BIODYNAMIC MASSAGE TRAINING

One-year Certificate Course

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Chiron is offering a one-year course in Biodynamic Massage which will lead to a Certificate in Biodynamic Massage after successful completion of the first year and will allow the certificate holders to start working with clients (with appropriate supervision). A holistic Anatomy module complements this course

What is Biodynamic Massage? 

Biodynamic Massage is an integrative and in-depth form of bodywork. It comprises a broad range of massage techniques for working with bone, muscle and connective tissue and more subtle forms of the human energy field to restore the free flow of the life force and thus encouraging the body’s innate capacity for self-regulation. Biodynamic Massage is based on the understanding and belief that the body reflects the totality of our life, the sum of our experience and how we relate to ourselves and to the world. Habitual ways of being determine our muscle tone and shape our posture, which in turn affects our emotional/mental states, our breath, energy levels, nervous system and health. Biodynamic Massage aims to undo the holding patterns that restrict free and spontaneous self-expression, and to tone and strengthen frozen and collapsed tissues for building the body into a stronger container for emotional charge and higher levels of energy.

 

Biodynamic Massage has a relational approach with a commitment to meeting each person where they are and each session will take into account the client’s emotional state at the time of arrival. The Biodynamic Massage Therapist is trained to be finely tuned to facilitate an energetic process and to respond appropriately to the client on a verbal level as well as non-verbally. The Biodynamic Massage therapist will stimulate the client to be a discoverer, an adventurer, an investigator of his or her own body/mind to promote and support the joy and pleasure of discovery.

Dates for the year 2009/10

Dates: 9 weekends

Term 1: 21/22 Nov. ‘09; 5/6 Dec. ‘09
Term 2: 16/17 Jan. '10; 13/14 Feb. ‘10; 13/14 March ‘10
Term 3: 17/18 April ‘10; 15/16 May ‘10; 19/20 June ‘10; 10/11 July ‘10
Times: 10am - 5.30pm
Fee: £1,320 (and additional £85 for a stethoscope)

Facilitator: Monika Schaible, UKCP registered Body Psychotherapist
Monika is a long term member of the Chiron staff and has a private practice in West London. She has specialised in biodynamic massage and its integration into a relational psychotherapeutic process.

Anatomy

Dates: 12 Wednesday evenings from 7pm - 9.15pm (altogether 30 hours of teaching).

The course will start on 14 January ‘09 and meetings will continue to take place fortnightly, over two terms.
The dates are:
Spring Term: 13 Jan ‘10; 27 Jan. ‘10; 10 Feb. ‘10; 24 Feb. ‘10; 10 March ‘10 and 24 March ‘10
Summer term: 21 April ‘10; 5 May ‘10; 19 May ‘10; 2 June ‘10; 16 June ‘10 and 30 June ‘10
Fee: £370

Facilitator: Kathrin Stauffer, PhD, UKCP registered Body Psychotherapist
Kathrin was born in Switzerland and originally worked as a biochemist. She is a member of the training staff at the Cambridge Body Psychotherapy Centre with many years’ experience in teaching biodynamic massage training courses. She lives in Cambridge where she also has a private practice.

Second Year

In addition Chiron offers a Second Year of training in Biodynamic Massage which leads to a Diploma should you want to take your studies further. The second year module emphasises development of therapist perception, understanding theoretical frameworks which support and give meaning to therapeutic perception, as well as a deeper, more detailed approach to the practical application of the techniques.

 

Practical Information

If you are interested in enrolling please ask for an application form for the training in Biodynamic Massage. After we receive your completed application form together with the application fee of £40 (cheque payable to Chiron) you will be invited for an assessment interview. Once you’ve been accepted you’ll be asked to register and pay a deposit of £100 to secure a place. The remaining fee can be paid by monthly standing order or in three instalments - one a term.

 

Training in Biodynamic Massage leading to Certificate Level

In the one-year Certificate course students learn practical methods, biodynamic theories and professionalism in order to work confidently and responsibly with clients.

Practical Methods:

Theory:

Professionalism

History of Biodynamic Massage

Gerda Boyesen developed Biodynamic Massage in Norway, where she studied psychology. She had been involved in Reichian analysis with Ola Raknes. Her interest in and pursuit of Reichian Vegetotherapy led her to train as a physiotherapist. In a psychiatric hospital in Oslo she met the chief physiotherapist, Adel Bülow Hansen, who had developed a neuro-muscular massage technique for psychiatric patients with predominantly hypertonic musculature, which co-ordinates the muscular system, breathing, relaxation and emotional release. Lillemor Johnson, who also trained at the Bülow Hansen Institute, developed a successful way of toning hypotonic muscles. Those two strands of massage methods formed the basis for Biodynamic Massage. Gerda Boyesen continued to refine these massage methods and added her own discovery of psycho-peristalsis as a means of self-regulation through vegetative discharge and her own theory about the meaning of the body’s fluid system. Biodynamic Psychology is the integration of her understanding of Reichian bodywork, psychology and the massage methods from the Bülow Hansen Institute in Oslo.

Throughout the last 20 years at Chiron Biodynamic Massage has been developed and updated in a variety of ways, particularly through the increased attention given to the relationship between client and massage therapist.

Training Requirements

Students need to write 20 short reports on massage sessions and an end-of year essay. Students are also required to have a minimum of 20 sessions of personal Biodynamic Massage therapy sessions from fully qualified therapists. It is expected that students will practice massage outside and in addition t the actual course time. A book list is available.

In order to qualify for the Biodynamic Massage Certificate, students will also need to complete Chiron’s Holistic Human Biology module. This year-long module of 30 teaching hours extends and grounds the experiential work through the study of anatomy and physiology.

Holistic Human Biology (Anatomy) Module

This module complements the biodynamic massage course. It provides background knowledge of the biological understanding of the human body that complementary practitioners have to be familiar with, and also creates links with the psychotherapeutic and biodynamic ways of thinking. Whilst the syllabus covers all the organ systems, there is space for more in-depth discussion of topics that are of special importance to biodynamic massage therapists:

The module consists of 15 two-hour sessions. Participants are expected to spend some time studying between sessions.

 

Qualification

After successful completion of the one-year massage course, plus Holistic Human Biology, students can apply for the Chiron Certificate in Biodynamic Massage. This, along with insurance and membership of AHBMT (The Association of Holistic Biodynamic Massage Therapists), enables you to practise as a massage therapist. The association provides a supportive network for practitioners, offering workshops and other activities, and publishes a bi-annual newsletter for its members.


 

The 'Association of Holistic Biodynamic Massage Therapists' (AHBMT) provides a supportive network for practitioners, offering workshops and other activities, and publishing a bi-annual newsletter for its members.

Comments from therapists about the experience of working with Biodynamic Massage:

"I appreciate the wide range of biodynamic massage techniques. but more than that I have gained from the way we are trained at Chiron to understand the body and to respond to people.

"Working as a biodynamic massage therapist. I enjoy - being intimate, using my intelligence. in tuition and empathy, feeling grounded and connected through touch; a chance to be creative; a sense of worth."

'1 really like using the stethoscope - it helps with deep listening and observing. It combines with intuition. resonance, verbal listening and non-verbal clues, such as changes in skin colour, breathing. It tells me about the client how much they are letting go; how much they are in tune organically; when they are needing to cut off or express; when they are overwhelmed."

"Biodynamic massage is certainly different from other kinds of massage. In quality it's more akin to experiences I have had with a healer, and yet its more directly engaging and personal, too. There is lots of precise attention to the client in terms of what is being perceived, and an invitation for the client to participate in the process and not simply have something 'done' to them."