Sometimes words fail me. This work that exists as an embodied, relational and utterly subjective experience, is sometimes challenging to translate into exact descriptions of what it is and how one might benefit from it.
Below I am sharing some words from students, and their experiences with the work I teach. I hope their words, often more eloquent than my own, can fill some of the gaps, providing you glimpses into why this work, in my opinion, is remarkable and essential.
"Arvostus kehon viisaudesta, omasta olemassa olosta ja elämää kohtaan kaikkinensa lisääntyi sinun kurssisi jälkeen."
(Kehitykselliset Liikemallit, 2017)
"Tämä kurssi avasi niin monia näkökulmia, joista en olisi osannut unelmoidakaan. Ecosomatics-kurssi on ollut yksi vaikuttavimmista, ellei jopa vaikuttavin kurssi koko opiskeluideni aikana. Kurssin alkaessa olin erittäin uupunut ja pohdin moneen otteeseen, onko minulla voimia osallistua, mutta salliva ja lempeä tapa, jolla Satu otti meidät vastaan ja tunnelma, joka oli läsnä koko kurssin ajan, oli äärimmäisen voimaannuttava ja kokonaisvaltainen. Edelleen tuntuu, että laskeutuminen arkeen ecosomatics-kuplamme ulkopuolella on käynnissä ja oppimisprosessi on vasta alkanut.
Sadun opetusta oli kiehtovaa seurata ja hänen tilanteenlukutaitonsa oli
ilmiömäinen. Kokonaisuus muodostui monista oppimisen yksityiskohdista joista yksi oli havahdus ihmiskehon ja -mielen huokoisuuteen, ajattelun motoriikkaan ja miten kaikki on kaikkeen yhteydessä. Luennoinnin ja toiminnan tasapaino oli valloittava. Tämä liittyy juuri Sadun taitoon lukea tilannetta, missä ryhmä menee, mitä se kullakin hetkellä tarvitsee jne.
Kurssista kirjoittaminen tässä vaiheessa ei anna oikeutta koetuille hetkille ja
heränneille havainnoille, sillä en saa muotoiltua sanoja kuvaamaan näiden
kokonaisvaltaisuutta. Tämä kurssi on ollut vavahduttava kokemus.
Syvä kiitollisuus."
(Ekosomatiikka 2017)
"Sadun luoma ilmapiiri oli erityislaatuinen ja oppimisen kannalta otollinen. Hyvä
suhde teoriaa, tekemistä ja sulattelua. Asiasisältö itsessään on aivan erityisen ytimiin menevää ja työskentely avaa isoja näköaloja koko olemassaoloomme osana muuta luontoa, kysymyksien lähestyminen ruumiillisina ja solullisina tapahtumina auttaa hahmottamaan ympäristö-ja kehosuhteita uudella tavalla."
(Ekosomatiikka 2017)
"Mikä oli aivan erityisen hyvää kurssilla; Sadun hyväksyvä, kuuleva, ohjaamaton läsnäolo. Opin pedagogisestikin paljon."
(Ekosomatiikka 2017)
"If I could bottle up some of your wise, earthy, radiant energy and bring it back home, I would! I have learnt so much from you, because you know how to truly teach and guide! The love and compassion you have for your students, the body, dance, art and life, is inspirational. Thank you for your love and support."
(Somatic Education, 2014)
"Kiitos. Läsnäolosi rehellisyys ja kauneus on koskettavaa! Olet ensimmäinen opettaja, joka on täysin hurmannut minut opetuksen tavallaan ja tavalla olla läsnä - sekä todentaa kehollaan opettamaansa."
(Somatic Education, 2014)
"Thank you for your love and support in creating the container for this work in Berlin and giving so many of us a chance to touch or deepen these in ourselves. I also want to say I have learnt so much from your teaching, in your methods and flow and focus and enthusiasm. I came back to the second module just as much because of you and your representation of the work, as my interest in the material.
I am thankful for your generosity and love and commitment."
(Socially Conscious Body, 2014)
"I am in exactly the right place and the Moving On Center was a life-changing, perspective shifting, re-centering and reminding and returning experience for me. I can not express my gratitude [enough]. I want to continue the work. I am seeing thrilling applications of this work in personal and interpersonal and macro conflict transformation. I also feel so excited to be at the beginning of developing the tools to maintain my own center and open and root under pressure rather than close or scatter or escape.."
(Somatic Education, 2014)
The fascia and core support classes filled several holes in my experience/ knowledge and really helped me to make some new connections intellectually and physically. There were some pieces of information floating out there that I was able to finally tie together .. I appreciate how much you were able to share with us in the limited time that you had. I had also recently read through the later part of Eric Franklin's Pelvic Power book and came away doubting that I could ever feel the connection from my tongue to my pelvis. But then, this was exactly what we did with you. I loved the deep fascial pathway that you shared with us - it was beautiful - yes, really beautiful - connecting feet to pelvis to heart to tongue! Poetic as well … Even though I believe in full-body connectedness, the fascial work gave me a way to imagine and sense this connection - to become aware of the sensual connection within our body..."
(Laban/Bartenieff Certification Training, 2014)
"..None of this work would have reached as deep as it had without the teachers who guided us through. I felt supported, witnessed, and protected within a container enough to travel into the Self that is the infinite experience of my "vessel," my body, through the guidance of these teachers. Our journey was certainly our responsibility. Our experiences were there for us to handle and to hold. But I knew that through whatever discovery was made in the work i was held, truly, in the care of those who are deeply experienced and know the capacity of this work. I found deep relief and a reclamation of my experience. In blatant terms, I felt guided into a territory of Truth. And am infinitely grateful for the delicate and wise manner of my teachers, the way they brought us through unchartered territory."
(Somatic Education, 2013)
"Satu and Sten cultivated the conditions for me to enter into the core of my body and to accept what emerged. Never before have I entered a space so free of judgement, but with the necessary discipline and guidance to remain in the work. Their attitude was nurturing and supportive but I really appreciated this sense that they restored my responsibility to nurture myself through my work and discovery. This was empowering."
(Core of Expression, 2013)
"I will and am recommending this workshop to fellow performers but for me this training in the "here and now" is not only about performing, I am encountering big changes in the way I go about my daily life and it feels almost like a spiritual practice. I think people following a therapeutical approach would be very interested in this way of developing the awareness continuum and of exercising the capacity to identify mechanic reactions and make space to choose new responses."
(Core of Expression, 2013)