Passing4Normal

Passing 4 Normal podcast host, Sharon Weil, reflects upon lessons learned from this season’s interviews with somatic experts for navigating the unprecedented change and uncertainty of these coronavirus times. Harvesting the gems of their wisdom, she talks about how to find ground in a shifting scene by using our own inner-resources of breath, movement and felt-sense presence to transform illness, fear, and isolation into true connection and holistic wellbeing. sharonweilauthor.com

How can we stay the course of our lives when the course is drastically shifting due to coronavirus response? How do we wait for the unknown? Bonnie Gintis, osteopathic physician, Continuum somatic educator and author of Engaging the Movement of Life: Exploring Health and Embodiment, talks about how to find moment-to-moment stability in uncertainty, and how to maintain your good health through ongoing creative inquiry. bonniegintis.com

Volker Moritz, psychotherapist, sexologist, and Continuum somatic educator, talks about turning shelter into sanctuary by creating sacred space anywhere that we are. As we begin to emerge from our quarantine, how can we slow down—even as we are speeding back up—in order to retain connection with ourselves and the natural world that we are a part of?

Whether for raising your voice in protest and solidarity, or for finding expansive calm during social isolation, Linda Rabin, dance and movement pioneer, and Continuum somatic educator, talks about Leading from the Heart. It’s not just a metaphor; it’s a somatic practice that brings levity to the spaces around the heart, and a feeling of wellbeing so that our effective actions come from a sense of true connection and not from fear. Find out more about Linda here: www.lindarabin.com

Inside? Outside? Are you ready to go back out from your coronavirus shelter? Maybe not so, for some. Megan Bathory-Peeler, movement artist, bodywork therapist, and Continuum somatic educator, talks about the challenges of making the transition from inside to outside and what supports we need in order to carry a sense of spacious wellbeing out into the larger, face-paced world—now that we can.

Would you like to feel a sense of expansive freedom, movement, and interactive engagement even while sheltering at home? Rebecca Amis Lawson, psychotherapist, dance movement therapist, and Continuum somatic educator talks about how to use our perception of space and ground to help us locate and renew our relationships to ourselves, our environment, and to our sense of safety and wellbeing. The portals of our senses nourish our receptivity and provide inherent support that lifts us out of worry and future-fear into an immediate sense of presence anywhere and everywhere that we are. Find out more about Rebecca Lawson at HTTP://evolvingtherapies.com.

Some of us have fallen ill to COVID-19, or will. Bobbie Ellis, creator of Soma Yoga ™, Continuum somatic educator, and bodyworker, navigated the severe symptoms of the virus to recovery. She shares the body-based practices of breath and sense awareness tracking that navigated her healing.

The coronavirus quarantine has put us all on pause. Marcella Bottero, fitness expert, biodynamic craniosacral therapist, and Continuum somatic educator talks about how we can create a rich and fertile pause within the pause, discovering our own personal resiliency and the possibility of rediscovering ourselves.

Can we reframe our worldview from the primacy of the individual to one that includes all species and living elementals in thriving balance? Sabine Mead, somatic movement artist, teacher, and practitioner, shows us how to create an intimate relationship between our own inner landscape and the ones we live in through our felt-sense experience and the way we use language. Feeling our larger unity becomes the perfect medicine for soothing, regulating, trust, and hopeful repurposing. For more information about Sabine, visit: resonantbody.com.

Whether for movement or meditation, there’s no better time than now to begin or refine a personal practice for being with yourself while you must distance from others. Priscilla Stanton Auchincloss and Beth Pettengill Riley, authors of A Moving Inquiry, The Art of Personal Practice, show you how to create the time, space, and interest to begin enjoyable daily explorations of your own inner landscape. Bringing your practiced attention to the nuanced movement of your breath and body prepares you to better meet our ever-changing world with more resource and ease.

How can we stay healthy in the time of pandemic when there’s limited medical care available? Emma Destrubé, acupuncturist, herbalists and somatic therapist offers the perspective of traditional chinese medicine, informed by nature’s processes, as to how we can best nourish our health and become empowered agents of our own well-being, right now.

Creating a reciprocal relationship with the seen and unseen world can provide us with a rich sense of connection that enhances our sense of safety and belonging. Visual artist and somatic educator, Suzanne Wright Crain uses play theory and the imaginal realms in her art, in her teaching, and in her life. She looks and listens for cues that can become guidance for greater health and wellbeing, and encourage lightheartedness, even in times of stress and uncertainty. thecosmicbody.com

Anxiety and panic can grip the body in response to uncertainty and fear, real or imagined. It causes sleeplessness, a racing heart, and tight breathing. Kim Brodey, midwife, musician, and Continuum somatic educator, talks about how to use our own breath and movement to meet the panic response where it resides in the body, and eventually, how to return to a sense of balance and calm.

In troubled times, turn to beauty in order to refresh your emotions, spirit and soul. Elaine Colandrea, movement artist, somatic Continuum educator, and artistic director of Watermark Arts, talks about how receiving beauty, natural beauty and art can give us the kind of pleasure that can be potent medicine for these unsettled times. About Elaine: Elaine is a movement artist, Continuum teacher, somatic educator, and bodyworker. Elaine’s primary interests have always been the transformational aspects of moving, sounding and breathing, the connection with the natural world and a belief that an artful, embodied presence creates a more humane society. Based in the Hudson Valley of New York where she maintains a studio shared with other somatic explorers, Elaine also teaches regularly in Italy and has been an invited presenter at ISMETA, the Omega Institute, and Shantigar Foundation. Elaine has a M.A.in dance from Columbia University (1982) and was certified as a massage therapist by the Muscular Therapy Institute (1988.) Her clients and students, as well as health challenges, have also served as teachers. Elaine’s personal artistic and educational goals include: Peaceful, cultural revolution through embodied artistry Supporting the experience of wholeness Incorporating an understanding of interconnection with nature Exploring unitive experiences Dance reviewer Linda Diamond in 2012 called Elaine, “a wizard of new dance forms.” Kate Goldsmith, Northern Dutchess News, and Creative Living wrote in July 2012, “Elaine Colandrea is an alchemist and her medium is the human body.” Elaine is now directing Watermark Arts, an endeavor featuring somatically inspired arts, learning forums, and community engagement.

When you don’t have access to therapeutic touch, using your own touch can build immunity, and can create calm and healing. Emma Destrubé, acupuncturist, herbalist and somatic therapist, tells us how to use acupressure points and self-soothing touch to take care of our own health, wellbeing, and sense of connection. Find out more at emmadestrube.com Emma Destrubé is a board-certified, licensed acupuncturist, herbalist, and practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine, and is a registered somatic movement therapist/educator. Emma approaches her work with the belief that change is always possible, and that given the right context, support, and nourishment, every body has the potential to thrive. After studying at McGill University in Montreal, she relocated to Los Angeles to study somatic movement, including Continuum, Body-Mind Centering, and Taoist meditation and internal cultivation practices. She apprenticed under Emilie Conrad, somatic visionary and pioneer of the internal movement practice Continuum. As a Continuum teacher, Emma offers classes and workshops around the world, and integrates this work into her treatment strategy where applicable. Emma's immersive dedication to the path of internal cultivation led her to study Chinese medicine at Emperor’s College of Traditional Oriental Medicine, where she graduated summa cum laude with concentrations in classical acupuncture and Korean Nei-Jing style. Emma has practiced acupuncture at the Venice Family Clinic Integrative Medicine Chronic Pain Program, at Being Alive HIV/AIDS Clinic, at the Healthy Athletes Center at the 2015 Special Olympics World Games. Emma works and teaches internationally, and regularly offers in-depth healing intensives, workshops, and home visits in Los Angeles, CA, and runs a private practice in Midtown Atlanta, GA, Five Rivers Holistic. Outside of the acupuncture and movement studios, Emma is a writer and visual artist, and enjoys time in nature.

Frightened by the uncertainty of pandemic events? Susan Harper, somatic educator and founder of Continuum Montage speaks about how to create a tender relationship with our fears that, at the same time, opens us to new possibilities of vision and wholeness. Our breath and movement are the indicators and portals for returning to balance beneath the usual habits of orientation that have been so disrupted. Visit Susan at HTTP://Continuummmontage.com 
 Susan Harper is a Continuum teacher, a heart-soul-counselor, creative instigator, and inspired teacher of perceptual and movement inquiry. Susan has the ability through personal demonstration of sounds, breaths, and movement to transmit a primal and spiritual fluidity that inspires participation resulting in embodied innovative discoveries. Her students call her a moving storyteller, a dream weaver, one who opens portals into the vast space of creativity, which is available in all human beings. Susan joined Emilie Conrad, founder, in 1975 to study, and eventually became a partner in developing the organization and work of Continuum.  
 In 1977, Susan and Michael Stearns founded Continuum Montage as a record label to produce Michael's music and host her seminars. Today, Susan Harper offers Continuum Montage events, which include Continuum Workshops, Body of Relating Trainings, Body of Perception Training, and Living Dreams seminars. 
 In 1992, as a part of the 18th Street Arts Complex, Susan designed Continuum Studio, providing a creative gathering place for community. 
 In the early 90s Susan expanded the reach of Continuum to Japan, Finland, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. She leads seminars at Esalen Institute. She has led dozens of river trips throughout the western U.S, Alaska, and Mexico. She has led Quest trips in Thailand, Tibet, Bali, and Borneo — honoring the gifts of each culture, people, and place in resonant exchange.

In this time of uncertainty, learning to listen to your own inner knowing can be the best antidote to fear. Rachel Lang, intuitive astrologer and healer, talks about how to develop and trust your intuitive voice as a guide for connecting with your heart, your soul and your inner knowing.

Your Breathing is the First Line of Support for Your Health with Robert Litman Self-care starts with your own breath. Learn from breathing expert, Robert Litman, simple techniques and important information about how to use your breathing as your first line of support for your health and anti-viral protection in the time of the Coronavirus. About Robert: Robert Litman has guided clients and students in the use of movement, breath, and sound as a tool for personal growth, restoring healthy breathing rhythms, structural alignment, and efficient body mechanics. He founded The Breathable Body in 2003. He co-developed the Wellsprings Practitioner Program with Emilie Conrad, founder of Continuum Movement and co-taught with her for 18 years. Robert has been a faculty member and head of the Departments of Anatomy and Physiology and Movement Education at the Desert Institute of the Healing Arts Massage School. He teaches the Buteyko Breathing Technique, helping people with disorders such as asthma, anxiety, allergies, panic attacks, snoring, sleep apnea, insomnia, digestive disorders, fibromyalgia, and chronic fatigue to control their symptoms and reduce their medications. He was a preceptor at the University Of Arizona School Of Integrative Medicine teaching the Buteyko Breathing Technique to visiting doctors for Doctor Andrew Weil for 5 years. Robert has an advanced certification in The Duggan-French Approach – Somatic Pattern Recognition, which has provided him with hands-on skills to help guide clients’ movement and breath education awareness processes.-Graduate Certification as a Breathing Behavior Analyst. Robert now makes his home on Vashon Island, WA, continuing to offer private sessions and classes in movement and breathing. He regularly leads classes and workshops worldwide www.thebreathablebody.com

Feeling stressed, upended or afraid? Dr. Amber Gray, somatic psychotherapist, dance therapist and Continuum teacher offers insight and practical exercises to find peace, calm and a sense of personal connection from fears triggered by the uncertainty and isolation in these time of the coronavirus pandemic Amber Elizabeth Gray Amber is a licensed mental health professional and psychotherapist, board-certified dance movement therapist, authorized Continuum Movement teacher and public health professional with extensive experience in clinical service provision, program development and management (including evaluation) and training. Amber has worked clinically with survivors of organized violence, torture, war and combat-related trauma, ritual abuse, domestic violence, and community violence for over twenty years. She has worked in program development and management with survivors of human rights abuses for almost thirty years. Amber is trained in Somatic Psychology, Dance Movement Therapy, Contemplative Practice, and Authentic Movement. She also has training in Ecopsychology, Somatic Experiencing, EMDR, Trauma-Focused CBT, Parent-Child Psychotherapy, Mindfulness-based Therapies, Yoga, Life Impressions Bodywork, Cranial-Sacral Therapy, and she is an Authorized Continuum teacher. She teaches and provides training to professionals and paraprofessionals who work with survivors of extreme interpersonal and social trauma worldwide who wish to integrate somatic, movement, mindfulness and creative arts based therapies into their work. She also works with governmental and non governmental organizations responding to disasters and complex humanitarian emergencies to develop and sustain staff care programs for their teams.

Susan Harper, founder of Continuum Montage, creates experiential contexts for perception and movement awareness, and creative expression. Susan and Sharon discuss how to engage the world as if for the first time through “eyes of wonder”, and how to find the safety required to take the risks involved in meeting the unknown. Continuummontage.com

Tisha Morris is a feng shui expert, best-selling author, and life coach. Tisha and Sharon discuss the relationship between your home, your body, and your life. Tisha tells how to create change in your life through clearing and rearranging your home environment, including clearing your clutter. Earthhome.tv

Dale Bell and Harry Wiland, co-founders of Media Policy Center, are award-winning documentary filmmakers, media producers, and agents of social change. Dale, Harry and Sharon discuss the role media plays in inspiring social change, and their particular model for transforming inspiration into action steps on behalf of essential issues such as: greener cities, the VW emissions scandal, and elder care. Mediapolicenter.org

Have you felt immobilized by the results of this presidential election? Shut down? Off-balance? Somatic psychologist and trauma specialist, Amber Gray, talks with Sharon Weil about how real and imagined terror and fear affect the body, creating either a shutting down response or an impulse towards fight or flight action. She provides essential and helpful insight and tools for finding calm, restoration, and a return to mobility and social engagement after difficult events. These tools apply to any stressful, shocking, or life-altering change. Listen and find comfort in her words.

Wendy Hammers is an outrageous, outspoken, spoken-word artist and champion. As an actress, writer, stand up comic, teacher and the producer of the long-running Tasty Words spoken-word salon in Los Angeles, she presents hilarious, heartwarming, and heartbreaking stories of personal change. A good story is an interaction between the storyteller and the witness that will transform each of them. A funny story quickly provides an unexpected prospective. She spoke with Sharon Weil about creating community, the empowerment of storytelling, and the healing properties at the core of both. If you like this episode, you might enjoy "Creative Translation" with Jackie Welch Schlicher. https://soundcloud.com/sharon-weil/creative-translation-jackie-welch-schlicher-with-sharon-weil

Lorin Roche, PhD is an eclectic meditation master, teacher, and the author of many books, including the acclaimed The Radiance Sutras. Having studied meditation traditions from all over the world, he offers embodied meditation practices for 21st century women and men. He talks with Sharon Weil about the primacy and the simplicity of meditation in order to be more adaptive to change. Lorin says there are many portals to meditation, and a meditation practice can be individual and should be joyous, according to a person’s desires and tendencies. He speaks about how to enter meditation through the senses, not by “quieting the mind.” Listen for an entirely new kind of invitation into deep rest, full presence, and meditation. If you like this episode, you might enjoy "The Anatomy of Anxiety" with Robert Litman. https://soundcloud.com/sharon-weil/the-anatomy-of-anxiety-robert-litman-with-sharon-weil

Kori Tolbert is a health coach and patient advocate who has transformed her own life-long journey with a debilitating illness into teaching young patients to empower themselves and improve their health outcomes by maximizing choice in how they perceive and receive treatment.

Billy Mernit is considered the guru of rom-coms; an expert on the genre and on the entire story-writing process. Listen to him discuss what’s changed in romance and how it’s portrayed, and how the writer changes with the changing genre.

A new, exciting, follow-up discussion with Dr. Anna O'Malley, MD, Integrative and Family Community medical physician and founder/director of Natura Institute for Ecology and Medicine, as she conveys how our food choices and our habits around what we eat can be some of the greatest determinants for our health and well-being—reducing the inflammation and stressors underlying many degenerative conditions.

Dr. Anna O’Malley is an Integrative Family and Community medical doctor seeking a more integrated, self - engaged and restorative model for health and wellness that includes modern medicine, food choices, community and a deep connection to the natural world. She is the founder/director of the Natura Institute for Ecology and Medicine in Bolinas, California, offering nature-based health education programs.

Life Coach, Debbie Spector Weisman, guides people in how to utilize the rich images and messages of the dream world to enact changes in their waking lives. Listen to how you can become more attuned to this wonderful, nightly resource that is always available for self- discovery.

The human body is a creative process, with many portals to health and well-being. Dr. Bonnie Gintis, DO, uniquely combines osteopathy, mindfulness, Continuum, and other body-awareness practices to expand the possibilities of deeply caring for ourselves and others--becoming full participants in our own health and healing.

Do you stress about spending too much while earning too little? Financial Stress Reduction coach and author, Chellie Campbell is lively, wise, and entertaining as she talks about how to change your mindset around all the messages we carry about money --whether you have none or tons. She’ll help you finance the changes you want for your life in peace and prosperity.

Wildfires on the west coast are a new normal; challenging our ability to breathe and to remain calm when the fires burn around us. Breath and movement expert, Robert Litman discusses how to protect your breathing during wildfire season or in times when the air is not suitable. Your life could depend upon it.

Laurie Lipton is a visionary artist whose vision is at once disturbing, ironic, and full of piercing truth. Her intricate pencil drawings are biting social commentary revealing the mechanisms behind the façade, isolation in the age of social media, and questions about control. What is the artist’s role in bringing others to awareness? Find out in this fun and insightful interview.

Paul Loeb, social and political activist, discusses integration and change with John Weeks, integrative medicine practitioner.

Jackie Welch-Schlicher and Rebecca Mark are both artists who have mastered the art of listening deeply, receptivity and response, and playing with the magic of the unexpected. Each of them uses “an open hand” when crafting their work, which allows the artistic expression to reflect the improvisational nature of life. The practice of trust rather than control, receiving rather than forcing, keeps the work fresh and alive no matter what the form or task.

Amber Gray and Fred Sugerman use body-based therapies and practices to inspire hope and change. New possibilities for health, healing, well-being, and pleasure rather than pain, can be discovered through movement, new sensations, and the unwinding of old and painful patterns. When we can reframe our felt experience, we can Have Hope for new outcomes. Listen to how.

Nature is change. Permaculture experts Penny Livingston-Stark and James Stark explore how to facilitate change with more ease when we Align with Nature. The natural world provides all the examples and support we need to adapt to any changing circumstance, both internal and external, real or in metaphor; whether we dwell in the forest or in the middle of the city.

Jacques Verduin and Robert Litman work with bringing awareness to every moment in very different settings. Jacques Verduin is a leader in restorative justice working in prisons, Robert Litman is a breath and movement educator working with clients, many of whom suffer from asthma, anxiety, or other breathing disorders. Their discussion is a lively exploration of how the simplicity of breath and sense awareness is the beginning of any journey to change.

Meditation mentor, Camille Maurine, and intuitive astrologer, Rachel Lang, Spark Fire as they discuss passion, pleasure, and finding your purpose. Uncovering your passion motivates action that can burn through fear, reluctance, and ambivalence. Riding the wild currents of your own passion requires a play of both courage and tenderness. Listen to find out how.

Deena Metzger and Amanda Foulger engage with community in every aspect of the healing and teaching work they each do. The support needed for change comes from both seen and unseen communities: helpful people, ancestor spirits, plant and animal spirit guides. In walking hundreds of people through transformative change, Deena and Amanda share how they teach others how to locate the multi-dimensional support they need, and to trust the support they receive.

Can young voters impact the midterm elections? Citizen activist and author, and speaker, Paul Rogat Loeb founded the nonpartisan Campus Election Engagement Project to engage twenty million college students across the country in the election process: to register, volunteer in campaigns, educate themselves and turn out at the polls. Find out how you can make your vote count. If you like this episode, you might enjoy "Soul of a Citizen" with Paul Loeb. Sharon-weil – Soul-of-a-citizen-paul-loeb-with-sharon-weil

Amber Gray is tireless in helping to restore resilience in the most extreme circumstances through body-based therapy and education. As a somatic therapist and psychotherapist, she works with survivors of war, disaster, political torture, domestic violence, ritual abuse; all forms of extreme interpersonal and social trauma where bodies have been made to lock down in fear or terror. She also trains relief teams, worldwide. Amber says, “Our bodies are the site of all human experience,” so this is where the healing can and must take place.

Sharon Weil talks with Magicians Without Borders' Tom Verner and Janet Fredericks. Together they travel to refugee camps and orphanages around the world bringing magic and laughter to some of the most war-torn, forgotten places on Earth. Magic brings the hope that change is possible, even from unseen places. If you like this episode, you might enjoy "Trauma, Fear, and Restoring Resilience" with Amber Grey. https://soundcloud.com/sharon-weil/sharon-weil-w-amber-gray-tra

Amanda Foulger, calls in the spirits from the unseen world, which is very much a part of our own. Shamanic practitioner, teacher, and healer, Amanda Foulger talks with Sharon Weil about how we can return our world and our lives to the sacred by honoring the earth, plants, animals, and the spirits that inhabit them and guide us. There is a multi-dimensional network of spiritual support to assist with many conditions, questions and problems of human life. The capacity we have to change our world is full of great possibility. If you like this episode, you might enjoy "ChangeAbility: Seeing with the Eyes of Wonder" with Susan Harper. https://soundcloud.com/sharon-weil/seeing-with-the-eyes-of-wonder-with-susan-harper

Jackie Welch Schilcher is the consummate creative artist, an accomplished Nashville actress, singer, writer, director, creativity coach and drop dead funny improv performer… now she is working with clay! Sharon Weil and Jackie travel fascinating territory in discussing how one form of creative expression translates into another, and what is at the core of them all. For Jackie, it’s improvisation, meeting the unexpected with authentic, curious, playful response. All problem solving requires creativity, and all creative expression is shaped by the question, what else can I do with this? Find out. If you like this episode, you might enjoy "ChangeAbility: Speaking Up, Laughing it Up, Together" with Wendy Hammers. https://soundcloud.com/sharon-weil/changeability-speaking-up-laughing-it-up-together-with-wendy-hammers

Sharon Weil talks with Adam Wolpert, painter, permaculturist and group facilitator about the moving patterns of relationship in nature, art, and group dynamics. As one of the founders of Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, Adam holds a fascinating, holistic perspective. “Every form tells a story,” Adam says, “the relationships are expressed by the form." When it comes to group dynamics and finding agreement, it is necessary to look to the recognizable patterns while at the same time allowing the unexpected to emerge. Creating the unique and particular map through any reorganization or conflict requires deep listening, an embrace of the constant movement of Change, and finding the forms that can serve. Find out how Adam Wolpert does it!

The tables are turned when Sharon Weil is interviewed by guest host, Rachel Lang. It’s the Thanksgiving show, and with deep gratitude, Sharon discusses her thinking behind the creation of the Passing 4 Normal Podcast, her ideas about personal bravery, creating change, and why it is she passes for normal.

Passing 4 Normal Podcast, hosted by Sharon Weil, is a show about Change. Her guests are remarkable, everyday heroes who create and adapt to change in their own unique and inspiring ways…and inform how you can too! Join us for lively discussions, fascinating insight, and valuable information about the one certainty in life…Change. This acclaimed podcast has inspired the book, ChangeAbility: How Artists, Activists, and Awakeners Navigate Change (available on amazon)

Sharon Weil talks with Beth Rosales, philanthropic advisor, about strategic charitable giving for social change. For more than 35 years, Beth has made a priority to “move money” towards strengthening social justice movements around the country, serving in senior capacities for progressive foundations including Vanguard Public Foundation, Funding Exchange, Tides, Women’s Foundation of California, and Marguerite Casey Foundation. Beth says, “95% of Americans give money and volunteer their time, aligned with their values.” In this rare interview, Beth shares her vast expertise as to why people give, how they give, and how you can focus even small amounts of money towards the causes and changes you believe in.

Sharon Weil engages with author/activist-awakener, Paul Rogat Loeb. Paul Loeb wrote the book on citizen engagement and activism in Soul of a Citizen, The Impossible Will Take a Little While, and several other seminal books. A true awakener, Paul discusses the simple steps one can take towards greater, effective, grassroots involvement in social action for important issues – leading from the heart to help change the world, one action at a time. Loeb says, “You do something…and you don’t know where it will lead.” If you like this conversation, you might enjoy "Get Out the College Vote" with Paul Rogat Loeb. http://soundcloud.com/sharon-weil/get-out-the-college-vote-with-paul-rogat-loeb