psychology in movement
Fascia of Humanity
Connective tissue for inclusive living
Erasmus+ training course
12. - 20. October 2024
Slovenia
Fascia of Humanity was a 7-day Erasmus+ Training Course that explored how inclusive, resilient communities can be built through the lens of nature, the human body, and dance.
Inspired by fascia—the connective tissue that supports and adapts under stress, the project used somatic and movement practices to embody, explore and experiment with mutual support, flexibility, and connection. Participants drew parallels between fascia and community, discovering how to support environments where everyone can grow together.
About this training
What is fascia?
Fascia is a thin casing of connective tissue that envelops and supports every organ, blood vessel, bone, nerve fiber, and muscle in the body. Beyond merely providing structural integrity, fascia is highly sensitive, almost as responsive as the skin, due to the presence of nerves. When subjected to stress, fascia tightens and adapts, playing a crucial role in our physical well-being and flexibility.
Source: web
What is Fascia of humanity?
Just as fascia provides support and flexibility within our bodies, our project seeks to create communities where individuals are supported and able to adapt and grow into their potential. By understanding how fascia functions under stress and how it maintains structure, participants can draw parallels to building resilient, inclusive communities. Contact improvisation, with its focus on physical connection and support, serves as an embodied metaphor for the interconnectedness and mutual reliance that is essential for fostering inclusive environments.
Main questions for this training:
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Learning from Nature: How can we emulate natural ecosystems to create inclusive and resourceful living environments where everyone has what they need?
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Learning from Our Bodies: What insights can we gain from understanding our own physical systems, particularly connective tissues, to support inclusive living?
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Learning from Dance: How can dance (contact improvisation) teach us about cooperation, subtle listening, and the support necessary to sustain movement and growth in any context?
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Learning from Each Other: How can we learn to accept and celebrate individual differences, fostering authenticity and daring to be unique?
Methodology:
Somatics - Ecopsychology - Contact improvisation
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Somatic practices: Somatic practices focus on increasing awareness of bodily sensations, movements, and patterns to enhance overall well-being and self-awareness. This work emphasizes the body's internal physical perception and experience.
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Ecopsychology: explores the relationship between human beings and the natural world through ecological and psychological principles. It seeks to understand and address the psychological underpinnings of environmental issues, proposing that the health of the planet is intrinsically linked to human mental health. It emphasizes the importance of reconnecting with nature to foster emotional well-being and a sense of ecological responsibility.
Ecopsychology and somatics both seek to foster a sense of belonging. Ecopsychology does this by reconnecting individuals with the natural world, while somatic practices help individuals feel more at home in their own bodies. Together, they can create a profound sense of belonging to both oneself and the larger ecosystem.
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Contact improvisation: Contact improvisation is a dance form centred around spontaneous, physical interaction between dancers, often involving weight sharing, balance, and responsive movements. Through contact improvisation, we can experience the principles of cooperation, listening, support, and embracing diversity. These experiences are not just confined to the dance studio but can be translated into real-world skills for building inclusive, supportive communities.
Objectives:
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Personal Development: Enhance self-awareness and self-confidence, encouraging participants to discover and harness their inner resources.
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Social Development: Foster empathy, cooperation, and communication skills, essential for building supportive and inclusive communities.
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Professional Development: Equip participants with leadership and mentoring skills to guide marginalized youth and other community members towards self-discovery and empowerment.
Why participants applied?
Participants were drawn to the training for the opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of inclusivity and resource-sharing, inspired by nature-based principles, somatic practices, and dance.
They gained valuable insights into how their own bodies and movement patterns could inform and shape approaches to supporting communities more effectively.
The training encouraged participants to value and celebrate individual differences, fostering a deeper sense of authenticity, acceptance, and connection—both within the group and in their wider work.
Through experiential learning, they acquired practical skills and knowledge to better lead and support marginalized groups, contributing to both their personal and professional development.
For who?
This project was created for youth workers, trainers, educators, dancers, NGO leaders, mental health professionals, and others dedicated to personal and professional growth.
Participants were invited to:
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Explore and deepen their understanding of the physical, psychological, and social dimensions of human functioning through a variety of embodied practices,
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Engage in the technical and philosophical exploration of Contact Improvisation and somatic work to unlock the expressive potential of the body,
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Trust and actively contribute to the co-creation of a group process, valuing the unfolding collective wisdom,
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Embrace outdoor physical activities in all weather conditions as part of the learning experience,
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Gather new tools, insights, and inspirations to enrich their work with their respective communities,
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Fully commit to the program with an open, curious, and adaptive mindset.
We had 30 participants from Italy, Slovenia, France, Germany, Spain, Poland, Portugal, Latvia, and Finland.
This training course was co-funded through the Erasmus+ Programme, and travel costs were fully reimbursed up to a specific maximum allowed amount.
The training course was open to individuals of all ages and experience levels. However, it was important that participants came with openness and a genuine interest in exploring the approaches offered. Participants were advised to prepare for an intensive experience, with a minimum of six hours of physical activity each day.
The training focused primarily on somatic movement practices and the principles of Contact Improvisation. As such, participants needed to feel comfortable with giving and receiving touch as part of the learning process.
Clarification on the Purpose of the Training:
It was clearly stated that this training was not intended to replace psychotherapy or act as a form of healing. Instead, it served as an educational opportunity for participants to deepen their understanding through experiential learning—knowledge and insights they could later share and apply in their personal or professional contexts.
"This october, I experienced a transformative week of moving with kind-hearted individuals, embracing trust, connection, and mutual care. It was a reminder of what’s needed in 2025: deeper connections—with ourselves, each other, and nature.
Inspired by this, I’m applying these insights to work with youth, helping turn climate anxiety into creativity. Through movement and voice freeing, we can transform fear into purpose, empowering young people to become resilient stewards of their communities and the planet.
Programs like Erasmus+ strengthen this “fascia of humanity,” weaving trust and collaboration across Europe.
Grateful to @moave_psychology_in_movement for this inspiring opportunity!"
Monika
Trainers and their view on "Fascia"
Foto by: Laura Szekeres
Antonio is a passionate trainer who loves to craft experiences for self-development, group awareness, creative expression and pursuit of wise and joyful freedom.
He facilitates workshops for teenagers, students, youth workers and adults, using and mixing his expertise and experiences from theatrical improvisation, contemporary dance, martial arts and contact improvisation.
"Among many other things, I feel movement as composition, the body composes in order to recompose, transitioning through poses,
and pauses.
It is about playing with the form,
to in-form and
trans-form
transform the space
within me and you
between us
Us
in touch
is a composition of guessings,
of held intensity
of waving, compressing,
stretching and spiraling forces."
Živa is an anthropologist, manual therapist and researcher of somatic practices and contact improvisation.
Her field of activity focuses primarily on developing and maintaining sensitivity and awareness towards oneself, fellow human beings and the environment, finding organic, creative and non-violent ways for the coexistence of differences and their mutual enrichment, which enables continuous transformation and personal growth.
She uses work with the body, touch and awareness of space as the basic tools of her practices.
"CI invites me to relax into the place of not knowing. To find a deeper sense of safety in this wide open presence, where anything can happen anytime.
Being ready for welcoming the unknown.
Trusting the intelligence of stars and galaxies playing itself through my little human body. Observing the cultural patterns and personal tendencies
shaping my dance.
Recognizing how I'm being moved. Returning again to the place of not knowing, a place bigger than we all are. In it, creativity unfolds and the next move happens.
And so I'm getting to know myself through you, each time a bit more, touched by the untamed truth of spontaneous emergence.
Somewhere between earth and sky, between you and me and before me and after you.
Nayeli is a psychologist, working privately with gestalt experiential psychotherapy approach. She is contact improvisation dancer, and trainer inside the field of non-formal education. Her deep calling is to work on the bridge of psychology and movement. In her work, she offers a process orientated approach where she invites participants to slowly dive back into their bodies in order to remember and rest in the meeting of oneself. The dance that comes out of this meeting is a unique authentic expression and a story that is worth listening and admiration.
"Nature is for me a very precious teacher.
It seems motionless yet it is in constant movement and continuation. What inspires me is the interconnectedness of this profound system. So I wonder how, us humans, can become a part of this system, by deeply and sensibly listening to what is already there, what is already moving in its own way.
How can we perceive through our senses and enlarge this perception into the layers of living beings such as rocks, stones, water, trees. Maybe in this way Earth teaches us something about movement that is happening through us instead of from us.
In contact improvisation, this subtle layer of attention and listening to the wider space beyond our skin, can deepen the way we are present in the dance, so our natural system can remember how to move harmoniously in the system of whole."
Project results...
"Through various activities, games and mediums, I was given to see just how we can in reality stretch and reach much further than we think. We danced, we explored, we connected, we laughed, we cried, we gave, we shared, we shared each other's lives for 8 days.
8 very special days.
What a journey and beautiful experience that was. I'm very grateful to have had the chance to participate and continuously grateful that these wonderful Erasmus + programs are made so accessible. These trainings have really been so powerful and transformative for me. It fills me with hope to see what seems to me like more and more people committing to them and having the courage to show themselves vulnerable, trying to get closer to their true selves, live and love more fully, and help others do the same.
Thank you for having me MOAVE - psychology in movement"
#fasciaofhumanity #somatictraining #contactimprovisation #ErasmusPlus
Sasha - Participant
Booklet...
The purpose of this booklet is to serve as a reflective and practical documentation of the Fascia of Humanity training, capturing its process, methodology, and experiential insights in a way that supports participants, facilitators, and other practitioners in carrying the work forward.
The structure of each day was intentionally designed to build upon the previous one, gradually deepening our individual embodiment and collective intelligence.
Each module invited us to sense, reflect, and relate in new ways—gently unravelling patterns of disconnection and offering space to experience presence, interdependence, and belonging.
The following pages offer a glimpse into the flow of the week: its structure, daily intentions, and the living, breathing movement of bodies learning together.
