Group Somatic Movement Therapy

About Exploring Multiple Identities through Movement:

It is a three hours long somatic movement workshop utilizing Laban/Bartenieff Movement Studies (LBMS). Starting 2022, I began to offer it for both non-adoptees and transracial adoptees. I facilitate the meaning-making process through various activities including writing, movement exploration, creating phrase, observation, and discussion. Polarity and integration are the center of the concepts in this workshop. Participants will experience how their unconsciousness can be revealed through movement exploration. They can gain a sense of integration by acknowledging their multiple identities and discovering associated movement qualities with particular identities.

The workshop follows this order (usually):

introduction, non-verbal check-in, explore 6 body connectivities in walk, observe movement sequence, learn theoretical understanding of Body Connectivity in LBMS, exploring identities with associated movement qualities, learn theoretical background of the combination between Body-Half in LBMS and Brain Lateralization in Neuroscience, exploring Shape in LBMS with partner, share in a large group, and ends with discussion and integration.

Feedback from participants:

From previous transracial adoptee participants:

  • unique and meaningful to receive therapeutic workshops from culturally embodied Korean female facilitator
  • supportive of participants’ own pace, needs, and meaning-making process

From provious non-adoptee participants in South Korea:

  • “I am a professional dancer. But it is the first time to notice how clearly the words match with movement qualities.”
  • “Working with partner and observing other people’s phrase were so valuable because I found more possibilities in my perception. I learned that I had such fixed ideas of certain things. It also helped me to reflect where I am at in my life. I learned various associations and qualities with same movement through the observation process.”
  • “Verbalizing my associated movement qualities had therapeutic effect.”

Exploring Multiple Identities through Movement
for Adoptees of Color via BUFU support group

About Mihyun Lee:

She is a Korean-domestic adoptee who grew up in South Korea and studied Korean dance. In 2009, she moved to the Bay Area, USA, and studied Counseling Psychology with a concentration in Somatic Psychology. Through her study in Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analysis 2021-2022, she discovered how her multiple identities are associated with specific movement qualities. After she discovered such contrasts live in her body and psychology, she felt the need for integration and developed her practice from that discovery. She serves individuals and couples in Berkeley as well as remote clients.

Past Group Workshops:

  • WHEN: 2/17/2023, 4pm-5pm Pacific Time, US
  • WHERE: Virtual (contact Angela to receive the zoom link)
  • HOW MUCH: Free
  • FOR WHO: Adoptees of Color
  • WHEN: 2/10/2023, Friday 6-9pm (6-6:30 registration and warm-up, 6:30-8:30 session, 8:30-9 integration and end)
  • WHERE: “Feldenkrais MOVE” 3F, 13, Eonju-ro 157-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea
  • HOW MUCH: $5 (5,000 won)
  • FOR WHO: Adoptees living in South Korea
  • WHEN: 11/15/2022, 11:30-1pm
  • WHERE: Virtual
  • HOW MUCH: Free
  • FOR WHO: IEATA community
  • WHEN: 11/13/2022, 10-1pm
  • WHERE: Private Location in Berkeley. When you register you will get a confirmation email with the address.
  • HOW MUCH: $30
  • FOR WHO: anyone who appreciates deepening their understanding of self through movement exploration
  • WHEN: 11/01/2022, 12-1pm
  • WHERE: Virtual
  • HOW MUCH: Free
  • FOR WHO: Ceeya Community

update 02. 05. 2023