Taught By: Michael J. Shea, PhD. or Valerie Gora

The fourth module introduces the gesture of embodiment during the third week of morphological development. It is during the third week that the heart begins to form and the notochord begins to form. Experiential exercises are used to stay embodied with the movement and activity of the heart and the chest.

Different practices are given to sense notochord in the spine. Students deepen into the four zones of evenly-suspended attention. Whereas, in module two and three, time was spent discerning the outside presence of primary respiration out to the horizon, in this module it is about staying embodied and learning to dance between the felt sense of an active, open heart and the snake-like movement of the notochord.

The notion of gamma hands is taught and differentiated from buoyant hands. The paradigm of the therapeutic relationship as a meeting between two midlines is introduced. During this module, the phase of ignition in the therapeutic process is introduced. The way I introduced it recently was through coordinating secondary respiration with primary respiration. Nonetheless, it is important to get the practitioner’s breathing for the sake of embodiment, as well as ignition.