Paula Josa-Jones

Paula Josa-Jones

My background is as a dance artist, choreographer, equestrian, author, movement educator and therapist. My background includes deep research into movement, theater, somatics, improvisation, Authentic Movement, Deep Listening, and eco-performance, interspecies relationships and equine studies, . Much of my solo work arises from my experience of being gender non-conforming, and movement explorations of the deeply complex architecture of identity and expression.

For the past 40 years, I have explored alternative, embodied approaches to body-mind learning, including Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analysis, Tellington Touch Equine Awareness, Body-Mind Centering, and Authentic Movement. I am a Master Somatic Movement Educator and Therapist (MSMET) accredited by the ISMETA, the International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association.

For the past 22 years, I have worked with horses as a rider, choreographer, educator, and therapist. My book, Our Horses, Ourselves: Discovering the Common Body, was published by Trafalgar Square Books. In my experience, I find that horses can help us with whatever needs helping. They can illuminate issues or give us insights into the places that we are stuck - places of resistance or habits of body and mind that have become obstacles to our opening fully to our desires. Often that information is stored in the body. It can show up as pain or stiffness or a lack of feeling and joy.

I bring an SE-based, improvisational, intuitive, movement-based perspective to all of my work with both humans and horses. I teach privately in my studio in Kent, CT or at the stable with my beloved horse partners Izarra and Blue.

Specialties

• Addiction
• Adults abused as children
• Anger Management
• Anxiety Disorders
• Behavioral Issues
• Chronic Illness
• Chronic Pain/Fibromyalgia
• Complex PTSD
• Depression
• Developmental Trauma
• Physically Impaired
• Eating Disorders
• Equine-Assisted Therapy
• Gender Dysphoria
• Grief and Loss
• Hospice
• LGBTQIA+
• Medical Procedure Trauma
• Motor Vehicle Collisions
• Birth Trauma
• Self-Esteem
• Spirituality
• Traumatic Brain Injury
• Domestic Violence
• Sexual Abuse
• Womens’ Issues