Authentic Movement

Authentic Movement involves a person moving and a person bearing witness to that movement. The mover positions themselves in the space, closes their eyes, and begins a process of deep inner listening, sensing and feeling, easing from a state of outer awareness towards the somatic unconscious and inner self, a process Janet Adler (1999) describes as movers ‘descending towards themselves’. When emotion, memory, and sensory impulses are revealed or discovered, the mover spontaneously responds, without conscious direction, in movement, thus opening themselves to experiencing deeper levels of interior reality. Periods of perceptive stillness may also be experienced.

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Witnessing is integral to Authentic Movement and offers a place of containment. In a therapeutic context, the practitioner, acting as the witness, has responsibility for receptively holding the space, bringing a quality of presence that supports the client’s inner listening and freedom of movement expression. As the client moves, the practitioner simultaneously brings deep attention to the client’s embodied expression as well as to their own bodily experience.

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When the movement draws to a close, the client is invited to articulate their recollection of the movement. The practitioner, without judgement, then describes what she observed as well as describing her own embodied experience during the witnessing. This is an important element of the practice and can lead to further exploration of emergent thoughts and feelings.