Description of ATB Levels

ATB (Awareness through the Body) workshops are meant for teachers and therapists as well as for people interested in personal growth. In them introspection is balanced with dynamic and fun activities. The workshops we offer are the following:

Basic Training

ATB 1 – Introductory workshop – ( 2 days)

In this workshop the participants enter into contact with the basis of Awareness through the Body. The themes to be explored are:

• Attention and Concentration: Exercises to direct and focus attention, and to build the capacity for concentration.

• Theoretical and practical exploration to come in contact with the different planes of the being.

• Breathing: Activities to develop awareness of the breath and how breath affects the different parts of the being.

• Relaxation: Exercises to enhance the capacity to consciously enter physical, emotional and mental relaxation.

• Sensory Awareness: Exercises to enhance the ability to sense.

• Plates: Introspective exercise that leads the participants to experience the existence of an inner and outer space and helps them to be present in both simultaneously.

Prior attendance in this introductory workshop is required in order to participate in any of the other workshops.

ATB 2 – ( 3 days)

This workshop serves two purposes:

• Revisiting, deepening and better integrating the basics of ATB explored in the Introductory workshop (ATB 1).

• Introducing participants to the following new themes:

Sensory Awareness: exercises to open and refine the senses, and to observe their effects on the different planes of the being.

Exploration of Emotions: exercises which help to identify emotions and their effects on the physical body, and to develop a witness attitude towards them.

Collective Games: to explore group dynamics, the effects of a group on the individual and vice versa.

Physical Structure: exercises to foster the self-sensing capacity and acquire awareness and conscious control over contraction and relaxation in the body.

ATB 3 - ( 3 days)

In this workshop the participants explore the principles of ATB and their practical application. They are introduced to methods of leading an ATB session and how to build  a program in a progressive manner so that the needs of children and the needs of a group are addressed.

These themes are explored through various activities:

• Structures Setting: A landscape for self-exploration and self-discovery. In this activity the participants move, walk, crawl, slither, climb on different types of objects such as ladders, planks chairs, and stools. As this can be physically demanding, people have to be sensitive to their own limitations and those of others.

• Sticks: A group activity that consists of simultaneously throwing and catching bamboo sticks. It helps to develop the capacity for being present, the use of peripheral vision, and a sense of rhythm.

• Plates will be revisited to deepen the experience of being in one’s “inner and outer space” simultaneously.

• Short introduction to the work with the Elements.

These workshops are interrelated and complement each other. They offer a broad base with which to apply Awareness through the Body to oneself or to groups. This series of workshops can be considered as a starting point for the practice of ATB. From here a deepening of the work can happen by attending once more to the basic workshops and by participating in the Advanced Training workshops.

Kindergarten Workshop - (1 day)

We will explore how Awareness through the Body is implemented with kindergarten age children through lively activities and games.

Some of the ATB activities done at the kindergarten level are similar to work done in other disciplines like psycomotricity. Even though Awareness through the Body shares many things in common with other disciplines it adds a new dimension.

In ATB there is the clear intention on the part of the adult to put the children in contact with an inner consciousness.

Through exercises and fun, children start discovering themselves and learn to notice changes taking place within and around them. They learn to notice that they can be in different states of consciousness and that these states feel different to them: There is a difference when they are concentrated and in silence (labyrinth) or when running and laughing (Africa trip).

At this age children experience and feel without the need of explanations. Through the activities and exercises each child integrates in his own body precise sensations for attention, quiet, fun, relaxation, being with himself and being with the others. That is why it is important for the adult to have an embodied understanding of the aim of ATB at the kindergarten level.

The objectives of ATB at the kindergarten level are to help young children develop:

• Listening for meaning

• Self control

• Focus and capacity for being present

• Alertness of the senses

• Freedom and fluidity of movement

• Social skills

• Respectful and sensitive body contact with peers

• A healthy self image

• Trust

• Subjective memories for relaxation and tonicity

Advanced Training

The Advanced ATB Training will consist of two 4 day workshops.

These workshops will have a different format from the previous ones.

When possible, participants live and eat together for the duration of the advanced training exploring themselves and the world around them, from a more profound and inner perspective. Through these explorations they will enter into a deeper contact with ATB and will gain a more fine-grained understanding of it.

ATB 4 – (4 days)

Building upon and further developing the capacities for attention and concentration, the participants focus on exploring physical structure in all its dimensions: bones, joints, muscles, tissues, organs, breath, sensation and energy – the subtle physical part.

The workshop will include an in-depth exploration of Relaxation and Form work. There will be an introduction to analysis of musical structure as a base from which to work on listening awareness so that music can be used more effectively in some of the ATB exercises.

Each day special time will be given for questions, doubts or clarifications about the leading and the building up of ATB sessions.

ATB 5 – (4 days)

Further explores the basic themes of ATB helping the participant to obtain a deeper perception of what ATB is. During the workshop especial emphasis is given to two themes: Evolution and The Five Elements.

We look at Evolution as the Evolution of consciousness. We approach it from the different parts of our being: Rediscovering the evolutionary movements present in our body, sensing the particular energy and emotion of each evolutionary step and observing how the mind evolves through the different stages.

Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Ether… Participants explore the presence of these Elements in them and in the world around. They become aware of the interaction of these Elements in the being and of how one can use them to bring greater harmony into oneself.

ATB 4 and ATB 5 complement each other in the exploration of the physical structure in all its dimensions.