Beginning Biodynamic Massage
(BIODM 1)
Provide massage while accessing and following biodynamic quietude.
Prerequisites: Open to all licensed health-care providers and those enrolled in a health care training school leading to state licensing.
27 CEUs | maximum 12 students
read reviews | listen to interviews
high teacher to student ratio with ample hands-on guidance
“Why I Love Biodynamic Massage” by Monica Rudestam, LAc., MSOM
What does massage look like when I connect to the most still, quiet place within a client? Can I feel this place move my body around the table, my hands over the clients skin? What does the client experience when the massage is conducted by their own inner resources, instead of the practitioner’s agenda?
Biodynamic Massage grows bodyworkers’ skills beyond treatment protocols and routines. Meet your clients fully in the present moment. Connect with quietude in the tissues as it shows you where to work, how long to stay, and when to move on. Give your clients the deeply felt experience of being touched, listened to at a profound new level. Bring a freshness and spontaneity to your practice that increases client retention and new referrals.
Biodynamic Massage allows the client’s own self-healing resources to guide the massage session. The practitioner palpates the client’s body, scanning for connective tissue densities and fascial patterning. A touch interface with these densities and patterns begins. This interface allows the inherent motility, the undulatory nature of these elements, to find a quiet, peaceful balance. These moments of quietude enable the client’s body to re-organize itself with improved health. As the body changes with the expression of health, it directs the practitioner’s hand placement and activity, delivering changes in pressure, contact and stroking pathway. The massage becomes guided by biodynamic quietude.
course highlights
- 5 warm-up styles – go beyond simply warming up the physical tissues at the start of a session, and learn how to move your entire body in concert with the recipient’s system. in biodynamic massage, we practice in a way that helps the practitioner learn how to let go of their personal preferences to meet clients where they’re at, even during a simple warm-up
- density scanning – how to locate hypertonicities relevant to your clients’ requests. these access points allow us to build a bridge connecting biodynamic quietude to the physical tissues during massage. particularly helpful for clients seeking relief from musculo-skeletal issues.
- fascial following – feel how motility in fascia can guide repetitive strokes in addition accessing biodynamic quietude. helpful for clients who are more interested in a relaxing massage experience or improved integration between body, mind and emotions
- PVS attunement – pressure (P), vector (V), and surface area contact (S) become calilbrated at access points to elicit motility and catalyze biodynamic neutrals
- spatial placement – feel how motility literally physically moves the practitioner in space to the right place, so that PVS meets the needs of the client’s system. this is the beginning of a long term process of the practitioner letting themselves be physically guided when providing biodynamic massage
- treatment cycles – how to catalyze healing by facilitating the transition from motility to neutral to motility again in the tissues. treatment cycles deepen the access to biodynamic quietude, allowing us to witness the client’s own system healing itself
- standing evaluation – when the client is standing, before treatment begins, learn how to assess where resources are already gathered and working on their behalf, so you know where to massage to address their issues.
- quietude terminology – explore and understand the vocabulary used to convey how to sense and follow biodynamic quietude
- skill progression overview – learn how biodynamic massage looks and feels different as practitioner skill levels shift from beginning to intermediate to advanced.
teachers
April Straus, LMT, LAc, MAcOM
Donna Mation, LMT
Monica Rudestam, LAc, MSOM
Todd Jackson, LMT
student feedback
What did you like most about this training?
“Being able to be vulnerable to ask questions and receive feedback & guidance.”
“Profound bodywork. Time on the table, time to practice. Gentle guidance.”
“Receiving transformative, profound bodywork.”
“The generosity of giving and receiving with peers, assistants, and instructor is connective, instructive and healing.”
“The clear communication of content along with hands-on guidance & treatment.”
“I love being able to turn off my brain and play.”
“The everything. Hands-on guidance, dept of care & love held in the space, attentive answers to all questions.”
“The individual attention to meet us where we are and the great assistants.”
“Compared to other CE’s, it was the perfect balance of giving & receiving so I didn’t feel completely drained after each 8 hour day. The material was presented in a clear way and in a TANGIBLE, useful way.”
“The opportunity to let allow my CST and massage skills to merge.”
“I really enjoyed being able to take my deep tissue practice to another level by allowing the receiver’s body to guide me rather than my will and intention.”
“I loved, loved this training and wish you offered more modules per year.”
“I love your explanations – the way you can describe a felt sense so that I can then get there.”
“Not too much ‘special sharing circle.’ The amount of actual practice and hands on assistance was fantastic. Your crowd control was respectful and dynamic. Beth and Donna are great assistants.”
“Your ability to integrate the different personalities of the LMT’s and keep the group focused on this work.”
“The almost immediate immersion into the practice. Being able to have so much time giving and receiving.”
“Love the work, the way time was organized, the amount of wonderful personal attention from you and the assistants – fabulous workshop overall.”
“Thank you all. I appreciate the amount of assistance I had during treatments + how everyone managed group dynamics.”
“Other than the chocolate? I love that it’s so experiential. I love Todd’s good-humored approach + ability to notice and accentuate everyone’s strengths.”
“Breaking free from fragmented massage + learning how to tap into a dynamic, less ‘linear’ and muscle oriented bodywork.”
“How much time we actually spent practicing. The pacing felt supportive to the learning process.”
“Todd’s concrete language invention that pointed to the specificities of the subtle nuances of this technique. The sensitivity to the whole room, the whole group as a system…for how and when to apply specific instruction/demonstration/attention.”
“I loved the caring, authentic, close-in instruction, modeling & corrections – and appreciate the supportive intention behind them.”
“Nurturing. Great energy. Thorough demonstrations – support, support support ! ”
“When I got one on one instructions from all three teachers.”
“Very hands on – not too much talk/info first.”
“The instruction was superb & the personal help while practicing was essential.”
What was the most significant moment for you personally or professionally during this workshop?
“Allowing myself to go deeper into what’s happening and being with that.”
“Learning to use my whole body and inner body to connect to my work.”
“Receiving from 2 or more people. Giving with teacher/assistant guidance.”
“When you guided me to allow the work to come from within myself rather than just my hands….to soften and trust, rather than think and accomplish.”
“Tuning into a different way of sensing/perceiving the body.”
“The final day and my final practice as practitioner. I finally could see myself doing what has been taught over the whole course.”
“Navigating my emotional release and coming out the other side with a sense of oneness, universal love and complete peace. Also, opening my heart and cradling my partner.”
“Day 1: helping me feel how I was limiting the felt-sense at my legs and bringing that awareness into my legs while working.”
“When you offered feedback which helped me orient to meet the client. It was a softness, a subtleness that was new feeling. I think the experience will help me and continue to inform my presence in the future.”
What made the biggest difference in your ability to feel and understand this work?
“The active instruction that occurs as the teaching assistants and instructor work alongside as you give and receive.”
“Receiving feedback in real time (from teacher and assistants) while I was giving bodywork.”
“Being able to ask questions and receive direct guidance through your felt sense of me, what I’m doing, very regularly, due to your attentiveness in coming around in a small group size.”
“Confirmation of my felt sense / perceptions is invaluable in my development.”
“Validation that I can trust my heart and felt sense.”
“The proficiency and heart-felt dedication of teacher and two assistants, with 10 students.”
“Having plenty of interaction with the instructors.”
“The shaking exercise, and the level of trust and confidence instilled by the class and space held for learning.”
“Getting out of my head and into my heart.”
“Feeling the instructor feeling into someone on the table.”
“The shaking exercise, session time, the handout/workbook, and of course, you and the assistants’ support.”
“Re-learning the warm-up, and understanding its power and significance more to allowing the tissues to reorganize. Further practice of staying with non-movement and watching for neutral.”
What feedback would you like to share about the assistants?
“Loving, engaged, skillful, encouraging!”
“Appreciated their openness to questions.”
“They were fantastic, warm and welcoming.”
“Their ability to assist without being intrusive was remarkable. Their vulnerability in talking about their experience with the work was very appreciated.”
“They were superb.”
“Loveliest people whose love you can feel through their hands.”
“The best assistants I’ve ever had in a workshop.”
“I loved working with her together as one with her treating someone. Very interesting and awesome experience.”
“I appreciated their tenderness and eagerness to share their love of the biodynamic practice they instill.”
“I appreciated their intuitiveness and openness very much.”
“They were both so incredibly warm, helpful and supportive.”
“Excellent support through presence, physical support, quietude, loving awareness, limited but adept words.”
“They are invaluable, kind and so helpful. They embody the work so well, which creates an experiential learning environment.”
“They were great. Nothing less than great when helping me.”
Any other feedback you’d like to share?
“It was very confronting to become a beginner again, but I gained life changing breakthroughs, so thank you.”
“When receiving bodywork, you register as sanctuary.”
“I learned so much! Thanks!”
“This is exactly what I hoped massage could be.”
“Thank you – this has been path-shifting and my gratitude runs deep.”
“The love and care was felt.”
“Todd you are a wonderful teacher. Very open, kind and genuine.”
“Much gratitude for offering this wonderful class.”
“I felt very reticent to take this course because of my personal level of pain and distraction from my practice. But I learned something much deeper than body work techniques, that has changed my feeling about the potential for healing. I feel a deep level of gratitude.”
“Thank you! This work is quite intense. No coasting for me, it seems. But I value your presence and offerings beyond measure.”
“That I feel the significance of this on a global scale. Sometimes I think, “Why aren’t people making a big deal out of this?” I guess I’m just wondering how to spread it – if you’ll speak about it on Youtube, publish work on it, or allow students to teach it.”
