Full Body Presence: Learning to Listen to Your Body's Wisdom [Paperback]

Suzanne Scurlock-Durana (Author), D.O. John E. Upledger (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 9, 2010

Many teachers stress the importance of living in the present moment. Few give the actual practices to make it attainable. This book teaches you how to return to the incredible navigational system of the body and more fully inhabit each moment.

For over twenty-five years, Suzanne Scurlock-Durana has masterfully taught her step-by-step practice of present moment awareness through her own combination of bodywork and CranioSacral therapy. The practices of Full Body Presence help you find a deeper awareness in the moment, even in the midst of chaos, family and work demands, or the pressure to perform. This deeper awareness also brings a fuller sense of trust and confidence in yourself and in the world. Full Body Presence is filled with concrete, life-friendly explorations and instruction clearly presented in both the book and the free accompanying downloadable audio files.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Shows you how to be friends with your body — how to relate to it as an ally rather than something to control, judge, manipulate, or push away.”
— from the foreword by John Upledger, DO, OMM

“Suzanne Scurlock-Durana is a brilliant teacher who offers a powerful approach to healing on all levels.”
— Shakti Gawain, author of Creative Visualization

“Consciously inhabiting our physical being is the gateway to healing and full aliveness. Full Body Presence guides us with wise teachings, stories, and powerfully crafted experiential explorations on this path of awakening.”
— Tara Brach, PhD, author of Radical Acceptance

“Reading Full Body Presence is as deliciously awakening as a full body massage. The brilliance of this book is that it challenges without ever judging or blaming, revealing the mysteries of our own internal landscapes, gently expanding our awareness of who we were, who we are, and who we might become.”
— Gina Ogden, PhD, author of The Heart & Soul of Sex and The Return of Desire

“Full Body Presence is a must-read for all healthcare professionals and anyone who wants to stay healthy and continue their journey of wellness. Read Suzanne Scurlock-Durana’s book many times — it’s full of stories, simple-to-follow exercises, and important principles. Suzanne carefully teaches these principles to manifest change in your life. She weaves wonderful life energy throughout the tapestry of her work. Brava!”
— Ilana Rubenfeld, author of The Listening Hand and creator/founder of the Rubenfeld Synergy Method

About the Author

Suzanne Scurlock-Durana, CMT, CST-D, has taught internationally about conscious awareness and its relationship to the healing process. Her Healing from the Core curriculum combines CranioSacral therapy and other bodywork modalities for a complete body-centered approach to feeling the joy of the present moment. She teaches and speaks throughout the world and lives in Reston, Virginia.

Product Details

• Paperback: 216 pages
• Publisher: New World Library, Nataraj (March 9, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1577318609
• ISBN-13: 978-1577318606
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.6 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #50,004 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Suzanne Scurlock-Durana, C.M.T, C.S.T.-D (Reston, VA) For more than twenty-five years Suzanne has taught and mentored in the area of conscious awareness and its relationship to the healing process. She has developed a uniquely creative approach to energy, presence, grounding and integrative exercises taught beautifully in the Healing From the Core program, which includes a six level training series and a complementary audio series. All of this is based on her years of experience helping fellow healthcare practitioners hold a healing space for themselves, as well as developing their own therapeutic presence for clients and patients. She is passionate about teaching people practical skills that allow them to feel the joy of being present in each moment of their lives, without burning out. To that end, she has completed a book and companion audio, Full-Body Presence: Learning to Listen to Your Body's Wisdom

Since 1986 she has been a certified instructor of CranioSacral Therapy and SomatoEmotional Release with The Upledger Institute, teaching both nationally and internationally. She is also on the faculty at Esalen Institute, and provides ongoing staff development training there, as well as collaborating regularly with Emilie Conrad, integrating Continuum movement and healing presence.

Known for her honest, grounded, nurturing manner, Suzanne assists others in going to the heart of their healing process. She is adept at weaving together mind, body, and spirit to create a unique environment where profound healing can occur. To accomplish this, she draws on her wealth of experience as a professional, teacher and therapist, a wife and mother, and generously shares from all areas of her life.

A sought-after speaker in her field, Suzanne inspires healthcare practitioners, coaches, teachers and care-givers all over the world to stay energized using her life-changing tools for stress management and full-body presence. She also has authored numerous articles, and thousands visit her popular blog, Presence Matters: Reflections on Body, Mind and Spirit at http://massagemag.com/massage-blog/presence-matters. She has a private practice in Reston, VA where her clients also benefit from the techniques she teaches.

Learn more at http://www.healingfromthecore.com

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Full Body Presence is a must for living your best experience of life March 1, 2010

By Angela L. Stevens

Format:Paperback

Posted 03/01/10: Full Body Presence is a comprehensive manual about how to live life feeling a deep internal ease instead of feeling anxious and fearful. The book offers detailed instructions, examples, and a wonderful step by step protocol about how to feel more of the support that our bodies can offer us. You will also gain invaluable information about how to be more present to your everyday experiences through the sensations of your body. As an Occupational Therapist this makes perfect sense to me because physiologically we only register the memory of experiences through sensation. Finally, someone has put into writing in an organized fashion how to actually feel sensation in a very present way and live from a place of steadiness. Some people call this being grounded, I am experiencing this as living life with a sensation of feeling a fullness of connection to all that supports me in all of life.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Treasure March 2, 2010

By Book Lover

Format:Paperback

Thank you, Suzanne, for a true treasure of a book.

Full Body Presence is unique in that there is something for all of us. In this book, Suzanne Scurlock-Durana provides several avenues to understanding and the actual experience of "being present" in one's own body. She outlines a strong theoretical framework presented in language that is both clear enough for those, like me, who prefer concrete description and yet broad and nuanced enough for those who think less linearly.

Suzanne offers interesting examples from her own experience with the thousands of people she's worked with over the years. Plus, she gives step-by-step instructions in language specific enough to show the way into the territory to actually feel what it means to be in one's own body, while flexible enough to allow for individual variations on the path. The CD of Audio Explorations adds another dimension to the practice of this work and sets just the right tone to lead each of us into her/his own experience of full embodiment and present moment awareness. -C.W.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Bravo Suzanne! February 24, 2010

By Nina Wallinder

Format:Paperback

This book is like an oasis in a desert of confusion.

It is ideal for not just healing practitioners. It is clear to me that it will be a valuable resource for anybody who is looking for a sense of fulfillment in their everyday interactions. In using this book you will develop the skills to feel more energetic in life and less 'burnt out' or stressed.

It is all about:
* You: your body self-awareness and navigating life
* You: your ability to experience life fully
* You: your relationship quality
* You: your presence and your perception of that

Full Body Presence: Learning to Listen to Your Body's Wisdom could be seen as a personal life manual. It helps you understand, in *real terms*, aspects of yourself about which you may have less awareness or an intangible sense.

Suzanne is clear and thorough in outlining everything from:
- definitions and meanings, to
- personal experiences and case studies.

Her information is presented in a real and doable fashion and comes with *guided audio* to further walk you through the process.

It is obvious that Full Body Presence comes from vast experience which really shines through and is comforting in that I knew (the reader will, too) Suzanne's methods are tried and tested.

Buy this book if you are looking for something practical to help develop inner awareness and outer confidence! It can't get easier than this! (Thank You Suzanne: I'm thrilled to have bought my copy!)