Special treatment

I had a turn with David, mostly to ask him about some legal aspects of being a 'travelling AT teacher'. In this highly restricted world it seem still advantageous to have multiple passports, but then, I still have some time before I'm probably forced to leave the country. I managed to keep directed while talking to him, and at the same time discovered new parts of my patterns while doing chair work.

I gave Alysha a table turn, and it seemed to work out quite well. It wasn't too easy to stay with myself, and the background noise in the downstairs area made it partly very difficult to combine verbal and tactile instructions.

We had a short debriefing of Jean Clark's visit, and then everyone besides the friday group went through the Dart procedures. Steven, Craig and me worked with Marigold, which turned out to intensive, informative and fun. After getting to know parts of myself better, I can now start to integrate these areas better into a whole, and Marigolds work especially around the pelvic floor offered plenty of new experiences.

I was quite amazed that her hands guided me through movements I deemed impossible, and I realised that letting go of my kneecaps involves a lot of different areas. Bending over and coming up through the front allowed me to sense my spine in new ways, and the work on the saddle helped me to redefine torso and legs.

Brainbox

I managed to turn up early enough to have a turn with Jean, which provided me with lots of new information. Jean spotted a misconception in my body map for my head, and helped me getting more aware of the real dimensions of my 'brainbox'. Although she works (as a student of Walter Carrington) quite traditional (chair and table) she stressed the teaching part of the technique - changing the thinking with new ideas and information.

I especially like the idea for swivelling back and forth on a chair: a sphere rotating along its central axis uphill (or downhill on the way back). The motion in this mental image prevents a bit the giving directions and feeling them out part that happens easily while doing chair work. I feel my ankles freeing up more, yet they still seem quite stiff.

When Jean demonstrated one of Dart's flipper exercises with me (laying sideways on the table), I became aware of the lack of ideas about the mobility of my feet. Again, being taken out of the habit (table work in semi supine) offered an interesting new perspective about the location of my joints, forward and up in a different orientation of the forward and up relative to gravity.