'Lying as relating' by Isabella Shirley-Miller
Courses at SOEL
exploring the dynamic relationship between mind & body
Courses at SOEL include the study of experiential Anatomy & Physiology, Developmental Movement & Embryology, Ecosomatics, Teaching practice and Facilitation from a multi-disciplined approach informed by somatics, Body-Mind Centering®, Whole Person Learning and Reflective Practicum.
SOEL are currently offering the following courses:
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Holistic Studies in Human Anatomy
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Somatics Experiential Learning Facilitator (SELF)
Holistic Studies in Human Anatomy
two year course, in person, Devon UK
October 2025 - March 2027:
click here for course information: Dates, fees, registration
For more Information scroll down
Somatics Experiential Learning Facilitator (SELF):
3 year course: in person, Devon UK
October 2025-2028: dates & modules click here
For more Information scroll down
Year 3 open to all students who have completed Holsitic Studies in Human Anatomy and the prerequisite modules
course 2025-2028 open for registration 20.01.25
Summer Modules 2025:
MODULE 13: community workshop open for registration 20.01.25
The Unseeable Animal: encounter & kinship with the natural world
Monday 12th - Thursday 16th May 2025
Teachers: Rosalyn Maynard and Daisy Martinez
MODULE 13: Body-Mind Centering® workshop
open for registration 20.01.25
Our Life Sense; immune system from an embodied perspective
Monday 2nd - Thursday 6th June 2025
Teachers: Rosalyn Maynard and Julie Rousseau
Modules 13 and 14 are prerequisites for Year 3 of SELF
"The separation of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual faculties in our culture is a direct reflection of our by-passing the need to survive on an automatic physical level. This means on one hand that automatic physical defense mechanisms on the low brain level are minimally stimulated to develop, while on the other hand, high brain mental consciousness is greatly emphasised.
Less and less time is spent on low brain development. For example, many of our infant rearing practices are emphasising early and out of sequence eye-hand and bipedal activities (infant seats, baby bouncers, early walking), less and less time is devoted to prone, supine, and quadrupedal development which stimulates lower brain. Infants are being placed in advanced postures before they have developed the means to move in and out of them on their own. Without fully developed automatic physical survival mechanisms, higher brain consciousness lacks a balanced grounding."
Developmental Movement Therapy
by Margret Mills & Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen.
All courses are modular and include the study of experimental anatomy, infant developmental movement, embryology, ecosomatics (SELF only), Facilitation, Teaching Practice and Evolutionary Mentoring (SELF only).
The teaching and learning includes guided explorations in embodied practice, hands-on touch & somatics movement practice complimented by traditional anatomy and physiology, current theory, film, academic articles and podcasts supported by a wide range of books, access to SOELs library, module handouts, handbooks, anatomy models, charts & maps.
Courses are based on a holistic teaching and learning approach that begins with knowing our self and learning through self discovery.
At SOEL we feel that knowing will be more valid if it is grounded in our experience, expressed through our stories and images, understood through theories which make sense to us, and expressed in worthwhile action in our lives.
Staff at SOEL incorporate and give equal value to the many ways of knowing our self and our world that include: experiential, theoretical, practical, intuitive and creative modalities.
" This style and method of learning has been life changing for me.
For the first time in my life, I felt the ability to learn by feeling, experiencing and embodying.
Exploring and sensing the body in such a profoundly beautiful and nurturing way [...] has deepened all forms of relationship to myself, others and this incredible earth we are so privileged to inhabit [...]
truly nourishes the soul."
Pippa, anatomy student 2018-2019
"I really appreciated the clarity in the approach to the work – the clarity in the language – the care and support of the language – and the warmth and the invitation in the manner of the teachers to join them in exploration. Valuable and deep. Thanks."
Paul, workshop participant, Skeleton, 2016
Holistic Studies in Human Anatomy
two year course, in person, Devon UK
dates and information click here
October 2025 - March 2027
SELF COURSE PRE-REQUISITE
Self course information and dates 2025-2028 click here
Next student intake starting
Sunday 12th October 2025
with Module 1
Cells, Tissues, Organs & Systems: Human Being
General course Information
This course is a unique interdisciplinary approach to the study of western science and anatomy fostering our felt sensory capacities to experience the dynamic, innate intelligence of our own biology through the holistic nature of our body-mind.
The course focuses on cultivating greater conscious awareness of our internal and external environments and the intimate exchange between them in maintaining well being, resiliency and sense of self.
The course explores how we know our self, how we learn, how we think, feel, sense, intuit and how we are always in flux, and changing. Based on the experiential anatomy of Body-Mind Centering®, Reflective Practicum, Evolutionary Mentoring and Whole Person Learning this two year course is a pre-requisite for the three year training SELF: Somatics Experiential Learning Facilitator.
Students are supported to discover and develop their own learning interests, research and practices through their own experiences. This approach is rooted in a somatics practice and informed by Whole Person Learning. Teaching includes the following modalities:
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Anatomy models and images
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Articles, film, podcast, books
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Hands-on-touch upon ourself and in partners
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sounding, breath work
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Guided movement meditations
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guided improvised movement integration in silence and with music accompaniment
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Reflective dialogue
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Somatics drawing and writing
People who have studied the course include the following professions: Teachers & Lecturers, body work therapists, Play Therapists, Yoga teachers, Cranial Sacral Therapists, Writers, Visual Artists, Performance Artists, Arts Managers, Biodynamic Practitioner & growers.
Course content in brief:
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200 hours taught content
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10 weekend modules over 2 years
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4 private one-to-one tutorials
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Library membership with access to over 300 books
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Additional articles & module handouts
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Film screenings
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Course Handbook with each module 20-30 pages
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SOEL Certification
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Free access to Saturday Somatics workshops
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Free access to BMC® Study Groups
"SOEL offers a refreshing and rare learning environment."
Isabella Lazlo Course Grad 2019
Further details:
VISITING SOEL
Meet the teachers and visit SOEL:
There are many opportunities to visit SOEL and have
a taste of what we offer including: our monthly community workshop programme Saturday Somatics, opportunities to join us as a guest during a module, Body-Mind Centering® workshops or study groups.
We also highly recommend exploring a private session in person or via zoom before registering.
Graduate Feedback
The pace, different learning styles and non-judgemental approach is something precious. To slow down in the learning and trust myself to know has given me a different outlook on learning. The tutorials were so generous and personal. I felt so seen and known. The richest experience was with the lungs and the touch on my back.
Dr Abigail Jackson 2018 Academic
I have been able to draw out and examine creativity, trauma, new and more joyful ways of being, inspiration, grounding, kindness…It continues to be a beautiful, fascinating…process of discovery and undoing. Annabie Daly 2017 Artist & musician
I come away from this course with a deep sense of longevity in that there were many aspects of my learning that I feel I will be able to carry far into the future. Participating in this course had clear impacts on how I entered and responded to life beyond the course. Helen Williams. 2016 Director Being in Circle, Arts Manager & Stage Manager.
Somatics Experiential Learning Facilitator course
THE SUMMER MODULES 11 - 14
in brief
These modules are also facilitated as community workshops open and accessible to anyone interested in Body-Mind Centering®.
You may elect to study these modules at any time.
FULL SELF COURSE DETAILS 2023 - 2026 click here / 2025-2028 click here
Module 11: Infant Developmental Movement
SELF COURSE PRE-REQUISITE
Saturday 16th - Wednesday 20th May 2026
more information click here
This module explores the Basic Neurocellular Patterns (BNP) from Body-Mind Centering® and associate primitive reflexes as a series of innate movement patterns that sequentially emerge and integrate into our body-mind throughout our infancy.
They include a series of spinal, homologous, homolateral and contralateral patterning as well as a series of “fluid” patterns developing in utero.
The BNP inform and establish:
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our interaction and exchange with gravity and space,
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our sense of self,
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our relationship with others
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and our relationship with the world outside us.
We also explore the development of these patterns as corresponding lineage to the evolution of life on earth; developing from simple single celled organism such as the sperm and the egg into more and more complex organisms.
During this module we follow our infant development and our evolution in chronological order giving time and space for each of us to explore and discover for ourselves the patterns that are present and comfortable, and those that are less so. A practice of acceptance and curiosity will guide the explorations.
The first pattern of development is comfort.
"Each movement pattern is a reference point to experientially explore & gain insights into our movement, mind, emotional & sensory experience of self & world. When fully embodied these patterns can allow us to enter with more ease and comfort into the fullness of our being, and to live our lives with greater confidence, flexibility & presence."
Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen
Module 12: The Embryo in You
SELF COURSE PRE-REQUISITE
Sunday 19th - Wednesday 22nd July 2026
more information click here
This module explores our embryological development from conception through the first eight weeks of life in utero.
Through the embodiment process from Body-Mind Centering® we will explore the following:
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Female (egg) and male (sperm) qualities
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Development of the embryonic disc and differentiation of the front body (endoderm), back body (ectoderm), and middle body (mesoderm)
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Self-nourishment (yolk sac) and self-protection (amniotic cavity)
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Vertical axis (notochord, gut tube, and neural tube)
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Center (vertebral column) and periphery (limbs)
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Blood, blood vessels and our primitive heart
During our embryological development our body begins creating her form. Different tissues and structures begin to emerge and come into being growing our own nourishment and our own protection even before we connect to our mother through the umbilicus. Embodying the embryo in you can offer us a transformative sense of self meeting our earliest origins that inform the structures and processes that make up our adult bodies today.
"If you open your heart and try to put yourself into the position of the embryo and join in experiencing the gestures of growing that are taking place there, all at once the embryo will tell you a very profound story. It will tell you the story of becoming a HUMAN BEING, of the struggle of the person and his spirit to come to light through the tough resistance of cells, genes, tissue. A human being performs so much work and lives so intensely while being an embryo!" Jaap Van der Wal: embryo.nl
Module 13: The Unseeable Animal
Encounter & kinship in the natural world
SELF COURSE PRE-REQUISITE
Monday 12th - Thursday 15th May 2025
Monday 24th - Thursday 27th May 2027
exploring our relationship to self, other and place through direct experience in the body
During this workshop we will be in the studio and outdoors along river, in meadow & woodland.
We will take time to immerse ourselves in the living landscape in which we are embedded through the embodiment of our heart perception, gut brain, solar plexus and the still quietude of our cranial brain.
Through creative expression, wildhood & spontaneous play we will explore the intimate exchange through the oneness of being in walking, witnessing & deep listening.
Module 14: Our Life Sense
The Immune system from an embodied perspective
SELF COURSE PRE-REQUISITE
Monday 2nd - Thursday 5th June 2025
Monday 21st - Thursday 24th June 2027
a fluid dance through space & time
The Immune system is a fluid, cellular system keeping our body in a healthy balanced state, constantly present, maintaining our molecular identity.
In this module we will explore our shared and individual sense of this system through the embodiment of: our skin and membranes, bone marrow, thymus, heart, spleen and the fluid circulation of our lymphatic system.
Testimony
“In a world where disease and pain has become so normal this approach to learning and knowing ourselves offers a key for our health, by listening to the wisdom of our bodies, we learn to embody a new paradigm, one where ease and grace are at the heart.”
"As a Cranial Sacral therapist it has been very meaningful to enter the consciousness of my own cerebrospinal fluid, (on the first year module: Fluids), this is a familiar consciousness that I enter every time I work with a client, and yet I had never been simply guided into the experience of my own CSF. Resting in my Cerebrospinal fluids I am filled with a luminous light, at one with the cosmic universe. I am peace and I am resting in stillness. (Fluids module: February 2018)
Course graduate, Isabella Lazlo 2017-2019
Excerpt from article June 2018