Course Descriptions
Our BMC® courses and certificate programs are licensed by Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen and sponsored by the Kinesthetic Learning Center, an Approved Provider of NCBTMT Continuing Education.
Students from over twenty-five (25) countries have studied BMC® to enhance their area of expertise. You may take a single class, combine courses or enroll in a certificate program to become an Infant Developmental Movement Educator (IDME) or a Somatic Movement Educator (SME).
All of our faculty have all served on the faculty at SBMC for many years and some have thirty (30) years of experience teaching and practicing this method.
Listed below are required courses for SME and * indicates an IDME required course.
Freeman Center classroom
Body-Mind Centering® (BMC) was created by Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, OTR, author of Sensing, Feeling and Action, over thirty-five years ago. Students from over 25 countries have learned the art and practice of Body-Mind Centering® .
SENSES & PERCEPTIONS* (S&P) are our organs of receiving information from ourselves and from the outer world. Perception is the psychophysical process of interpreting sensory information. This process begins as potential and develops in response to our experience. The S&P course explores how we filter, modify, distort, accept, and reject to use sensory information to bond, defend and learn.
BASIC NEUROLOGICAL PATTERNS* (BNP) are movement templates that first appear in the womb and continue emerging and integrating through infancy. The BNP form the words of our movement and psychophysical expression. These patterns can form the basis of a deep and ongoing personal movement practice that strengthens your developmental foundation for movement, expression, posture, and communication.
REFLEXES, Righting REACTIONS and Equilibrium RESPONSES* (RRR) are present underneath ALL successful movement and are the fundamental elements that establish our basic internal state of being with gravity, space, and others. The RRR combine to build the Basic Neurological Patterns (BNP).
ONTOGENETIC Development* is the chronological study of how movement develops during intrauterine life and through the first year. It offers an overall map for understanding the sequence of the developmental process. As the RRR are the letters and the BNP the words, the Ontogenetic milestones are the sentences of our movement.
SKELETAL System gives our body the basic form through which we locomote through space, act on the environment, and sculpt space with the energy forms we call movement. Embodying the skeletal system structurally organizes the mind and offers a basic framework for the movement of our mind based on a foundation of clarity and form. This course teaches how to re-pattern the three internal structures of bone and is taught in three sections: Lower Limbs, Upper Limbs, and Axial Skeletal to align the whole body for effortless posture and movement.
LIGAMENTOUS System coordinates and guides muscular responses and increases specificity and efficiency for the alignment and movement of the bones. When all of the ligaments of a joint are actively engaged, the movement of that joint becomes highly specific and is carried effortlessly to surrounding and successive joints.
ORGAN System provides us with a sense of personal self and organic authenticity. Organs are vital and alive and support our postural tone, our feelings, and give volume to our movement.
FLUID System includes the major fluids of the body: cellular, interstitial and transitional, blood, lymph, synovial and cerbrospinal fluid. Related semivicous fluids are fascia and fat. Their embodied psychophysical qualities underlie presence and transformation, and play a major role in the counterbalancing of tension and relaxation, rest and action.
ENDOCRINE System is the bridge between the organs and the nervous system and between the nervous system and the fluids. They support the spine and bring dynamic clarity to the chakras. The crystalline pyschophysical states that the glands create allow us to experience and understand the universal aspect of self.
NERVOUS System experience occurs first on the cellular level. The nervous system records the experience and organizes it into patterns. It can then call forth the experience and modify the pattern by integrating it with the patterns of other experiences. The nervous system is the last to know, but once knowing, becomes a primary controlling system of the body which deepens a sense of inner calm and intention.
MUSCULAR System establishes a tensile three-dimensional grid for the balanced support and movement of the skeletal system and provides the elastic forces that move the bones through space. Through this system we embody our vitality, express our power and engage in the dialogue between resistance and resolution.
PROFESSIONAL ISSUES address some of the important issues facing professionals in the somatic field.
COMPETENCY is a review of skills and an evaluation of competency.
Licensed BMC® courses and certificate programs in Somatic Movement Education (SME) and Infant Developmental Movement Education (IDME) are offered in the US, in North Carolina, and in Europe. For detailed program information in Germany, France, Bratislava, Brazil, England, and Italy, please visit: www.bodymindcentering.com and www.bmcassoc.org
Our SME and IDME programs are both approved by the International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association (ISMETA).
All material © Copyright 2003-2004 The School for Body-Mind Centering®
Body-Mind Centering® is registered service mark, and Embodied Anatomy, Embodied Developmental Movement, and BMC are service marks of Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen.
