• Our bodies are our greatest resource and must be included on any path of personal growth and lasting change.
• They provide a direct path for exploring our unconscious, limiting beliefs and the emotions tied to them.
• By increasing awareness of our bodies, we get in touch with the here and now where change and growth are possible.

By using a comprehensive blend of modalities, Patrice assists individuals in reclaiming and integrating forgotten or denied aspects of self, leading to the development of a more full and happy life:

• The slow, developmental movement of Cortical Field Reeducation®. CFR is a body awareness and movement practice based on the groundbreaking work of Moshe Feldenkrais, DSc., and developed by Harriet Goslins at Esalen Institute.

• The Refined Method of Hakomi. Loving presence and providing nourishment are key ingredients. Ron Kurtz who created The Hakomi Method, describes it as assisted self-study.
  

• Gestalt Practice: Developed by Fritz Perls, it is an approach to personal growth that promotes self-awareness and values integration of the parts of self into a whole person.
  

These three awareness practices

• Facilitate the release of physical restrictions and suppressed emotions.

• Lead to a greater understanding and felt experience of the connections between mind,  body, and emotions.

Through CFR Movement Lessons...

“Functional movement heals.” Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais

Our bodies “forget” how to move comfortably and easily because of injury, stress, illness or bad habits. The movement sequences are designed to teach us to remember how we are designed to move: easily and efficiently. By moving slowly and paying attention to what we are experiencing while doing so, restrictions in movement can be freed. A change in muscular holding patterns will result in an increased ease, fluidity, power and coordination of your everyday movements.

Through Practices of Hakomi and Gestalt...

This work can be done with individuals or in a group setting. Compassion and respect for the individual are essential for establishing safety. Once established, participants are invited to explore at their own pace. The exercises are designed to assist in studying all aspects of self: sensations, beliefs, emotions, anything that arises. Because our greatest wounds are made early in our primary relationships, we need relationships in order to heal. Therefore the roles of the facilitator and other group members are an essential aspect of these practices. The intrapersonal exploration of the individual is witnessed and anchored through the support of the facilitator and the group.

The goals:

• to reinforce the ability to take in what is positive and nourishing

• to increase the capacity to tolerate more emotion and sensation, as well as new beliefs
  

• to enhance relationship and experience a positive connection to others

More About CFR, Hakomi and Gestalt

Cortical Field Re-Education®

“Your life cannot be any easier than your movements. Reduce the unnecessary effort in your movements, and you reduce the effort in your life.” H. Goslins

Our bodies respond to the pressures, demands and stresses of daily life by developing patterns of contraction in the muscles. From infancy, every happening in our life, and our response to it, is deeply ingrained in our muscular postures and movements. We gradually lose awareness of these muscles that are habitually held in contraction. These muscular contractions are so deep and unconscious that they continue even in our sleep.

Through Cortical Field Re-Education you can relearn the ease, fluidity and openness taken for granted as a child and lost somewhere along the way. By changing muscular holding patterns through the brain-muscle-emotion connection, restrictions in movement can be freed.

When these chronic problem areas are released, your body will become a more comfortable home. You will experience a much more restful sleep at night, a much higher level of energy during the day, and a dramatic improvement in the ease, fluidity, power and coordination of your everyday movements.

Cortical Field Re-Education (CFR) was developed by Harriet Goslins. CFR utilizes functional movement in the physical body combined with the energetic, mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of healing. CFR is based on what Harriet has learned from Moshe Feldenkrais, PhD, Lansing Gresham, founder of Integrated Awareness® and John Upledger, D.O., propagator of Cranial/Sacral work; as well as Harriet’s Gestalt and Psychosynthesis background. Her active private practice for twenty-six years, intensive eight-day workshops for the public, and professional training for practitioners have also contributed greatly to the work. CFR is not about “fixing.” It is about true healing which is based on learning.


Hakomi

To notice what arises inside, without judgement, is the essence of Hakomi and a pathway to deep and abiding healing. The Hakomi Method, as developed by Ron Kurtz, draws from the vast worlds of science, spirituality and psychotherapy, yet the practice itself remains simple.

Hakomi is a journey of assisted self discovery, a journey through mindfulness to wholeness. This is an open way of watching ourselves, of witnessing what happens. We start by paying attention to present experience, as it is, in the body, now.

With the help of a trained Hakomi therapist, we develop the practice of mindfulness. Our intention is to create an experience of greater freedom of choice, and relief from unnecessary suffering, through the ever deepening into and knowing of oneself.


Gestalt

Gestalt therapy, developed by Fritz Perls, focuses more on process (what is happening) than content (what is being discussed). The emphasis is on what is being done, thought and felt at the moment rather than on what was, might be, could be, or should be.

Gestalt practice is a method of awareness, by which perceiving, feeling, and acting are understood to be separate from interpreting, explaining and judging using old attitudes. This distinction between direct experience and indirect or secondary interpretation is developed in the therapeutic process. The client learns to become aware of what they are doing psychologically and how they can change it. By becoming aware of and transforming their process they develop self acceptance and the ability to experience more in the "now" without so much interference from baggage of the past.

The objective of Gestalt therapy, in addition to helping the client overcome symptoms, is to enable him or her to become more fully and creatively alive and to be free from the blocks and unfinished issues that may diminish optimum satisfaction, fulfillment, and growth.