SEED UK Programme - School for Experiential Education

2024-25 Programme

In 2024-5 we are dividing the programme three parts:
1) a series of four half-day online masterclasses which demonstrate the techniques and principles of Movement Shiatsu in a way that can be incorporated into your work.
2) a two day Online Inner Qigong retreat
3) a residential intensive that focuses on personal development and how to incorporate movement, art, voicework and psychological processes into touch based bodywork

Each part can be taken independently but if you take all three then you may qualify for our respected Postgraduate Certificate in Movement Shiatsu. If you are already a subscriber to Inner Qigong classes you will only need to take the Masterclasses and Residential to qualify for the Certificate.

FOUR ONLINE MASTERCLASSES ON MOVEMENT SHIATSU
Saturdays 9:30 – 1 UK time: Sept 14th, Oct 19th, Nov 9th, Dec 6th 2024
A series of four half-day online masterclasses that cover the whole body and which demonstrate the techniques and principles of Movement Shiatsu in a way that can be incorporated into your work. The classes will be recorded so that if you need to miss some you can complete the series in your own time.

STARTING THE NEW YEAR WITH A TWO DAY ONLINE COURSE OF INNER QIGONG
4th-5th January 2025
This retreat will focus on understanding how movement and meridians are related and how to use this relationship to activate un-energised parts of the body and to develop mental capacities. If you are a therapist, these movements can also be used to give clients experiments and explorations to take home .

See details for Masterclasses and Inner Qigong Retreat and apply

RESIDENTIAL FIVE DAY INTENSIVES , UK
March 30th – April 4th 2025 or October 5th-10th 2025
This course focuses on “Stages of Life” Working with Stages of Life
Much of Oriental Medicine focuses on working with the Qi, activating and balancing the homeostatic functions of the body. This often means trying to change old patterns that resist change. But there is a deeper way of working that recognises constitutional patterns and loosens them rather than trying to change them. This facilitates archetypal developmental processes, which spontaneously find new ways of being and acting that are consistent your nature.

Human Development progresses through eight recognised stages. In each stage, the person faces an archetypal challenge and meeting it successfully develops a human capacity. So development can be seen as a course where you learn lessons that build on each other. Many long term problems can be caused by being stuck in a developmental stage or by missing out on a lesson which is needed for facing the challenge of a later stage.

Movement Shiatsu gives specific tools for helping people to meet the challenge of their current phase or identifying what has been missed in previous lessons. We work with both of these through drama processes which bring psycho-social issues into the body and then use movement, voice and touch to work with the problems physically.

The course is open to everyone. We will be working with Wolfson voicework, breathwork, movement and touch. It will be fun, challenging, profound and transform the way you work with yourself and others.

The course will include:

– how we can help clients to become aware of their own Qi patterns
– how we can empower clients to experiment with their life patterns and take their healing into their own hands
– how we can perceive the intelligence of the different parts of the body
– how we can incorporate voice work into a Shiatsu session
– how techniques from drama work can be used to help clients feel the connection between mind and body
– how meridians can be used as a guide for archetypal movements
– how guided movement can help people explore ways of dealing with the challenges of their stage of development.

If you are interested in applying for the residentials, please fill out our application form.

Other Courses on the Three Families of Meridians will take place in 2026

WORDS & HANDS
Working with the Tai Yin and Yang Ming

Since humans are social creatures, we are concerned with pleasing and copying other people. In the process, we can lose contact with what our own body wants. Many illnesses and injuries are caused by not listening to our body and forcing it to do something that it has not ‘agreed to’. In other words, the “Inner Community” of bones. muscles, organs and cells is ruled by an autocratic mind rather than being a democracy.

The workshop will show how to help each member of the inner community to have a voice, to know what it needs and how to create clear boundaries. This approach makes Shiatsu more interactive and exploratory. Helping a client to listen to each part of their body empowers them to be an equal partner in the therapy rather than passively relying on the therapist’s expertise.

The course will be a journey of self-discovery as well as showing new ways of working with clients. It will:

FASCIA, BODY MEMORY & TRAUMA
Integrating the Body and Resolving internal conflict with Shao Yang and Jue Yin

Emotional and developmental issues are often ‘stored’ in the body and can be liberated and processed through the body directly without having to re-experience the original pain. Many physical issues are the result of compensation for the immobilised area and the release of the trauma can frequently resolve chronic physical conditions too.

Trauma develops when a person has an experience with which they are unable to cope. The person goes into shock, desensitizing and immobilizing parts of the body in order to reduce the intensity of the feelings and sensations. This is a normal healing process if the experience can be slowly integrated, But often the shock becomes fixed and the fascia and muscles solidify around the immobilised area.

The result is that parts of the body are buried and held in unconsciousness, out of which come unwanted feelings, panic attacks, muscular tensions and feelings of unease and stress. Physically, the movements and posture are distorted to avoid moving the buried area and this can lead to physical problems.

We find that it is necessary for the client to become an active explorer and experimenter in their own bodies so that the fixed patterns start to loosen and the trauma can start to come out of its prison and integrate with the rest of the body-mind.

In the course, we will show you :

how to work with the Fascia to gently and safely help the hidden area to re-connect
how bring the inner organs in that area into awareness and how to help them to initiate movement. and express themselves ‘in the first person’
how to help a client process trauma through movement without getting caught up in the historical story.
how to use the Six Forms of Touch to help the client’s body and mind to re-integrate
how to practice Inner Qigong and to teach basic Qigong to the client to strengthen their energy and create a safe space for the trauma to be processed.

Read an Article

THE JOY DIVISIONS: ALIGNING BODY AND MIND
Working with the Shao Yin and Tai Yang

Doing body therapies is not only about fixing problems, particularly if the condition is chronic. In chronic situations, it is easy to become dispirited and feel like a victim. In this workshop we will show how to use movement, bodywork and voice to focus on a person’s positive life-energy rather than on their problems. This approach touches the spirit and empowers the client.

We will show techniques for contacting the deepest structures in the body, the inner organs and the skeleton, and through these to activate the Shao Yin and Tai Yang channels. The Shao Yin connects the Kidney meridian to the Heart and provides a pathway for primal life energy to revitalise the body and light up the person’s life. Joy is the emotion you feel when you are in touch with your core spirit, which is why Bill calls the Shao Yin the Joy Division. The Tai Yang joins the Bladder to the Small Intestine and creates a clear channel for our authentic energy to be expressed in our actions without being squashed by social pressure.

In a way, working with these energies gives the deepest healing, because they show us how to be authentic and enjoy life even when we have difficulty

To read an article about this work, click here

INNER QIGONG & SOMATIC EXPLORATION RETREAT

This will be a retreat which you can do at home, guided by regular online sessions. Our aim is for renewal of energy, letting go of the past year, developing resilience and finding peace. In content, we will take you through all three series of Inner Qigong and show how to integrate them into a single practice.

Each day we will lead three or four live online sessions. We will provide a suggested timetable for the retreat built around these live sessions. In between them we will give you some prerecorded guided movement meditations which are designed to give you a deep experience of particular aspects of the body relevant to the qigong on that day.