The Return to Embodiment: consciousness, culture, creativity and flourishing

Deanna James is a Licensed Professional Counselor, a Certified Eating Disorder Specialist and a Registered Dance and Movement Therapist. She has worked with clients with Eating Disorders, Trauma, Mood disorders and life adjustment issues for over 15 years, incorporating the creative arts therapies, internal family systems therapy and cognitive behavioral therapies in a holistic approach to healing. Deanna obtained her Master of Arts in Dance Movement Therapy and Counseling from Columbia College Chicago and has completed level I training in the Internal Family Systems model of therapy.  She combines evidence-based approaches with creative interventions, specializing in the treatment of eating disorders, attachment and trauma-based disorders, religious trauma, body image issues and general life adjustment issues. She is a member of the International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals as well as the American Dance Movement Therapy Association. She serves on the board for the Oklahoma Eating Disorders Association.

Deanna has a passion for working with clients with eating disorders and trauma and helping them find hope and healing.

In this conversation, I am speaking with Julie Brannen.  Julie's mission is to restore, rewild, + reunite humanity with nature via the avenues of creativity, community, education, health + wellness.

Her greatest joy comes from guiding folks into an organic + compassionate practice of fiercely approaching vulnerability + embodying whole-hearted living.  Her goal is to create brave, inclusive spaces in order to allow for radiant expression, courageous liberation, + uplifting connection.

Currently, as a performing artist, she shares her self-love journey in the form of burlesque + erotic dance as persona Frann Fatale. As a somatic counselor + dance/movement therapist, she is the Founder of her own private practice Hues of Wholeness. As a trained birth doula, she supports mothers + families during pregnancy + childbirth. She also facilitates transformative festivals in the Chicago // Midwest area + hosts retreats, trainings, + immersions internationally.

Additionally, she is the Founder + “Mama Wolf” of SheWolf Sacred, an intersectional, socially responsive, artistic community dedicated to honoring the embodied Divine Feminine.

She is a Certified Reiki Master Teacher (Usui + Holy Fire), Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor, Registered Dance/Movement Therapist, with a Master of Arts in Dance/Movement Therapy + Counseling, + Graduate Laban Certificate in Movement Analysis from Columbia College Chicago.

Julie's all encompassing link : linktr.ee/onbeingjulie/

Julie's Parkinson's performance video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nHBX3C9cBw

Uptown Rhythm Festival : linktr.ee/uptownrhythmfestival/ 

To support the labor of love that is The Return to Embodiment, visit https://www.patreon.com/returntoembodiment 

Kyle Koch is a former IT software technician turned nature nerd. Since leaving the office in 2011, Kyle has dedicated his life to helping others reconnect with the natural world. He has been facilitating transformative experiences in nature for almost a decade: inspiring youth and adults to connect to their gifts through experiential play and natural curiosity. Kyle has taught nature connection skills to all ages in a multitude of environments all over North America. When not instructing, you can find him exploring ways to deepen his connection with himself, others, and the Earth.   Kyle offers retreats focused on cultivating connection with ecological place, including Core Routines of Nature Connection. (www.evolvemoveplay.com).

To support the labor of love that is The Return to Embodiment, visit https://www.patreon.com/returntoembodiment

Jamila Kekulah Kinney (she/they) is the creator of The Moving Soul, a holistic movement practice that utilizes curiosity, focus and self observation to explore body awareness, body conditioning, and self-inquiry. Jamila's multifacted body and movement training includes GYROTONIC® & GYROKINESIS® methods, Pilates, dance, dance/movement therapy, mindfulness training, somatic meditation, Reiki, yoga and Zen Shiatsu.   As a life long learner they believe that "uncovering the gifts of being human can occur through developing a relationship to self through mindfulness and the body."  In our conversation, Jamila begins by describing her embodiment as originating through suffering and pain; in order to manage the discomfort, Jamila moved. They emphasize the importance of acknowledging what we don't know so that we may "be open and curious to meeting ourselves and what is, in the moment."  Jamila observes and interacts with the forces both internal and external that restrain and constrict how we are allowed to exist and move in our bodies. In follow up conversations, Jamila and I have discussed how internal forces include but are not limited to personal/familial traumas or mental habits of self-criticism or fear. Although Jamila doesn't specify in this conversation the external forces that disempower, this is invitation to identify all conditions –-systemic, intergenerational, social, and cultural-- that live in our collective consciousness and often separate us from the possibility of flourishing together. In particular, I want to call out the dominant cultural forces that oppress bodies, especially for Black, Indigenous and people of color, for women, for LGBTQIA+folks, for those with disabilities and anyone who deviates from the prescribed ideal fostered by industries and structures that capitalize on the insecurity and shaming of our bodies.  As the United States reels from yet another white supremacist act of violence, I want to also remind us all that violence against others begins in the mind, in the consciousness, in how we conceive of bodies of others. This work, the work Jamila does, offers a way through. Jamila offers online and in person classes and individual sessions through her website: "https://www.themovingsoul.com/" https://www.themovingsoul.com/ She can also be found on instagram: @themovingsoul

To support the labor of love that is The Return to Embodiment, visit https://www.patreon.com/returntoembodiment

In this interview, I am speaking with Damien Norris, who I met at an Evolve Move Play retreat in Washington in Fall of 2021.  We were placed in a group together, called the Vikings, and shared interests drew us into conversation about how embodiment within nature can combine to transform individual and collective experience and perspective.   Damien is completing a PhD at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada that explores the links between human movement, philosophy (phenomenology), embodiment, nature connection and human wellness. In his twenties Damien retired from a career in elite gymnastics and began working as a community development and international aid worker and later as a criminal and civil lawyer, public guardian, university lecturer, philosopher and human rights consultant.  After twenty years of working a desk job Damien became a dad and was forced to confront his “fitness”. Desk bound and de-conditioned he reclaimed his fitness through practicing parkour in nature and urban settings. The story of Damien’s return to fitness was captured in a TEDxPerth2018 presentation, “It’s time to rewild”. This project set in motion a much deeper exploration of human movement, world travel and research that lead to his current PhD and a foundational understanding of the meaning of movement.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGNKHmt34gk Damien teaches, presents, mentors and leads workshops, in person and online, on subjects related to his PhD and can be contacted via email: [email protected] 

To support the labor of love that is The Return to Embodiment, visit https://www.patreon.com/returntoembodiment