coach training program has been approved by ISMETA! 2 years ago someone interested in our program asked me, "Who certified your certified Embodiment Coach training program?"

Back when I got the idea to create a certified training program, I did research about what is required and I learned that I could certify my own program because I have been doing somatic trauma healing work professionally since 1992. However, when this person asked who certified the program...I thought...hmm, maybe I will research further...maybe I will find a program to give us their stamp of approval. I talked to the International Coach Federation, because I had written articles on polyvagal theory for their blog and magazine. I had presented on nervous system functioning at their conference in 2017. But then I talked to Caroline Gebhardt, co-developer of Chi for Two, and Caroline found ISMETA!

As Caroline and I read about ISMETA's scope of practice, competencies, standards and ethics, we were so excited to see that Chi for Two Embodiment training checked off all their boxes...and here we are!

This acceptance has grown our program two-fold!! We are the first training program that can train coaches to gain both the ASMP credential and the RSME/T credential.

Graduates of the Chi for Two Embodiment Coach training program are eligible to become Associate Somatic Movement Professionals (ASMP) with 250 hours of training, or Registered Somatic Movement Educators or Therapists (RSMEs or RSMTs) with 500 hours of training.

We are so proud!!

03/07/2024

I am honored to present Chi for Two® practices for therapists and clients, which can also be done multi-generationally—grandparents with parents and then parents and their children...at the Expressive Therapies Summit Midwest! We start with the oldest person wishing to be part of the change of the family dance. That person's symbolic redo makes it possible for them to practice with the next generation...and on down the line.

03/02/2024

We are gathering the next cohort for the Two-year Chi for Two® Embodiment Coach Training program.

Chi for Two deepens all other somatic healing methods. And we are happy to explain how!

We invite you to join us for an info session about our Spring 2024 coach training group!

Wednesday, March 13, 1:30-2:30pm ET

Zoom link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89898498273?pwd=cFZBZ21yak82aDg1MFdLZGRHUzNOZz09

Meeting ID: 898 9849 8273
Passcode: 758096

Chi for Two is a polyvagal-informed, multi-generational trauma healing method offering somatic practices that are relational and developmental.

The 35 Chi for Two partner practices for practitioners and clients create symbolic redos of early infant relational embodiment.

The 5 partner practices for peers help us recognize when unresolved infant patterning awakens in dances with siblings, friends, colleagues and lovers.

Chi for Two training is relational, in small groups of 5 to 8 trainees.

All sessions are held via Zoom and are live (synchronous) with cameras on. Our virtual training sessions are as close as possible to being in-person.

Tentative: Training sessions will be on Wednesdays from 1:00-2:30 pm ET USA beginning April 10, 2024

The Trainers for the series beginning Spring 2024 will be Dee Wagner, LPC, BC-DMT, MSME/T & Caroline Gebhardt, LPC, RYT, RSME/T

Chi for Two is an ISMETA Approved Training Program (www.ISMETA.org, International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association), meaning Chi for Two qualifies within ISMETA’s worldwide standards for scopes, ethics, competencies and practices in training Somatic Movement Therapists and Educators.


ChiforTwo.com



For more information: www.chifortwo.com/coach-training
Or contact John Cargile: john@harborofdreamsart.com