Authentic Movement

Listen to your body's wisdom
Develop compassion for yourself and others
Time to experiment and integrate

Inspired by Carl Jung's practice of Active Imagination, Authentic Movement uses movement as a path to discovering and expressing your whole self. Connect to exactly where you are in the moment and follow your internal impulses to move or be still. The practice looks like everything from gentle movement exploration, improvised dance, to deep rest. There is time for creative practice as integration after each movement session including writing, drawing, collage and time to share in a small group. (This practice was originated by Mary Starks Whitehouse in the 1950's, originally called, "Movement in Depth.")

"Authentic Movement with Tiffany opened up an enormous amount of freedom and possibility that I didn’t realize I needed and wanted.  The practice of tuning in to how I want to move my body or rest my body at any given moment has helped me learn to listen more deeply to my inner impulses, needs and desires and helped me access my own intuition, creativity, playfulness, joy, and authenticity. " 
- Lauren Mayhew, Wellness Coach

"Tiffany's understanding of safety around bodies and space is so necessary and present in her work. The community she helped create through the Authentic Movement course I took this past fall was astounding in that (unfortunately) few folks prioritize building a safer space for expression and holding the way she does." -Rebecca Gray

Some words from Mary Starks Whitehouse (the originator of Authentic Movement Practice):

"I began by asking them in what way they would practice or work alone, that is, without teaching or being taught."

"...open waiting, which is also a kind of listening to the body, an emptiness in which something can happen. You wait until you feel a change–As you feel it begin, you follow where it leads, like following a pathway that opens up before you as you step."

"The wonderful thing is that the body is not and never will be a machine, no matter how much we treat it as such, and therefore body movement is not and never will be mechanical – it is always and forever expressive, simply because it is human."

"The body is the physical aspect of the personality and movement is the personality made visible."

On Active Imagination:

“I mentioned Active Imagination. It is C.G. Jung’s term for a process in which, while consciousness looks on, participating but not directing, cooperating but not choosing, the unconscious is allowed to speak whatever and however it likes. Its language appears in the form of painted or verbal images that may change rapidly, biblical speech, poetry (even doggerel), sculpture and dance. There is no limit and no guarantee of consistency. Images, inner voices, move suddenly from one things to another. The levels they come from are not always personal levels; a universal human connection with something much deeper than the personal ego is represented.

Moments of insight, brought into focus by Active Imagination, have a natural effect on everyday life. They reveal a direction and show a development, acting as support and encouragement for what must be lived through, creating energy for a next step. The use of Active Imagination in movement is peculiarly valuable. Every possible way I could devise to involve people in their own fantasies and images, even moving out their dream, provide raw material for understanding themselves.” -Mary Starks Whitehouse