Tactile Anatomy Immersion: Get To Know Your Organs

Our organs keep us alive and in good health, but how well do you know them in your own body? Can you actually sense them? Did you know that the pancreas feels like a wet bag filled with overcooked oatmeal, or that the heart is more of a ‘vortex’ than a pump?

Join Bex Naj, Elena Lake, and Dr. Myles O'Donnell for a day of organ stories and experiences. Elena will introduce the depths of what’s possible with tactile sensing, and orient you to your own tactile-sensing capacities. Myles will share locations, functions, and textural cues for various abdominal organs, as well as stories of interacting with them in their practice. Bex will bring us into the mind of each organ, through gentle movement, partnered touch and dialogue, and embodied group explorations of organ dynamics.

Organs we may cover include: the lungs, the heart, the esophagus and stomach, the blood, the pancreas, the liver, the small intestine, the large intestine, and the kidneys. We'll explore tactile and experiential cues on our own torsos, with partners, and with props — for example, cradling water balloons to explore hydrostatic pressure, and reenacting embryological patterns via group movements through space.

Our organs can store mechanical tensions which transmit to other places in our body - say, shoulders or neck - and Myles will demo some releases on audience volunteers. Bex will lead partnered touch and dialogue in which we experience our organs from the inside out, and understand ourselves more multi-dimensionally through their origins, morphologies, and relationships.

​Both Myles and Elena are bodyworkers who practice a form of organ-focused bodywork called visceral manipulation, which fills in a big blindspot of muscular-centric modalities. ​Bex is a Somatic Movement Educator, and brings her depth of anatomical and embryological knowledge to all the movement modalities she teaches, in service of greater body literacy and self knowledge for all.

About the Facilitators:

Bex Naj has been a dancer and mover her entire life. She is an E-RYT 500+ and Somatic Movement Educator. She has practiced yoga for more than two decades, taught private and group yoga, somatics, self myofascial release, and fitness classes for more than 15 years, and has spent the past decade immersed in Body-Mind Centering®, a somatic modality for exploring consciousness through your body, your movement, and your mind as a continuum of experience. She is working towards becoming a Somatic Movement Therapist in this modality. Her facilitation style reflects her deep enthusiasm for articulating nondual philosophy through the laboratory of embodied and relational research; that is, moving together. Learn more at http://bexnaj.yoga

Dr. Myles O’Donnell, DC is an Oakland-based somatic chiropractor specializing in somatic trauma-work, Bio-Geometric Integration, Visceral Manipulation, and Osteopathic Manual Therapy. They help untangle webs of trauma stored within the body’s tissues with gentle precise touch. Their practice emphasizes uncovering the hidden intricacies of the body and guiding clients towards a greater understanding of their own healing potential. Learn more at www.somaconnectionchiro.com

Elena Lake is probably the only bodyworker in the world with a degree from MIT in Math, Computer Science, and Physics. After graduating, she spent two years as a machine learning engineer. She learned a lot on that life path, including the heavy toll that stress takes on bodies and spirits. So she pivoted. Now the second chapter of her life is devoted to holistic healing, the nervous system, and high-resolution tactile sensing for helping people inhabit their bodies as a comfortable home. Learn more at https://www.elenalakebodywork.com/

Artist credit: Milica Golubovic

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