About Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen

Photo Credit: William Vasta

“Cells resonate in relationship to each other.
As more cells within us become aware of themselves and are responsive,
there is a fuller resonance between them,
and we experience inner balance and self-knowing."
— Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen

For over 50 years, as a movement artist, researcher, educator and therapist, Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen has been working with movement, touch and the body-mind relationship. An innovator and leader in developing the Body-Mind Centering® approach, her work has influenced the fields of bodywork, movement, dance, yoga, body psychotherapy, childhood education and many other body-mind disciplines. In 1973, she founded The School for Body-Mind Centering®.

Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen is the author of the books:

Sensing, Feeling, and Action
The Mechanics of Vocal Expression
Basic Neurocellular Patterns: Exploring Developmental Movement

Bonnie also has numerous videos of her teaching available, including:

Embodied Anatomy and the Axial Skeleton
Embodied Anatomy and the Dynamics of Breathing
Embodied Anatomy and the Dynamics of Vocalization
Embodied Anatomy and the Endocrine System
Embodied Anatomy and the Fluid System
Embodied Anatomy and the Ligamentous System
Embodied Anatomy and the Lower Limbs
Embodied Anatomy and the Nervous System
Embodied Anatomy and the Organ System
Embodied Anatomy and the Upper Limbs
Embodying Authenticity, Organicity, and Expression: Organs and Glands as a Foundation for Movement, Touch, and Voice
Embodying Cellular Consciousness
Embodied Touch as Transformative Practice
Embodiment and Expression for Musicians and Singers
Embodying Muscles Part 1 and 2
Embodying the Embryological Foundations of Movement
Engaging Self and Other through Embodiment
Exploring the Embodiment of Cellular Consciousness through Movement
Four Special Children
Free the Vital Energy and Illuminating Presence of Your Spine
Perception as a Key to Embodying and Repatterning the Nervous System and the Role of the Brain in Perception
Practicing the Basic Neurocellular Patterns
Releasing Patterns of Stress and Uncovering Patterns of Ease

She is also featured in the following videos:

The Origins of Movement: The Embodiment of Early Embryological Development
Dance and Body-Mind Centering®
Only the Child Knows.

She is currently working on a number of other books and videos, as well as teaching live online classes.

Bonnie began her research in movement therapy and anatomy in 1958 and has an extensive background in movement, including various dance styles, dance therapy, bodywork, martial arts, yoga, and voice. She has a B.S. in Occupational Therapy from The Ohio State University, where she also studied dance. Bonnie was certified as a Neurodevelopmental Therapist by Dr. and Mrs. Bobath in England, as a Laban Movement Analyst by Irmgard Bartenieff at the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies and a Kestenberg Movement Profiler by Dr. Judith Kestenberg in New York.

Her other teachers have included Erick Hawkins in dance; Marian Chace in dance therapy; Andre Bernard and Barbara Clark in Neuromuscular Re-education; Yogi Ramaiah in yoga, Warren Lamb in Action Profiling, Haruchi Noguchi in Japan, founder of Katsugen Undo, a method of training the involuntary nervous system; Drs. John Upledger and Richard McDonald in Craniosacral Therapy; Dr. Fritz Smith in Zero Balancing; Frank Lowen in Visceral Manipulation; and Sylus Engum and Herb Doussant in voice.

Bonnie taught dance at Hunter College and at the Erick Hawkins School of Dance in New York, and kinesiology in the Graduate Dance Therapy program at Antioch College in Keene, New Hampshire. She has been a guest teacher at Naropa, Esalen and Omega Institutes, at the American Dance Festival, the American College Dance Festival, and in dance departments at numerous colleges throughout the United States.

She has also been a guest teacher in the graduate somatic psychology programs at California Institute of Integral Studies and JFK University, and has presented at the Body Psychotherapy Conference. She has worked with movement and bodywork at the University of Amsterdam's Psychiatric Research Clinic in Holland and helped to establish a school for occupational and physical therapists in Tokyo, Japan. Bonnie is one of the founders of the International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association (ISMETA).

In addition to the programs and workshops at her school, Bonnie has taught workshops throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, Asia, South America, Australia, and New Zealand. Since 1973, she has had a private practice in occupational therapy and the Body-Mind Centering® approach to somatic education and therapy. Although she works with people of all ages, a major focus has been with infants and young children, especially infants with neurological challenges and children/teenagers developing scoliosis. She is currently turning more of her attention to writing and to producing videos of her work.

AWARDS

Lifetime Achievement Award from the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies, 2018
Pioneer Award from the United States Association for Body Psychotherapy (USABP), 2023

You can find more detailed background information about Bonnie in her extended bio and curriculum vitae.

Photo copyright William Vasta, used with permission