What exactly is exercise/movement therapy?

Exercise/movement therapy provides a way for you to feel better both physically and emotionally by helping you change the way you move. How we think, feel, and focus our attention has a strong impact on the way our bodies perform. Exercise/movement therapy uses this connection between our thoughts and our physical being to bring about profound and lasting improvements. This can occur in many different ways, depending on your particular needs. For example, some of my clients benefit by rebuilding self-confidence and health as they learn how to safely strengthen their muscles; others have become skilled at controlling stress through breathing and imagery.

My approach utilizes a wide variety of exercises to reveal how unconscious, automatic movement habits and behaviors have come to limit your mobility. Becoming aware of these habits is the first step in changing them, subsequently gaining more freedom and ease of movement. This attention to the link between the mind and the body is what distinguishes exercise/movement therapy from “personal training”, a practice which focuses mostly on body building.

My method is rooted in over 25 years of experience, first as a dance teacher, and then as a dance/movement therapist at a rehabilitation hospital. For the past 10 years I have specialized in working with the over 50 year old adult. (My eldest student is 96). As a former professional dancer, I relate to the challenge of maintaining, even improving, freedom of movement as we grow older. I am passionately committed to helping my students discover how they can increase their quality of life by learning to move with more awareness and intelligence.

Yoga, tai chi, Alexander, and Feldenkrais are a few methods which are often referred to as therapeutic movement. I employ a mixture of all these techniques, as well as methods I have developed on my own and found to be successful for hundreds of students over the years.

An important advantage of exercise/movement therapy is that it avoids the “one size fits all” approach of other exercise methods. Each person is able to focus on what he or she needs to address the most. When your needs change, so will the exercises. By working one-on-one with me, you will receive personal, customized attention, and learn at a speed that suits you.