With a high degree of specificity, DFA approaches the overall work with a person from three angles:
• A direct hands-on intervention in the body
• Education of movement and body awareness
• The creation of a safe space where interrupted emotional processes can be completed and inner balance restored after traumatic experiences
In private sessions and workshops, it offers the opportunity to discover how you organize your experience in your body. It explores the shapes of the body in relationship to a very clear and specific reference: the coordinates of the gravitational field of Earth. With this reference it becomes possible to relax excessive involuntary tension that interferes not only with physiological functions but also with your freedom of movement and responsiveness in relationship with others and yourself.
Annie B. Duggan and Janie French trained with Ida P. Rolf and Judith Aston. They partnered in 1985, when they were both working at the Rolf Institute for Structural Integration in Boulder as movement instructors. They had both developed their approach following the same direction: DFA works deeply and subtly from the inside out to gently release the patterns of tension that interfere with physical, psychological and emotional wellbeing.
Although it is deeply rooted in the physiology of the body, DFA goes beneath and beyond the physical to the inner landscape inhabited by each individual client. The work is intimate, gentle and spacious. This allows the client's relationship to her/his inherent patterns of tension to unfold organically through the inner work.
The result is greater ease in movement and an understanding of how your emotional wellbeing effects your structural alignment in gravity, while also understanding how your patterns, both emotional and physical, impact your interactions in your lives. The Duggan/French Approach weaves together physical, emotional and cognitive awareness in a way that is accessible and useful to each individual client. At all times, the client leads the way, which means the way is meaningful and sustainable.
Since Janie French's death in 2001 and Annie B. Duggan’s retirement, Brigitte Hansmann continues her mission to develop and teach the Duggan/French Approach in direct contact with Annie B. Duggan.
