Somatic Insight Training
An exploration into what it is to be a living, embodied being.
A Somatic approach to Insight Meditation.
Movement is not something the Body does
Movement is what you are.
Over 3 months we dive into a deep discovery of Sensation, Movement and the Embodied Self. We will work with simple Somatic practices - moving meditations - that invite us to a deeper ease, vitality and embodied wisdom.
Why Somatic Insight?
Vipassanā has traditionally been practised in stillness. By reducing movement and external stimulation, attention becomes more stable and the nature of experience becomes easier to observe.
Somatic practice explores another possibility.
Rather than approaching awareness only through stillness, we investigate it through movement. We discover that movement is not simply something to do, but another way of observing the mind, body and the continuous unfolding of experience.
This training is an invitation to become more deeply embodied—to meet yourself through sensation, subtle movement and direct embodied experience.
Rather than leaving movement aside, we learn through it.
This is not a movement course, nor a traditional meditation course.
It is an experiential investigation into our sensing, feeling, and moving embodied consciousness.
The Sensory–Motor Approach
We have two sides of our nervous system.
The sensory side receives the world through sensation.
The motor side meets the world through movement and action.
Much of contemporary Vipassanā develops extraordinary awareness to the sensory side of experience. Somatic practice approaches the same territory from the opposite direction. Through subtle movement we begin to free the motor system.
I've observed students being able to contact parts of their body, sensation and Self more directly when movement is allowed. The body wants to move and inhibiting it can feel like tension, holding or freezing it. In my experience, stillness that is arrived at through movement, is deeper, more fluid and breathing.
Movement in this approach is not viewed as muscular or joint activity but also much subtler layers of movement that happen even before movement becomes visible. The movement of emotion in the body, subtle energetical shifts, the motor dynamics of intention, imagination and attention.
This allows us to open up freedom in both the sensory and the motor side of the nervous system.
As Susan Aposhyan writes:
“Embodiment is the complete and continuous free flow of cognition, emotion and behaviour through our body.”
What You May Discover
Over three months we will gradually cultivate a different relationship with sensation and movement in our body. Rather than inhibiting movement, we learn through it.
Greater ease and a quiet vitality of the body in movement and in stillness
Less habitual tension, holding and numbness and a freer flow of movement, breath and energy throughout the body
A deeper capacity to witness and respond to others through embodied awareness
Increased sensitivity to subtle bodily sensation and micro-movement
A deeper sense of grounding, centredness and whole-body awareness
a clearer understanding of how personality and identity are expressed through the body
An embodied understanding of your own anatomy
Improved bodily organisation and awareness in everyday movement and physical activity
Insight into the relationship between sensation, action, perception, feeling, intention and consciousness
As the perception of movement becomes subtler, another discovery often begins to emerge.There is nothing but movement. Thoughts, Intentions, Emotions are movement. Even our sense of self is experienced as a living process rather than something fixed.
Movement becomes another doorway into Vipassana Insights into Impermanence, Non-Self and Body-Mind Tension.
An Overview of the Course
A journey from the surface to the depths of experience; from the gross to the subtle; from the micro to the macro; from the human mind to our primal nature; from the adult self to the infant—and back again.
This course unfolds over three months. You are encouraged to practise for a minimum of 30 minutes each day. These daily sessions are an invitation to continue exploring the practices introduced in class in your own intuitive way, allowing your embodied insight practice to develop through direct experience.
The curriculum below is an outline rather than a fixed syllabus. Like the practice itself, it will be shaped by the unfolding process of the group and may evolve as we go.
Session 1
Introduction
An introduction to the course, the sensory–motor loop, and the foundations of the Micro-Motor Body Scan.
Module 1
Somatic Awareness
Meeting the Body
We begin by meeting, and unfreezing the body deeply through the Micro-Motor Body Scan. Through subtle movement we awaken and enliven different areas of the body, discovering increasingly refined layers of sensation, tone and micro-movement
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Pelvis, Feet & Legs
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Hands, Arms & Heart
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Face & Viscera
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Spine, Head & Tail
Module 2
Somatic Organisation
Moving towards Wholeness
Having developed greater sensitivity to the body, we expand into movement. We explore wholeness, relationship with space, and movement as an expression of the entire organism.
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Developmental Movement (The Infant)
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Everywhere at the Same Time (Wholeness)
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Qi, Breath & the Energy Body
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Sky & Ground
Module 3
Somatic Expression
From moving to Being Moved
Having met our body and unified it, we begin to trust the body’s own intelligence. We investigate intuitive movement, imagery and deeper embodied expression, allowing movement to arise rather than be directed. We explore witnessing each other's movement
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Authentic Movement
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Imagery, Form & Sensation
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Awareness, Spirit & Mystery
Final Session
Integration & Harvest
A space to reflect on the journey, integrate the practices, and harvest what has emerged over the three months.
A week in the course
Practice
This is your own embodied practice, both during the daily sessions and throughout everyday life. Your direct experience is the foundation for developing embodied insight. By returning to the practices regularly, exploring them intuitively, and allowing them to unfold in your own movement, sensitivity and understanding naturally deepen.
Live Sessions
Live meetings with the teacher and the full group.
Introduction to Practice, Background Theory and Principles, Discussion & Sharings
13 sessions in total, starting October 3
Every Saturday, 4–6pm PM BST (London, UTC+1)
Berlin: 5 PM - 7PM
New York: 11 AM - 1PM
California: 8 AM - 10AM
India: 8:30 PM - 10.30PM
Please note: Due to daylight saving time changes, the 31 October session takes place one hour later for participants in North America.
Learning
Each week includes up to an hour of additional material, such as anatomy, concepts from the live sessions, articles or other resources to support your practice.
By engaging with the weekly course material—listening, reflecting and exploring—we develop a deeper understanding of the principles behind the practices, allowing us to approach somatic inquiry with greater sensitivity and curiosity.
Practice Pods
Share your practice and receive feedback—from the teacher, fellow participants and your own reflections.
Weekly meetings in small groups of 3–4 participants in a similar time zone.
A space to reflect together, support one another and deepen your embodied practice through shared experience.
A preview of the micro-motor scanning technique
More about Somatics
The word soma comes from the Greek, meaning the living body as experienced from within—the body only you can feel, sense and move.
Today, somatics is an umbrella term for approaches that explore ourselves through movement, sensation, awareness and embodied experience. Rather than trying to change the body from the outside, somatic practice invites us to listen from within, allowing movement, breath, sensation and expression to emerge from the bottom up rather than the top down.
I came to somatics almost simultaneously with my Vipassanā practice. While meditation revealed extraordinary depths of awareness through stillness, I became increasingly curious about what movement could teach. It felt as though movement was the embodiment of what I was discovering on the meditation cushion—a way of bringing the same qualities of awareness into movement, into relationship, into play, exploration and expression.
While continuing to deepen my Vipassanā practice through retreats, daily life and teaching with Vipassanā at Home, I also immersed myself in a wide range of somatic disciplines, including Contact Improvisation, Body-Mind Centering®, Somatic Freediving, Aikido, Qi Gong, Thai Massage, Butoh and the Somatic Research Training at the Institute for the Study of Somatic Communication (ISSC).
Rather than seeing meditation and somatics as separate paths, I have come to experience them as deeply complementary. Stillness allows us to perceive movement more clearly. Movement reveals dimensions of stillness that might otherwise remain hidden.
This training is an invitation to explore that meeting place for yourself.
The Facilitators
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Reimar Wen Shen is a Vipassanā meditation teacher, dancer, and father based at Quinta Ten Chi near Sintra, Portugal.
He has practiced Vipassanā for over a decade across the Goenka, Mahasi, and Northern Thai traditions, including more than 30 weeks in intensive silent retreat.
Before teaching full-time, he worked in investment management at Vanguard, shaping his commitment to a practice integrated with everyday life.
His teaching brings together classical Theravāda Vipassanā with contemporary approaches to insight, embodiment, and emptiness. In 2021, he founded Vipassana at Home to make deep meditation practice more accessible beyond traditional retreat settings.
Sandra Fleischmann is an osteopath, movement practitioner, and meditation practitioner based in Hamburg, Germany.
Since 2016, she has trained and practised in osteopathy, completing a five-year degree while developing an approach that integrates manual therapy with an understanding of the body’s innate capacity for self-healing.
Alongside her clinical work, Sandra has a long-standing practice in Contact Improvisation, tango, Body-Mind Centering, and Buddhist meditation. Her work explores the relationship between movement, awareness, and health, creating spaces where body and mind can reconnect through presence, touch, and embodied attention. (osteopathie-sandrafleischmann.de)
She will be advising the program with her experience as an osteopath and expert in somatic anatomy.
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