Integrating Mindful Awareness Into Movement Instruction

Course overview

When patients lack movement awareness, they can undermine their progress and/or incur an injury by overdoing or performing exercises improperly. They can also fail to pace themselves and persist in activities or postures that result in symptom flares. In addition, clinicians may adopt a rigorous approach to teaching movement and lack appreciation for how simple, slow movements performed with awareness can promote symptom relief and treatment progress. This course addresses the need for professionals to both have an appreciation for the power of moving slowly with a therapeutic awareness and have skills to teach awareness to patients. Mindful movement is the practice of bringing open, friendly attention to the experience of the body and breath while engaged in movement. This course introduces the practice of mindful movement and highlights formal movement awareness practices and evidence for their application to patient care. A model for integrating mindful, therapeutic awareness into movement instruction is identified. An experiential exercise in moving with mindful awareness is offered to promote the direct experience of the power of moving slowly with friendly, present moment attention. Combining lecture and an experiential exercise, this course is applicable to healthcare professionals in both inpatient and outpatient settings serving patients who may lack body awareness and/or have been unsuccessful with traditional movement instruction.