Martha Eddy, RSMT, CMA, Ed.D., founder and director of the Center for Kinesthetic Education (CKE), brings to the fields of health, wellness and education, her strong belief in the power of movement and somatic-awareness to enhance lives. Through the power of physical movement she has found that any person or group can become better at feeling life’s satisfactions, embodying peace, and contributing to creating stronger and happier communities. Martha Eddy received her doctorate from Teachers College, Columbia University in Movement Science and Education. She was also an adjunct professor in the Teachers College, Columbia University Dance Education Program for ten years. Dr. Eddy earned her Master’s of Arts in Applied Physiology and her Bachelor’s degree in Dance Education.
At CKE, in New York City, she maintains a private practice as a Registered Somatic Movement Therapist (RSMT) that involves teaching adults and children to bring awareness to their movement coordination to enhance functional and expressive capacity. She has decades of experience working with infants and children with behavioral, perceptual, and/or motor dysfunctions including those with attentional issues, developmental delays, and on the autism spectrum. Dr. Eddy also specializes in helping students who either prefer or lack kinesthetic channels for learning, and she approaches all academic subjects using multi-sensory methods. A play-based neuro-motor assessment is often used at the beginning of her work with new students.
Her practice draws on training and teaching in neuro-developmental movement therapy with occupational therapist, Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, and physical therapist, Irmgard Bartenieff. She also serves as an educational advocate making school referrals and enjoys working as part of a team with educational and health professionals to offer children comprehensive programming. Her practical application of this knowledge provides a foundation for her Dynamic Embodiment Somatic Movement Therapy Training held in New York, Massachusetts, select international locations and in affiliation with Moving On Center in California, a non-profit educational organization that she co-founded with Carol Swann.
Moving On Center–The School of Participatory Arts and Research (MOC) opened in September 1995 in Oakland, California. The school’s mission is to train movement professionals to be leaders who use mindful physical activity in new, somatic approaches to health, education and performance in their communities around the world. MOC is unique as a somatic movement education program that integrates creative expression inclusive of performance in its educational methods. It includes community outreach programs, such as Learning to Move programs, that place a somatic movement specialist into public and independent schools to provide professional development with all school staff and direct services with students.
Dr. Eddy teaches conflict resolution, movement, dance, yoga, health advocacy, and physical and somatic education for adults and youth, as well as the pedagogy of each at universities, independent studios, and at conferences nationally and internationally. She serves as a consultant to the NYC Department Education, Educators for Social Responsibility and The Inner Resilience Program/Tides Center (formerly Project Renewal). Her teacher education has been offered at Bank Street College of Education, NJPAC, CUNY Early Childhood Center, the Dance Education Laboratory/92Y, NYU Steinhardt College of Education, and Hofstra University. She is a proficient Spanish speaker and does some teaching bilingually.
Dr. Eddy has held numerous academic positions at colleges and universities. She is currently on the faculty of the State University of New York (SUNY) Empire State College (ESC), and many of her courses are also part of the doctoral level program at Santa Barbara Graduate Institute in Pre- and Peri-natal Psychology or Somatic Psychology.
She continues to deepen her research and teaching methods regarding violence prevention in schools and recreational centers across the country by implementing her Peaceful Play Programming. She recently published a chapter and is writing numerous articles and a manual on topics related to physical, embodied, approaches to socio-emotional development in schools and through the arts.