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Find balance, equanimity, and freedom of movement,
a powerful combination for transformation
Upcoming Courses
Andrée Martin
Body Mapping
Dr. Mark Erickson,
Feldenkrais
Join us for the six-hour Body Mapping course!
Courses will be taught on a Saturday with options to add private Body Mapping sessions with Dr. Andrée Martin and/or private Physical Therapy or Feldenkrais sessions with Dr. Mark Erickson throughout the weekend.
The next course will be held in Columbus, Georgia
on the weekend of
June 14 & 15, 2024
Andrée Martin
I’ve been fortunate to have found my “ikigai”, that coming-together of one's passion, mission, and strengths, twice in my life. Having spent my life in music, as a performer and educator with twenty-two years of college teaching experience, I found my way to Body Mapping and mindfulness meditation because of a career-ending performance injury (more on that here).
The skills learned and practiced in Body Mapping and meditation can help find balance, equanimity, and freedom of movement, a powerful combination for transformation!
Learn more about my training from the Association for Body Mapping Education and Brown University’s Center for Mindfulness.
Mark Erickson
What common injuries do you see in the musicians you help?
Although overuse is the most common injury I see, I would emphasize that overuse is not necessarily just muscular. Muscles and the tendons that connect the muscles to bone are but one aspect of an overuse condition. They “pay the price” so to speak for what is happening throughout the body and throughout the musician’s life.
We are generally unaware of what we are doing with our bodies at any given moment. Musicians often need input from fresh eyes to help them figure out what is causing the overuse. Overuse also implies misuse; when one body region is being overused, another is often being underused. It has a lot to do with posture, emotions, neuro-musculoskeletal and psycho-social perspectives. For example, the person who is forceful as a person is forceful as a musician. It is reflected in how they make music. If you are using more force than you need, you’re at higher risk for overuse injury.
How might Feldenkrais align with body mapping as a complementary practice?
Anything that enhances awareness is symbiotic. It is important to provide many strategies to match varied learners’ needs. Both the Feldenkrais Method and Body Mapping provide alternate sensory experiences that can change our brain’s integration of input/understanding and therefore our brain’s outputs. The key is providing more and varied options (or restoring options) as a way to create a more vast movement repertoire, thereby enhancing our functional capabilities and performance.
The Course
Saturday, June 15th, 2024
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9-10 am Awareness Through Movement, Dr. Mark Erickson
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10am - 5:30 pm The Complete Body Mapping course, Andrée Martin
Additional offerings include:
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Private Body Mapping Lessons with Dr. Andrée Martin (Friday or Saturday evening)
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Private Feldenkrais Sessions with Dr. Mark Erickson (Friday or Saturday evening)
Schwob School of Music in Columbus, Georgia.
Body Mapping Course with Dr. Andrée Martin
Course: $175
Designed to bring awareness to tension and movement habits, this course will focus on balance, arm and leg movement, and breathing. Body mapping trains musicians to replace faulty
body maps with correct maps in order to rely on our bony structure to support our weight and allow for effortless movement.
Developed by Alexander Technique teachers Bill and Barbara Conable, Body Mapping has grown to encompass a teacher training program through the Association for Body Mapping Education and is taught in university music schools and conservatories throughout the world.
Body Mapping Lessons with Dr. Andrée Martin
Hourly Cost: $75
Interested in learning more? Private Body Mapping lessons will offer an opportunity to explore your movement and tension habits with and without your instrument.
Professor of Music at the Schwob School of Music, Andrée is a Licensed Body Mapping Educator and a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction teacher (Brown University). She has taught Body Mapping at universities throughout the U.S. and as a guest clinician for the Seattle Flute Club, the Atlanta Flute Club, and the Las Vegas Flute Society. She has published several articles on performance health in Flute Talk, The Flutist Quarterly, and Atlanta Flute Club Newsletters.
PT/Feldenkrais Session
with Dr. Mark Erickson
Hourly Cost: $100
$75 for students
Dr. Mark Erickson has been practicing physical therapy 37 years and teaching in higher education for 28 years. He is certified in orthopedic manual therapy, the Feldenkrais Method, Titleist Performance Institute medical specialist, and ABPTS Board certification as an Orthopedic Clinical Specialist. Dr. Erickson’s research agenda emphasizes pain, orthopedic rehabilitation, body awareness training, performing arts, and physical therapy education pedagogy.
The greatest gift you can give the world is to be at peace with yourself.
I have also been trained to teach the 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction course from Brown University's Center for Mindfulness. Learn more about my MBSR course here!
Dr. Martin's course elicited a number of epiphanies regarding the interconnectedness of all functions of the skeletal/muscular structure, helping me to realize the sources of my tension rather than focusing purely on the areas where I experienced pain.
While I still have much to learn and adapt in the field of body mapping, I can say that Dr. Martin's insights have set me on a path of mindfulness and inquisitiveness that will only lead to increased ease and confidence in my performances. I highly recommend her course to anyone with a history of tension or insecurity in their music making!
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