Pre-Congress Workshop 4 12 October (15:00 – 18:30)

Embodying our Whole Selves in our Dis-embodied Societies:The Work of Elsa Gindler through Charlotte Selver

Many of us know Elsa Gindler as the Grandmother of Somatics even though she was not involved in Body Psychotherapy/Somatic Psychotherapy, and Charlotte Selver is known as the person who offered the work at Esalen Institute and throughout the western world, thereby influencing so many burgeoning body/mind practices and psychotherapeutic/movement/exercise and educational systems. Many of the practices that are popular and successful today can trace their lineage back to Wilhelm Reich and Elsa Gindler and/or Charlotte Selver.

This experiential session will present the work which is commonly called “Sensory Awareness” or “Gindler Work”. It is the simple active practice of “being more whole” and “working with the whole person” that Gindler and Selver passed on to their students. It is mindfulness in everyday life, in everything, everyway, that can be used with clients, students, ourselves and others throughout our everyday lives.

If time allows we will also address how to use this focus as a core in psychotherapeutic sessions.

Judyth O. Weaver

Judyth O. Weaver
Ph.D. in Reichian Psychology, a Somatic Psychotherapist, certified in Somatic Experiencing, Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy, and Prenatal and Birth Therapy. She is a Gestalt therapist, a Rosen Method practitioner and senior teacher. She began studying with Charlotte Selver in 1968, and was authorized to offer Sensory Awareness in 1984. In 1971 she was authorized to teach T’ai Chi Ch’uan and in 1974 she created the t’ai chi program at Naropa Institute (now Naropa University). Judyth was professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) for over 25 years, and was co-founder of the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute and creator of its Somatic Psychology doctoral program. She maintains a private practice in Seattle, Washington and Cortes Island, B.C., and teaches internationally; since 1985 teaching regularly in Japan.