Health & Safety Regulations & Guidelines

Growth, transformation & healing (actively supporting positive change)

Ethical guidelines & Regulations

It is expected that all SMDT members will adhere to the following health & safety guidelines:

All association members are required to;

·        Complete or update an Emergency First Aid at Work Course (EFAW)

·        Undergo a CRB check (N.B. All criminal convictions must be declared before registration)

·        Have valid insurance cover for practicing

·        Attend one top-up training a year (CPT)

·        Obtain on-going supervision, and seek out extra supervisory support when needed

Considerations for work environments and client documentation.

·        Work spaces must be safe & clean, with appropriate flooring and heating

·        Relevant risk assessments need to be completed before sessions

·        A data protection form must be completed and signed, prior to working with a client. (available from UKSMDT)

·        A COVID-19 waiver form must be completed and signed, prior to working with a client (available from UKSMDT)

·        A medical history form must be completed before working with a client (available from UKSMDT)

·        A consent form to offer touch within sessions must be completed and signed, prior to working with the client (available from UKSMDT)

· 

SMDT’s offer their work in a non-judgemental safe (heart-centred) environment. To register as a SMDT you must be offering one-on-on-sessions, as well as in community groups.  SMDT’s,

• Work with clients one-on-one, as well as in community groups. 
• Have completed a two-year training in a somatic movement/dance modality, focusing on supporting change in whole psyche.
• Intentionally craft and offer movement processes that support positive change in the whole person’s psyche (psyche in this context often means body, mind, spirit and soul – or body-mind)
• Intentionally craft movement processes that offer the opportunity for reflection, contemplation, growth and transformation (positive change)
• Facilitate movement processes that support transformation and healing (healing in this context does not mean the recovery from disease or illness, but rather incremental shifts in one’s psyche towards integration and wholeness (however small).
• Do not diagnose health conditions, but rather share self-regulatory processes that support health and wellbeing  

SMDT's share Movement/dance processes that;

·        Integrate the body/mind through conscious awareness in movement

·        Help people re-connect to their sensory-motor feedback loop (sensing, feeling, perceiving, reflecting, and moving consciously)

·        Explore somatic movement fundamentals:  gravity, weight, breath, mass, space and time

·        Balance, synthesize and integrate polarities such as: inhalation/exhalation, sympathetic/ parasympathetic, structure/fluidity, high/low, left/right, up/down, centripetal/centrifugal etc.

·        Integrate unconscious contents into awareness, supporting growth in the soul’s (psyche) journey 

·        Create a balance between rest (slow-time afferent sensing) and conscious action (efferent motor expression), supporting the nervous system to balance

·        Utilise hands-on bodywork (touch) to release sympathetic holding in the tissues, enhance flow, develop imaginal movement range, and explore new movement articulations

·        Stimulate, improve, and expand one’s movement range, such the exploration of different qualities, rhythms, tempos, directions, planes of action, energies, and spatiality

·        Balance asymmetries, release tension and support easeful posture

·        Explore one’s cultural heritage, ethnic background and life experience

·        Utilise integrative processes that enable reflection, contemplation & cognition after moving/dancing

It is expected that all SMDT members will adhere to the following ethical guidelines:

All association members will;

·        Exhibit their certificate at their place of work and/or on their website

·        Take progression and reflective notes pertaining to each client and session

·        Work within data protection laws

·        Protect client confidentiality, unless a safeguarding necessitates disclosure

·        Have the option to withdraw from working with a client in the interest of safety

·        Not discriminate against age, disability, ethnicity, gender or sexuality

·        Obtain on-going supervision, and seek out extra supervisory support when needed

·     Do not diagnose health conditions, but rather share self-regulatory processes that support health and wellbeing  

·        Clearly reference and acknowledge sources, when sharing somatic movement materials and practices in public talks, thesis and publication

Sensory-perceptual motor expression

Resting, releasing, easing and softening

Hands-on, Touch and bodywork

SMDT’s may offer processes and practices that:

·        Connect to their sensory-motor feedback loop (through sensing, feeling, perceiving, and moving consciously)

·        Support the development of sensory-perceptual movement awareness

·        Explore interoception, proprioception and kinaesthetic intelligence

·        Explore interoceptive awareness, reducing exteroceptive overwhelm, in order to ease the nervous system

·        Explore experiential anatomy and physiology, uniquely blending objective knowledge with subjective experience (first-person sensory-perceptual experience of the living body)

·        Facilitate a balance between resting (afferent sensing) and action (efferent motor expression)

SMDT’s offer processes and practices that:

·        Release and ease the myofascial tissues; supporting the reduction of sympathetic arousal, inviting parasympathetic release, softening tissue tonus and releasing emotional holding

·        Creatively explore the fluid nature of the human organism, supporting the free flow of fluids through tissues

·        Support breath awareness and cardio-ception (heart-sensing), inviting the vagus nerve into a state of health

·        Release restrictions, tension and stress in living tissues, via inviting free-flowing movement patterns, as well as touch and bodywork

·        Support the fascia into a state of health, exploring bio-tensegrity

·        Use gravity as a source for change; using ground to release, rest, softening joints, letting go of structure

SMDT’s utilise touch and bodywork processes in order to:

·        Teach anatomy and physiology through subjective experience and objective knowledge

·        Reconnect participants to their sensory-motor feedback loop

·        Enhance afferent sensing and conscious efferent motor expression

·        Bring awareness to living tissues and body systems that are often beneath consciousness

·        Support skeletal-muscular alignment

·        Balance asymmetries, releasing stress and strain, and supporting easeful posture

·        Support anatomical differentiation and movement integration

·        Support fascial release

·        Release habituated patterns of neuromuscular holding and support movement fluidity

·        Enhance moment-by-moment breath awareness and cardio-ception, reducing sympathetic arousal, and integrating mind and body

·        Calm and balance the nervous system (reduce sympathetic arousal and support parasympathetic ease)

·        Connect with Self, others, and the community group through the nonverbal language of touch, dance and movement

·        Support expressivity, creativity and the imagination-in-movement

·        Support imaginative sensory-perceptual movement pathways, inviting the embodied imagination to arise

Movement & the imagination  

Movement fundamentals and development

Body-mind-spirit and soul and nature

SMDT’s may offer processes and practices that:

·        Explore the relationship between sensation, emotion, image, symbol, impressions, and the embodied imagination

·        Explore the imagination-in-movement as the bridge to the soul: a unique process where unconscious contents can be integrated into symbolic form through imaginal expression

·        Work in a dyad, exploring the witness/mover container

·        Explore the transpersonal as a vital source of knowledge and connection

·        Offer a non-judgemental environment and heart-centred co-regularly space

SMDT’s may offer processes and practices that:

·        Explore ontogenetic and phylogenetic developmental movement patterns 

·        Explore somatic movement fundamentals such as:  gravity, weight, mass, space, time, breath

·        Explore different rhythms, qualities, directions, energies, forces, and planes of action

·        Explore the differentiation and integration of body parts

·        Explore free-improvisation, supporting fascial fluidity, skeletal-muscular dexterity, spatial awareness and movement range

·        Explore movement polarities: parasympathetic/sympathetic, centrifugal/centipedal, inspiration/expiration, up/down, high/low, left/right, direct/non-directional, inhalation and exhalation etc  

SMDT’s may offer processes and practices that:

·        Are rooted in self-regulation, co-regulation and transpersonal awareness

·        Explore the experiential study of presence (being in the present moment)

·        Explore the integration of mind, body and spirit, through breath awareness and the imagination as the bridge to the soul

·        Explore the joy of movement and kinaesthetic intelligence  

·        Explore the intelligence of the living body, sensing source energy

·        Explore consciousness, developed through sensory-perceptual movement awareness, breath awareness, and subjectively directing and investigating the body-mind relationship 

·        Explore somatic movement/dance meditations

·        Explore body as nature, developing an understanding of our connection to a wider ecosystem

·        Offer processes of digestion, reflection and integration after moving/dancing

Health & Safety Guidelines

Growth, reflection and healing

Ethical guidelines

It is expected that all SMDS members will adhere to the following health & safety guidelines:

All association members are required to;

·        Complete or update an Emergency First Aid at Work Course (EFAW)

·        Undergo a CRB check (N.B. All criminal convictions must be declared before registration)

·        Have valid insurance cover for practicing

·        Attend one top-up training a year (CPT)

·        Obtain on-going supervision, and seek out extra supervisory support when needed

Considerations for work environments and client documentation.

·        Work spaces must be safe & clean, with appropriate flooring and heating

·        Relevant risk assessments need to be completed before sessions

·        A data protection form must be completed and signed, prior to working with a client. (available from UKSMDT)

·        A COVID-19 waiver form must be completed and signed, prior to working with a client (available from UKSMDT)

·        A medical history form must be completed before working with a client (available from UKSMDT)

·        A consent form to offer touch within sessions must be completed and signed, prior to working with the client (available from UKSMDT)

SMDS’s offer offering practice that support people to,

·        Integrate the body-mind through conscious awareness in movement

·        Help people connect to their sensory-motor feedback loop (sensing, feeling, perceiving, reflecting, and moving consciously)

·        Explore somatic movement fundamentals such as:  gravity, weight, mass, breath, space and time

·        Balance, synthesize and integrate polarities: inhalation/exhalation, sympathetic/ parasympathetic ,high/low, left/right, up/down, centripetal/centrifugal etc.

·        Create a balance between rest (slow-time afferent sensing) and conscious action (efferent motor expression), supporting the nervous system to balance

·        Utilise hands-on bodywork (touch) to enhance flow, develop imaginal movement range, and explore new movement pathways and articulations

·        Stimulate, improve, and expand one’s movement range, such as exploring different qualities, rhythms, tempos, directions, planes of action, energies, and spatiality

·        Support easeful posture

·        Offer integrative processes that enable reflection, contemplation after moving/dancing

It is expected that all SMDS members will adhere to the following ethical guidelines:

All association members will;

·        Exhibit their certificate at their place of work and/or on their website

·        Not discriminate against age, disability, ethnicity, gender or sexuality

·        Work within data protection laws

·        Protect client confidentiality, unless a safeguarding necessitates disclosure

·        Have the option to withdraw from working with a client in the interest of safety

·        Obtain on-going supervision, and seek out extra supervisory support when needed

·        Clearly reference and acknowledge sources, when sharing somatic movement materials and practices in public talks, thesis and publication

Sensory-perceptual motor expression

Resting, releasing, easing and softening

Hands-on, Touch and bodywork

SMDS’s may offer processes and practices that:

·        Connect people to their sensory-motor feedback loop (through sensing, feeling, perceiving, and moving consciously)

·        Support the development of sensory-perceptual movement awareness

·        Explore interoception, proprioception, gravi-ception, and kinaesthetic intelligence

·        Explore interoceptive awareness, reducing exteroceptive overwhelm, in order to ease the nervous system

·        Explore experiential anatomy and physiology, uniquely blending objective knowledge with subjective experience (first-person sensory-perceptual experience of the living body)

·        Facilitate a balance between resting (afferent sensing) and action (efferent motor expression)

Support people to connect with their breath and diaphragm

SMDS’s offer processes and practices that:

·        Creatively explore the fluid nature of the human organism, supporting the free flow of fluids through tissues

·        Support breath awareness, inviting the vagus nerve into a state of health

·        Release restrictions, tension and stress in living tissues, via inviting free-flowing movement patterns

·        Support the fascia into a state of health, exploring bio-tensegrity

·        Use gravity as a source for change; using the ground to release, rest, and soften tissues, letting go of structure and accumulations of daily stress

SMDS’s may use touch and bodywork processes in order to:

·        Teach anatomy and physiology through subjective experience and objective knowledge

·        Reconnect participants to their sensory-motor feedback loop

·        Enhance afferent sensing and conscious efferent motor expression

·        Bring awareness to living tissues and body systems that are often beneath consciousness

·        Support skeletal-muscular alignment

·        Balance asymmetries, releasing stress and strain, and supporting easeful posture

·        Support anatomical differentiation and movement integration

·        Release habituated patterns of neuromuscular holding and support movement fluidity

·        Calm and balance the nervous system (reduce sympathetic arousal and support parasympathetic ease)

·        Connect with Self, others, and the community group through the nonverbal language of touch, dance and movement

·        Support expressivity, creativity and the imagination-in-movement

·        Support imaginative sensory-perceptual movement pathways, inviting the embodied imagination to arise

Movement & the imagination 

Movement fundamentals and development

Body-mind-spirit and soul-nature

SMDS’s may offer processes and practices that:

·        Explore the relationship between sensation, emotion, image, symbol, impressions, and the embodied imagination

·        Explore the imagination-in-movement as the bridge to the soul: a unique process where unconscious contents can be integrated into symbolic form through imaginal expression

·        Work in a dyad, exploring the witness/mover container

·        Explore the transpersonal as a vital source of knowledge and connection

·        Create a non-judgemental environment and heart-centred co-regularly space

SMDS’s may offer processes and practices that:

·        Explore developmental movement patterning  

·        Explore somatic movement fundamentals such as:  gravity, weight, mass, breath, time, space

·        Explore different rhythms, qualities, directions, energies, forces, and planes of action

·        Explore the differentiation and integration of body parts

·        Explore free-improvisation, supporting fascial fluidity, skeletal-muscular dexterity, spatial awareness and movement range

·        Explore and integrate movement polarities, such as: parasympathetic/sympathetic, inspiration/expiration, up/down, high/low, left/right, direct/non-directional, inhalation and exhalation etc  

SMDS’s may offer processes and practices that:

·        Explore the joy of movement and kinaesthetic intelligence  

·        Explore the intelligence of the living body, sensing source energy

·        Explore consciousness, developed through sensory-perceptual movement awareness, breath awareness, and subjectively directing and investigating the body-mind relationship 

·        Explore somatic movement/dance meditations

·        Explore body and nature, developing an understanding of our connection to a wider ecosystem

·        Offer reflective processes of digestion, reflection and integration after moving/dancing