Elemental Body Somatic CPD Training
28th July - 1st August
Bodø, Northern Norway
Bodø sits just above the Arctic Circle on Norway's dramatic northern coast, surrounded by a landscape of extraordinary contrasts. To the east, the jagged peaks of the Lofoten archipelago rise sharply from the sea, while the vast plateau of Børvasstindene stretches across the horizon. The Saltstraumen strait is home to the world's strongest tidal current, churning and surging just minutes from the city. Wide open beaches of white sand, ancient glacial valleys, and ever changing skies of perpetual summer to flickering greens of the aurora borealis make for a truly elemental location for this CPD.
with Gemma Mallol & Laila Marie Pedersen
Training Content
Non-residential professional development trainings in somatic movement practice for yoga teachers, therapists, dancers, and meditators. These intensives offer a rigorous and experiential foundation in somatic approaches to movement, embodied ecology, and working with trauma through the body.
Afternoon multi sited practice with nature in a range of spectacular sites that highlight a particular element in and around Bodo
Integrating a foundation of Buddhist Mindfulness that is applied through movement
Underpinned by therapeutic principles from Somatic Experiencing
Expanding movement choices that are inspired by connection to and resonance with the local ecology
Creative expression of the inner body through complementary creative processes
CPD Manual: Understanding theoretical underpinnings of this work - eco somatic, eco feminism, phenomenological and how these theories relate to movement with nature.
Somatic Yoga Foundation
Using somatic yoga (basic training) as a foundational structure we can collectively reference, we will focus on cultivating a developmental movement sequence that supports deeper exploration into the Elemental Body.
A developmental movement sequence traces fundamental human movement patterns, from our embryonic beginnings in the watery environment of the womb to the fully upright posture of an adult. These foundational patterns, which are mirrored in yoga asana, offer a structural base for embodied enquiry. They also create a pathway to engage with the five elements—water, earth, space, fire, and air—from within lived experience.
As we develop this practice, we will introduce sensory stimuli such as music, image, objects and touch to activate new ways of sensing, moving, and relating, to ourselves, to others, and to the wider web of life, both human and more-than-human.
Prices and Practicalities
Training non residential cost: 475 GBP / 575 GBP with a sliding scale. Deposit 200 GBP / balance 1 month before start date
Accommodation to be organised yourself in Bodø, Northern Norway
Bank details: Payment to Gemma Mallol
Wise Banking, BIC: TRWIBEB1XXX, IBAN: BE88 9674 2769 9941
Wise's address: Avenue Louise 54, Room S52, Brussels, 10, Belgium
or PayPal: gemmamallol@hotmail.com
Phenomenological Framework
Elemental Body is underpinned by the theory of phenomenology, which refers to the tradition inaugurated by Edmund Husserl at the beginning of the 20th century. It is both a philosophical movement and a research approach that focuses on the study of lived experience, how things appear to consciousness, from the first- person perspective. He argued that the body is not merely an object we possess, but the very means through which we experience and know the world.
Phenomenology’s central concern, lived experience, aligns closely with the aims of somatic movement, where the body is both the medium and the subject of enquiry. In somatic practice, attention is brought to the felt sense of movement, posture, breath, and internal states, mirroring phenomenology’s emphasis on first-person perception.
“Lovers find secret places inside this violent world where they make transactions with beauty.”
– Rumi
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