Oasis Healing Arts Center in Portland Oregon

Oasis Healing Arts Center in Portland Oregon Full Bodied Stories (FBS), a somatic practice developed over the past 30 years, interweaves improvisational sound, movement and personal story. So what happens out of that emphasizes creative expression, communication and healing. Body Tales combines elements of dance, movement, theater, therapy and the expressive arts....

FBS provides avenues for coming home to your body and your senses. Using movement, sound and language, participants explore and share personal and cultural stories. The stories that emerge represent a full spectrum of experience: they can be tender or hilarious, inspiring or illuminating.
“You could ask me how I am, and I could talk for hours. But using one of John’s techniques, in 5 minutes a whole world of feelings and emotions opened up. Until now, I didn’t have a way to access this emotional landscape.”
Cecily Hutchison, Long Beach New York

“You could ask me how I am, and I could talk for hours. But using one of John’s techniques, in 5 minutes a whole world of feelings and emotions opened up. Until now, I didn’t have a way to access this emotional landscape.”

Cecily Hutchison, Long Beach New York

One participant might express the frustration of teaching kids who could care less. Another might share about the death of his parent. Others could be dealing with relationships, work issues, aging, the sky’s the limit. The most important aspect of the work it to stay present in your body and let the story emerge.

Emphasis is placed on the organic unfolding of each participant’s personal stories. There’s not a lot of criticism; it’s all about your own personal unfolding. The power of touch, of learning how to listen and to support one another, are some of the fundamentals.

“John’s talent lies in being able to track the group and provide exercises that allow people to go deep and feel safe.”

Gale Penhall, Vancouver, B.C.

Benefits:

* Experience moving, sounding and speaking — with safety and sanctity
* Practice vital skills for self-care and stress management
* Develop expressiveness and artistry
* Be part of a respectful creative community
* Receive support for addressing personal hopes and needs
* Gain authenticity and authority
* Cultivate healthy body awareness and body image
* Discover somatic resources for navigating and healing from injury, loss, illness, trauma, day-to-day wear and tear
* Cultivate helpful and appropriate intimacy and receptivity
* Protect focused time for spontaneity, inner life and soul repair
* Reclaim the body as central in spiritual and meditative practices

Elements of Full Bodied Stories

The following elements of Body Oriented Story Telling support inner exploration, shared expression, and body and earth communion:

* Moving, Sounding & Speaking
* Witnessing
* Remembering
* Grounding
* Thanking

Moving, Sounding & Speaking

Participants practice coming home, listening and giving attention to their body; engaging with inner-directed movement, vocal sound, and their own sensate experience and intelligence. Movement, speaking and embodied stories are woven into “body tales pieces”, which explore and share real experience, sensation, thought, emotion, memory. Clear instruction and ground rules help maintain a safe and respectful creative environment.

“Moving, telling stories and making noise are powerful medicine. The playfulness and creativity of Body Tales makes them sweet medicine.”

— Damon Miller, M.D.

Witnessing

Witnessing is the practice of giving full attention and support to the person moving, sounding and speaking, while staying grounded and present. One person shares a “body tale,” while their partner witnesses them — seeing and listening in an attentive, non-judgmental way, without interruption or commentary. Partners exchange roles as mover and witness, and each person also has opportunities to be witnessed by the whole group.

Remembering

Partners help one another remember each BT piece by re-speaking specific words, phrases, and movement — without evaluation, interpretation or commentary. Like writing down dreams, this process supports reflection and integration, and helps lift the content, insights, personal values and resources from each piece into our conscious awareness and our community wisdom. This “remembering” gives the piece back to the mover, strengthens trust and confidence, and supports reflection and integration.

“I hear my unconscious talk, often the primitive, passionate, strong part of my unconscious.”