Holistic Embodied Process (HEP) is an open, integrative practice that uses embodied sensing, movement, and creative exploration to support deeper self-discovery, expression, and connection with life and the world.

In this open, process-oriented practice, you will encounter:

• Dance Movement Therapy

• Tamalpa Life/Art Process® & Expressive Arts

• Somatic Movement Practices (Hanna Somatics, Feldenkrais, Body-Mind Centering & Laban/Bartenieff Movement System...) 

• Focusing

• The Moving Cycle (Body Psychotherapy-Informed)

• Creative Dance Movement & Improvisation

• EcoSomatics

• Contemplative Practices

...and many other elements can be found in this work.

CORE PHILOSOPHY & WORKING PRINCIPLES

HEP prioritizes the lived experience over external form or predetermined outcomes. The practice is guided by nine working principles:

1. Sensation before Form: Feel the internal mechanics before defining external movement.

2. Experience before Interpretation: Engage directly with the body before assigning conceptual meaning.

3. Curiosity before Judgment: Approach emerging sensation and movement with open inquiry rather than critique.

4. Process before Outcome: Honor the emergent path of discovery rather than chasing a fixed result.

5. Structure supports Freedom: Clear scores and containers create the necessary safety for free exploration.

6. Choice and Agency: Maintain autonomy to alter, slow down, pause, or adapt at any moment.

7. Movement as a Way of Knowing: Movement serves as a primary mode of sensing, discovering, and understanding oneself and the world.

8. Relationship Changes Perception: Interacting with another body, space, sound, or nature fundamentally transforms experience.

9. The Whole Person: Body, emotion, cognition, imagination, and environment form an indivisible, interconnected whole.

HEP is structured around four interconnected stages: Presence, Awakening, Resonance, and Action / Appreciation. Rather than a linear sequence, they form an open, organic cycle in which each stage informs the next.

Presence begins with sensing, breathing, and grounding. Awakening develops through inquiry, reflection, and unfolding. Resonance emerges through relating and responding. Action / Appreciation translates awareness into participation, making, and engagement.

Through this open cycle, HEP connects personal somatic practice with collective art-making, performance, and ecological engagement.

Who This Work Is For

Holistic Embodied Process (HEP) is for curious movers, somatic seekers, and individuals seeking deeper self-discovery, presence, and authentic expression through the body.

You can also adapt this work to your own professional practice, whether as a therapist, a teacher, or an artist:

• Therapists & Counselors: Integrate somatic sensing, felt-sense inquiries, and nervous system regulation into client work.

• Teachers & Facilitators: Apply open scores and the PARA process to foster creative agency and body awareness in group settings.

• Artists & Performers: Use somatic research as a generative engine for authentic choreography, performance, and creative expression.