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.
-Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, Introduction to Body-Mind Centering, in Sensing, Feeling and Action (2012, Contact Editions)
…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.
Body-Mind Centering® (BMCsm) is an integrated and embodied approach to movement, the body and consciousness. Developed by Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, it is an experiential study based on the embodiment and application of anatomical, physiological, psychophysical and developmental principles, utilizing movement, touch, voice and mind. Its uniqueness lies in the specificity with which each of the body systems can be personally embodied and integrated, the fundamental groundwork of developmental re-patterning, and the utilization of a body-based language to describe movement and body-mind relationships.
The study of Body-Mind Centering is a creative process in which embodiment of the material is explored in the context of self-discovery and openness. Each person is both the student and the subject matter and the underlying goal is to discover the ease that underlies transformation.
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 copyright Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen. Used with permission.)
Read more about Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen here.
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
(for a full list of Bonnie’s books and DVDs visit here)
-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. Visit bmcassociation.org.
Locate a BMC professional practitioner or class in your area. Sign up for the Body-Mind Centering Association (BMCA) mailing list for news about classes and workshops, conferences, and more.
Many BMC practitioners and teachers are offering classes online during the current restrictions on gathering and travel. Here are some links to online classes and workshops.
Body-Mind Centering® and 
are registered service marks, and BMCsm is a service mark of Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, used with permission.
seasomaticeducation.com 