Human Connection

When I empower my clients and their caretakers to practice rhythmic movement exercises on their own, I’m inviting this gentle dance of give and take. As a participant in the work, my clients must embrace passive movement. Often, they must choose to receive care as opposed to initiating their own active movement. In a sense, they are calling upon their earliest reflexes that underpin high level bonding. Specifically, they are drawing from the Babkin reflex to learn to let go of fear and trust in someone else.

Consider the mother who gentle rocks her child, cradling his hips side to side and helping him to regulate after an overstimulating day. Without words, the child asks for movement their body craves, and with care and intention, the mother is assisting with that need. She is giving love, and the child is feeling supported, nurtured, and seen.

Human connection, in its purest form, is a collaborative concept. Two unique and independent individuals come together in cooperative engagement. Someone is guiding through an experience, and the other is allowing that care and attention for a moment in time. 

Recently, I spoke with a fellow therapist after they took one of our workshops. She commented that rhythmic movement therapy truly is for everyone, because it is the work of human experience. We are all on this Earth having a uniquely human experience, and we can all respond to and help another in that moment. To be a loving human is to give connection, as much as it is to receive it.