Sensory Awareness / Organizations

Sensory Awareness Foundation
The best resource for information about Sensory Awareness and Charlotte Selver.

Sensory Awareness Leaders Guild
Contact addresses for Sensory Awareness Leaders in the US, Canada, Mexico, and Europe.

Ruth Matter Stiftung, Switzerland - Entfaltung des Menschen
Die geistigen und ideellen Grundlagen der «Ruth Matter Stiftung» gehen zurück in die 20-er Jahre des letzten Jahrhunderts, einer Blütezeit geistigen Aufbruchs. Aus unserem Blickwinkel von Interesse sind die Gestaltpsychologie, die künstlerischen Bewegungen, vorab das Bauhaus sowie der aus dem reformpädagogischen Umfeld entstandene erwachsenenbildnerische Ansatz zur Nachentfaltung von Heinrich Jacoby.

arbeitskreis heinrich jacoby / elsa gindler, Switzerland
A beautiful resource for information on Gindler/Jacoby work and Sensory Awareness in German.
Eine Interessengemeinschaft für alle, die an der Jacoby/Gindler-Arbeit interessiert sind; eine Dachorganisation für alle, die aktiv in der Arbeit stehen; ein Forum für Austausch, Diskussion und Information sowie Aktualisierung und zeitgemässe Vermittlung der Arbeit.

Heinrich-Jacoby/Elsa-Gindler - Stiftung, Germany
Die gemeinnützige Heinrich-Jacoby/Elsa-Gindler- Stiftung wurde 1985 von Sophie Ludwig gegründet. Sie dient dem Zweck, die Nachlässe von Heinrich Jacoby, Elsa Gindler und ihrer langjährigen Mitarbeiterin Sophie Ludwig zu verwalten, Dokumente und Ergebnisse ihrer Arbeit der Öffentlichkeit zugänglich zu machen und die praktische wie wissenschaftliche Auseinandersetzung mit ihr zu fördern.

Wege der Entfaltung, e.V., Germany
Der Verein "Wege der Entfaltung" ist eine gemeinnützige Organisation, die dem Lebenswerk von Elsa Gindler, Heinrich Jacoby, Elfriede Hengstenberg, Charlotte Selver und Emmi Pikler verbunden ist. Ihr Anliegen ist es, die Erfahrungen und Erkenntnisse dieser wegweisenden Pädagogen in der Erziehung von Kindern und Jugendlichen wie auch in der Arbeit mit Erwachsenen umzusetzen und zu vertiefen.

Sensory Awareness / Leaders

Seymour Carter
Seymour Carter, Gestalt teacher at Esalen for more than three decades, is a lifelong student of the ever evolving models of personal identity. He teaches Gestalt Practice and Sensory Awareness in the US and Europe. He was a student of Fritz Perls at Esalen in the 60's, and has been a student of Charlotte Selver since 1967. He combines studies in family systems theory with Buddhism, Sensory Awareness and other Mind/Body oriented practices.

Judyth Weaver
"My therapeutic techniques draw on over 35 years of meditative practice and study of t'ai chi ch'uan, qi gong, sensory awareness, as well as craniosacral, Reichian, and pre- and perinatal therapy. I am professor of Somatic Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies and the creator and director of the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute Ph.D. Program in Somatic Psychology." (from Judyth Weaver's web site)

Lee Klinger Lesser - Return To Our Senses
"Our sensations guide us to the wild, fresh terrain of each moment. It is only here that we can meet fully whatever life offers." "Returning to our senses can help us appreciate and live well the gifts of our lives, while meeting the challenges that surround us with energy and care." (from the web site)

Terry Ray
"There are different ways of knowing. Intellectual understanding is factual, measurable, and can be precisely communicated. Knowledge from direct or subjective experience is not measurable. Sense perception is knowledge as experience versus knowledge as information. We can Know hunger, Know digestion, Know what is right for us, Know when someone is telling the truth, and so on, and in this way we come to our own wisdom. As children we lived this way naturally.
Sensing (Sensory Awareness) is the living of a reality that is tangible. We experience our own existence within the envelop of our skin. In our direct perception there can be no authority outside of our own sense doors. If we don't find out for ourselves, we haven't really found out. We can be inspired. We can be given tools. We can be pointed in a certain direction. We can practice with others, but we go the way alone." (from the web site)

Leonore Quest und Thomas Niering - Bewegungsraum am Lietzensee

"der bewegungsraum am lietzensee ist ein ort der konzentration und der entfaltung neuer bewegungsmöglichkeiten.
leonore quest, thomas niering und elisabeth kann, bieten einzelstunden in körper –und bewegungstherapie gruppenstunden und wochenendkurse an. elisabeth kann arbeitet zusätzlich als physiotherapeutin, sie und thomas niering geben massagen.
grundlagen der körper-und bewegungsarbeit sind die goralewski-arbeit, benannt nach frieda goralewski, sowie sensory awareness-erleben durch die sinne, wie charlotte selver ihr eigenes lebenswerk bezeichnet hat. sie und frieda goralewski waren schülerinnen der im letzten jahrhundert hochgeschätzten berliner körpertherapeutin elsa gindler." (from the web site)

Related Organizations

Michael Tophoff
Dr.Tophoff is the founder of the Praktijk voor Psychotherapie N.Holland and the director of Personal Resource Consultants. In Europe and in Asia he conducts management-training seminars on mindfulness and person-centered human resource management. He studied Sensory Awareness with Charlotte Selver for many years and has integrated the practice into his training seminars for managers.

The Somatic Health Center
The Somatic Health Center of St. Helena covers the full spectrum of movement programs necessary to stimulate rehabilitation, health, wellness & performance. The Directors are: Beverly Davies-Mes and Servaas Mes. Beverly is a Certified Massage Therapist and Massage Instructor since 1993.  She is also a Hanna Somatic Educator, a Reiki Master Teacher and a professional Clairvoyant. Servaas is a Registered Physiotherapist (Canada, The Netherlands), a Hanna Somatic Educator, and much more...

Barbara Ocusono, Switzerland - KörperAchtsamkeit, Eutonie
Den Körper als Quelle von Lebendigkeit und Weisheit wertschätzen und pflegen: sich wahrnehmen im Liegen, Sitzen, Stehen und Gehen, Tanzen, Tönen, Dehnen und Entspannen - allein oder mit andern zusammen.
Babara was my very first teacher in a somatic approach to exploring the human condition. She is a very seasoned practitioner and wonderful teacher.

Barbara Kopf, Germany
Eutonie ist ein Weg ...... zur Ruhe und Entspannung...die eigene Mitte zu finden...Selbstheilungskräfte zu aktivieren...Verspannungen loszulassen... Bedürfnissen Raum zu geben...zu Stabilität und Kraft im Alltag.

Work with Children

The Pikler Institute
The International Emmi Pikler Foundation at Lóczy is guided by the mission of founder Dr. Emmi Pikler to offer aid in raising healthy, happy children. Established in 1946, this agency, with worldwide recognition, is dedicated to empowering children and families through outreach programs that serve the child, parent and caregiver. The Pikler objectives recognize the need to offer an environment where children are respected and nurtured to become emotionally, socially, and mature individuals, able to adjust to the needs of others and the real and comprehensible needs of society.

Resources for Infant Educarers
RIE is a non-profit organization that has developed and is teaching a unique philosophy and methodology in working with infants. The RIE approach, based on respect, helps raise authentic infants who are: competent, confident, curious, attentive, exploring, cooperative, secure, peaceful, focused, self-initiating, resourceful, involved, cheerful, aware, interested and inner-directed.

Pikler - Hengstenberg Gesellschaft, Austria
Verein zur Unterstützung von selbstbestimmtem Lernen und einem respektvollen Umgang mit Kindern, Erwachsenen und sich selbst.

Buddhism

Buddhist Peace Fellowship
Buddhist Peace Fellowship's open-hearted engagement with the world is expressed through expanding programs in the United States and Asia.  Through BPF, Buddhists of many different traditions are developing individual and group responses to socially conditioned suffering.

Santa Fe Vipassana Sangha, Santa Fe, New Mexico
The Santa Fe Vipassana Sangha is a community of Dharma practitioners seeking liberation through Insight Meditation and integration of the Buddha's teachings into daily life. As spiritual friends, committed to generosity and compassionate action, we  are dedicated to supporting each other's practice.  The Sangha is a non-profit organization engaged in an ongoing process of consensus decision-making. This community is open to all people seeking to follow the Eight-fold Path  regardless of color, race, gender, age, or sexual preference. Vipassana ("Insight") Meditation is a Western adaptation of the Theravadan Buddhist tradition of Southeast Asia, one of the three main branches of Buddhism  practiced in the world today.

Upaya Zen Center, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Upaya, Sanskrit for "skillful means" or "the craft of compassion," is a Buddhist study center nestled in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, just minutes from the plaza of Santa Fe. We offer courses and retreats on engaged spirituality and on contemplative care of the dying. We also offer Zen training, meditation retreats and international retreats. Groups and individuals may  use our facility for retreats.

Insight Meditation Society and Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, Barre, Massachusetts
The Insight Meditation Society was founded in 1975 as a nonprofit  organization to provide a place for the intensive practice of insight  meditation. IMS operates a retreat center set on 80 wooded acres in the quiet  country of central Massachusetts. It provides a secluded environment for  intensive meditation practice. Complete silence is maintained during retreats at all times except during teacher interviews.
The Barre Center for Buddhist Studies is dedicated to bringing together teachers, students, scholars and practitioners who are committed to exploring  Buddhist thought and practice as a living tradition, faithful to its origins and  lineage, yet adaptable and alive in each new time and place. The center's purpose is to provide a bridge between study and practice, between scholarly  understanding and meditative insight. It encourages active engagement with the  tradition in a spirit of genuine inquiry and investigation

Haus Tao, Buddhistisches Meditationszentrum, Wolfhalden, Switzerland
Haus Tao is a meditation, retreat and study  center in the lineage of the Vietnamese Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh.  Founded in 1986 by Dharmacharya Marcel Geisser, the center is situated in the northeast of Switzerland, 1½ hours from Zurich, close to the junction of  the German and Austrian borders. Haus Tao is open throughout the year, offering a basic meditation and training schedule. The quiet and serenity of the  house amid the natural beauty of the surrounding valley lend it a unique quality and spiritual atmosphere, including the joy of meditating to the sounds of the nearby brook and plentiful bird life..

Meditation Center Beatenberg, Switzerland
The Meditation Center Beatenberg has opened its doors at the beginning of 2001. The center offers various forms of meditation from among the great wealth of Buddhist traditions, continuing thereby a tradition of 2500 years, at the same time introducing forms and methods that are helpful in our modern times. Among the various approaches to meditation, there is a particular emphasis on Vipassana meditation retreats.

San Francisco Zen Center
The San Francisco Zen Center was established in 1962 by the late Shunryu Suzuki-Roshi. Today, Zen Center  is one of the largest Buddhist sanghas outside of Asia, home to a diverse and  growing community of priests, lay people, teachers and students. In addition to Beginner's Mind Temple in San  Francisco, Zen Center operates Green Gulch  Farm and Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, the first Zen training monastery in the West. We are dedicated to continuing Suzuki-Roshi's style of practice, which flows from the insight that  all beings are Buddha, and that the practice of sitting in meditation is itself  the realization of Buddha nature, or enlightenment.

Spirit Rock Meditation Center
Spirit Rock Meditation Center is located in western Marin County, less than an hour north of San  Francisco. The teachings at Spirit Rock are based on the classical teachings of the Buddha, who stressed the central role of mindfulness and awareness in  developing a life of wisdom and compassion. This practice of mindful attention, called Insight or Vipassana Meditation, is at the heart of all the activities at Spirit Rock. The Center hosts a full program of ongoing classes, daylong, and residential retreats.