Linda Hartley here brings together the wisdom and learning from nearly five decades of study, practice and teaching at the forefront of somatic movement, embodied awareness, somatic and transpersonal psychotherapy, and spiritual disciplines. The interrelationship of Body, Mind and Spirit weaves its way through the book – taking us beyond a dialogue between them to the transcendence of unitive consciousness, where an immanent or embodied spirituality is glimpsed. The book draws closely on three sources – Release Work; Body-Mind Centering; the Discipline of Authentic Movement – to show how they can inform a practice of consciously embodied movement. As well as condensing her lifetime’ s experience, Linda suggests a way to: - explore our own embodied awareness - understand the patterned impact of conception, embryological development, birth and infant development - rediscover our connection with the consciousness of the Earth and the more-than-human world - find a healthier relationship with our planetary home and the collective body - explore the relationship between the matter of body and the mystery of Spirit, through the arc of human development from conception to death.

Linda Hartley’ s career has spanned the fields of somatic dance, somatic movement education and therapy, and transpersonal somatic psychotherapy. She has worked as a therapist in private practice, as well as teaching independently and for many organisations in the UK and Europe. In 1990 she founded what would become a 3-year ISMETA Approved Training Programme in Integrative Bodywork and Movement Therapy, based on the three foundations of Body-Mind Centering, Authentic Movement and Somatic Psychology. She has written several books including the bestselling: 'Wisdom of the Body Moving'.

Preface Part 1: What is Embodiment? 1: Conscious Embodiment What Do We Mean by ‘ Embodiment’ ? Conscious Embodiment of Movement Three Moments Embodiment and Dissociation Returning Home to the Body 2: Coming Home to the Body The Integration of Body and Mind Visualisation - Somatisation - Embodiment The Moving Self and the Inner Witness 3: Cultivating Embodied Presence Stillness and Rest Breath The Language of the Body and the Language of Words Presence – letting movement be just what it is Transparency Empty/Full 4: Somatic Movement, Somatic Imagination & Authentic Movement Attention and Intention The Touch of Attention Somatic Movement and the Potential to Heal Working with Pain in the Body Somatic Imagination and Dance-Making The Discipline of Authentic Movement as Mystical Practice Healing Dance Mystical Practice Body as Sacred Vessel – Body as Prayer – Body as Offering Part 2: Embodying Spirit 5: Embryological Beginnings Movement is Life The Dance of Conception – Feminine and Masculine Inside – Outside One Becomes Many, Many Are One – contents and container Coming into Relationship – self and other Bonding and Defence 6: Emerging into Form Bringing the Outside In Heart Nervous System Digestive Tube Organic Origami Unfolding to Verticality 7: Early Imprints Grof’ s Basic Peri-Natal Matrix (BPM) Womb Time, Eternal Time - BPM 1 Paradise Lost - BPM 2 Discovering Agency - BPM 3 The Threshold between Life & Death, Joy & Anxiety - BPM 4 Reflections 8: Meeting the World Emergence and Separation from the Ground of Being Relational Consciousness Mediating Inner & Outer through the Autonomic Nervous System Holding and Being Held Part 3: Home and Ground 9: Body as Resource and Healing The Grounding of Spirit in the Body Trauma and the Upsurging of the Deep Psyche Healing through Movement and Embodied Awareness The Discipline of Authentic Movement Developmental Movement Therapy Cellular Breathing Navel Radiation Spinal Patterns Yield and Push Reach and Pull 10: Supporting Presence in Relationship Grounding Flexibility Centering Boundaries Orienting in Space Negotiating Relationship Balancing the Autonomic Nervous System Inside and Outside – the Cell Autonomic Rhythm Gestures of the Embryo Navel Radiation Pattern Deeper In and Further Out Physiological Flexion and Extension Birth The Support of Primitive Reflexes Self and Other To Summarise Part 4: Communication and Connectivity 11: Cellular Body Whispering Between Cells The Emotional Brain and Psycho-neuro-immuno-endocrinology Energetic Pathways The Cell’ s Code of Three 12: Earth Body Whispering Between Trees We are Earth Earth as Witness Dancing with Earth Consciousness From Tribe to Individual to Interbeing Climate Change as Symptom 13: Collective Body Communication and Connection Embryonic Roots of Embodied Relational Spiritual Practice Global Expressions of Embodied Relational Spiritual Practice Part 5: Endings and Beginnings 14: Transparency and the Aging Body Spirit Grows Younger as Body Ages Joyful Body, Painful Body Coming Full Circle – Witnessing the Return to Beginnings And Endings Notes References Acknowledgments Resources