BRADFORD C. BENNETT, PHD
Dr. Bennett’s  formal somatic education began in 1985 when he began studying Tai Chi with Hubert H. Lui. For the next ten years Mr. Lui helped Dr. Bennett become both more relaxed and more biomechanically sound in movement.  He continued to explore methodologies to improve neuromuscular control and studied with several teachers including; Yochanon Rywerant, Ruthy Alon, Llana Rubenfeld, Charlotte Selver, Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, Dean Juhan, Gaby Yaron, and Giora Pinkas. Following a knee injury a Feldenkrais teacher referred him to Thomas Hanna. One session with Dr. Hanna convinced Dr. Bennett that Dr. Hanna was doing something quite unique and in 1990 he participated in Dr. Hanna’s first and only training in what he called Hanna Somatic Education. Dr. Bennett later became a Charter Member of the Association for Hanna Somatic Education®. 

In 1993 Dr. Bennett left his position at as a Senior Research Scientist at NASA Ames Research Center to focus on somatic education. He was soon recruited to teach at Sonoma State University and then San Francisco State University in the Dept. of Kinesiology. During these studies Dr. Bennett continued studying with H. H. Lui, combining his insights from the Western “somatic education” with his Tai Chi practice. 

In this episode we discuss:

• His background in Somatics
• Meeting Thomas Hanna
• Hanna Somatic Training Course
• Similarities of Somatics & Tai chi Chuan
  
  If you'd like to find out more about Brad's work and read his article "The Somatic Work of of Thomas Hanna, Tai Chi & Kinesiology" https://www.westeastsomatics.com
  
  

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Dr. Patricia Huston, MD, CCFP, MPH has a dual academic appointment at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Medicine in the Department of Family Medicine and the School of Epidemiology and Public Health.  She has worked as a family physician, a public health physician and a scientific editor.  She has attended meetings at the World Health Organization as an Expert Advisor, been on multiple national and international committees, and was the President of the international Council of Science Editors. She has published over 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals, including the Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine, on topics such as the care of the elderly, preventive cardiology, research and publication ethics, and the social determinants of health. Her most recent research interests are the health benefits of Tai Chi and the emerging science on fascia.

Dr. Huston's latest article, A Sedentary and Unhealthy Lifestyle Fuels Chronic Disease Progression by Changing Interstitial Cell Behaviour: A Network Analysis

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphys.2022.904107/full?&utm_source=Email_to_authors_&utm_medium=Email&utm_content=T1_11.5e1_author&utm_campaign=Email_publication&field=&journalName=Frontiers_in_Physiology&id=904107

In this episode we discuss

• Dr. Huston's background in medicine
• Her practice and  interest in Vipassana meditation
• Public Health Policy & Education
• Inflammation & the microenvironment of fascia
• Treating inflammation with stillness practices
• The many benefits of Tai Chi Chuan

Remember to subscribe to the Somatic Primer Podcast for more engaging conversations. For information on our classes please visit https://somaticprimer.com/study-at-vidya-method/ where you will find links to all our courses. Please give us a 5-star rating in Apple Podcasts if you enjoy our show. Thank you for listening.

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Tom Waldron is a manual therapist, pilates instructor, Franklin Method Educator and specialist in exercise rehab. He sees and works with clients in both London and Portsmouth, UK. 

Tom has helped rehabilitate with top athletes from injury in fields such as golf, running and students from the Royal Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet School. He also teaches nationally and internationally for educational companies in the health and fitness industry. Teaching biomechanical assessments for Biomechanics Education to other educators and embodied anatomy/function with the Franklin Method.

In this episode we discuss:

• Toms background in movement and movement education
• What is the Franklin Method
• Visualization as a vehicle for movement and change
• Franklin method and Embodiment 
• Somatic Experiencing and anatomy
• Authentic teaching

I was not familiar wit the Franklin Method so I was delighted to sit down with Tom to learn more. Tom is a passionate teacher with an interesting perspective on movement. To find out more about his work please visit https://www.tomwaldronmovementtherapy.co.uk. If you enjoy this episode please give us a Five star review on Apple Podcasts as it allows us to reach more listeners. Thanks.
I hope you enjoy the episode. 

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Alexander Berzin began his study of Buddhism in 1962 at Rutgers and then Princeton University, and received his PhD in 1972 from Harvard University.Inspired by the process through which Buddhism was transmitted from one Asian civilization to another his focus has been on bridging traditional Buddhist and modern Western cultures.

Dr. Berzin was resident in India for 29 years, first as a Fulbright Scholar and then with the Translation Bureau, which he helped to found, at the Library of Tibetan Works & Archives in Dharamsala. While in India, he furthered his studies with masters from all four Tibetan Buddhist traditions; however, his main teachers have been His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Tsenzhab Serkong Rinpoche, and Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey. Practicing under their supervision, he completed the major meditation retreats of the Gelug tradition.

For nine years, he was the principal interpreter for Tsenzhab Serkong Rinpoche, accompanying him on his foreign tours and training under him to be a Buddhist teacher.  He has served as occasional interpreter for H.H. the Dalai Lama and has organized several international projects for him. 

Dr. Berzin has published 17 books, including Taking the Kalachakra Initiation, and The Gelug-Kagyu Tradition of Mahamudra. At the end of 1998, Dr. Berzin returned to the West and created the “Berzin Archives”. There, with the encouragement of H. H. the Dalai Lama, he set out to make this material freely available to the world on the Internet, in as many languages as possible.

In this episode Dr. Berzin shares:

• How he first was introduced to Buddhism
• His days at University
• His first trip and traveled in India and Nepal
• Core ideas of Buddhist philosophy 
• Buddhism is a living tradition
• How to approach dharma study
  
  This was a very special episode. We are very fortune to have Dr. Berzin on the show and share his fantastic journey and teachings with us. I hope you enjoy the show.
  
  To find out more please visit https://studybuddhism.com
  If you enjoy the program please give us a five star rating on Apple Podcasts. Thanks!

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Sam F.S. Chin is the co-founder of the art, and the current gate keeper of the I Liq Chuan / Zhong Xin Dao system.

Master Sam Chin grew up in Malaysia and trained martial arts since childhood with his father. He lived at the Chuang Yen Monastery in New York for the 10 years studying many different styles of Buddhism. 

In the ten years of working and teaching at the Chuang Yen Monastery, Master Sam Chin was profoundly influenced by Buddhist meditation and in particular meditation  on  mindfulness and awareness. Combining mindfulness and awareness with the traditional martial art his father had taught him Master Chin developed what would become I Liq Chuan.

I Liq Chuan is the art of cultivating consciousness based on Tai Chi and Chan (Zen) principles of non-assertion, non-resistance, harmony of yin and yang, oneness and the present moment.

Sam Chin:
https://iliqchuan.com/

If you'd like to know more about Somatic Primer please visit: https://somaticprimer.com

Please give us a 5 star rating on Apple Podcasts if you enjoy the episodes. 

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Scott Park Phillips teaches traditional Chinese Martial Arts in a non-traditional way. His goal is to access the original intent of the creators of Chinese Internal Martial Arts to get at the core of their inspiration. He is the author of two books: Possible Origins, Chinese Martial Arts, Theater and Religion, And, Tai Chi, Baguazhang and The Golden Elixir, Internal Martial Arts Before the Boxer Uprising. He lives in Boulder, Colorado and has been teaching for over 30 years.

At the age ten Scott Park Phillips began studying the traditional opera style of Northern Shaolin with Bing Gong a noted disciple of Kuo Lien-ying, one of the first teachers of Chinese Martial Arts in the West. He was a disciple of the late Daoist master Liu Ming who transmitted the Orthodox Daoist methods of the Golden Elixir (Jindan), Non-conceptual Meditation (Zuowang), Daoyin (emptying and transforming), and Dreaming. 

Scott first studied improvisational theater at age fifteen with the legendary Keith Johnstone. In his twenties, performing modern Dance, Scott was drawn to apprentice in the exquisite high arts of North Indian Dance with Pandit Chitresh Das, and Congolese Dance with Malonga Casquelourd. Living in San Francisco during the height of the ethnic dance explosion, he danced with masters of traditions from all over the world.

In this Episode we discuss:

• History of Daoyin
• History of Wester Somatics
• Theater & The Martial Arts in China
• Ritual in Traditional Chinese Martial Arts
• The Golden Elixir
• Pedagogy in Traditional Chinese Arts

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HOLLY SWEENEY-HILLMAN is a TTM faculty, Anatomy and Biomechanics, academic coordinator and Co-Director of the Teachers Academy USA.  Holly has a degree in dance and graphic arts from The University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, VA and a Masters degree in orthopedic biomechanics from New York University. She is a certified Alexander Technique teacher and practicing CranioSacral therapist. 

 She has written numerous articles on the biomechanics of tai chi for the International Journal of Tai Chi Chuan. In addition to tai chi, she practices the movement arts of horse riding and recurve bow archery. She was inducted in 2015 as a direct disciple of Grandmaster Yang Jun, receiving the name Yang Yahui. She currently resides and teaches tai chi in New Jersey.

In this episode we discuss:

• Her background in dance and biomechanics
• Alexander Technique and the nervous system
• Tai Chi Chuan and fascia
• Salutogenesis & how to cultivate it through movement 
• Fibroblasts & fascia healing 
• How different types of movements affects fascia differently

To learn more about Holly please visit https://taichistrong.com.

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Lawrence Gold is a Hanna Somatic Educator. Initially Lawrence begin studying physical therapy before being drawn to the work of Ida Rolf following an injury. Impressed with the structural integration he was taught he wanted to find out more and eventually began studying Rolfing with Emmet Hutchins, Ida Rolf's first appointed teacher.

He was part of the first and only Hanna Somatic Education Training Course taught by Thomas Hanna. Having completed the course he was asked to continue on as an instructor on the Hanna Somatic Education Training course in Novato California. 

In this episode we discuss:

• How he discovered somatics
• Ida Rolf's structural integration
• Pandiculation 
• The first Hanna Somatic Education Training Course and his Experience on it
• The etymology and meaning of Somatics
• Tetraseed awareness practice
• Tension patters

Lawrence  has created an advanced handbook of practice for professional practitioners and continues to develop the technique.
Links:
Lawrence Gold's Website: http://somatics.com
Pandiculation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUHwNbR7qYY
Thomas Hanna's "Clinical Somatic Education" article: https://somatics.com/hannart.htm

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Ryan is a Feldenkrais teacher from Texas now living in Mexico. He’s been studying and teaching the method since the early 2000’s. He is a long time meditation practitioner having studied with Thích Nhất Hạnh, the Vietnamese monk who founded Plum Village.  Ryan uses Feldenkrais as a way to develop awareness. He uses the sensory motor learning process as a way help students organize their physical movements to discover their own ease and freedom.  

In this episode we discuss:

• How he discovered Feldenkrais
• His background in meditation
• His time as an academic
• The importance of embodiment 
• Pros and cons of certification programs
• The similarities of various somatic modalities 

You can visit Ryan's website ryannagy.com where he publishes his Feldenkrais lessons and an insightful blog about the work and history of the method.

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On this episode I had the pleasure to discuss the Alexander Technique with Jeando Masoero. Jeando is a master teacher and translator of F.M. Alexander's work, having translated all of Alexander's books into French. While working on these translations Jeando discovered that Alexander had studied and was a teacher of the Delsarte Method of Movement which is remarkably similar to Alexander's early approach to his Technique. Realizing this connection Jeando focused on this early work and created his own version of the Alexander Technique the Initial Alexander Technique.

His special interests are:
1.teaching Conscious Control of the postural mechanism,
2.studying self-speech (instructions or orders) as a means to develop the executive functions and the higher mental functions,
3.experimenting how using a conception (a psycho-mechanical representation) can change the use of the self.

 If you’d like to find about Jeando you can visit https://www.initial-alexandertechnique.org 

In this episode we discuss

• Why his method is challenging for new practitioners 
• How habits play a role in the use of the self
• A new way of moving through directing the bones
• Creating experiments to discover new movements
• How the hyoid bone affects breathing and the use of the thorax

Remember to subscribe to the Somatic Primer Podcast  for more engaging conversations. Please give us a 5-star rating in Apple Podcasts if you enjoy our show. You can find out more about Jeando  on our website somaticprimer.com. Thank you!

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