These all-too-common problems drag people down.
- Poor posture
- Osteoarthritis
- Osteopenia/Osteoporosis
- Decreasing balance
- Musculoskeletal pain: back, neck, knee, hip
- Fall risk
- Difficulty walking
- Inability to get up and down
- Injury in traditional exercise programs
Life gets increasingly hard
… when such issues go unaddressed.
Research shows that lack of movement contributes to disease, including pain, osteoarthritis, dementia, depression, and many other conditions. When it is easier to move, we move more. Quality movement matters.
Are you ready to explore quality movement through somatic learning and teaching?
Perhaps the easiest way to describe a somatic approach to health is learning from the inside out. We are born with this ability. Yet using this inborn intelligence is often missing in today’s rehab and fitness worlds, and if we are truthful, from adult experience in general.
Yet, science is important too.
Body intelligence together with cognitive intelligence defines a useable path towards function and vitality. Bones for Life® is a practical, available, and transportable somatic education approach that does just that.
Can you imagine feeling the power of standing against gravity?
Instead of gravity using you, learn to use gravity. Bones for Life develops your awareness of pressure and how it travels through your body. Through its stimulating, weight-bearing movements, you will rapidly reorganize into increasingly higher potential. Movements are taught in a variety of positions. We start in the safety of lying down, returning to sensation and finding our alignment in relationship to the floor. Then we move to supported standing, then unsupported upright and finally more dynamic balance challenges.
Join us for an immersion or teacher training
Where
Live and online using Zoom or a similar platform with access to recordings.
Scroll way down for Learning Objectives and Continuing Education information.
When
The current program started in early 2021. You can now sign up for Phase 2: The Teacher Training
With
Cynthia Allen,
Senior Trainer in Movement Intelligence, Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitionercm, and Co-creator of Integral Human Gait theory
Brian Shircliff,
Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitionercm,
Bones for Life® Teacher
Bones for Life: a movement intelligence program
Change your relationship to gravity
In this training, you will learn how to harness the power of gravity. Instead of it bringing you down, it will lift you up. Instructors Cynthia Allen and Brian Shircliff have each experienced dramatic change through this work and have witnessed incredible unfolding and growth for many others.
Deepen your inner knowing, become an expert on your own body, move with elegance, respect yourself, and navigate with power. Move the way nature intended.
The entire Bones for Life program consists of 90 fast-acting exercise processes. In this beginning segment, you will learn the first 16 processes. The safe, weight-bearing movements challenge bones to be strong and sturdy while improving balance and coordination. Created by Ruthy Alon, a somatic pioneer, and student of Moshe Feldenkrais, the work masterfully blends function, learning, and skeletal alignment.
Previous
Next
Individual Immersions
Each immersion is for your own health. All are welcome. They must be taken in order. And all three are a prerequisite for entering the Teacher Training.
All sessions are 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. EDT/New York
Immersion 1 and 2
Have already been held for the 2021/2022 year.
Immersion 3 only
with Brian Shircliff
Mondays, January 24 – February 28, 2022
You must have already taken Immersions 1 and 2 to sign up for 3.
Looking to start at the beginning? The new 2022/2023 year will begin in April.
Details and Registration will open in March, 2022
Phase 2: Teacher Certification
with Cynthia Allen
After you have finished Basic Certification for your own health, you can officially start the teacher training and begin to share the work as a Teacher-in-Training.
This training contains a 210-hour program. You will have covered 60 hours in Basic and now through classroom, mentoring, and student teaching you will finish the rest and be ready to guide others towards health and vitality.
Teacher Training is exhilerating as you learn to analyze processes, work in teams and find your teaching and speaking voice in a safe, supportive environment.
The Teacher Training is provided by Senior Trainer, Cynthia Allen
Dates: Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
June 25, July 9, 16, 23, August 13, 20, 27, September 3, 10, and October 1, 8, 15
A final, in-person week in the United States will be required. We are currently looking to secure that retreat space. Tentative dates are October 30 – November 5. Should covid still be an issue, we will finish online.
Basic Level (Immersions 1 -3) are a prerequisite to enter Teacher Training.
You must attend 75% of the training live to certify. There will also be homework, teamwork, and student teaching to be done outside of the dates listed.
Fee $2100 when paid in full.
Payment plan also available.
(travel, housing and meals for the final retreat are not included)
Hold your spot now with a $600 deposit.
The deadline to make your downpayment is January 31st.
Space is limited to 30 people.
First come, first serve.
Ruthy Alon, the creator of Bones for Life, was inspired by load-bearing, African women who do an incredibly difficult job with grace and efficiency.
They can actually carry up to 20% of their body weight on their head without requiring any additional oxygen uptake. Scientists call this “carrying a load for free.”
These women begin their training young. But there are elements of how they organize themselves between the earth and the weight on their head through their arms and torso that we can also use. You will learn to stand and walk by using gravity the way it was meant to be used.
Meet your teachers
Cynthia Allen is one of the most experienced Bones for Life trainers in the United States. She has been working in holistic practices, health care management and organizational consulting for over 35 years. She is a Certified Feldenkrais® practitioner, Senior Trainer in Movement Intelligence and Certified Bones for Life® Teacher/Trainer. Cynthia is also co-creator of Integral Human Gait theory.
In addition to teaching weekly classes and seeing clients individually, Cynthia trains and certifies Movement Intelligence teachers around the country and teaches Gait for Wild Human Potential workshops as well as other continuing education opportunities. She has a keen interest in reducing chronic pain and increasing pleasure through awareness and movement.
Brian Shircliff pioneered teaching a meditation elective and bringing meditation to the two sports he coached while a teacher at St. Xavier High School (1997-2003). With many friends, Brian founded VITALITY Cincinnati in 2010 to share holistic self-care education.
In addition to being a Bones for Life® Teacher, he has been a tai chi practitioner/teacher since 1997, yoga teacher (registered through Yoga Alliance as an E-RYT500), Healing Touch Certified Practitioner, and more recently he completed his training to become a Certified Feldenkrais® Practitioner and became an NLP Practitioner.
He is a lifelong learner.
“I greatly appreciate the opportunity to learn with Cynthia. Her clarity and comfort in teaching are amazing. The work and passion she has put into this process shines through. Ruthy Alon’s work is truly remarkable.”
Professional Learning Objectives:
- Perform movement processes that alter and enhance the organization of the rib cage and thoracic spine.
- Discover how creeping and crawling improve core strength for standing.
- Articulate the dynamic relationship between the 3 spinal curves and the extremities.
- Gain a felt sense of optimal relationships not only between body parts but also between self and environment.
- Teach others to get up and down from the floor, chair, and bed efficiently and with ease.
- Gain expertise in providing appropriate and progressive levels of challenge in a functional situation without overwhelming the system.
- Effectively coach the release of unnecessary neuromuscular holding patterns.
- Use vibratory “press and release” motions against everyday surfaces in multiple planes to enhance proprioception and joint alignment.
- Understand tenets of the Bones for Life program and discuss how they directly relate to the services of those individuals working in helping fields, specifically in the areas of education, professional competence, and self-care.
- Comprehend the value of using Bones for Life® processes to optimize and fine-tune the capacity for weight-bearing with ideal alignment of the trunk and upper and lower extremities when exercising and completing activities of daily living.
- Realize the value of “trial and error” learning in expanding strength and function while decreasing pain and injury.
- Optimize balanced neuromuscular action throughout the whole body by activating underused areas and allowing dominant groups to find a place of rest and ease.
- Access the human evolutionary potential in all aspects of body, mind, and spirit through Bones for Life processes which promote core reorganization.
Continuing Education Credits
- 20 credits through NCBTMB for massage and bodyworkers
- 20 credits for Feldenkrais Practitioners through the Feldenkrais Guild of North America
