Interview with Caitlin Adair

Authentic Movement sets up a much-needed dialogue between conscious and unconscious, mind and body, intention and motivation that short-circuits our ingrained cultural habits of censure.

Authentic Movement
by Caitlin Adair

The practice of Authentic Movement has contributed immeasurably to my own understanding of my body's (unconscious) mind.

Authentic Movement involves a "witness" and a "mover." The mover closes her eyes and moves in any way she pleases, while the witness watches with full, nonjudgmental attention. That's all. When the mover finishes the two may talk about their experience or they may not. Often the movers will choose to write in their journals or draw, paint, or work with clay before putting words to their movement experience. Authentic Movement is not about talking, it's about moving and witnessing and being witnessed. It is a very simple yet profound healing technique for body and soul because it gives the unconscious material a way to surface and be witnessed by the conscious mind in a nonjudgmental context. Gradually the mover develops an inner witness for herself, modeled on the outer witness.

To do Authentic Movement, it helps to think of your conscious mind as located in your head. Most of us think this way anyway. Then there is the body-mind, which seems to be located in the body. For Authentic Movement, the conscious mind agrees to take a break and to give the body-mind a chance to speak, through movement.

The eyes are closed as a sign to the conscious mind to become dormant. The contribution of the conscious mind is to form the intention, and then get out of the way. The body then takes over and does its thing. Sometimes the body's most authentic "movement" is no movement at all. This is okay. Note "no movement" and have patience, trusting that your body really does have something important to tell you, in its own way, in its own time. Sometimes "no movement" can be frozen, sometimes resting, sometimes gestating. Ask your body what it means by "no movement" and then listen to the answer. Authentic Movement helps you learn to honor your own wisdom.

Authentic Movement sets up a much-needed dialogue between conscious and unconscious, mind and body, intention and motivation that short-circuits our ingrained cultural habits of censure. If as children we were disapproved of for being emotional or spontaneous or for acting in certain ways, we probably internalized disapproval and perpetuated the top-down chain of command of head over body, where the head says to the body (as the adult said to the child), "You will behave" and "You will not cry when hurt or sad" (especially true for boys) or "You will not show your anger" (especially true for girls).

The top-down chain of command serves to keep the body-knowing in an inferior position, as that of a child or a slave. It forced the body-knowing into hiding so it has to sneak around to get its needs met unbeknownst to the judge/parent at the top of the spine.

Authentic Movement, by allowing the unconscious mind to speak through the body, encourages the inner child to come out of hiding and share both its pain and its marvelous knowing that was natural to us as children and is the hallmark of integrated creative adults, is reestablished. The mover begins to trust her body-knowing to lead her in the right direction in life. The "judge" begins to let go. Joy becomes a more frequent visitor and the natural bird-free flow of life is resumed.

Solo Authentic Movement
In your room alone you may wish to try Solo Authentic Movement. Start on the floor. Close your eyes. Choose to work with a part of you that has difficulty feeling pleasure, perhaps your pelvis (where I started) or your throat or the site of an old injury. With eyes closed, begin to tune into that area. If it is your pelvis, it may help to start on hands and knees or with your upper body supported by a low chair or bed. Tuning in to your body, allow subtle movements to begin to happen. How does it feel? Keeping your awareness on your pelvis (throat, shoulder, etc.) be aware of impulses to movement and simply follow them.

Learn to follow your body's subtle impulses to movement. They are always healing, often revealing. Remember that you are asking your body to help you with deep healing of body, soul, and psyche. You have begun the process of unfolding, and your own body is your best ally and guide. As you become familiar with your body's subtle impulses toward movement of one body part, you can allow your awareness to expand to encompass ever-greater areas of your anatomy. After you have done one-part movement several or many times with the same or different "parts," open it up so that your permission to move includes your entire body. Scan your body until you find which area wants to move next. Allow the flow to happen from neck to shoulder to ribcage, down into the opposite hip. The hip contracts. The knee and foot bend and come up into "The Crane," a T'ai Chi posture. This is good. Allow it to happen. Allow it to flow. Allow it to stop when it wants, in whatever position it wants to stop in. Wait for the next impulse. Allow it to move you, as you begin again.

The River
When you feel comfortable with whole body Solo Authentic Movement in the privacy of your home, you may wish to try it out in nature. Find a private spot if you are able. The beach or a hilltop at sunrise or sunset is ideal, I suppose, but a corner of your garden will do. The first time it ever "happened" to me, I was standing on a broken-down wooden bridge on a logging road near my home. Something about the stream flowing under my feet felt wonderful. I felt magnetized, energized, and then my body began to translate the currents of water and wind into graceful T'ai Chi-like movement. I felt as though I had connected with the originating impulse for T'ai Chi. That the form is quite secondary to the impulse was certain to me in that moment. The T'ai Chi form is simply a vehicle for getting yourself into the elemental flow of wind and water, earth and fire. With a little practice you can do this free-form T'ai Chi, which I now call "The River," if you are able to sense simultaneously the inner and the outer currents that are always flowing "within you and without you."

Caitlin Adair maintains a practice in Authentic Movement and Option Dialogue in Brattleboro, Vermont, and can be reached at Phone number 802-387-5779. E-mail: pcadair@sover.net.