Experiential Anatomy: Therapeutic Applications of Embodied Movement and Awareness

Experiential anatomy is an embodied learning method integrating interoceptive awareness and conscious movement to support whole-person healing. It takes a holistic, subjective approach, viewing the body as a doorway into deeper self-awareness and self-understanding that can support greater agency and restore mind-body balance and health. Focused intellectual learning and gentle somatic inquiry are interwoven to engage students multidimensionally.

This illustrated guide to therapeutic applications of experiential anatomy uses yoga therapy as a framework for somatic exploration. After introducing key foundational and learning principles, subsequent chapters simplify complex anatomical information into digestible components that are integrated into accessible therapeutic practices. Each experiential chapter contains a wealth of explorations incorporating breath, self-palpation, somatic inquiry, and yoga postures to strengthen a felt sense of anatomical parts, their interrelationships, and their connection to the multidimensional Whole. The simple embodied practices access inner wisdom and strengthen self-regulation.

This book will help bodywork and movement teachers and therapists work with clients and students to cultivate interoceptive awareness and compassionately repattern habits of breath, alignment, movement, and mind.

• Jon Lieff, M.D., neuropsychiatrist, neuroscientist; author of “The Secret Language of Cells”; Past President, American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry

  Leila Stuart’s brilliant book is a milestone in combining subjective experience with the frameworks and languages of many distinct disciplines: physiology, psychology, neuroscience, complementary medicine, yoga theory and practice, fascia release therapy, and pain rehabilitation. It will be of immense value to both health practitioners and those with chronic illness.

• Ellen Saltonstall, Certified yoga therapist, somatic educator, author of Empowered Aging, The Bodymind Ballwork Method, and Anatomy and Yoga.

  Drawing from her extensive experience and research, Leila Stuart expertly teaches the reader how to befriend the body, and heal what needs to heal. I love the way she encapsulates the process into three steps: Learn it, Feel it, and Heal it, a paradigm that she develops for each part of the body. The book is structured around the yogic teaching that we are holistic beings, with layers of consciousness that define our daily experience. Healing has to involve our physical, energetic, mental, emotional and spiritual selves, and these considerations are expertly woven into this book. Essential reading for anyone in the health care professions, and anyone who undertakes a journey of self-discovery, healing and empowerment.

• Lauri Nemetz, author of The Myofascial System in Form and Movement and Professor at Pace University and Rush Medical

  This book is a lovely companion to the concepts of experiential anatomy (EA), yoga, somatic work, and more. The author invites the reader (and embodied mover) to cultivate self-awareness throughout this work. Richly illustrated with anatomy drawings and photos of the demonstrated movement experientials, there is plenty of material to play with and Leila Stuart does a wonderful job of inviting the reader to see and feel the holistic nature of the body and how it connects globally.

• Carol M Davis, DPT, EdD, MS, author of Integrative Therapies in Rehabilitation and Patient-Practitioner Interaction

  In a league of its own in terms of extensiveness, expertise, and excellence in educating clients, patients and teachers inner awareness through experiential anatomy. It will appeal to all who are interested in translating intellectual information into an inner experience that can be understood and embodied in ways that facilitate healing and integration from within.