Body-Mind Centering®
 is...



an Invitation to
 
Open to Yourself

Discover new worlds of
movement, touch,
body and mind

Enhance your career and
professional life

Enrich yourself and
your child's development

    BMC® courses and programs are for you, if you 

• are looking for a comprehensive approach to working with others in a profound and dynamic way using body, mind, movement, and touch
• want to become a professional in the field of Somatic Education or Infant Therapy
• are already working in the fields of somatics, movement, fitness, yoga, education, theatre, athletics, parenting, or health care
• have an interest in exploring the body-mind relationship in a direct, experiential, and embodied way

Body-Mind Centering® (BMC) principles, methods of creative investigation,
and practical skill have unlimited areas of application. It is currently being used in movement, dance, yoga, bodywork, physical and occupational therapy, psychotherapy, child development, education, martial arts, voice, music, art, meditation, personal growth, massage therapy, athletics and body-mind disciplines.

Maryska Bigos, Program Coordinator

As a kinesthetic learner for over 55 years Maryska has been informed by the body as her vehicle for witnessing within herself, and in others, the expression of mind through body consciousness.  Her teaching and private practice are based on the anatomical, physiological, psychological, and developmental principles of Body-Mind Centering® and the Feldenkrais® Method. These two approaches communicate with an individual's physiological systems as reflected in the organization and quality of their movement.  Maryska began studying with Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen at The School for Body-Mind Centering in 1979, after training and performing as a dancer for over 15 years. She became a BMC® practitioner and teacher, and an AMTA member in the early 80's. She has taught with Cohen and individually at venues across the U.S. and served on the faculty for many years to integrate BMC® with: dance at the American Dance Festival; yoga at Duke University Medical Center; the special needs of students at the Governor Morehead School for the Blind; bodywork and massage modalities at the Carolina School of Massage Therapy.  Maryska has maintained a private practice for 30 years and is certified in a variety of bodywork practices that reflect her interest in the intimate connections between development, body, mind, and movement.

Lisa Clark, Education Coordinator

and MFA, is a certified teacher (1992) and practitioner (1990) of Body-Mind Centering® (BMC). She served as Program Coordinator with Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen of the Body-Mind Centering® & Yoga programs (1999-2004) and is an Education Coordinator and teacher of BMC® in the Somatic Movement and Infant Developmental Movement Education programs in North Carolina at the Kinesthetic Learning Center. She will be teaching in the BMC® practitioner program in Brazil (summer 2009) and is collaborating with Moveus in Germany as Educational Director of the up-coming BMC® & Yoga program in Europe (2010-2012). Lisa has been teaching BMC® for over 20 years at venues such as Oberlin College, Ohio State University, Dennison University, The Art Institute of Chicago, Columbia University, Allegheny College, Meredith College, University of Illinois, Interlochen, the American Dance Festival, Omega and Kripalu Health Institutes. The ongoing development, training, teaching, and practice of BMC® is a great joy in Lisa's life. She lives in Chapel Hill, NC, where she teaches weekly classes and maintains a private practice.

Bob Lehnberg, Education Coordinator

has been studying Body-Mind Centering® since 1984. He is a certified practitioner (1990) and teacher (2002) of BMC® who has been teaching experiential anatomy and physiology in schools of massage therapy and somatic practices for 19 years. His interest and practice of yoga led him to receive an Integral Yoga® teacher certification and become a frequent guest teacher while assisting Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen in SBMC's Embodied Anatomy & Yoga, and Embodied Developmental Movement & Yoga certificate programs in NYC. Bob began studying and practicing qigong in 1992, holds a certification from Supreme Science Qigong Center to teach Qigong Healing Level 1 which he teaches locally. He is a nationally certified bodyworker who has served in committee and board roles for NCBTMB for 15 years while maintaining a private practice in movement integration. Bob brings an improvisational theater background, including 13 years as a professional, to the experiential learning process of BMC®. His lightness and fun in the classroom is deepened by his degree in Biology (1980) and his ongoing studies in science that support his understanding and ability to clearly communicate the anatomy and physiology of the body.

Janice Geller, Guest Teacher

I call my work Integrative Counseling which integrates Psychotherapy, Bodywork Therapy, Dance/Movement Therapy and Meditation. I am Licensed as a Professional Counselor (LPC), Massage & Bodywork Therapist (LMBT), Academy Registered Dance/Movement Therapist (ADTR), and completed advanced training in Authentic Movement with Janet Adler, PhD. I have trained and taught with Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen since 1979 and became a Certified Body-Mind Centering® Practitioner, Teacher, and Infant Developmental Movement Educator. I have been in private practice for twenty-seven years, working with adults, families, children, and infants. I am a mother of two sons and enjoy working with infant development and parent-child relationships. I work at The Center for Integrative Therapy, an NCBTMB approved provider of continuing education, I co- founded and presently teach at Duke University. I also work at Turning Point Adult, Adolescent & Child Center, co-teach IDME groups, and teach Baby & Me Yoga classes in Durham, NC. I was co-founder of Open Pathways, a Diagnostic & Therapy Clinic for able and disabled children in MA and have worked at the Infant Complementary Care Clinic in Chapel Hill, the Turner Family Therapy Clinic, and Hospice of Chatham County. I have taught at the University of North Carolina, Smith College, University of California-Hayward, Esalen and Omega Institutes, and other colleges and universities in the U.S. and Europe.

Saliq Savage, Guest Teacher

became a BMC® certified practitioner in 1994 and teacher in 1998 who began dancing in college while studying mathematics and science. He teaches the GYROTONIC® expansion system and contact improvisation while maintaining a bodywork practice with infants, children, and adults. In 1990, he began creating, directing, and performing with Wire Monkey Dance Company, a highly physical, multimedia dance installation on three-dimensional sets of steel scaffolding. Saliq has created collaborative works performed throughout North America, Asia, Europe and South America notably with Gabi Morales, Christina Klissiouni, Lisa Schmidt, Stephanie Maher and most recently, Jen Polins. He is a Laban Movement Analyst, ISMETA Registered Movement Therapist, and father of two children under the age of three. From their birth through toddler-hood, he has taken them to Amajoy, founded by IDME co-creator and faculty member Lenore Grubinger, for infant developmental movement classes. This process has deepened his understanding of BMC®, infant developmental movement, and ontogenetic development. Saliq is joyfully committed to their developmental process having begun his kinesthetic skills with tree climbing, skiing, and windsurfing. He will be traveling directly to North Carolina from teaching BMC® in the Germany program.

Ellen Barlow, Guest Teacher

is a native of the Washington DC area where she lives and works as a movement educator and therapist. Ellen studied modern dance as a child with Pola Nirenska, a former Mary Wigman company member, and resumed her dance studies in 1977 to complete a BA in Dance Education. Ellen also pursued Hatha yoga training with Swami Vishnu Devananda and became a teacher of the Shivananda tradition in 1974. While in college her mentor and dance professor Carol Boggs introduced her to the work of Irmgard Bartenieff, F.M. Alexander, Mabel Elsworth Todd, and Lulu Sweigard. Together these influenced Ellen's career direction toward movement as self-care, expressive art, healing art, health and wellness practice. She studied the Feldenkrais Method and Alexander Technique before meeting Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen in 1979. Ellen moved to Amherst, MA the next year to study Body-Mind Centering® and become a Practitioner (1982) & Teacher (1985). The Body-Mind Centering® approach became her primary influence and remains so.  Ellen co-founded the Body-Mind Centering® Association (BMCA) in 1985 and served throughout the 1990's on the board of the International Movement Education & Therapy Association (ISMETA). She served as President of the ISMETA Board from 1998-2001. Since 2001, Ellen has been studying the GYROTONIC® Expansion System of Exercise, became a certified Gyrotonic Instructor, and completed numerous specialized trainings. Ellen devotes time in her work schedule to teach Gyrotonic and maintains a private practice as a movement educator and therapist.

Martha Eddy, Guest Teacher, Bio - Special Events tab

Professional Affiliations: While a student and then as a graduate of our programs, you are eligible to join the world-wide Body-Mind Centering Association (BMCA).
Visit: www.bmcassoc.org to learn more.

Our SME and IDME programs are both approved by the International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association (ISMETA) www.ismeta.org.
ISMETA membership grants eligibility for liability insurance coverage for you and your professional practice.