LIVE ONLINE WORKSHOP

The Embodied Teen: Teaching Somatic Movement Practices to Adolescents and Young Adults

With Susan Bauer

Saturday, May 18, 2024 from 12 pm – 3 pm ET

REGISTRATION DEADLINE: May 14, 2024 

NOTE: Those who register will have access to the recording for a limited time after the live session, though attendance is strongly encouraged to fully engage with the experiential and community interaction aspects of the course. 

In teaching somatic practices, how do we guide our students, while empowering them with a sense of agency in relation to their own bodies? In this workshop, we will examine methods to skillfully invite students into somatic activities, scaffolding the learning so they gain confidence by building their capacity for embodied practice. Workshop participants will be guided in a sample movement exploration based in embodied anatomy, followed by a brief presentation/discussion based on the presenter’s “Eight Pedagogy Principles” from her book, The Embodied Teen. Participants first gain experience with the somatic practices, since enhancing one’s own embodied experience is central to the ability to teach the material, while the pedagogy principles offer a framework to adapt based on one’s particular background and student/ client population. Based on the presenter’s life-long study of dance, Body-Mind Centering®, Ideokinesis, and Bartenieff Fundamentals, the curriculum is also informed by research in neuroscience, adolescent psychology, mindfulness, and social-emotional learning. Much of this research attests to the body as the root for healthy development and social-emotional growth. Providing sound somatic movement education to adolescents therefore helps to equip them with essential tools for their wellbeing—now and into adulthood. 

While many somatic practitioners have years of experience in sophisticated approaches, often the complexity of their knowledge makes it difficult for them to work with beginners—those who may be new to paying attention to their bodies—whether youth or adults alike. The workshop helps established professionals learn methods to invite people into somatic work within a safe and scaffolded learning situation. This ensures a level of success that motivates participants to want to continue, rather than leaving them overwhelmed and disoriented. Considering such factors as pacing, repetition, and specific use of language all support the teacher / facilitator to craft an appropriate activity and learning environment appropriate to the population at hand. As professionals working with youth gain confidence in their abilities to guide such activities, they become more resourced in their work, while those who work primarily with adults may become inspired to work with teens and young adults. Professionals from many fields can benefit from this workshop, including dance therapists, somatic educators, dance teachers, and a variety of mental health professionals. 

Participants in this workshop will learn: 

• A simple formula to craft a somatic movement practice suitable for teens and young adults (and/or adult ‘beginners’) 
• Three basic ‘starting points’ for teaching somatic movement practices with youth 
• Specific methods to scaffold the learning over time in order to build the capacity for somatic activities of increasing depth and complexity 

Susan Bauer  

MFA, MSME/T, RSDE

SUSAN BAUER is a dance/somatic educator, Fulbright Scholar, founder of Embodiment in Education™, and author of The Embodied Teen: A Somatic Curriculum for Teaching Body-Mind Awareness, Kinesthetic Intelligence, and Social and Emotional Skills. She has taught for over three decades in the U.S and Asia, informed by her extensive background in dance, Body-Mind Centering®, and Authentic Movement. Susan offers an Embodiment in Education Teacher Training Certification Program for professionals and has a private practice as a Master Somatic Movement Educator / Therapist. She has served on the Board of Directors of ISMETA and holds an MFA from the Department of World Arts and Cultures at UCLA and an MA in Dance and Movement Studies from Wesleyan University. Susan’s passionate vision of a more holistic model of education—inclusive of movement and body-mind awareness—fuels her quest to support the well-being of adults and youth alike in these challenging times 

www.susanbauer.com