Exploring Body-Mind Centering features 35 essays on Body-Mind Centering (BMC), an experiential practice based on the application of anatomical, physiological, psychophysical, and developmental principles. Using the work of BMC founder Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen as a springboard, the book showcases diverse situations—from medical illness to blocked creativity—in which this discipline is applied with transformative results.
Exploring Body-Mind Centering is divided into three sections, preceded by an introduction framing BMC as a pathway to becoming aware of relationships that exist throughout the body and mind and using that awareness to act. The first section lays the groundwork for this process, with real-life experiences and exercises that encourage readers to interact with the text. Section two contains valuable case stories describing the experiences of BMC students and practitioners as they work with clients. Section three shows how BMC can be integrated with other disciplines and practices that include the arts, medicine, and yoga. The book concludes with a biography of Cohen, a profile of the
School for Body-Mind Centering, and a history of BMC.
“Beginning with the embracing of sperm by egg, we each seek to know who we are and to meet others from that place of knowing. This book is a compilation of questions, insights, and experiences by people deeply dedicated to the unknown germ of potentiality and uniqueness seeded within each of us. These shared stories move me, and I am transformed by them. With my deepest respect, gratitude, friendship, and love, I salute the authors and editors of this wonderful book.”
—Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, developer of Body-Mind Centering, and founder and educational director of The School for Body-Mind Centering, El Sobrante, California
“Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen’s work is at the forefront of the rapidly growing understanding of our embodied existence, and it has created new strategies for healing based on that avant-garde vision. Her school stands as a model for a careful rigorous transmission of experiential knowledge that combines sustained practical training, theoretical studies, and careful documentation of clinical work. This volume is unique in providing the opportunity for many of the school’s graduates to articulate their various insights and applications of this work.”
—Don Hanlon Johnson, founder of the Somatics Graduate Program, California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, California and author of Everyday Hopes, Utopian Dreams: Reflections on American Ideals
“Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen is one of the foremost explorers of the body’s intricate subjective wisdom and its enormous potential for healing. This text has long been awaited by those who have had the good fortune to know Bainbridge Cohen and her work. It is an absolute must-read for anyone interested in a major contribution to the medicine of the future, and its availability now.”
—Deane Juhan, author of Job's Body: A Handbook for Bodywork
“This book, so sensitively and deftly created, is a vast and rapid tour through the world of Body-Mind Centering. Inside, the reader will find treasures and wonders of vast and varied perspective and dimension.”
—Susan Aposhyan, developer of Body-Mind Psychotherapy and author of Body-Mind Psychotherapy: Principles, Techniques, and Practical Applications and Natural Intelligence: Body-Mind Integration and Human Development
“Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen and company guide and enthrall with a cornucopia of wisdom as they continue to unfold the magnificent spirals of life.”
—Emilie Conrad, Continuum founder and author of Life on Land: The Story of Continuum, the World-Renowned Self-Discovery and Movement Method
“Health collections interested in situations in which mind-body centering produces life-changing results will find this collection key to understanding the process. Over thirty essays document situations in which mind-body centering produces changes, recounting real-life experiences, exercises, and case stories alike.”
—Midwest Book Review
