Open Floor

Domain X · Body, movement, breath & physical · Kathy Altman, Lori Saltzman, Andrea Juhan · 2013

What it is

Open Floor is a conscious-dance and mindful-movement practice and an open-source curriculum, not a psychotherapy. OFI describes it as a resource-oriented movement practice for personal healing, professional growth and community building, built by a think tank of experienced facilitators drawing on…

Format

• Not a phased treatment. Open Floor has no treatment phases or session count. Its structure has three layers:
• The Movement Cycle (the basic unit of any class). Four phases, inspired by Gestalt Awareness Practice (Chris and Dick Price): Open Attention (track inner and outer experience without direction, including whatever ache, jitter, joy or looping thought is present); Enter (choose an embodied anchor and…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Weekly drop-in classes, multi-day workshops and training modules; sessions blend guided movement inquiries with freeform dance, solo, partner and group work, verbal guidance and silence.
• Ground Floor Lab (GFL): a 30-hour intensive, experiential introduction to the curriculum, in person or online, with a "behind the scenes" professional look at each session's intention and structure; aimed at long-term movers and professionals including mental health professionals; it is the prerequisite for all further OFI training.
• Teacher Track (movement teachers): prerequisites of 120 hours of instructed conscious dance (50 of them Open Floor), a GFL and 15 hours of mindfulness or meditation; four phases (Common Ground: Physical Embodiment; Common Sense: Emotional Intelligence; Common Knowledge: Creative Intelligence; Common Good: Soul & Spirit), each with intensive practice, small-group practice days, online learning and assignments…

Evidence status, as the guide reports it

• Evidence status. OFI states that its practice can improve physical and emotional health, reduce isolation, build "resilient neural pathways", slow cognitive decline and reduce the effects of trauma. These are the organisation's claims. No independent review or trial of Open Floor specifically is…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• contraction that turns into collapse or shame postures; expansion that feels exposing. Working: the client can choose either without distress.
• sharp directional movement in a crowded room; clients for whom decisiveness triggers anxiety. Working: steadier, more purposeful movement and language.
• idealisation of the teacher or the group; expectation that one class will release trauma. Working: the client uses their plan at least once without shame.
• interpretations imposed by the therapist; clients who feel watched or judged. Working: the client starts noticing their own impulses and offering meanings themselves.
• pause can become freeze; if the client looks frozen or blank, add a small movement or an anchor. Working: the client uses pause on their own to choose rather than react.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.