- Infant Movement Development
Module 2
The relevance for the human developmental process
This module invites you into the rich and intricate world of early movement in infancy — a time when the body begins to write its first language. Here, theory meets lived experience, as we explore how the movements of the first year quietly scaffold our later capacities: to think, to feel, to relate, to learn.
We trace the subtle threads of muscle tone, balance, and primitive reflexes, weaving them into a deeper understanding of how human beings grow, connect, and adapt. These early gestures — seemingly simple — are shaped by a living dialogue between inner impulses and outer surroundings. In this interplay lies the quiet poetry of development.
Through embodied exploration and attentive observation, participants begin to sense how movement reveals inner landscapes: needs seeking expression, capacities awakening, emotions stirring. These motions are not mechanical repetitions — they are relational acts, intimate negotiations with gravity, space, and the presence of others.
Participants are invited to witness and experience the emergence of foundational movement patterns — feeling how reflexes and postural adjustments guide the infant’s path toward interaction, learning, and autonomy. Through movement, we catch a glimpse of the architecture of becoming: a living mirror that reflects needs, potential, and the first steps toward coherence.
A central thread of the module is cultivating the art of observation — not only with trained precision, but with open, nonjudgmental awareness. This perceptual skill is vital for clinicians, educators, therapists — and for anyone seeking a deeper, more compassionate relationship with their own body and others.
This is not only a matter of observation — it is a quiet return: to the body’s wisdom, to the rhythms that shaped us, to the silent resilience seeded in our first movements.
In an age of distraction, disconnection, and growing developmental strain, these primal patterns offer a path back to wholeness — clear, grounded, and alive.
Key Topics of the module:
- Muscle tone and movement development in the first year
- Foundational movement sequences: Roll / Yield / Push / Reach / Pull
- Primitive reflexes and postural reflexes
- The balance system (vestibular system)
- Brain and visual development
- Movement observation and analysis
- Contextual applications, practical examples, and case studies
- Interaction and attunement with caregivers
Ausführliche Seminarinformationen
200 UE / 6 modules / 4 somatic methods / 3 instructors
Curriculum
The C.A.R.E training consists of 6 modules and each module can be booked individually. You can join the ongoing modular training at any time.
Some of the modules are recognized as educational leave in Berlin.
Curriculum
Module 1 | tba 2026 | Embryology
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Module 2 | tba 2027 | Infant movement development
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Module 3 | tba 2027 | Becoming Self
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Module 4 | tba 2027 | Embodied Pathways
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Module 5 | Jan 31 - Feb 04, 2026 | Motivation, Engagement & Vitality
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Module 6 | Mar 30 - Apr 03, 2026 | Embodying Creation
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For whom is C.A.R.E?
- Teachers, social workers, youth workers and parents who are looking for new ways to help children and young people grow and develop through physical experience and body awareness.
- Parents who want to better understand how they can promote their children's emotional and physical well-being through movement and mindfulness.
- Anyone who wants to learn how to find and support their own emotional and physical balance.
What are the key educational aspects of the C.A.R.E. program?
- Developmental foundations: C.A.R.E. begins with the observation of how humans develop from the earliest stages (prenatal, infancy, early childhood) and how movement and attachment influence learning. The neurobiological foundations of learning, such as the function of the nervous system and the development of trauma, form the educational cornerstones of the training.
- Learning through experience: Participants learn through embodied experience. Movement-based activities provide a deep understanding of developmental processes, while theoretical information accompanies their own learning and reflection process.
- Learning as a lifelong process: C.A.R.E. is aimed at those who wish to deepen their understanding of learning as an ongoing developmental process - be it in their work with children, adults or for their own personal growth.
Research-based and practice-oriented
Our C.A.R.E. program is based on years of practical experience and integrates proven approaches from various disciplines, such as Somatic Experiencing (SE), Body-Mind Centering®, Neuromotor Development Promotion INPP®, NARM, Feldenkrais and others. These methods are integrated with each other to promote a deep understanding of the connections between body, mind and development. They are based on the latest research and help to regulate the nervous system and understand the effects of trauma and early childhood development without focusing on the traumatic event itself.
Applied somatic methods of training
- IBMT (Integrative Bodywork- and Movement Therapy)
- Neurophysiological Psychology
- Feldenkrais
- Contact Improvisation
- Ideokinesis
- Body-Mind Centering®
- Dance
Graduation Requirements:
- Proof of 10 hours observation.
- One class presentation
- Case study or practical research, documented in an essay of maximum 3,000
General content:
Embryology- Tone
- Development of the vestibular system
- Reflexes
- Primitive reflexes
- Postural reflexes
- Human Movement Development
- Brain development
- development of the nervous system
- information processing
- physiological learning processes
- new versus re-learning
- creating a supportive space for learning
- dealing with resistance
- achievement evaluation
- age-appropriate mediation
- teenagers
- 8-11 (development of sexuality)
- 3-7/8 (Postural reflexes should be integrated)
- 0-3
- Games: Movement activities / Support / Touch
- Touch: as support not as correction /alternatives to touch
Subjects:
- Experiential Anatomy
- A variety of Somatic methods
- Context / practical application / practice fields
- Integration
- Hands on
- Case study discussions
Seminarleiter*innen
Heike Kuhlmann
www.heikekuhlmann.net
MSME, BMC®-Practitioner, dancer, -educator, choreographer, MA Performance Studies/Choreography
Heike is interested in the unfolding process of human beings. It is more than the individual unfolding, but in how people can meet each other at eye level through personal development and inclusion of structural conditions in her somatic facilitations. Being a condition to become Critical Somatics. She accompanies somatic processes in individual sessions, courses, workshops and trainings. Activism and somatics are interwoven in her artistic work. More information on: www.somatik-tanz-choreographie.de, www.heikekuhlmann.net
Adalisa Menghini
Teacher, choreographer, performer
Adalisa studied at the S.N.D.O in Amsterdam, after which she completed her M.A. in Neurophysiological Psychology. She is a teacher of the Feldenkrais Method. She works with professional and non-professional dancers, children and seniors. She was nominated twice as best choreographer of the "Giocabriga". In collaboration with K. Wickenhäuser, she has brought performances with school children to museums. Twice they have won the "Kinder zum Olymp!" award. She teaches at the Tanzfabrik, the Somatic Academy Berlin and at the Berlin University of the Arts.
Ka Rustler
Ka Rustler has been performing, researching and analyzing somatic practices and their embodiment in movement, choreography and therapy for over 30 years. BMC® Teacher
Anmeldeinformationen
BerlinSomatische Akademie Berlin
Paul-Lincke-Ufer 30
10999 Berlin | side building
1st backyard
4th floor
- Full Price: 810.00 EUR
This module is part of the professional training c.a.r.e and seperatly bookable as well:
Infant Movement Development
DE+EN | 6-day workshop c.a.r.e
tba 2027
>> more info
