Practical details
Date: Saturday 4th November
Time: 13.30 – 19.30 UK time. Check your timezone here
Presenters: Elizabeth Larkam, Gil Hedley, Karen Kirkness and Arielle Schwartz
Title: The Fascial Brain(s)
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
The event will be uploaded to the Members’ Area a minimum of four months’ after the event. Note that, for IPR reasons, Gil Hedley's presentation cannot be held in the Members' Area. If you wish to watch it, please purchase a ticket to the event.
Summary:
Take a journey deep within to explore our three brains! Gone are the days when ‘the brain’ was the heart of the matter! Now we know that the heart and gut are of equal, if not greater importance. Join our expert team for a deeper understanding of our three brains and how they connect.
Agenda:
13:30 Welcome from Director
13.35 Elizabeth Larkam: we start the day with short practices of vision, rhythmic touch, respiration, vocalizing and drawing to realize the subtle yet significant communication between our three brains. Each practice will be referenced, citing articles from recent fascial research and related fields.
14.00 Gil Hedley: Touring the Meninges: Images of the Cranial Fascia
14.45 Gil Hedley Q&A session
15:15 Somatic interlude with Elizabeth Larkam
15.20 Comfort break
15:30 Karen Kirkness: Spiral Consciousness - drawing embryogenesis of the brain
16:15 Karen Kirkness Q&A session
16.45 Elizabeth Larkam presentation: Whole-being, fascial-focused entrainment practices harmonize heart, microbiome and brain
17.45 Break
18:00 Arielle Schwartz presentation: The Embodied Brain: Applied Polyvagal Perspectives on Trauma Recovery and Mind-Body Health
19.00 Panel discussion with Elizabeth Larkam, Arielle Schwartz and Karen Kirkness
19.30 Close of session with Director
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
If you have bought a ticket to the recordings, you will receive the link by email within two hours.
All ticket holders will have access to the recordings of all the presentations until midnight December 3rd, UK time. An email with the link will be sent out soon after the event.
Members:
The recordings will be uploaded to the Members’ Area a minimum of four months after the event.
Please note that Gil Hedley’s dissection will not be uploaded to the Members’ Area for IPR reasons; the only way to see this is to be a ticket holder.
Presenters and Presentations
Elizabeth Larkam
Elizabeth Larkam, National Certified Pilates Teacher and Handspring author, wrote Fascia in Motion: Fascia-focused movement for Pilates (2017) and the Pilates chapter for Fascia in Sport and Movement (2015, 2e 2020). She co-edited the forthcoming book Pilates Applications for Health Conditions (2024) and is co-author of the book in preparation, Movement practices for hypermobility and connective tissue spectrum disorders.
Elizabeth was awarded the Medal of the Danish Society of Military Medicine in recognition of her efforts to improve the rehabilitation of wounded soldiers. As a Dancemedicine Pilates Specialist at Saint Francis Memorial Hospital in San Francisco Elizabeth created Pilates programs for orthopedic, spine and chronic pain diagnoses. As Director of Pilates & Beyond for Western Athletic Clubs, she developed the internationally acclaimed Mind & Body Center. Elizabeth served as a Pilates Specialist with the San Francisco Ballet and Cirque de Soleil, a lecturer at the University of San Francisco in Exercise and Sports Science, and a lecturer at San Francisco State University in Dance.
She is a Feldenkrais® practitioner and a Gyrotonic® and Gyrokinesis ® teacher. Elizabeth has studied in dissection labs directed by Carla Stecco, Gil Hedley, Todd Garcia and Tom Myers. She participated in the Fascial Net Plastination Project sponsored by the Fascia Research Society at the Guben Plastinarium. Elizabeth hosts ‘Moved to Learn!’ the Handspring Publishing webinar. She is co-founder and former co-owner of Polestar Education as well as a Balanced Body Master Instructor and Mentor.
Elizabeth’s on-line classes are on pilatesanytime.com, pilatesfusion.edu, and bewellstaywell.net. Now in her fourth decade as an international educator Elizabeth presents for The Fascia Hub, The British Fascia Symposium, Pilates on Tour, The Body Concept Movement Academy in Shanghai, Bonum Pilates in Seoul, and VOLL Pilates Brazil. Elizabeth is in private practice in Marin County, California and Georgetown, Texas.
Presentation: Whole-being, fascial-focused entrainment practices harmonize heart, gut microbiome and brain. Upon waking, sunlight exposure to specialized cells of the eyes stimulates a cascade of tissue responses that harmonize activities of the heart and circulatory system, the microbiome and digestion, exercise endurance and coordination, cognitive processes and rejuvenating sleep. Studies documenting the responses of fascia to hormones may indicate communication avenues between heart, brain and gut microbiome. Research published in 2023 in Nature, Cell and other journals provide a foundation for suggesting practices that incorporate timed light exposure, breath rhythms, touch, sound, olfaction and movement. Slides that summarize recent research alternate with practice interludes. Recommendations are made for incorporating practices into your daily and nightly rhythms that support harmony of heart, gut microbiome and brain.
Gil Hedley, Ph.D.
Gil Hedley has, since 1995, been teaching integral anatomy in the dissection laboratory, via keynotes and speaking tours, and online via his extensive website and subscription portal www.gilhedley.com, and his YouTube channel 'Somonaut'. He is the producer of The Integral Anatomy Series, the Anatomy from A to Z Project, and The Nerve Project, as well as being the author of several books and anatomy models.
Gil is based at the Institute for Anatomical Research on Colorado Springs, CO, where he teaches, films, and serves as Board President. He is currently travelling to 111 cities across North America, delivering his Nerve Tour presentation, documenting an extraordinary journey into the "nerve tree".
Presentation: Touring the Meninges: Images of the Cranial Fascia: In this presentation Gil will share video and images from the lab in order to illustrate the layers of cranial fascia, a.k.a. the cranial meninges.
Karen Kirkness, Ph.D
Dr Karen Kirkness holds a Doctorate of Philosophy in Medical Sciences from Hull York Medical School. Her research is based on complexity science applications in the curriculum, especially how anatomy pedagogy informs health professions education outcomes. Dr Kirkness now contributes to the Gateway Programme at HYMS and the Lifelong Learning Centre at the University of York, primarily delivering embryology content.
Karen is a committed movement educator passionate about facilitating healthy outcomes through guided self-practice and kinaesthetic learning techniques such as anatomy body painting. Her work as a movement researcher in the Spiral Syllabus looks at rotational biomechanics in terms of the Five Filaments, the spiral motion rubric that Dr. Kirkness coined in her book, Spiral Bound: Integrated Anatomy for Yoga. Karen is the founder of Meadowlark Yoga in Edinburgh, Scotland, and holds an MFA & MSc in Human Anatomy from the University of Edinburgh.
Presentation: Spiral Consciousness - drawing embryogenesis of the brain: In this session, Dr Kirkness will lead a presentation of vesiculation - the process of the brain forming via embryogenesis of the neural tube. This presentation will be informed by the latest fMRI research demonstrating brain spirals as per Xu et al in their very recent paper, Interacting spiral wave patterns underlie complex brain dynamics and are related to cognitive processing. Their findings suggest that “brain spirals organize complex spatiotemporal dynamics of the human brain and have functional correlates to cognitive processing”. Dr Kirkness will provide a kinesthetic way for participants to understand through drawing how the brain forms, visualizing its functional spirals within to understand connections to heart & gut.
Participants should have ready any size paper (A4 is ideal) and around 5 - 10 different colours (pencil, marker, crayon - anything handy!) along with a black pen for labeling.
Arielle Schwartz
Arielle Schwartz is a clinical psychologist, EMDR consultant, somatic psychotherapist, yoga instructor, and internationally sought-out teacher. As a leading voice in the treatment of trauma, she is dedicated to offering informational health and wellness updates through her writing, public speaking, social media presence, and blog. As an author of six books including The Complex PTSD Workbook, EMDR Therapy and Somatic Psychology, The Post Traumatic Growth Guidebook, and Therapeutic Yoga for Trauma, she believes that the journey of trauma recovery is an awakening of the spiritual heart. Discover more at drarielleschwartz.com.
Presentation: The Embodied Brain: Applied Polyvagal Perspectives on Trauma Recovery and Mind-Body Health. Within this one-hour presentation, we will discuss the embodied brain from a polyvagal perspective and discuss interventions for brain-body integration. We will explore the enteric nervous system and the gut-brain axis. Since your vagus nerve is the superhighway of communication between your brain and belly, you will learn why listening to your gut is essential to your wellbeing. During our time, we will look at the impact of traumatic events on the brain and explore the role of conscious breathing, movement, balance, & reflex integration in supporting brain health and emotional wellbeing. We will complement the didactic learning with a brief experiential movement practice to help you cultivate a felt sense of connection with your instinctual self.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
If you have bought a ticket to the recordings, you will receive a ticket by email within two hours.
All ticket holders will have access to the recordings of all the presentations until midnight December 3rd, UK time. An email with the link will be sent out soon after the event.
Members:
The recordings will be uploaded to the Members’ Area a minimum of four months after the event.
Please note that Gil Hedley’s dissection will not be uploaded to the Members’ Area for IPR reasons; the only way to see this is to be a ticket holder.
Time/Date of Event
Event type
Online
Limited Replay
Zoom
1:30 pm UK time
Joining The Hub
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