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Meet Erin

Hi! My name is Erin Elizabeth Geesaman Rabke.

A few perspectives on who I am and what I’m about:

By training and profession, I am a somatic educator. For more than 25 years I have studied and taught many kinds of embodied practice. It started organically with dance, then for many years I studied yoga and yoga therapy, specializing in back pain. For many reasons, I left teaching yoga in 2006. At age 18 I began to study tai chi and bagua and in 1996 I was certified as a Tai Chi teacher. I completed a 4-year professional Feldenkrais training in 2007 and a 3-year Embodied Life training in 2014. I am also a nursing school dropout. After working for a semester at the V.A. hospital as a student nurse, I knew the western medical system would kill my spirit. After quitting nursing school I designed my own degree in Integrated Somatics at the U of U. I also study and work with somatic meditation and the profound practice of embodied inner listening known as Focusing, Embodied Listening, or Somatic Descent. For the past several years, I've been regularly mentored by Francis Weller in Tracking Soul and Grief Tending, both personally and communally. Over the past many years, I have been fortunate to be mentored by wild and wise elder, D eena Metzger in The 19 Ways. I've completed a year-long training as a facilitator in the profound body of work known as The Work That Reconnects pioneered by Joanna Macy, which includes Deep Ecology, Systems Thinking, and Mindful Practices, and I weave it with somatics, soul, and embodied practice. I'm deeply interested in anti-oppression and liberation for all beings. I'm continuing to learn from many wonderful teachers in this realm. I'm developing a powerful, living body of work that I call Evolutionary Embodiment. It beautifully braids together mindful embodiment and contemplative practices with the profound practices and anti-oppression perspectives of Deep Ecology and The Work That Reconnects, dedicated to thriving life for all. I feel its deep importance for our times.

My work is about sharing potent practices to not only heal and befriend the body, but to enter into a radically new, non-dual, and liberating relationship with embodiment itself; and through that, with the world and life itself. My work is about listening to Life through the ever more finely-tuned instrument of the living body. My work is to support people in learning to move with greater awareness, pleasure, ease, and clarity – a surprisingly powerful and unending education that affects everything else in life in deeply potent ways – and to bring that into the movement of the Great Turning toward a life-sustaining way of being human in the greater Earth community. My work is in helping people soften and befriend themselves such that they become available for deep listening for how to be in a life-giving relationship with land and community and have the courage to bring forth their inherent, unique gifts. I believe embodied learning, decolonizing our body-minds, and returning to our intelligent, organic wholeness are intimately connected with the healing of our world, the ending of harmful systems of dominance, and the creation of a more beautiful world. I believe mindfulness and loving-kindness must be lived, embodied practices dedicated to the welfare of all, now and into the future, rather than focused solely on personal evolution in order to be of genuine benefit. I believe contextualizing these practices in light of the current context of the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, and a culture rooted in racism and kyriarchy is essential. Read my piece here about why to do Feldenkrais and how it relates to all these rich topics. I believe in holding courageous love at the center of it all.

By lineage and inclination, I am a meditator and spiritual practitioner, blessed by many years of study and practice in the Tibetan Buddhist traditions of Dzogchen, Lojong, and Somatic Meditation. In the past 15 years, I've loved diving into the inevitable return to animism and ancestral reconnection – both of which are a remembering of wisdom my bones already know. I'm passionate about home herbalism, permaculture gardening, bee-centric beekeeping, sharing beautiful food and poetry with people I love, and parenting our beautiful son. I'm passionate about learning deeply from and about plants, animal kin, and the living Earth. I'm passionate about honoring natural cycles and re-aligning my life with them. I'm passionate about The Great Turning and inviting everyone into taking part. I am profoundly grateful to my teachers.

My work is to grow the capacity for grounded, centered, embodied presence and vast, spacious awareness, dedicated to the welfare of all life. Together, these offer generous room for the broken-open heart that can fully welcome the beauty and heartbreak of this precious life and respond with courage and skill. I also consider it my work to grow brave and unconditional friendliness toward what is – and to support my clients and students to do the same. This kind of brave lovingkindness is an embodied wisdom that can transform all that it touches – body, mind, soul, community, and world. Additionally, I’ve been powerfully called to Tend the River of Grief. Alongside this, Praise Practice is an essential thread of my calling. My work is about waking up more and more fully so I can live a life of benefit to the whole web of life. I commit to using all that arises in my life in support of this intention. By blood lineage, I am a white woman of Bohemian Czech, Scottish, German, and English descent. I respectfully acknowledge that I live and work on the gorgeous stolen ancestral lands of the Shoshone, Ute, Paiute, and Goshute nations.

By choice and good fortune, I am honored to mother an impossibly beautiful and bright 12-year old child. I am ever-honored to be partnered with Carl, my beloved companion in all things that matter.

I am a daughter, a sister, an auntie, and a friend. I am a writer, a photographer, a passionate learner, and a convener of inspired communities. I am a naturalist and a lover of wandering in the wilderness. I am a fortunate student of many powerful and profound teachers. I live with my family, our beautiful cat Freya, our gecko Geeky, our python Luna, a million good books, thirteen hilarious hens (Gylfie, Fluffy, Nacho, HeiHei, Speckles, Petite, Feisty, Popcorn, Moira, Goldie, Pepper, Queenie, and Saffron), an abundant and wild garden, and countless altars to the sacred in many forms. It's usually a beautiful mess and I love it!

My work is to honor my good fortune with gratitude of equal measure and to use my great good fortune and privilege in working toward the healing of our world. I’m deeply inspired and humbled by Nelson Mandela’s phrase: “Free yourself. Free others. Serve every day.” This is my work.

I am devoted to growing:

embodied presence,
intimacy with life,
an awake, open, listening heart-mind,
spacious awareness,
and embodied freedom in myself and in the world
all dedicated toward the welfare of Life now and into the future,
deeply rooted in intimacy with the land, ancestors, future beings, community, and the living Earth.

I am called to help my clients and students develop:

integrated embodied experience and intimacy with life,
unconditional, brave friendliness within and without,
embodied compassion
reverent curiosity and learning how to learn (beyond systems of domination and indoctrination)
their unique place in The Great Turning toward a life-sustaining culture
authentic gratitude and joy
spacious, grounded, aware presence
deep trust in their own capacity for direct knowing and wisdom, (gnosis liberated from guru culture)
courage and wholehearted participation and a deep sense of workability,
somatic intelligence and physical autonomy,
a courtship with their unique genius and gifts,
dedication toward the welfare of all life, now and in the future
a good sense of humor
trust in the indigenous soul and the embodied perspective.

I am inspired to help my clients and students uncover:

a sense of self as vast and open as the sky,
a heart as naturally warm as the sun,
trust in the uncontrived indigenous naturalness of body and mind
reverence for the holy in nature both within and without
and dedication toward a life-giving future for the generations we'll never see.

I am motivated to help my clients and students develop:

skills of deep listening (inner and outer),
unprecedented creativity in many aspects of life,
a gorgeous courtship with their unique genius (which is often connected with a soul wound.)

I am honored to help my clients and students to develop:

a sense of play mind,
possibilitarianism,
authentic, unforced gratefulness
a compassionate and courageous relationship with grief,
sustainability rooted in reduced effort and increased pleasure, even in the most challenging situations
potent practices of positive neuroplasticity
and to free their inherent love for Life.

A few more things:

I love poetry. I've been weaving the poets' wise voices into my teachings for over 25 years. I've never owned a bathroom scale, a television, or a microwave. I adore good questions, especially unanswerable ones. I’m a hardcore introvert and small talk drains my life force more than anything else. I'd rather do grief ritual with you than small talk any day. I'm a voracious reader and a lover of books. I go barefoot as often as possible. I love to cook. I love to learn. I love to wander in the wilderness. I love to have my hands in the soil. I love to hear what's deep and true and emergent in your heart.

Some of my heroes are Joanna Macy, Maya Angelou, Mary Oliver, Georgia O’Keefe, Pina Bausch, Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Brother David Steindl-Rast, Ruthy Alon, Mr. Rogers, Leymah Gbowee, Pat McCabe, Rigoberta Menchu, Wangari Mathai, Cynthia Jurs, Ruthy Alon, Vandana Shiva, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Kathleen Dean Moore, Deena Metzger, Shabkar, and Pema Chodron.

I have a special resonance with the high desert beauty in southern Utah, southern Colorado, and northern New Mexico.

I am in love with my morning coffee and am an unapologetic coffee snob. I also love good whiskey and big red wine and love sharing those with people I love. I try to celebrate every single day I'm lucky enough to be alive.

I am seeking a sane and humane relationship with digital technology. It ain't easy. I adore silent retreats and time in the wilderness. They fund my life.

I am so blessed with incredible friends, mentors, students, community, and natural beauty, and truly, I am nothing without them.

I’m an INFJ Scorpio Ox, and my top 3 strengths are Connectedness, Empathy, and Positivity. I really love being alive. A lot.

Thanks to the amazing writer, Kathleen Dean Moore, for the framing (training and profession, lineage and inclination, choice and good fortune.) Her self-reflection inspired mine. If you haven’t read her book Great Tide Rising, may I highly recommend it?

Click here for a bit more about my professional training

I love learning! Here's a glimpse of some of my training and education history:

1992 - 2005 Intensive study of Tai Chi and Chi Gong and later BaGua with Stephen Paul and later with Sifu Jerry Gardner. I was invited to teach and certified by Red Lotus School of Movement beginning in 1996.

1989 - 2013 - active study in Yoga & Ayurveda with many excellent teachers including Gary Kraftsow, Donna Farhi, Charlotte Bell, Jaisri Lambert, Judith Lasater, and more.

1994 - ongoing, I began studies with Tsoknyi Rinpoche in the Buddhist Dzogchen tradition, ongoing still today, including staying at his monastery in Nepal in 1995, and attending many intensive Dzogchen retreats over the years in Crestone, Colorado.

September - December 1995 - I had the precious opportunity to stay at Nagyi Gompa in the foothills of the Himalayas outside of Kathmandu, Nepal, to study, practice, and take teachings and empowerment from Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche. What a gift!

2000 - 2018 studied with Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche in the Dzogchen tradition of Tibetan Buddhism.

2001 - ongoing - study with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche in the Dzogchen tradition of Bon Buddhism as well as Tsa Lung, Trul Khor and Tibetan Yogas.

1991-2000 University of Utah - With many starts and stops, I ended up dropping out of nursing school and designing my own degree called Integrated Somatics: Approaches to the Living Body.

In 2003 I was blessed to do a 6-week solo silent meditation retreat in a dedicated cabin in Crestone, Colorado. In 2004, I completed an 8-week solo silent retreat in the same cabin. I have attended countless meditation retreats with many wonderful Buddhist meditation teachers since 1994 and still often do solo silent retreats.

2004-2007 Carl and I completed a 4-year professional training in The Feldenkrais Method of Somatic Education in Santa Fe, NM, under the Educational Direction of Yvan Joly; co-taught by Alan Questel, Diana Razumny, Dennis Leri, Dr. Carl Ginsburg, and Katrin Smithback.

In 2005 - I taught a year-long yoga teacher training for Soma Yoga Studio in SLC, UT, a studio that I helped found in 1999. At the end of that training, I decided to quit teaching yoga and shifted to full-time Feldenkrais.

From 2007 onward, I’ve continued advanced studies in Feldenkrais with many wonderful teachers, including Ruthy Alon, Mia Segal, Jeff Haller, Elizabeth Beringer, Dennis Leri, and more.

In 2007 I studied Bones for Life with Ruthy Alon.

2011 began a 3-year training program in Embodied Life with Russell Delman and continue advanced study in this beautiful body of work. This work brilliantly integrates Feldenkrais-based movement lessons, embodied listening and inner inquiry, Zen-based sitting meditation, and neurologically-based attentional practices that work like magic to rewire your brain for the better.

2012 - ongoing, I began my studies in Inner Relationship Focusing with Focusing Resources.

2014 & ongoing - I began mentoring with Deena Metzger, attending several Healer’s Intensive retreats and am currently in an ongoing training program focused on The 19 Ways.

In 2016, while spending a day in silence on wild lands in Southern California during a week of retreat with Deena Metzger, I experienced a powerful calling to tend the River of Grief.

2017 (ongoing) I began regular 1:1 mentoring with Francis Weller, including attending his first Grief Ritual Facilitator’s Training in 2019 and hosting him for a Grief Ritual weekend in SLC, UT, in 2019. I'm deeply grateful for his ongoing, profoundly soulful mentoring.

2013 was the first of many workshops, classes, and deep dives into the profound mythic work of Michael Meade.

2014 - Carl and I hosted a weekend of Radical Wholeness with Philip Shepherd, the pioneering Embodiment teacher. We adore his books!

2017 - ongoing - I’ve been taking classes and learning with the incredible teacher and thinker, Dr. Bayo Akomolafe

ongoing studies of herbs and deepening my relationship with our plant kin with many teachers and courses

2018 - ongoing - studies with Lara Veleda Vesta in reclaiming ancestral ways, ritual, and more in her Wild Soul School

2018 - ongoing - studies with White Awake - anti-racist action and ancestral recovery as well as with Patti Digh's School of Inclusion. I'm currently in a year-long study group working with Resmaa Menakem's book My Grandmother's Hands, facilitated by Karine Bell.

2017 - ongoing - studies with Sharon Blackie in the mythic imagination

In 2019 I completed a year-long facilitator training in The Work That Reconnects with Mutima Imani, Constance Washburn, and Molly Brown. My studies in this profound work, developed by root teacher Joanna Macy, are ongoing. I LOVE this work and love sharing these practices with others.

2019 - Sacred Grief online training with Shauna Janz

I'm grateful for the fertile ground of learning I share with my beloved in our daily lives, rich conversations, and bodywork trades. For as long as we've been teaching together, I've been able to learn from Carl! I'm also profoundly grateful to the amazing students and clients with whom I get to work - I learn more from them than is possible to describe. I also learn so much from my own embodiment, from the fertile ground of parenting, and from deepening my connection with these beautiful lands I call home.

More to come!!

I am a multi-passionate learner and always and in an ongoing way, deeply learning, reading, and studying the profound waters of life where practices and skills of embodiment, awakening, and earth healing flow together.

Click here to read more about my story

For years before I found The Feldenkrais Method® (we call it "Feldy" for short) I studied yoga and tai chi with great passion, from the time I was a young dancer in my teens. For a time yoga truly made my body feel great. I loved it and dove in deeply. But over years of intensive study and practice, I began having terrible back pain. In my enthusiasm to “give it my all," I created even more lax ligaments in my already very flexible body. It led to unstable sacroiliac joints and serious pain.

In spring of 2003, during a 2-month solo silent meditation retreat at a cabin in the mountains of Crestone, Colorado, I realized that — even after several solitary weeks with no phone, no electricity, and no access to the outside world — the one activity where I was most “in my head” was on my yoga mat. WTH? I was shocked. It sounded something like this: “Ground the outer edge of your back heel ... Rotate your thigh ...Draw your shoulder blades down ... Blah ... blah ... blah.”

Even though the voice was quite eloquent and "knowledgeable" and was certainly intending to be helpful, there was no denying I was in my head directing my body.

This was not yoga as union. This was a thinking-mind directing a body like a workhorse. Or a racehorse. Or a yoga horse. Body-mind split. Mind bossing body. Not how I wanted to live. Or teach. I'm grateful for the sacred silent retreat environment as I think I may never have noticed this in my everyday urban life.

I spent a lot of time in deep confusion about how to process this realization — not only for myself but with great concern for what I was teaching my students as a full-time yoga teacher.

I soon discovered an incredible book titled Mindful Spontaneity: A Return to Natural Movement. It profoundly helped me to understand how to work with my body and movement without my thinking-mind acting as boss.

I began doing movements "as myself" instead of "to myself." Listening "through my body" instead of "to my body."

Big difference.

Through lots of practice and experimentation, I confirmed this organic, internally-informed, brilliant way of being embodied. I realized that there is indeed a deep body wisdom that I could reliably access and unfold without being in my head. Moving and inhabiting my body in this respectful, non-dual, listening way also healed my back pain. It was profound not only in how much it helped my back, but in how deeply it helped me integrate my meditation and awareness practice into my everyday life.

I was so hugely inspired that I signed up for a 4-year professional Feldenkrais training in 2004. That education changed my life, my practice and my teaching. Integrating this way of being not only healed my back and SI joints, it led to a deeper and more authentic experience of wholeness and integration than I'd ever experienced. It also led to a much freer life.

Today one of my passions is helping others discover their own embodied wisdom. Doing so can not only heal aches and pains but can restore a deep sense of inner trust and integration which many of my clients haven’t experienced since childhood. It seems simple, but it goes so very deep. I also love the way embodied practice helps to integrate mindfulness into everyday life so much more intimately and easily than mostly mental practice.

Can you imagine discovering a deep source of inner wisdom that is not in your head?! It’s there. Fully intact. Often ignored for a looooong time. It can powerfully influence your moving body and your inner life for the better when it's set free.

I love helping adults who are on a path of awakening to recover and integrate their embodied wisdom.

Click here to read the results my clients get from our work together:

My clients feel so much better in their bodies and heal long-standing aches and pains.
They learn to move with ease and gracefulness, eliminating the causes of wear and tear on their joints.
They find unconditional support in their relationship with the earth externally and within their own bones internally. Living with unconditional support is profound.
They rediscover wholeness in an undeniable way.
They become empowered learners who know how to work with themselves on their own. (I LOVE THIS!!! I believe in teaching people how to fish rather than giving them a fish.)

I believe my work is most valuable when it empowers people to learn and continuously grow and improve for the rest of their lives.

They reconnect with a sense of trust in themselves and their inner wisdom, which is much deeper and wiser than the wisdom that lives only“in their heads.”
They soon discover that they’re much much freer than they formerly believed, not only in their movements but in all areas of their lives.
They discover that their limits (you name it) are usually self-imposed and can be gently dissolved, without turning themselves into a "self-improvement project." (Thank goodness.)
They recover their own inner authority and embody a sense of playful dignity - no longer always turning outside themselves for advice or expertise, but learning how to access the knowing within.
They unwind the infrastructure of their “historical selves” as body tensions, old beliefs, and life-depleting-behaviors.
They begin to courageously give their unique gifts to the world.
They find increasing freedom, joy, fulfillment and delight in their lives.
They blossom!
How could I not adore my work?!?

About Carl

MEET CARL

Welcome friend,

To tell you a bit about who I am and about my work, I’ll start with a poem from William Stafford:

The Way It Is

There’s a thread you follow. It goes among

things that change. But it doesn’t change.

People wonder about what you are pursuing.

You have to explain about the thread.

But it is hard for others to see.

While you hold it you can’t get lost.

Tragedies happen; people get hurt

or die; and you suffer and get old.

Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding.

You don’t ever let go of the thread.

The thread that I have followed and the thread that has claimed me has several facets which to me are essential elements of waking up, being embodied, and showing up wholeheartedly in this world in response to these times.

This thread includes the practices of meditation, Feldenkrais, Structural Integration, Embodied Life, Men’s Work, Focusing, Martial Arts, Animism, Writing, Natural Movement, Community Ritual, and more.

I am grateful that from a young age, I had my compass tuned toward authentic elders, teachers and mentors, and have been fortunate to study deeply in traditions that support human freedom, waking up, and growing up.

I am also deeply grateful to walk these paths alongside my beloved, Erin Elizabeth. In our very first conversation in 1996 when we met, we discovered our shared passion for practice and that we were both deeply engaged in Tibetan Buddhism, Tai Chi, Yoga, and writing. Practice has always been a central pillar of our connection and how we are in our teaching, our parenting, our business, our community – it sponsors how we show up in our lives.

Like many of my mentors and teachers, I tune toward the fundamentals and principles of the traditions I practice and teach. I am grateful for the opportunity to have practiced deeply in certain lineages and traditions. I am most often drawn to exploring where essential aspects of different traditions overlap and how they evolve to meet the needs of these times.

So what do I do? How do you work with me?

I offer private sessions in-person and online.

I offer embodied mentoring sessions.

I teach live classes (both solo and with Erin)

We teach our awesome monthly online Embodiment Lab as well as other online classes.

I offer men’s groups and retreats and hold community rituals.

I teach meditation, and I teach meditators how they can be more i.n their bodies, and more comfortable when they meditate

Private Sessions:

Two main pillars of my work with clients are The Feldenkrais Method and Structural Integration. I love this work so damn much! I am filled with gratitude to stand on the shoulders of these two somatic giants, Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais and Dr. Ida Rolf.

In my experience, these two methods are unparalleled in terms of helping people get out of pain, recover from injury, grow embodied presence, and deepen coordination and skillful movement as they age.

Interestingly, both Dr. Rolf and Dr. Feldenkrais had similar regrets at the end of their lives. Both were concerned their work would become a form of highly effective physiotherapy, helping people move better, and get out of pain, but what each of them held as the heart of their methods was human freedom and transformation. That is at the core of my work as well.

Having had chronic back pain for many years, I don’t want to underestimate how important is it to get out of pain, and these methods provide potent means for that. And yet, so often, pain is an invitation to a different relationship with life; to a different way of listening. I can honestly say, as many clients have also reflected to me, that back pain was one of the great gifts in my life because it got my attention and invited me into an entirely different relationship with life and embodiment. I am interested in how we learn from pain and exploring how we can hold pain as an ally rather than an enemy to be banished.

I find both Feldenkrais and Structural Integration work support what Michael Meade calls your own unique genius to come more fully into the world. How do you become more yourself? This inquiry must include your body. How you move in the world with centered coherence. How you stand on your own two feet. How you connect to your genius and connect to your deeper self is an essential element of healing. As the Gospel of Thomas says: If you bring forth what is in you it will heal you, if you do not, it will destroy you.

Another strong influence in my private work is the Focusing work of Gene Gendlin and The Embodied Life work of Russell Delman. Learning to listen to what our bodies and inner-lives know about the situations we are experiencing, and growing a more reliable connection with our intuitive gut-knowing, heart-knowing, bone-knowing, is an invaluable skill and one that is learnable - one that I love to share.

Embodied Mentoring Sessions: Mentoring sessions are offered in-person or online, and draw on a variety of resources, depending on the intention of the series. They will often involve focusing, guided somatic practices, soul-work, and movement lessons and meditations to support the work we are doing together.

Men’s Work: Ever since I stumbled upon my father’s copy of Robert Bly’s Iron John in 1991, men’s work has been a passion for me. I've been fortunate to work with two potent mentors in this realm: Michael Meade and Francis Weller. Both have been invaluable guides around holding a space where men can come together for genuine, authentic connection and healing.

Community Ritual:

“The task of a mature human being is to hold grief in one hand and gratitude in the other, and be stretched larger between them.” -Francis Weller

So many of the struggles we experience as modern people are rooted in a lack of a vibrant support network of village, of community. Erin and I are deeply committed to help hold containers for community rituals around grief, gratitude, and other times that call for gathering.

A common denominator of all of the work I do is that it is more about returning to inherent, natural qualities of being than it is about learning new skills. More like a dusting off and a remembering than an adding on.

When people do a Structural Integration series, they feel more naturally themselves. When people get up after doing a Feldenkrais lesson, they move more naturally like children or animals.

In the way I teach and practice, when we sit in meditation, we are not adding anything, we are learning to discover and relax into our natural mind, our natural body, our naturally open heart.

When we come together in a community ritual, it feels like remembering a language that many modern people had temporarily forgotten.

I am grateful for the Dharma and the lineages carrying the Dzogchen and Lojong teachings. Specifically my teachers, Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, Keith Dowman, and the influence of Pema Chodron, Reggie Ray, HH the Dalia Lama.

I’m grateful for the guidance of Micheal Meade, Francis Weller, Russell Delman, Deena Metzger, Bayo Akomolafe, Fabeku Fatunmise, Diane Hamilton Roshi, Will Johnson, Jozef Frucek and Fighting Monkey, Bobby McFerrin and the Circlesong School, and so many others.

I've also been deeply influenced by the work and teachings of Joanna Macy, Bill Plotkin, Dave Abram, Philip Shepherd, Martin Shaw, Rev angel Kyodo williams, Cynthia Jurs, and far too many others to name.

All the poets, Mary Oliver, Rilke, Hafiz, Rumi, Tony Hoagland, Ross Gay, Mark Nepo… again, countless others that are a part of my soul lineage.

I’m deeply grateful for all the teachers in the Feldenkrais and Structural Integration Guilds, and the long streams of embodied learning those teachers were following and drawing from.

I deeply care for this world, and the world our children are growing into. As Terry Tempest Williams wrote:

“The eyes of the future are looking back at us and they are praying for us to see beyond our own time. They are kneeling with hands clasped that we might act with restraint, that we might leave room for the life that is destined to come. To protect what is wild is to protect what is gentle. Perhaps the wilderness we fear is the pause between our own heartbeats, the silent space that says we live only by grace. Wilderness lives by this same grace. Wild mercy is in our hands.”

Embodying The Masculine 2016

Thank you to my beloved for taking the photos on this page.

Fear is the cheapest room in the house. I would like to see you living in better conditions. – Hafiz

Why do Feldenkrais and Structural Integration work when so many others modalities have failed to bring relief?

One central reason is that both modalities support a return to wholeness. I engage you as a whole living being, not as a collection of parts. Rather than isolating and focusing on what is not working — the frozen shoulder, the tweaked back, the sore neck - we are looking to bring those areas back into right relationship with the whole. This is integration.

The incredible results of pain reduction that can come are really just a side effect of reawakening our capacity to learn.

Our friend and mentor Russell Delman once said,

“Feldenkrais is not only for working with pain; it’s about increasing the wonderfulness of life!”

Part of that wonderfulness is that when we bring attention to our embodiment, and sensing how we do what we do, we begin to get in touch with our innate intelligence and an ability to learn that we might not have thought possible.

As one of our teachers, Ruthy Alon wrote in Mindful Spontaneity:

“Can you imagine your feelings when you discover that you are an ever-changing live organism, capable of self-correction and advancement for as long as you live? The optimism which accompanies the learning process, people’s enthusiasm when they discover it, as well as their appreciation, are what make this method so attractive, and inspire commitment in both students and teachers.”

In my work, I help people live into some of these questions:

Can I move with a sense of lightness and length in my spine?
How can awareness of the ground can affect the way I move in the world?
How do I inhabit, and move from a dynamic, vital center ? (Which can often be very different from what we have been taught about “core strength” by the way...)
How can I discover where I am holding tension that I am not aware of?
How can I breathe in a way that is easy, responsive, and uncontrived?
Can find a way to sit, run, or stand with less effort and greater efficiency?

I teach people to develop their own wisdom and their own inner-authority around embodiment, rather than trying to follow all of the often conflicting advice of doctors, gym teachers, parents, and yoga teachers.

I teach people to pause and listen to their bodies.

They discover how less effort and more sensitivity can lead to greater efficacy, and they also learn how to be kinder and gentler with themselves.

I help clients discover how any activity can get easier as you age, if you are willing to pay attention.

I remind students of movements that may have been forgotten, like crawling, squatting, jumping or judo rolling, and how enlivening and functional these movements can be into their 50′s, 60′s, 70′s and beyond.

I help students discover that updating old habits it one of the most enlivening experiences we can have.

Click here for More About Me

I love experiences that make me feel more alive.

I love exploring of embodiment and awareness; hiking in the mountains and deserts of Utah; doing Awareness Through Movement lessons; dancing; martial arts; yoga; sitting; lying on my back.

I love my morning espresso as I sit down on my meditation cushion (and I have no small amount of attachment around that.)

I am grateful that I came across wonderful, wise teachers at an early age, so my adult life could unfold around what I value.

I love playing basketball and appreciate that it gives me lots of advanced training in working with my own injuries and tweaks.

I love making good music mixes for road trips.

I love language — poetry, writing, and speaking — that illuminates the subtleties and nuances of life.

I appreciate the changes of light with seasons and weather.

I love to sit on my front porch with a good IPA and noodle around on my lap-slide guitar.

I love to share this journey with my amazing wife Erin and our sweet son.

Would you like to work with me?
Email me at Carl@embodimentmatters.com
or call me at 801-671-4533.

Our website was formerly known as Bodyhappy.com Would you like to know where the name Body Happy came from?

In 1995 I, Erin, spent 3 months in Nepal studying with 2 amazing Buddhist teachers, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche and Tsoknyi Rinpoche.

Erin on BodyHappy.com While I was staying at Naygi Gompa, the mountain hermitage of Tulku Urgyen and also the home of a nunnery he headed, I made many dear friends, including a young Tibetan nun named Yeshe Wongmo.

Every morning she'd come out in front of the little building where I was staying and she'd follow along as I did my yoga or tai chi practice. We had a lot of laughs, though shared very little language in common as my Tibetan was minimal (or mostly related to words about meditation and prayers) and her English was minimal too.

One morning after a few weeks of her showing up to join me in my morning routine, I did my best to ask, "Yeshe Wongmo, why do you come do this with me in the mornings?"

And she thought silently for a moment about how to say what she felt.

Then her eyes lit up and she said simply, "Body Happy!"

It was so pure, so enthusiastic and so heartfelt, it brought tears to my eyes.

When my tech-savvy mom encouraged me to start a website way back in the 90s, it was the name we chose. And it stuck.

Could you make yourself 10% more comfortable right now?

Meet Erin Geesaman Rabke

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You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. – Mary Oliver

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