International Association of Teachers in Basic Body Awareness Therapy

Dear all, please share the information about a new online introduction course coming this March!

COVID brings limitations, but also chances… In 2022 you do not need a flight ticket, just an internet connection. 

Responsible: Liv Helvik Skjærven, PT, PhD, Teacher in BBAM, Professor in Physiotherapy Emerita, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Bergen, Norway; Master of Physiotherapy in BBAM, University of Almeria, Spain. 

Fourteen highly motivated Physiotherapists from 11 Countries and four Continents participated in the four days Online International Introduction Course in BBAT April 19th – 22nd 2021, all through zoom-communication. The participants were from: United Arab Emirates, Germany, Hong Kong (2), Estonia (2), Singapore, Greece (2), Spain, US, UK, Denmark, Canada. See photo below, followed by a personal description from one of the course-participants. (26.04.21, lhs)

Reflection from Online International Introductory BBAT Course April 2021

“I recently discovered Basic Body Awareness Technique, BBAT by accident while doing a google search on body awareness. I was looking to get some inspiration for a mindful movement group I was facilitating and our theme for that month was awareness. I discovered that a 16 hour course was starting in 2 weeks. I signed up and I am so glad I did! BBAT is a physiotherapy approach that encompasses so many elements of being human, more than just the physical, which is primarily the focus in Physiotherapy. It was amazing to see the years of research that have gone into developing this method and it was wonderful to discover that there were other Physiotherapists around the world interested in this holistic style of practice. We were 15 PTs coming together virtually via Zoom for 4 hours, 4 days in a row. The daily agenda for the course allowed us time to learn, experience, discover and share together which added a richness to each session. I was able to pay for the course through my bank as an international wire transfer. I wish to thank Liv for creating this virtual introductory course to allow PTs from all over the world to participate from the comfort of their own homes and save us all travel time and expenses. Thank you!!!”

Bonnie Doyle, Nova Scotia, Canada

In this special time, during the global pandamic of COVID-19, we are all challenged in our liveson many levels. In these times with limitations and restrictions it was time to turn on the heel and find a way to meet the need of the society. In January 2021 Liv Helvik Skjærven, on behalf of the NIBK, organized the first online BBAT introduction course. And it is to be considered to be a succes!

Online International Introduction Course in 

BASIC BODY AWARENESS THERAPY (BBAT)

Norwegian Institute for Basis Body Awareness Therapy (NIBK), 

within the Specialty of Mental Health Physiotherapy

Monday, 11^th – Thursday, 14^th of January, (16hrs) 2021

The Online Introduction course was the first in 2021 and 14 PT s from different European and Asian counties participated in the 16hrs course spread on four days. The course showed BBAT to be possible to be presented online through zoom – when paying attention to several technical, camera and mic-aspects. 

PHOTO; Screenshot by: Agnieszka Czapnik, PT Poland/Belgium 

One of the 14 participants was so kind to share her experiences, which you can all read below:

Online International Introduction in Basic Body Awareness Therapy (16hrs), January, Monday 11th  – Thursday 14th, (16hrs), 2021. 

Course leader: Liv Helvik Skjærven, PT, PhD, Norway, NIBK/IATBBAT. The Intro-course had 14 participants: from Greece, Poland, Belgium, UK, Finland, Hong Kong, Singapore, Estonia, Latvia, the Netherlands. 

Reflection from participant in the BBAT Introduction Course: 

Working as a physiotherapist in mental health care, I often observe in my patients lack of body – mind connection. Since schizophrenia affects all domains of daily functioning, the treatment cannot be restricted to only one of them. It has to address a whole human being. I asked myself, how do I work towards “the whole” of the segmented body? Also, am I present in my body as a therapist? Applying for the Online International Introduction in BBAT, I was searching for answers to those questions. I was also looking for structure, a concrete tool to use in my daily clinical practice. 

Signing up into an online course can be risky, especially if floor – work is a dominant component! I was hesitating about the digital formula influencing the quality of the (practical) experience. It surprised me how intimate connection we created as a group, although each of us was alone thousands of kilometres away. Despite of the computer wall, we related to each other, although in such a different way! 

Online platform was used efficiently not only as a connecting tool. Besides the community experience, it also delivered a quality experience (of BBAT). We built up a significant foundation of a theoretical framework, getting to know specific vocabulary and evaluation scale. The most important knowledge came though from the experience – from smooth gliding movements up and down, from rhythmical bouncing and switching off the busy mind, tuning into the body instead.

It was a process, where I learnt from my own experience as much as from the others, listening to diversity of their stories. Although we represent a set of universal characteristics as a human kind, we differ person to person. We experienced unity in different perception of the same movements. 

It was also a process, where I observed how familiarity and structure allowed me to freely experience the movement (itself). Although simple and repeated in daily life, the movements tasted new to me. They were new to me on Monday, then again on Tuesday and they still surprised me on the very last day of this course!

It takes time and effort to get in touch with yourself. It takes attentive listening to your body. It finally takes courage to trust that the movement is within you. 

BBAT brings along the opportunity to self – development and in the same time, a very concrete tool to be implemented in a clinical practice. Above all, it works even through an online platform. Connection with a group is important but the most important is the one you made – tuning your body and mind.

21.01.2021 Belgium/Poland, Agnieszka Czapnik (s)

After Jordy den Engelsman became a teacher in Februari 2020, two more teachers passed their exam in a special way. During the most intensive weeks of the world-wide Covid-19 pandemic, when societies were closed down, the first online exam of six full hours, the final oral exam, gaining Pedagogical Competence in BBAT, was organised from Bergen, Norway. 

It was the two physiotherapists from Faro Island, Liv Egholm and Jorun Simonsen, both working at the Psychiatric Hospital in Thorshavn, who had prepared their Portfolio and Essay. Together these papers were overviewing and describing more than 6 years of studying the pedagogy of teaching physiotherapy, Basic Body Awareness Therapy (BBAT) - individual and group therapeutic settings -, the evaluation tool of Body Awareness Rating Scale- Movement Quality and Experience (BARS-MQE), and the models of the phenomenon of Movement Quality and the Therapeutic Components. 

The experience from fulfilling an oral exam, qualifying as Teacher in BBAM through online communication, with the diversity of facets to be included, showed to be dynamic and fully possible.

We congratulate the two candidates and wish them good luck in the future teaching of physiotherapy in the broad spectrum of human movements principles.

Click here to read about the lived experiences about the exam from Jorun and Liv.

Kind regards 

Mary Anne Sundal and Liv Helvik Skjærven  

Norwegian Institute of Basic Body Awareness Therapy (NIBK)