Who comes to the Year-Long Programs?

We seek a diverse population. Women and men from a broad range of backgrounds have taken the Year Long Programs. We’ve had, for example, psychotherapists, college professors, social workers, artists, dance therapists, Yoga and bioenergetics teachers, dancers, administrators, professional religious, as well as an architect, a Hospice trainer, a kindergarten teacher, an actress, and a midwife. People have traveled from afar (Florida, Minnesota, Michigan, Maine, Winnipeg and Montreal) and from nearer to us – Boston, New York, Albany. Participants have ranged in age from 25 to 75. Many have worked with us before, in our summer workshops or in other ways, while others have had previous experience in Authentic Movement with other teachers. Some may have been practicing Authentic Movement for years, some began as recently as our latest Week I summer workshop. We value this variety, which enriches us all.

Prerequisites for the Year-Long Programs

We have five prerequisites for participation in Year I: (Year II requires completion of Year I.)

1. Completion of our Week I or the equivalent.
   
2. Some knowledge and experience of psychological dynamics – study, training, personal experience in psychotherapy, reading, other workshops. We feel it is important for all participants to have some degree of knowledge about this area. We include consideration of psychological dynamics in the Programs, but feel people should also have other study/experience in it as well.
   
3. We designed the Programs for professional individuals, especially those interested in bringing their discoveries from the year into their work and lives in some way. Our participants are mature, and come with training/examined practice in their particular field. They have engaged with the world in some way. They have life experience.
   
4. We require that each participant be able and willing to manage her/his own inner material. This work can be quite stimulating, or challenging, to one’s soul/psyche/body (which is one reason we all practice it!), but this will not be a therapy group per se. Personal issues might well arise, and we will all as a group create a safe space for each person’s work to evolve, but we will not be your therapists. Our main focus will be on the witnessing and responding processes. Participants may want to arrange for whatever supports they might need outside of the Programs.
   
5. Commitment to the entire program.
   

The Application Process

1. Contact us by phone or email to talk about your interest in the program.
2. Send two copies of:
   -The Application Form
   -An Autobiographical Statement describing key themes in your life and personal history
   -A recent resume describing your professional work
3. A $300 Tuition Deposit

After we receive these materials we will arrange a time to speak with you.

Payment Plan

We have a preferred payment schedule but are happy to work out individual payment plans. Limited financial aid is available.

The Interview

We have an interview with each applicant in order for us to get to know each other, to answer questions about the program, to check on the prerequisites/determine readiness and appropriateness for the program, and to begin the process of personalizing the program to address the individual’s goals. These meetings are informal and are held in person. (If necessary, we can do them by phone if we already know each other.) They give us a chance to prepare for the year together with some clarity of purpose, and they inevitably stimulate ideas about connections, goals, and topics of particular interest.

After the interview we need a tuition payment of $500 by September 15th to ensure a place in the program. We require participants to commit to the entire program.

We have a second meeting with each participant at the very end of each year to look back on the year together, and to discuss next steps.

Certificate of Completion

At the end of the year we give participants a letter which states that they completed the program. It describes the course of study: the hours spent on various activities, the weekend topics, a bibliography and videography. We do not currently offer formal CEU’s; however, people pursuing continuing education hours or independent degree programs have successfully used this letter as a way to report back to their institutions, documenting their work with us. We are very interested in helping individuals who wish to use the Programs for these kinds of applications to design their years with us to meet those goals.

Credentials

The Year-Long Programs do not lead to a credential or a formal certification. First, there currently is no recognized credential in Authentic Movement/Contemplative Dance in this country to give. More importantly, however, we prefer an individualized approach rather than the one-size-fits-all nature of a credential. People come to the Programs with different goals, from different backgrounds, with different amounts of previous experience in this practice, and we welcome this rich diversity. They also leave with unique sets of experience, skills, knowledge and goals. Instead of a credential, which implies that all finish the Programs in the same place, we work with individual participants throughout the year to help them identify ways to apply what they are learning and experiencing in the Programs to their lives and work back home.

Additionally, we are sensitive to the power dynamics inherent in any credential. We work throughout the year to empower participants to knowledgeably and responsibly discern what they are ready to do with the practice. We also share our insight and experience on this, and we offer our guidance and support to help individual participants achieve their goals. As part of the program we all discuss what prepares one to take on different roles– peer movement partner, peer group member, facilitator. We also explore ways to take principles of the practice into all kinds of professional and personal contexts. At the end of the year each participant talks about what they feel prepared to do next: What are their areas of confidence? Their growing edges? What are their next steps? To quote Jung, we work to help each person find her/his own way to “live it.”

Outcomes

The Year-Long Programs weave several threads throughout the year. They offer in-depth training and examined practice in the processes of moving and witnessing, with special attention paid to witnessing. They provide a place for one’s personal practice to deepen, and they look at the practice through the lens of a different theme each weekend. Participants find the Programs
deeply stimulating on a personal level – physically, psychologically, spiritually, creatively. They also find all sorts of ingenious ways to bring aspects of the practice – awareness of body, movement, imagination, contemplation, ritual, nature, witnessing, dancing – into their professional work. They bring it into their classrooms, clinics, consulting rooms, hospitals, studios, nursing homes and places of worship. They also develop ways to continue to practice with others back home, usually by finding a peer to move with or teaching a friend/creating a small peer group.

Some participants, depending on their previous experience, leave the Programs ready to facilitate others in this approach to movement. We encourage participants to take responsibility for discerning their own readiness to do this. In our experience, preparation to facilitate others requires: sufficient experience moving and witnessing over time; a conscious engagement with issues and variations in the practice; and a readiness to take on other people. Usually people need several years before they are ready to facilitate others, or lead groups. We designed the Year-Long Programs to help with this preparation, and we offer on-going mentorship to those who complete the Programs.

The Weekends

The first session of weekends #1-5 begins Friday at 3:00, and the last ends Sunday at 1:30. Plan to arrive by 2:00 on Friday to get settled in. Weekend #6 is longer. It begins Friday at 3:00 and ends late Monday afternoon.

Each weekend includes: movement sessions, witnessing labs, discussion about connections to work and life, dialogue about the assigned readings on the topic, time outside, warm ups, silent time and time to eat and laugh together. Each participant will have two private movement sessions, one with each faculty member, over the course of the year. We’ll explain more about how all this fits together when we see you!

Connections

We invite participants to find ways to connect their discoveries during the weekends with their work and lives back home. This process is unique to each individual’s interests and goals. Some make a commitment to themselves to maintain a practice: journaling, spending time outdoors, finding quiet time for contemplation, braving some new activity. Others choose to track a question or theme over the year. For some the connections are something tangible they create: a collection of poetry or drawings, a new design for their sacred dance or yoga classes. We also suggest things to do between weekends. Each weekend we set aside time for people to share these connections with the group.

We will talk with you about your interests and goals, about what brings you to the program, during the initial interview. Usually these influence the connections you explore between the weekends. These connections evolve organically over the year, shifting as new insights, new interests, new priorities become apparent. It’s good to let them percolate. And, you do not need to know what you will do before we talk!

Genesis Spiritual Life Center
Westfield, Massachusetts

In addition to a wonderful, warm, quiet, private, deeply spirited environment in which to work, rest and play, Genesis also provides us with meeting spaces, private (almost always) bedrooms, a private dining room for our meals together and beautiful lawns, woods and gardens. We meet in the Carriage House at Genesis for our sessions, in two adjoining rooms. These are smaller than the studios at Hampshire (for those of you who know those) and they have carpeted floors, but they have served us very well for this smaller group. (Maximum enrollment is 12.)

Week II will be held at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts.