embodiment

The Non-Linear Movement Method® is facilitated on a mat or blanket. Participants dress similar to a Yoga or Dance Class, in comfortable, non-restrictive clothing.

Classes are hosted on Zoom so you can practice in the comfort of your own space. You can have your camera off so you can engage with your own processes without being observed.

The method can be practiced at any age, fitness level and mobility. 

The movements are designed to be self-regulating and can be done in any position, including laying down.

We use Zoom to connect for our online practice sessions. You will receive the link to the specific Zoom session you registered for via email after signing up.

• Download or update Zoom prior to connecting for class, we recommend giving yourself at least 15 minutes to do this if you’re doing it right before class, we don’t want you to miss anything. Do you have technical questions about Zoom? Here’s their support platform for help: https://support.zoom.us/hc/

• Please arrive 5 to 10 minutes early so we can start promptly and to account for any possible connection troubleshooting.

• Make sure you have access to audio/sound
  Participants have said that they had the best results by either connecting speakers to their computers or using wireless in-ear headphones.
  Here’s more about testing your audio on Zoom

• Set up a quiet, private area for practice

• Grab your yoga mat or something similar (a blanket will work)

• Wear comfortable clothing that you can move in

• Have a blanket ready for the integration period at the end of the class

 This method has many deep, powerful applications:

Regulates the Nervous System
The demands of modern life create stress and tension in the body and an overactive mind. NLMM encourages the identifying and unwinding of patterns of contraction. Through gentle, non-force movements bodily tension and underlying mental loops are relieved. The result is a systematic, self-guided unburdening of the nervous system.

Processes and Identifies Emotions
As the body unwinds and the mind relaxes its pressured pace, the emotions associated with these contractive patterns become apparent and can be dissolved through the movement. You can note recurring emotional loops for further processing and at the same time allow emotions to simply arise and let go.

Releases Trauma Patterns into Flow
One of the common results of traumatic experience (fresh and old alike) is “freeze”, a state in which body, mind and emotions are stuck in a state of numbness. Often “freeze” is falsely perceived as a feeling of “calm/nothing”, which results in an inability to release the experience and ease the bodily patterns of hold. NLMM facilitates a continued movement, which gently opens the freeze pattern and allows for recognition and release of the underlying bodily and emotional patterns.

Unites Mind and Body in Intimacy with Physical Sensation
Through continued engagement with release of contraction and facilitation of emotional awareness, the ingrained patterns become both more apparent and less pronounced. Over time, physical sensation can be more fully engaged with, and the acceptance as well as tolerance of all sensation increases. Intimacy with whatever is present is possible. Body, Emotion and Mind can align to support an integrated approach to feeling and understanding existing behavioral patterning.

Creates High Bodily Responsiveness
NLMM educates the body how to release and process contractions, stress and emotional tension while at the same time sensitizing you to your internal landscape. This is called “Interoception”, the ability to feel what is “inside”. Via the body we become highly attuned to all sensations and can note, react or release fluidly and without having to attend to traumatic or suppressed backlog.

Opens Access to Bodily Wisdom
By putting emphasis on movement and circumventing the analytical mind and loops of tense thinking the natural intelligence of our bodies is accessed. Through gentle guidance the mechanisms of “freeze” and refusal to feel are being loosened and our innate bodily wisdom can create the necessary actions and releases.

Awakens Vital Energy and Sensual Sensation
As tension, contraction, and emotion are being released, the body becomes sensitized and we are able to feel deeper. One of the marked results of this sensitization is an ability to feel increased pleasure and well being. Participants report an increased ability to connect through their body, both with themselves and others.

The founder of this method, Michaela Boehm, developed this modality with her clients as a way to get them unstuck and connected to their feelings during difficult sessions. After two decades of instruction and practice, Michaela found that this simple practice was instrumental as a way to gently reintroduce women to their bodies and to help them restore their wild, embodied nature. 

The key in NLMM is that it “unfreezes” you, and with that, the body’s natural genius can release and attend to whatever needs to be let go. 

Stress, tension, overwhelm, and trauma of all kinds tend to put us into fight, flight, or freeze mode.

Of those three responses, freeze is the hardest to detect and work with, as you are frozen, which creates a numbness that makes you “feel fine.”

With this gentle, non-forcing method, stored tension and emotion as well as programmed coping patterns can be loosened; and as the body moves it can facilitate its own release and restoration.