Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen created Body-Mind Centering^® (BMC^®) as an approach to movement exploration and embodiment. It is based on experiential learning and uses movement, touch, and voice to explore anatomy, kinesiology, physiology, embryology, and developmental movement.

She founded the School for Body-Mind Centering^® in 1973. School programs are now offered by more than fifteen Licensed Organizations in Europe, North America, South America, Australia, and Asia. These programs hold the history, breadth, and depth of the BMC^® approach and offer a systematic study of the BMC^® material.

Courses and programs may be taken for personal interest and professional development. Completion of a program leads to certification as a Somatic Movement Educator, Body-Mind Centering^® Practitioner, or an Infant Developmental Movement Educator, depending on the program taken.

Through her online series, Bonnie continues to share her ongoing explorations and new insights into movement, the body, and consciousness.

The Body-Mind Centering® Association (BMCA) is an international not-for-profit membership organization that supports the BMC® community through professional development, continued education, publications and events. Professional BMCA members are certified by one or more of the SBMC Licensed Organizations and are authorized to use the trademark.

More information about the School for Body-Mind Centering^® Licensed Organizations and Programs can be found on bodymindcentering.com. More information about Bonnie’s workshops, books, and videos can be found on bonniebainbridgecohen.com. More information about BMCA can be found at bmcassociation.org.

“Body-Mind Centering is an ongoing, experiential journey into the alive and changing territory of the body. The explorer is the mind – our thoughts, feelings, energy, soul, and spirit. Through this journey we are led to an understanding of how the mind is expressed through the body in movement.

…An important aspect of our journey in Body-Mind Centering is discovering the relationship between the smallest level of activity within the body and the largest movement of the body -aligning the inner cellular movement with the external expression of movement through space. This involves identifying, articulating, differentiating, and integrating the various tissues within the body, discovering the qualities they contribute to one’s movement, how they have evolved in one’s developmental process, and the role they play in the expression of mind. The finer this alignment, the more efficiently we can function to accomplish our intentions.

In BMC we are the material, our bodies and minds the medium of our exploration… We are each the study, the student, the teacher.”

-Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, Introduction to Body-Mind Centering,
Sensing, Feeling and Action (2012, Contact Editions)

The Body-Mind Centering approach has an almost unlimited number of areas of application. It is currently being used by people in movement, dance, yoga, bodywork, somatic studies, physical and occupational therapy, psychotherapy, child development, education, voice, music, art, meditation, athletics and other body-mind disciplines.
(Text © Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, used with permission.)

Recommended reading:

– Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, Sensing, Feeling and Action, Contact Editions, 2012

– Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, Basic Neurocellular Patterns: Exploring Developmental Movement, Burchfield Rose Publishers, 2018

– Gill Wright Miller, Pat Ethridge, Kate Tarlow Morgan (eds), Exploring Body-Mind Centering: An Anthology of Experience and Method, North Atlantic Books, 2011

– Linda Hartley, Wisdom of the Body Moving: An Introduction to Body-Mind Centering, North Atlantic Press, 1995

– Susan Aposhyan, Natural Intelligence: Body-Mind Integration and Human Development, Williams and Wilkins, 1999

– Currents, the journal of the Body-Mind Centering Association (BMCA) has a wealth of articles by BMC and other somatics researchers. Subscriptions (including free digital access to back issues) included with BMCA membership.

Other resources:

Locate a BMC professional practitioner or class in your area or online. Sign up for the Body-Mind Centering Association (BMCA) mailing list for news about classes and workshops, conferences, and more.

ISMETA (The International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association)
A collaborative of individuals and organizations dedicated to growing the
profession of Somatic Movement Education and Therapy, ISMETA offers resources and advocacy for the somatics profession worldwide.

Connect with SEA faculty:

Our core and guest faculty offer online classes, workshops and consultations.
Olive Bieringa & Otto Ramstad: bodycartography.org
Kim Sargent-Wishart kimsargentwishart.com
Carla Bottiglieri minimasomatica.org
Friederike Tröscher moveus.de
Amy Matthews (IDME Program Director) movementpractices.com
Sarah Barnaby (IDME faculty) sarahbarnaby.com