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ISMETA Featured in Latest ACIH Newsletter

ACIH welcomes ISMETA, the International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association, as the newest member of ACIH’s Traditional World Medicine/ Emerging Professions Category

Alyssa Wostrel interviews Elisa Cotroneo, Registered Somatic Movement Educator and Therapist, RSME/T, Executive Director, ISMETA
Elisa began our conversation by saying, “We are excited to become a part of the emerging professions category of the Academic Collaborative. We believe we will learn much to help strengthen the profession of Somatic Movement by interacting with other colleagues that have been successful in establishing professions within integrative health. One aspect of the collaborative’s work that we already know will help us is the Research Working Group”.  ISMETA has recently begun a Research Initiative that is working to help their  members partner with academic institutions to conduct research and publish findings.

As a professional membership organization, ISMETA has three main categories of members: Registered Professional members who are highly qualified practitioners; Accredited Training Programs; and Professional Organizations that represent specific somatic movement methods.  Elisa explains that, “Individual registered professional members have varied practices, but they all work within the context of ISMETA’s educational standards, Scope of Practice and Code of Ethics.  Some of the members are working in schools and educational environments, others in the healthcare environment and many are in individual private practices”.

Elisa and ISMETA are passionate about creating partnerships. “Since our inception over thirty years ago, ISMETA’s board has intentionally sought to identify organizations that are doing similar work nationally and internationally in order to find out how we can work together and support the larger whole.  We would like all members of the Collaborative (ACIH) to know that there is an organization of movement practitioners that meet specific criteria and that are ready to work in integrative environments with other professions represented within ACIH.”

Elisa recognizes partnership as a two-way street. She explains, “ISMETA has a lot to bring to the collaborative.  Somatic movement enhances human function and body mind integration through mindful movement.  Our practices incorporate postural and movement evaluation, experiential anatomy and movement patterning to promote embodiment, well-being and mental, emotional and physical integration.” ISMETA has credentialed close to 1,000 professionals around the world who practice a range of methods including Body-Mind Centering©, the Alexander Technique, Continuum, the Feldenkrais Method© and others.  When speaking of the scope of different methods represented by ISMETA, Elisa says, “Each brings a wealth of therapeutic principles, methods and techniques to help people experience the body from within.”

Welcome, Elisa Cotroneo, and ISMETA, to the Collaborative!  

Elisa Cotroneo, RSME, RSMT, Executive Director of the International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association (ISMETA) is a Registered Somatic Movement Educator and Therapist.  For more than 35 years Elisa has followed her passion to understand the relationship between spirt and the body having trained with many of the pioneers in the field of Somatic Movement  and spiritual elders from North and South America, India and Tibet. She served on the ISMETA Board from 2007-2014, holding the office of President from 2009-2014, at which time she stepped into the Executive Director position.  Her private practice in Movement Education and Therapy in upstate New York has included extensive work with individuals, groups, school districts, special education programs, therapeutic centers, colleges and universities.

Elisa Cotroneo can be reached at elisa@ismeta.org
Please Visit the ISMETA website to learn more www.ismeta.org

NOTE:  ACIH’s Traditional World Medicine and Emerging Professions Category is facilitated by ACIH’s Board Member, Steffany Moonaz, PhD, Director of Clinical and Academic Research, Maryland University of Integrative Health
smoonaz@muih.edu

For more information about this membership category, please contact Alyssa Wostrel, ED, ACIH, at awostrel@integrativehealth.org

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