"Peace is not the absence of war.
It is the time when we will all bring ourselves closer to each other
closer to building a structure that is unique within ourselves
Because we have finally come to Peace within ourselves."
-Gil Scott-Heron, Work for Peace
As the only registered somatic movement therapist and educator in Mid-Missouri, Victoria is dedicated to sharing her knowledge and expanding the awareness of the value of somatic movement throughout her community. She understands that a somatic movement approach to living one’s life more fully is foreign to many, and that for many it can seem very upside down as it differs radically from the top-down, mindbody approach to living that is so prevalent within our culture; however, having lived the deeply healing and supportive bottom-up approach that somatic movement offers, Victoria is dedicated to safely and gently introducing the practices of somatic movement to whoever has interest, whether in person or by Zoom.
Her philosophy is (and has long been) that our human experience is lived through our bodies. Whether we are exploring our stories, thoughts, sensations, emotions, intuitions, actions or relationship with the Divine, we experience it all through the body. Victoria believes (and lives her life by the belief) that health comes from continually practicing an ever-deepening integrated experience of all of these aspects of the body in every day and in every way.
Victoria comes to this work with an understanding of what it means to live with and to live without embodied consciousness. She understands what is is like to feel a lack of ownership of one’s own life as well as to feel fully within one’s experience. She knows what it is like to be broken by movement and what is like to be healed by movement. She believes that by learning to listen and observe with informed curiosity and by taking opportunities to play with movement, sensation and ideas in a safe, non-judgmental environment, we can expand grace, wholeness, pleasure and ease in our lives. Victoria also has an longstanding and ongoing relationship with her spiritual practices. She is especially dedicated to supporting those who seek to more fully embody their relationship with Spirit with such the practices as embodied dance, yoga, chanting, meditation and art.
Victoria has facilitated healing movement experiences for a wide variety of people in diverse locations since the mid-1990s. She has a Masters in Professional Counseling from Stephens College in Columbia, MO where her thesis evaluated the existing research on the relationship between movement/dance and mood, especially for people with cognitive disorders. She is a 2017 graduate from the Laban Institute of Movement Studies (LIMS) in Brooklyn, NY with a Master’s level certification in Laban Movement Analysis (CMA). Her thesis project with LIMS observed and analyzed the value of internal and external somatic awareness by a mental health professional with an adult survivor of trauma.