Decolonization through Play, Dance, & Expressive Arts

“And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair”

— Kahlil Gibran

Colonization forces disconnection from the movement impulses of the body towards towards an enforced stillness. When we have experienced trauma & oppression, our nervous system switches to survival mode, and we are robbed of our human need to engage in forms of creativity, play, movement, & dance.

Throughout the world; healing, song, movement, dance, & play are integral parts of community healing ritual practices that bring a person back into contact with bigger energies of healing justice, community, ancestry, body, & earth.

By developing the skills of somatic awareness, spontaneity, grounding, centering, boundary, balance, & expression, you can learn how to track the bodies subtle cues and energies towards creativity, movement & play, learn to connect deeply with yourself and others while honoring your bodies inherent integrity.

By following these impulses within a safe therapeutic space you can explore ways to move through and release stuck trauma energies, connecting with a sense of embodied flow, and meeting unmet developmental needs for spontaneity and play.

Through expressive dance, conscious movement, & exploration of non-verbal somatic patterns of breath, posture, & gesture you can connect more deeply with your bodies wisdom, express, move, & voice your deep inner yearnings, impulses, needs, emotions.

I invite you to relearn the bodies language of movement, contact deep feeling, integrate body and mind, and move through areas of stuckness with increased fluidity, intimacy, vitality, & aliveness.

You do not need any formal dance, movement education, or art training. The focus is not on creating a product, but on the inner process & experience of engaging with your inner creativity.

In these sessions I draw from traditional and contemporary embodiment practices to help you rekindle your creativity and embrace the spirit of dance, movement, and play again. Sessions can incorporate themes from authentic movement, expressive arts, ecstatic dance, interplay, improvisation, bodytales, kum nye, nyingma meditation, sandtray, ritual, & play therapy.

If using dance, movement, & the creative or imaginal process in therapy resonates with you, feel free to reach out to me to begin the next step on your healing journey.

  How Do I Start Therapy?

  • Read my Practice Policies page

  • Contact Me at 707 732 4525 or Nima@somatictherapynorthbay.com and schedule a 15 minute free consultation

  • After your initial consultation, if it seems like we’re a good fit I will email you a link to Simple Practice for electronically completed intake paperwork

  • If you are using insurance I will email you a link to Headway for insurance verification

  • Login to Simple Practice secure video portal and begin your first session or attend in person in Sebastopol