Gabrielle Rivero

Recent literature from Bessel Van Der Kolk conveyed that the body holds sensations, traumas, and emotions within the body whether we realize it or not, thus reinforcing the common saying ‘the brain forgets but the body remembers’. But often, we address emotional dysregulation, stress, and anxiety through medication or ancient therapeutic practices. But what if we could address our stress and emotional dysregulation not just with Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), but also with therapeutic movement? During this interactive session, we will explore how to identify what emotions, sensations, and trauma live within the body and address the importance of utilizing movement to process and release sensations and emotions in the body. We will discuss our research-based method and how it created significant statistical changes in Phq9 (Depression) scores in a small sample of African American Women.

We will teach facilitators the Lenae Release Method Kids (LRM) movement practice that helps pre-k-12th grade students learn how to recognize and release emotions in their bodies through movement. Our movement workshop will be comprised of a body recognition warm-up, leading into a group discussion on anger, following a group-led choreographed dance on anger, that ends with adding in music to help elicit our emotional release of anger. After our dance, we will discuss how we can utilize the LRM Kids practice for any of the emotions we feel to learn how to accept the emotions we feel, express them through movement, to release them from the self. This practice helps kids learn how to utilize movement to improve their emotional health and wellness, as we teach kids how to listen to their bodies and respond to them in safe ways that do not cause harm to the self, others, or their environment.

This interactive workshop presents novel research on utilizing movement to help with the recognition and release of stored emotions within the body through movement. Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) reveals its limitations as it focuses solely on the mind but lacks engagement with the body. The Lenae Release Method (LRM), bridges the gap between the mind and the body, utilizing movement to reconnect the mind- back to the body often contributing to better results with CBT therapy and helping individuals process and heal. Participants will learn the 8 movement practices that have been associated with significantly