Your body and nervous system can easily become dysregulated and out of balance when chronic stress is part of your life — as it is for so many of us right now.
Whether it’s anxiety, depression, sleep difficulties, or physical aches and pains, stress can show up in many areas of life.
But you have more power than you might realize — because, right now as you read this, you possess the ability to regulate your own nervous system.
To fully embrace this innate power, you’ll first need to know how your unique nervous system works, take the time to feel it — and become clear on how it impacts your everyday behavior.
A powerful way to deeply understand and regulate your nervous system is through Dr. Martha Eddy’s Dynamic Embodiment Somatic Movement Therapy (DE-SMT).
As you practice DE-SMT, you’ll integrate technical skill-building exercises with meditation, relaxation, healing postures, and new movements. Learn rituals as well as improvisation — staying present in each moment to help your body respond to its surroundings.
Embark on an empowering 7-module online course from Martha as you learn to pay close attention to the soma (the living body) and discover your own inner truths about what creates stress for you, when you feel safe to be fully vulnerable, and how you can best connect with others, even during times of stress and conflict.
During these seven modules, you’ll calm and restore your nervous system, establishing a baseline that you can reactivate when needed — until it’s fully rested, alive, and receptive — unlocking feelings of happiness, balance, health, and wellbeing.
Each module, you’ll practice guided, tailored movements, embodied visualizations, meditations, healing postures, and play to enhance your bodily awareness, balance your nervous system, shift your physiological status quo, and develop peaceful, self-regulated responses to conflict and/or stress.
With a doctorate in Movement Sciences and Education from Columbia University, Martha is a Registered Somatic Movement Therapist (RSMT) trained in Massage Therapy and known for her Dynamic Embodiment somatic-movement contributions in the fields of dance, dance science, conflict resolution, child development, and vision enhancement.
You won’t need any somatic-movement experience or a performance background to fully embrace Martha’s unique modalities.
She’ll equip you with new tools to navigate stressful times, provide you with rituals you’ll want to return to, and guide you to build a comforting sense of structure into your life — for a happier, healthier you.
In this 7-part transformational intensive, Martha guides you through Dynamic Embodiment movement techniques to alleviate stress, amplify inner peace, and reclaim your optimal health.
This course features step-by-step teachings and experiential practices from Martha. Each session builds harmoniously upon the previous ones, so you’ll develop a holistic understanding of the practices, tools, and principles of Dynamic Embodiment Somatic Movement Therapy to regulate your nervous system with nourishing, easygoing ways to work through conflict, stress and trauma. Your purchase includes 24/7 ongoing access to your course content, allowing you time to review the materials at your own pace and integration.
A calm nervous system provides a baseline for healthy reactivation of an alive and receptive nervous system — and a happier you.
Did you know your nervous system can become dysregulated even if you feel like you’re in a passive state of mind?
To calm or balance your nervous system, you first must know how it works — taking time to feel it so you can discern how it impacts your everyday behavior.
Sensitizing movements enhance your bodily awareness as your body senses a change in the status quo. When you speak, walk, draw, or dance — then learn to pay attention to the new sensations — you’ll gain empowering new information about yourself.
This consciousness-shifting process, moving the body to increase self-awareness and act with greater clarity and conviction, is known as DE somatic movement.
By paying attention to the soma (the living body), you’re listening to your body, which is capable of both survival and expression.
This somatic listening supports self-regulation, self-care, and greater health. It can be a tool for guidance and attunement with your outward direction and your inner truths.
In this opening module, you’ll come to understand the key components of the nervous system — the involuntary (autonomic) functions and the voluntary functions.
Martha shares how you can awaken connection to the autonomic nervous system, the vagus nerve, and the skeletal-muscular system — through awareness of glands, organs, fluids, and the nerves that activate them.
You’ll discover the power of choice as you work with, through, and hopefully against different types of stress. Each stressor is experienced through your body — and slowing down to feel and move your body is a huge part of the solution.
In this session, you’ll discover:
Why is early motor experience important?
How you move today is based on your early childhood experiences.
As you’ll discover in this module, by learning and even practicing the basic coordination of baby movements, you’ll gain insight into your adult self.
Connections to old, stuck places often emerge. Because some infant movements are hard to perform as an adult, Martha shares the adaptations she’s created for going through developmental movements of creeping, crawling, toddling, and walking that are easier on the body — with options to sit, stand, and lie down.
This Relax to FocusSM movement series can be done seated in a chair, on the floor, or standing — as your body sinks, rises, encloses, spreads, advances, and retreats.
Martha guides you to experience how you first behaved as a baby — with movement responses, including vocalizations.
When moving, even from one seated posture to another, you'll also explore different moods and states of mind. You’ll learn “movement scales,” rituals or sequences for aligning with your attention, finding different emotional responses.
You’ll also become alert to the nonverbal communication habits that are connected to your posture, your movement, and the pitch of your voice.
In this module, you’ll explore:
Conflict resolution is an important skill in life. Bringing your body wisdom into handling conflict can expedite staying present.
In this module, you’ll explore embodying peace at home, in work, and at play.
Martha’s EmbodyPeace approach includes numerous models of resolving conflict — developed over 40 years while working with people of all ages in schools, universities, nonprofits, and for-profit organizations.
Martha explains traditional systems of negotiation and mediation. You’ll explore how embodiment, including inner and outer awareness (interoception and exteroception), establishes the ground and insight for peaceable responses to conflict.
Interoception is awareness within the body — and sadly, it’s rarely taught. New vocabulary will help unpack how you have access to your inner wisdom and bodily knowing.
Using the flow of movement that emerges unconsciously through hand gestures or postural shifts, you’ll learn how Martha’s Active Witnessing Process can help you find words for feelings, and movement for action. You'll feel more embodied.
Exteroception refers to your senses that pay attention to the environment outside of your body. Martha guides you to explore this space of inner and outer flow, the betweenness.
As you balance your nervous system, you’ll ask yourself:
How do I see, feel, then react to disagreements, conflicts, abusive situations, and harm? How do I come into feeling safe? When do I feel safe enough to stand up for a systemic change?
In this session, you’ll discover:
As you apply what you’ve learned in the last three modules, you’ll begin to notice your personal stressors — plus the larger pressures on our culture and world.
In this module, you’ll explore what Martha calls the Stress-to-Trauma Continuum, which asks the questions:
How do stress and trauma differ? How are they the same? When does internal conflict or conflict with others play a part in what’s happening? How do our bodies and awareness of the vagal nerve responses, body tone, and movement help us recognize what state we’re in?
Martha guides you to ask personal questions, understanding that everyone has very different answers. Questions will include:
What can you control? What do you need to let go of? What is the role of intuition? How can you be more observant of the present moment? What helps you look into the future without fear? When is it helpful to recognize these issues — and when do you need to set boundaries?
You’ll ground and center, then imagine a slightly stressful situation and explore how it can be of service to you. You’ll learn the bodily skills that can balance the nervous system enough for safety and help you find physiological calm.
In this session, you’ll discover:
Everyone has unique bodies and pasts. Your genetics and life lessons — nature and nurture — influence who you are today.
In this module, you’ll review which function each type of movement serves — for instance, relaxation, activation, interaction, and play.
You’ll reflect on which activities are best for you and develop a map for handling your emotions and body sensations in different situations.
You’ll use journal writing, visualization, movement, and vibration as ways to perceive what is, support what feels challenging, and move into new bodymind states.
You’ll explore Dynamic Embodiment’s O.S.O. model — Observe, Support, and Optimize.
You’ll work with the mystery and anatomy of breathing. Martha walks you through three-dimensional breathing using your thoracic diaphragm to breathe in all dimensions.
As you breathe, you’ll reinforce different postures that hold stories and impact your neuroendocrine system, hormones, and chakras. Martha’s guided practice helps you experience how surges of hormones can be released through breath and movement.
You’ll track which activities you’re most likely to stick with. As Martha shares, we only benefit from what we actually do, or at least imagine. You’ll find the pathways in your nervous systems to be who you fully are, as a unique individual.
From there, you’ll commit to a practice — your personal journey.
In this session, you’ll discover:
In this module, Martha helps you see the ways you glean support and create separation from the people around you.
You’ll also explore ways to work with conflict, stress, and trauma — and learn to notice which systems set up chronic tensions like humiliation, abuse, or feelings of neglect and unworthiness.
Understanding the social systems you’re operating within helps you connect more deeply with others — and connection is your key to healing.
You’ll explore how bonding with and defending are responses to other people. How do they show up in movement? When do you attach, and what does your body do? When do you separate, become more numb, or even disappear a bit? What’s useful and what’s harmful about each of your responses?
In this session, you’ll discover:
In this closing module, Martha guides you to review all the concepts you’ve explored during the course.
At this point on your journey, you’ll be able to feel when it’s safe to share your true self.
You’ll review times when you may have wanted to remain hidden, as well as your freest moments when your authenticity comes through. Martha helps you recognize the related feelings and sensations.
You’ll role-play (in the privacy of your own Zoom space) with concrete situations, allowing your vulnerability to come forward.
You’ll discern when it’s possible to be vulnerable with family, friends, or colleagues. You’ll solidify the resources you brought with you into this journey, those you’ve learned along the way — and get clear on the ones you’ll want to keep practicing.
And you’ll visualize barriers and stumbling blocks, moving with them to melt them away..
In this session, you’ll:
In addition to Martha’s transformative 7-module virtual course, you’ll receive these special bonuses with leading visionaries and teachers to complement the course and take your understanding and practice to an even deeper level.
Learn how to feel better about the present and future with Dr. Allison Rosen, (psychologist and fertility preservation expert) and Dr. Martha Eddy. They illuminate the disciplines of somatic movement therapy, psychology, psychotherapy, and how they all work. The two share their recommendations for getting into your body, reducing anxiety, and much more.
Your endocrine glands secrete hormones, and hormones spur your body into different states of action and into various moods. In this excerpt from Martha’s book on the dynamic embodiment of a classic yoga asana, you’ll learn strategies for sleep, for expression and energy, for calming your autonomic nervous system and balancing the branches of your vagus nerve, and for warding off toxins.
Go on a listening journey to hear how Martha came to become a Movement Maverick, highlighting her expansive career in movement awareness. Produced by The Moving Architects, this dialogue begins with Martha’s early roots growing up in Spanish Harlem and how she came to dancing early in life, yet has always been a scientist. You’ll discover more about how she builds connections between movement and communication, dance, science, peace activism, and her own Social Somatics.
— Stephanie Tack: “It’s 10 Years Later and I’m Still Learning From Dr. Martha Eddy”
— Eyen Zak: “In My Work With Dr. Martha Eddy, I Found My Range Opening”
— Kate Kohler: “After 25 Years, Dr. Martha Eddy Continues to Amaze”
Dr. Martha Eddy brings a wealth of knowledge, experience, and passion to the field of embodied movement and is hands down one of today’s leading experts. She has the unique background of studying and working alongside some of the earliest innovators in somatic education, now often referred to as embodied or conscious movement. Dr. Martha Eddy is devoted to helping all people connect more deeply to their bodies and therefore their lives by making movement accessible and meaningful.
— Suzy Finnefrock, founder of the Everyday Embodiment Summit
I had the privilege to experience Dr. Martha Eddy’s workshop on Crossing Borders, Exploring Membranes in person at a conference in Israel. The session was an invigorating accumulation of movements, imagery, rhythm, and dance that illuminated a new learning process of the bodymind. Initiating from the wisdom of the cells to fluids, bones, and tissue facilitated a rare awareness of the human body. Martha raised our collective awareness into a new state of being. We were empowered individuals, free to investigate, research, and understand authentic presence. Upon my return, I enrolled in her online Dynamic Embodiment course. It combines leading-edge mindful embodied principles, somatic movement arts, and conscious practices to support healing on both an individual and collective level. Her courses are open to all who wish to cultivate presence and a sense of wellbeing.
— Lama Majaj, MA, AThR, art psychotherapist. Trauma-Sensitive HeartMath Certified Practitioner®
Martha Eddy’s BodyMind Dancing, appropriate for any level and any body, is a delightful, curative way to spend a Monday night. It’s fitting that a key somatic principle is slowing down. There are levels, but slowing down to feel isn’t a static act. It’s about shifting to a more internal place. The hope is that you emerge from a somatic class and bring some of that awareness into your everyday life. I know I have. In a time when it seems we have little control, having agency over our bodies and our internal world is power. By engaging in a somatic experience, you come to realize that these practices are not just about creating flexible bodies, but flexible minds.
— Gia Kourlas, dance critic for The New York Times
This dance exercise class is excellent for movement of the entire body and comfort of the mind. The exercise is low-impact and therapeutic. I really enjoy the sessions very much. The classes are a help to me with my movement, and assist me with relieving my back and leg pain.
— Regina
Experience a unique opportunity to learn from the founder of Dynamic Embodiment Somatic Movement Therapy Training from the comfort of your own home. Each session includes a streaming video and guides you to discover specific skills and abilities to regulate your nervous system and work through conflict, stress, and trauma — using Martha’s Active Witnessing Process to recognize and manage your deepest triggers.
In addition to the high-quality videos and MP3 audios, you’ll also receive session transcriptions. You can then review, print, and highlight the most important insights and practices you were given.
Between sessions, you’ll have the option of completing related exercises, practicing new tools, and answering questions to accelerate your learning and integrate each lesson.
We feel honored that Dr. Martha Eddy has chosen to partner with The Shift Network to offer this exclusive online training. This is a unique opportunity to learn from a leading expert on embodiment and somatic movement whose powerful insights and pioneering work are helping us heal and transform ourselves and our world.
If you’re serious about exploring Dynamic Embodiment movement to regulate your nervous system and work through conflict, stress, and trauma, then you owe it to yourself, your loved ones, and our world to take this one-of-a-kind training.
If you’re ready to take the next step in evolving yourself, click the register button below to reserve your space now.
Your satisfaction is 100% guaranteed! If you don’t absolutely LOVE Reset Your Nervous System & Regulate Your Own Wellbeing With Dynamic Embodiment℠ Movement — or don’t feel that it meets your needs — please submit your refund request form 2 weeks from your date of purchase and we’ll happily issue qualifying customers a refund.
Martha is a genius, and I learn something profound from her every time I am with her. Her BMD (BodyMind Dancing) system teaches how to engage all the fluid, tissue, organ, skeletal, and energetic structural systems which support full-bodied dancing. I leave her class feeling fuller, more present, and confident in my movement expression. I love how she shifts between exploratory sensory experiences and formal exercises that create shapes in space. These transitions help teach how to combine both inner and outer experience into a cohesive expression. These are incredible skills for all dancers to learn in support of their long-term health and performance.
— Tanya Calamoneri, artistic director of Company SoGoNo, project manager for DanceMotion USA, and BAM Professor of Dance Colgate University
I remember first taking Martha’s class at the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies in 1990-91 when I was studying to become a Certified Movement Analyst (CMA). Her presentation of body science as we moved was overwhelming. Dr. Martha Eddy has tremendous somatic insights. Her years of teaching in multiple arenas of study make her BodyMind Dancing class a treasure. The generous information she imparts will serve you for life.
— Jaclynn Villamil, CMA, company ballet instructor Doug Varone and Dancers, the Limón Dance Company, Keigwin + Company, and Kyle Abraham/Abraham.In.Motion.
You are remarkable, clear, creative, and fabulous, I adore watching you! I am grateful and so honored that you invited me into this rich, ongoing exploration/process. I continue to clarify, deepen, and grow while often inspired by your presence, material, beauty, and capacity. You and your work have influenced me deeply, indirectly influencing many that I work with and know. I reference you among others often in my journey’s teaching these days to dancers, movers, choreographers, crediting, sourcing... and always suggest they credit their influences and sources.
— Sherry Greenspan, RSMT-E Dynamic Embodiment™ practitioner, certified instructor of BodyMind Dancing, Moving for Life certified instructor, and BMC practitioner choreographer and dancer
I feel joyful and free, empowered and expansive as I move with her instructions. Dr. Martha Eddy starts each class having us check in with fellow attendees about what our bodies are asking for and for every request she offers guidance and movements that provide the release that is needed. After her classes I feel calm, centered, and full of gratitude that Dr. Martha Eddy has led me into a profound experience of personal transformation with a new arena for personal growth.
— Mary Gendron, PhD, psychologist
I've had considerable experience of varied approaches to conscious movement practices over the past ten years. Because I'm an older adult, I approach new practices with some caution because of my injury and repair history. When I came to my first BodyMind Dancing class I was concerned that my vulnerable right shoulder might give me trouble if I threw myself into the experience. However, I found the BodyMind Dancing sequence of gradually loosening up and extending movement encourages self-nurturing and gentle experimentation with one's limits under Martha Eddy's skillful facilitation. Working with classmates was invigorating and fun. At the end of class, my troublesome knees felt secure and my vulnerable right shoulder free and less bothersome. I was ready for more!
— Philip M. Brown, PhD, fellow, Center for Applied Psychology, Rutgers University
Dr. Martha Eddy is a Registered Somatic Movement Therapist (RMST), dance educator, and applied physiologist. Her decade as faculty at the School for Body-Mind Centering® and in Laban Movement Studies influenced her to develop the first Somatic Movement Therapy Training, now rebranded as Dynamic Embodiment SMTT, affiliated with Moving On Center in the Bay Area (co-founded with Carol Swann) and several universities. As a professor at Marymount Manhattan College, she was awarded the title of Geraldine Ferraro Fellow of Social Justice. In 1999, she developed Moving For Life, a holistic exercise program for cancer patients that is offered free throughout NYC and around the world.
Martha remains active as a performer and teacher of BodyMind Dancing (with online classes available), and has served on numerous boards, including The Yard, National Dance Education Organization (recipient of outstanding leadership in dance award), the International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association (ISMETA-past president), and the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies (LIMS-past president). Martha was cited in The New York Times three times since 2019 for her work.
Martha also maintains a small private practice specializing with children and adults, and provides educational consulting and evaluation in public schools and dance programs worldwide. As director of the Center for Kinesthetic Education, she has implemented Peaceful Play Program for recess enhancement in New York City, and implements activities from her co-produced DVD, Eye Openers Are Mind Openers. She has been an advisor to BalletMet on developmental research implemented with Head Start, and helps develop curricula and guidelines for the NYC Department of Education.
Her articles and chapters have been published in research, arts, and educational literature. Martha is the author of Mindful Movement: The Evolution of the Somatic Arts and Conscious Action. The book she co-authored with Shakti Andrea Smith, A Dynamic Embodiment Approach to the Sun Salutation, guides readers in how to balance their hormonal system.
Q: What is your refund policy?
A: Your satisfaction with The Shift Network and this course is our highest priority! We offer a satisfaction guarantee for a full two weeks so that you can try out the course risk free. The deadline to receive a refund is two weeks from your date of purchase. To request a refund, please click here to submit your Refund Application Form. Your refund will be processed within five business days and we will send you an email confirmation when your refund has been completed. However, we’d love to have a chance to address and resolve your concerns first. If there’s something we can assist you with, please email us at [email protected], and we’ll be happy to help!
Q: How long will I have access to my Course Homepage and materials?
A: Your purchase includes 24/7 ongoing access to your course content — online via your Homepage — unless refunded or otherwise specified. We currently don't have an expiration date for our online materials. This will allow you time to review the materials at your own pace and integration.
Q: How can I reach Customer Support?
A: Please visit our Customer Support Center, where you should be able to find the answer to your question or the solution to your problem. And if you can’t, you can submit an online request form and we’ll get right back to you.
A: This course was pre-recorded. Is the content still relevant?
Q: While this is a pre-recorded course, the teachings remain as relevant and impactful today as when they were first offered. We’ve selected these programs because their wisdom, tools, and practices continue to resonate deeply with our global community.
