Workshop description

When we are challenged, stressed or overwhelmed– by anything from playing a difficult piano piece or trying to meet a project deadline to a violent assault or a serious injury —, our natural tendency is to constrict or collapse our attention, breathing, posture, vision and movement — which is experienced as feelings such as fear, anger, effort, strain, shock, weakness, resignation, numbness or dissociation.

In task performance, these physical responses interfere with planning and physical coordination. In situations of conflict, these powerful physical patterns undermine people’s ability to think rationally, interact empathically, and act peacefully. When the physical response patterns get locked into the body, that is the traumatized state.

By learning how to open and balance your body and attention, you can create a physical and mental state of relaxation, expansiveness, calm alertness, and compassionate power. This state of mind/body integrity is the foundation for overcoming the distress response and for handling life’s difficulties effectively.

Paul Linden has been practicing aikido (a nonviolent Japanese martial art) for 51 years, and he have used it as a laboratory for studying the self in movement. He has found ways to teach people in a matter of hours practical body awareness skills that took him 20 to 30 years to grasp. These methods do not involve vigorous or strenuous movement, and they are very simple. They stand on their own, and they also complement traditional skills in various educational and healing modalities. This educational method would be of interest to coaches, mediators psychotherapists, martial artists, yoga practitioners, peace activists, business people and anyone interested in elegant, strain-free action.

THE 2-DAYS WORKSHOP will focus on a number of areas of embodiment education: relaxation and stress management, task improvement, trauma work, assertiveness and conflict management, and hands-on body work. The whole sequence will teach an integrated understanding, and whichever area you intend to work with, familiarity with the other areas will deepen and strengthen your understanding of how to apply embodiment in your chosen area.

What is the purpose of this seminar ?

In this seminar, you will be able to :

• Develop a deeper understanding of the relevance of body awareness, posture, movement and breathing to your work
• Practice intensively practical embodied tools you can use with clients immediately
• Grow your knowledge in how to work with the body confidently and safely
• Explore tricky client situations and useful BIM applications and ressources to move forward
• Share insights and experiences with other BIM practitioners

Fundamental concepts developed in the course

By studying the body, we can polish the whole self. Power without love is brutality. Love without power is ineffective.

• Challenge-response model: When there is a problem, learning becomes necessary.
• Calibration of exercises: A carefully graded series of difficulties develops resources and abilities safely.
• Defining terms: Clear, concrete definitions improve communication.
• Body-based language: Grounding speech in tangible body actions improves awareness and communication.
• Intentions: Actions are created by projecting intentions through space.
• Emotions: Emotions are body actions. Feelings are what they “taste” like to the person doing them.
• Testable hypotheses: Reframing movements/actions as expressions of beliefs and setting up experiments to test the beliefs offers an efficient path of growth and improvement.
• Replacing: You can’t stop an undesirable action or emotion – you have to replace it with an incompatible and more useful body state.
• Hands-on body work and movement instruction are two ways of communicating the same information to students.
• Ongoing practice: Awareness skills improve by working with exercises on a continuing basis.

How do we work?

In his book “Winning is Healing”, Paul Linden explains “By experimenting with simple movement situations, you can discover the nature of the beliefs and strategies that underlie your actions. You can evaluate the efficacy of your choices, discover why you have become committed to them, and try out new movements and new ways of approaching the world. This learning is what will lead to personal and spiritual change”. This summarize the philosophy of how we are going to work.

Meet the teacher : Paul Linden

Paul Linden is one of the acknowledged pioneers of somatics and the creator of the Being in Movement© Mind-body education. A 6th Dan Aikido Black Belt and Feldenkrais instructor. He is the author of many books and training videos about applications of body awareness training in various areas of life. He has been teaching internationally. Very pragmatic, witty and incredibly human. Paul has a talent for crafting « live » simple,  pertinent and fun learning protocols in movement whereby participants can test their habitual patterns and ways to operate, especially under pressure, and rewire them towards greater ease & efficiency.

Benefits

« I have been practicing body work for 45 years, and in the last few years, I have found  a new simplicity. Now in two minutes, I can teach crucial elements that took me 40 years to learn. It is counter-intuitive at best, but softening and opening the body leads to greater strength and self-control and control of what happens around one. Creating a mind-body state of calm alertness and compassionate power is the direct route to self-confidence, improved performance, and the ability to stay focused. »  Paul Linden (written in 2016)

Testimonials

“Paul is truly a master at teaching others how to embody and harmoniously experience their own power and compassion. The depth, clarity, and wisdom of his work are a rare find. The depth of the experience I had in Paul’s workshop was simply too extraordinary for me to convey in words – the kind of thing one has to experience for oneself.” (Clinical Social Worker, USA)

“I just can’t get over how immediately effective these techniques are. This evening I taught those simple techniques to 4 people from 4 totally different backgrounds, cultures, work and family environments and the techniques were simple enough for them to coaching each other during the pro- cess. Because centering was so immediate within their bodies, so experiential, it was easy to move through the processes, stopping each time to de-brief and describe what they were feel- ing/experiencing. One participant used smiling heart to stop an emotional col- lapse she gets when certain emails come to her and she couldn’t believe how simple this was.” (L.J, Business Coach, UK. Workshop participant)

“Linden’s work is absolutely essential to understanding your personal reactions to conflict. Through his work, participants learn clear and operational techniques to build self-awareness of our physiological responses to stress and conflict. This self-awareness then allows us to make different choices and see situations in completely different circumstances. I highly recommend that anyone who works in high-conflict or high-stress situations take this training.” (Stephen Kotev – Conflict Resolution Consultant and Adjunct Professor of Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University)

Language

The seminar takes place in English. We can provide some help for translation of key terms to French if needed. Full translation won’t be provided.

Place of the workshop

The workshop is going to take place in our dojo, Tenshi no Dojo, rue des Anges in Liège. Our dojo is located in the botanic garden area of Liege, a beautiful, calm and easily accessible area of Liege. We are also a 12″ minutes walk from the Liège-Guillemins, the main train station in Liège.

Liège (Luik, Lüttich) is centrally located in Europe (30 min. from Aachen or Maastricht and 2h10 from Paris by high speed train. There are several direct trains from Paris to Liege and back so you don’t even need to change in Brussels). Liege is well deserved by public transport, motorways and airports. Liège is located 1h15 from Brussels Airport or Brussels Chalerloi.

Please see our information page on accomodation in Liège to let you choose a suitable place.

Schedule

To be determined.

Prices

We only intend to cover our costs for this seminar and to make it possible for Paul Linden to come and give his teaching in Belgium. Due to the personalised teaching, almost private class we want to create for this workshop and the size of the dojo, we limit the size of the group to maximum twelve participants. We expect to be less than that though. You are sure to get personalised coaching from Paul Linden very often during the workshop. Please be sure to book on time !

Early bird and regular prices

• Foundation 1 day
  • 300 euro per person (early bird)
  • 275 euro (early bird if you register with another person *)
  • 350 euro per person (regular price)
• 2 days BIM workshop :
  • 525 euro per person (early bird)
  • 450 euro per person (early bird if you register with another person *)
  • 600 euro per person

The price includes the workshop fee and coffee-tea pastries breaks.

* Partner rebate: You can get this very interesting partner rebate if you register with a practice partner / colleague / friend.

We also offer other registration options, please see all prices in the online registration form below.

Information

If you need more information, please e-mail us here:

Registration

Please use the online registration form here :

Online registration form