Nearly 8 years ago my husband & I moved to Australia. This gave us many opportunities to explore a new world, a new way of life and many different cultures. It was also a place I started to practise yoga a little more seriously. It was there I learnt a deeper layer of yoga. Which was, our everyday experiences good and bad shape our lives. This fascinating realisation stopped me in my tracks and shifted my perspective on my clients movement abilities. I changed my approach when teaching clients and students and simultaneously it sent me down a path of yoga teaching too.
Becoming a parent has heightened my sense of curiosity. I look at my children’s experiences and wonder how is this shaping their lives? My daughter was a late talker which ended up in additional assessments to find out why her speech was delayed.
When she got assessed by a specialised physio, her joints where so hyper-mobile. The physio said it was like she was walking around on marshmallows. Imagine what type of communicator you become if you feel your body is so vulnerable, weak and instable like you’re walking on a ground of marshmallows?
Now consider how that person moves, through their childhood, teenager years and adulthood if not addressed .
Why is it when we teach; single leg stretch to one person they shift around nervously, while another client sails through the movement so seamlessly? I started to research why & how we respond to movement. What makes us respond either through, speech, gestures or all out body movement?
There are the obvious answers, but there are also deep rooted reasons why we communicate. Movement is an important form of non-verbal communication. Making up 93{0f3ed827c833e5bdbfc04f10cc5ad0755c5573f6d6706742e422ab57ad5fe2ee} of how we communicate.
As a movement teacher I feel it an important part of our training to understand and bring the dots of movement & communication together! I have had many conversations with colleagues about how I could find out more about this fascinating world of movement and communication.
I am a neuromuscular therapist and I work at the National Training Center www.ntc.ie . Lucky for me I had the opportunity to talk to John Sharkey about this topic John is the director of the NTC and clinical anatomist (who is creating ground breaking research in the world of fascia) I thought that maybe fascia may have something to do with her hyper mobility and that was indirectly effecting her communication process. He told me that movement was a key aspect of development and recalled in his early day’s teachers using expressions such as “if you cannot move correctly you will not find your voice “ . So true, this lead me down another path of investigation.
Id like to share all this rich information with you in 2019. I will start to add my research on how and why we move into my postural assessment workshops and masterclasses. Next Postural Assessment and Muscle Testing workshops is on 30th March 2019, more info . All my workshops will intertwin the benefits of the bio-physo-social model. For those of you unfamiliar with this model. Here is a wonderful article about bio-physo-social model by O Sullivan (Irish physio living in Oz) .
In addition due to requests from students on my posture workshops. I will continue with functional movement masterclass for tight hips and low back along with a 2hr Functional Shoulder movement Workshop running, on Friday 3rd May & Saturday 4th May more details .
On that note as we start to close in the year of 2018. I wish you a time of rest and enjoyment with your families and friends Every success in health & life for 2019.
Tara x