 Jan Trewartha, founder and director of The Fascia Hub, the British Fascia Symposium, and Body in Harmony Training (focusing on light touch work, especially working with scars and adhesions) came to deliver a workshop for the ABMT 9th November 2024. Her knowledge is extensive and a powerful complement to the working knowledge of Biodynamic Massage. We have a lot to learn from her work and experience. Jan has been in healthcare since 1979, originally training as a State Registered Nurse in the Queen Alexandra Royal Army Nursing Corps (QARANC), working at grass roots level with patients on the wards and spending time in the operating theatre; a superb if non-deliberate foundation for her future career. In 1988 Jan took time out to go travelling for three years, where her life was to dramatically change direction. Trained by a blind massage therapist to really ‘feel’ the body led to a lifetime passion for body work. Her work now is the culmination of many years of training and experience in different disciplines. She has been in practice since 1992 where her clients have been willing guinea pigs in her ongoing development of light touch therapy work. Jan has been teaching since 1993, and in 2014 became the first accredited UK teacher in Sharon Wheeler’s ScarWork. Having had surgery in Great Ormond St. Hospital as a young child, resulting in major scarring, Jan experienced great relief and lightness after being treated by Sharon Wheeler; this has given her an awareness of the effect of adhesions and empathy with her clients. Apart from a missionary zeal for spreading the word about the effects of scarring on the body, Jan’s passions are for travelling and for anything that gets her outdoors and moving. Jan's book is available here: uk.singingdragon.com/collections/author-jan-trewartha-pid-300246 Find out more about training with Jan for "Sharon Wheeler's ScarWork", "Fascial Unwinding and Energy Awareness", and "Specialist training working with abdominal and pelvic scars" here: www.bodyinharmony.org.uk And Jan's Fascia Hub can be found here: https://thefasciahub.com/ By Ruthie Baigent, 22nd November 2024
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The ABMT's Annual General Meeting will be held at the Centre for Counselling and Psychotherapy Education, Beauchamp Lodge, 2 Warwick Crescent, London W2 6NE. The nearest tubes to the venue are Warwick Avenue (Bakerloo Line) or Paddington.
As usual, the Meeting will run from 11.00 am until 1.00 pm. The Afternoon Session will be from 2.00 pm until 4.00/4.30 pm. Our Speaker this year will be Jan Trewartha, who came a few years ago to talk about and demonstrate her Scarwork techniques. Jan is the founder and director of The Fascia Hub and the British Fascia Symposium. She also runs Body in Harmony Training, focusing on light touch work, especially working with scars and adhesions. Jan will be presenting a session which revisits this work and its alignment and relationship with Biodynamic Massage. The Session will be in person and also on-line. Please let me know ([email protected]) if you would like to attend, and whether you will need a Zoom link. The event is free to members, and £20 to non-members. There is some further information about Jan, below. I'm sure it will be a very interesting. Our annual Spring Meeting will be held today, Saturday 18th May 2024, at the Clayton Hotel, 27-29 Station Road, Cambridge CB1 2FB. The committee meeting, open to all ABMT members, will run, as usual, from 11.00 am to 1pm, and the Afternoon Session from 2 to 4pm. The whole of the day's events will be available on-line so if you would like to participate in this way, please let me know.
The Afternoon Session will be open to non-members. Members are free, £20 for non-members. Our Speaker for the Afternoon Session this year will be Professor Helen Payne. Here is some preliminary information that Helen as sent us about the workshop: This workshop will provide a brief background to The BodyMind Approach for supporting people experiencing medically unexplained symptoms (with labels such as IBS, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia etc.) for which all tests and scans come back normal. There will be open discussion and opportunities to engage in some experiential learning practices. welldoing.org/article/abmt-event-support-people-medically-unexplained-symptoms  I sense the first signs of Spring emerging in our Wintery environment and I hope you can too!
Our annual Spring Meeting will be held on Saturday 18th May 2024 at the Clayton Hotel, 27-29 Station Road, Cambridge CB1 2FB. The committee meeting, open to all ABMT members, will run, as usual, from 11.00 am to 1pm, and the Afternoon Session from 2 to 4pm. The whole of the day's events will be available on-line so if you would like to participate in this way, please let me know. The Afternoon Session will be open to non-members. Members are free, £20 for non-members. Our Speaker for the Afternoon Session this year will be Professor Helen Payne. Here is some preliminary information that Helen as sent us about the workshop: This workshop will provide a brief background to The BodyMind Approach for supporting people experiencing medically unexplained symptoms (with labels such as IBS, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia etc.) for which all tests and scans come back normal. There will be open discussion and opportunities to engage in some experiential learning practices.  I've literally just come away from our ABMT autumn meeting with Sue Frazer which explored trauma and how to work with trauma.
The session started with a sharing of what we thought trauma was and I thought it was helpful for Sue to use the definitions in Babette Rothchild’s book, The Body Remembers, to distinguish between different types of trauma:
 Our Afternoon Session for members will be held on 4th November between 2pm and 4 pm at the Clayton Hotel, Station Road, Cambridge CB1 2FB. This workshop will be facilitated by psychotherapist and trainer, Sue Frazer, and aims to inform and explore further learning around trauma and massage. Many therapies both at complementary and psychotherapeutic level offer support for trauma recovery. Trauma is so often both explicitly and inexplicitly present in clients seeking help through therapy; the desire for deeper understanding of what shape trauma recovery takes, seems to be rising powerfully in the zeitgeist. Sue aims to update us in terms of content now taught on the biodynamic massage foundation course at Cambridge, and also to facilitate discussion among practitioners around what this work means for us: When and how touch can support recovery from post-traumatic stress, for example, and conversely when it may not be helpful for sufferers of post-traumatic stress disorder and complex trauma. This is a really big area and I would encourage you to come along if you can; there is much to be gained in terms of contacting and deepening awareness of the wider therapeutic picture. Could you let me know whether you can come, either in person or on-line: [email protected]  The ABMT will be holding a workshop on Saturday 15th April at the Gestalt Centre, 15-23 St Pancras Way, London NW1 0PT. The session runs from 2pm – 4pm and will be facilitated by Gemma Ireland, who will encourage us to explore how we can deepen our understanding of working in the aura in biodynamic massage. Gemma is a biodynamic psychotherapist and trainer with many years’ experience, having trained initially with Gerda Boyesen. This workshop will be rich and informative in terms of learning; we aim to explore working with the aura being both in contact and outside the body; how it is possible to be in both places together working with the energy field.
For logistical reasons, we probably won’t be working on massage tables, so attendees are being asked to bring yoga mats, blankets etc; Gemma also says this work can also be explored sitting in chairs. This event is free to members of ABMT, and we are asking for a contribution of £20 for non-members. Please could you RSVP to Lindsey Nicholas: [email protected], if you would like to attend.  Led by Richard Parker for the ABMT 22nd October 2022
Richard hosted and led us in a two hour workshop which was attended in person in Cambridge, and online. This workshop took place in the afternoon of our ABMT Autumn meeting, 22nd October 2022. It was free to attend and open to non-members. Most striking for us as biodynamic bodywork and massage therapists, were the commonalities between contact improvisation and the methods we use for connecting in therapeutic work. Richard guided us in techniques which used “reaching” to make contact, and we were guided to a place of being present with ourselves and the other, while we were working with a partner. We were told to be observant of the breath, and the whole being, of ourselves and our partner. Richard told us to “see what was there” and that we were “seeing” though the touch. This is very much how we feel as biodynamic massage therapists, seeing or listening with our hands, as well as the rest of our senses.  This CPD Session with dance practitioner, Richard Parker, will be held on Saturday, 22nd October 2022 from 2pm to 4 pm at the Gestalt Centre, London NW1 0PT. "An opportunity to explore the relational qualities of touch within a creative and dance-based practice called Contact Improvisation. Contact Improvisation is an embodied, meditative and profoundly connecting dance practice. It works with the principle of how we listen and communicate our intentions of co-creative movement through touch by awakening our whole body into tactile listening and presence. Within this workshop, we'll create a safe and playful container, using easy-to-follow exercises and movements to creatively explore some of the fundamental principles of how two or more bodies can move together as one within a spontaneously unfolding improvised contact dance. Richard Parker is passionate about the relational and profoundly human experience that can be revealed through Contact Improvisation (CI). He has been developing his skills and knowledge as a Contact Improvisation (CI) dancer since 2006. Over the years he has extensively trained with many internationally renowned teachers within CI including Karen Nelson, Lisa Nelson, KJ Holmes, Nita Little, Andrew Harwood, Ray Chung & Martin Keogh. Since 2011 he has shared his teaching of CI within Professional, Educational, Festival & Community Organisations as well as organised his own festivals, Retreats and Camps." This event is open to members and non-members of ABMT. Please contact [email protected] if you would like to attend.  The ABMT is holding its annual Spring meeting on Saturday 14th May 2022 at Wesley Methodist Church, Cambridge CB1 1LG. We very much hope you can join us, either in person, or on-line.
Our morning Meeting will begin at 11.00 am. You are welcome to join this session where we discuss ABMT business and any other ideas that arise. In the Afternoon (2pm – 4.30 pm) we are planning to run a practical ad hoc workshop revisiting biodynamic practice. Sue Frazer has kindly agreed to lead this and we will have massage tables up for demonstrations and practice. How this session will run may depend on what issues, ideas and impulses arise in those of you attending! Sue is happy to work spontaneously with you in this and I think this will enable an exciting and creative spirit to inform the workshop. The Session is open to non-members (but only registered biodynamic massage therapists) as well as Members, but tickets are limited so please RSVP me before the event if you are intending to be there in person, either for the morning or the afternoon. You are also welcome to attend on-line if you cannot be there in person. If you are planning to only attend on-line, please register at the link below; https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/abmt-spring-meeting-tickets-330421508627 If you have any other queries about the event, please do get in touch: [email protected]. Otherwise we very much look forward to seeing as many of you there as can make it. Written by: Lindsey Nicholas, Chair, ABMT |
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