Human Development + Somatic Practice
Investigating how the Inner Development Goals (IDG) framework surfaces and illuminates the social significance of Somatic Partnering as a method of learning transformative skills through embodied experience
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
The complex field of human development illuminates the physical, cognitive, social, and emotional processes humans go through to make meaning of themselves and the world. One thread of human development research focuses on the relationships we develop with ourselves and others as a primary pathway to learning and development.
What changes when we fully attend to the way we relate with others? Dr. Ilya Vidrin, choreographer and founder of The Partnering Lab at Northeastern University, has developed a body of work to more deeply understand how we relate to others well. The focus in the Partnering Lab is partnering - a quality of interaction that is available to us, whether we are aware of it or not. But partnering is not just engaging with a partner. Vidrin founded The Partnering Lab to research and develop the Somatic Partnering method and investigate what individuals, artists, and collectives can learn about themselves, partnership patterns, and dispositions to partner, when they embody the values of partnership practice.
Somatic Partnering is an embodied philosophy that brings mind and body together for experiential learning. It is a values-based method that clarifies conceptual values essential to partnership and explores them through practice. SP offers ways to encounter and reflect one’s relationship to mutual agency and care while developing sensitivity and social competence for putting them into practice. This includes the ability to effectively interact with others, navigate social situations, understand and respond appropriately to the emotions and intentions of others, and choose suitable social behaviors in context. As a philosophy, Somatic Partnering can guide transformative shifts in mindset about social embeddedness and relationship
This project uses the Inner Development Goals (IDGs) framework as a heuristic to surface and illuminate the social significance of Somatic Partnering. The IDGs Framework simplifies a complex field of human development to help us better identify, understand, communicate, develop, and integrate the transformative skills needed to catalyze change for sustainable development.
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Research report forthcoming (2025).
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