"I came to theory because I was desperate, wanting to comprehend- wanting to grasp what was happening around and within me. Most importantly, I wanted to make the hurt go away. I saw in theory then a location for healing." 

-bell hooks

  

 

WHAT IS A POLITICIZED SOMATICS PRACTICE GROUP?

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• An immersive and experiential pedagogy focusing on how social norms and conditioning shape our bodies and beliefs

• Somatic tools and practices for aligning our embodied actions with our values and ideals. 

• We will explore somatic lineage and theory in depth, moving and feeling with key texts, letting our bodies learn and our minds expand.   

• Optional texts and accompanying somatic practices will be assigned each week for deeper exploration

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WHAT YOU WILL WALK AWAY WITH..

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• a deeper sense of what has shaped you, and how those stories live in your muscles and tissues

• practices to shift out of reactive states and live in alignment with your values

• practices for accessing embodied imagination

• a deeper understanding of trauma theory and collective healing practices

• a felt sense of how embodiment theory and practice relates to social change, cultural production, and collective transformation

• access to a wider emotional range and more aliveness

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WHY THEORY?

 

If you know me, you probably know that I love theory. I love books and podcasts and philosophies of embodiment. I love excavations that dig into the depths of cultural histories and social phenomenons to better understand how we got here and map where we are going. We are shaped by the stories we are told. It's important to me to know what those stories are and where the entry points exist for us to enter with agency and re-shape the narratives.

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When I was a kid, I was driven all the way across town every morning and dropped off at a Catholic school where I was told a specific set of stories about the world and who I am. I was raised by a very conservative family who handed down another set of stories. I believed them all. 

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When I left my hometown I discovered that there were other stories that other people were living by and I began to wonder about this thing called Truth that I was supposed to believe in. Through a long liberatory process of digging into post-ideological thought and histories of knowledge I learned that my experience was situated in a particular place in the world, and I also learned how deeply these experiences and beliefs had dug their way into my nervous system and muscles and reflex patterns and shaped who I was. 

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This course will draw from various philosophies of embodiment including 

new materialisms, phenomenology, affect studies, and the post-structuralist lineage of Spinoza, Deleuze, and Foucault, while centering black and queer scholarship.  The intention is not to learn new information as much as it is to be changed, to transform our ways of thinking, being, and doing for the sake of transforming the world around us. To me theory and philosophy is about becoming. Who do you want to become? 

 

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WHAT NOT TO EXPECT

 

-The focus of this course is specific to the theories that help us better understand ourselves and activate our collective and political imagination. We will not be debating politics or developing a left-brained political analysis. We will be working through our bodies to free the constrictions that keep up moving towards new social imaginaries and collective liberation. 

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-We will be working within the realm of personal and collective trauma healing, but this group is not an adequate substitute for therapy.  

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GROUP DETAILS

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Wednesdays at 5pm EST beginning June 1st  

 

Facilitated by Zoë (she/her), a white queer trans woman living in Gainesville, FL on Seminole Land. Zoë is a bodyworker, somatic coach (Strozzi/generative somatics) and holds an MA in Embodiment Studies from Goddard College. 

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-On Zoom, sessions are 1.5 hrs weekly 

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-$600 sliding scale

payment plans and solidarity fund available (more info below) 

 

 

Registration Deadline is May 25th

A deposit off $100 is due once your registration is accepted, which will be subtracted from the course cost. You will receive an email with details once you register. Email Zoë with any questions: Thirdspace.Somatics@gmail.com

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