Somatic Practices, Arts and Creativity for Special Needs

The general aim of the project “SPARKS for special needs” is to facilitate a cross-cultural research and exchange about self-directed learning in the specific frame of special needs. We intend to involve in this process disabled adults and families, as well as professionals, therapists and educators in the field of care. The main focus is on Somatic Education – especially Body-Mind Centering (BMC) - as an innovative approach to bodily self-awareness and community-based learning, which provides educational resources for enhancing and empowering the experiential knowledge of individuals and communities. In this project, BMC functions as a model and vector for the formal/informal production of knowledge that draw from traditional therapies, neuroscience, developmental psychology and clinical research, as well as body-based practices, dance, performing arts and other creative processes.