the cerclemethod
EMBODIED HEALING
INTEGRATIVE EXPRESSIVE ARTS AND SOMATIC MOVEMENT
I work with the living body as an intelligent, adaptive and relational system.
The CercleMethod™ is a bottom-up, process-oriented somatic and sensorimotor approach that integrates principles of trauma theory, movement education, and the creative process to address physiological symptoms, implicit and procedural memory more effectively using tools that are body-focused, trauma-informed and primarily non-verbal.
This work is shaped by lived experience (yours and mine), with the understanding that we are relational beings living in a relational world.
A body-first, movement-based, relational approach
“ “Once you start approaching your body with curiosity rather than with fear, everything shifts.””
THE CERCLEMETHOD™
Created by Djinane AlSuwayeh, the CercleMethod™ is a bottom-up, movement-based, multimodal and experiential approach that integrates body-based and the creative process to support emotional processing, stress release, trauma recovery, and the flourishing of human potential. Rooted in somatic psychology, expressive arts and somatic movement, this method prioritizes exploration over aesthetics, and expression over interpretation to foster deeper embodiment, self-discovery and self-care.
With a foundation in somatic trauma resolution and nervous system regulation, the CercleMethod™ provides a safer container for individuals to express, breathe, move, and transform stored survival energy. By working with the body’s innate intelligence and capacity for self-regulation, this approach fosters stabilization, resilience, and embodied presence through strength-based, process-led practices.
Using mindfulness, rhythm, movement and art, this work guides individuals toward a deeper connection with their emotions, expands capacity to hold and process experience, offers creative expression as a pathway for more integration and aliveness, and to reconnect with joy, vitality, and self-trust.
WHAT INFORMS THE METHOD
Somatic Trauma Therapy
Somatic Experiencing
Somatic Experiencing (SE) is a body-oriented therapeutic model developed by Dr. Peter Levine that aims to resolve symptoms of stress, shock, and trauma that accumulate in our bodies and nervous systems. Trauma, from an SE lens, is focused on stress physiology & psychophysiology-how it shows up in the nervous system and how that dysregulation impacts life. When we are stuck in patterns of fight, flight, or freeze, SE helps us release, recover, and become more resilient. The approach facilitates the completion of self-protective motor responses and the release of thwarted survival energy bound in the body, addressing the root cause of trauma symptoms. This is approached by gently guiding to develop increasing tolerance for difficult bodily sensations and suppressed emotions and working to complete defensive responses previously thwarted from bringing resolution to the nervous system and, therefore, to the individual.
An approach based on a multidisciplinary intersection of physiology, somatic psychology, ethology, biology, neuroscience, indigenous healing practices, and medical biophysics. It’s been clinically applied for more than five decades and is informed by Trauma Theory, Polyvagal Theory, Focusing, Reichian Body-Psychotherapy, Bodywork, and Mindfulness-based awareness practices that earned Peter Levine his “lifetime achievement awards” from prominent organizations like the United States Association for Body Psychotherapy.
Expressive Arts Therapy
Sensorimotor Guided Drawing
Sensorimotor Art Therapy® Guided Drawing is a body-oriented trauma-informed approach developed by art therapist Cornelia Elbrecht that focuses on stabilizing and regulating the nervous system, building resources, encouraging active responses to once overwhelming events, and nurturing developmental deficits, through integrating renowned psychotherapist and biophysist Dr. Peter Levine’s Somatic Experiencing with the expressive arts. We instantly respond to safety and threat with our body. It encourages the awareness of such implicit felt sense experiences as drawing in rhythmic repetition engages the motor cortex; and simultaneously it stimulates increasingly satisfying sensory feedback, as well as encourages the development of new neurological pathways that can repair traumatic ruptures. Such sensorimotor achievements can lastingly transform even early infant developmental setbacks; they assist in finding an active response to traumatic experiences and allow us to rewrite our biography towards a more authentic, alive sense of self.
An approach informed by Somatic Experiencing®, Bioenergetics, Focusing, Jungian Psychology, Gestalt Therapy, Bodywork, and Mindfulness-based awareness practices.
Mindfulness-Based Movement Therapy
Innate Somatic Intelligence
Innate Somatic Intelligence™ Trauma Therapy is a integrative, relational and somatic approach to healing trauma developed by somatic psychotherapist Manuela Mischke-Reeds based on essential Hakomi Therapy techniques, that centers movement as a primary healing modality. It integrates a polyvagal trauma-informed view on the somatic, relational, and clinical skills needed to transform trauma experiences and awaken innate healing capacities, transforming mental barriers, and releasing internalized protective parts. It hold as a core assumption that trauma healing is not a problem to be solved, but rather a psychobiological process to be connected to. This connection with the soma is how we access the innate healing intelligence within. Trauma healing can reconnect us with innate somatic intelligence that is available in all of us: the “river beneath” the trauma. This river is the innate and fluid state that accesses a healing reservoir within.
An approach informed by Hakomi & Relational Therapy, Somatic Experiencing, Hanna Somatics, Continuum and Authentic Movement, Expressive Arts, Somatic Touch, Attachment Theory, Internalized Parts Work, Polyvagal Theory, Mindfulness and Embodiment-based awareness practices.
Movement Re-Education Therapy
Hanna Somatics Yoga
Hanna Somatics Yoga is a neuromuscular movement re-education practice developed by Eleanor Criswell, drawing on the work of Thomas Hanna, who coined the term "somatics." It addresses sensory-motor amnesia (the state where the brain loses conscious control over certain muscles of the body due to stress, trauma, or habitual holding patterns) through pandiculation, a learning process that resets muscles at the nervous system level to restore voluntary movement. By learning to regain awareness, sensation, and motor control of muscles (an educational process that can only be achieved through movement) the brain can remember how to relax and move the muscles properly. This process of sensory-motor learning improves neuromuscular performance, proprioceptive function, and relief from both chronic and acute pain. Unlike conventional yoga, it works through the neuroplasticity of the sensory-motor cortex to restore whole-body ease and presence.
An approach informed by Yoga Therapy, Hanna Somatic Education, Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais Method, Neurology, Physiological Psychology, Biofeedback, Sensory-Motor Awareness and Mindfulness-based practices.
““Djinane’s guidance throughout the past years has had a tremendous impact on my journey. I have re-connected to myself in different ways and states. I have experienced several moments of awe, and the sessions have profoundly been impactful because they continue to transcend into my daily life. Her studio is a safe place to just be and to witness the magic of our bodies and learn to re-connect to ourselves again. What feels most different in me is my relationship and connection to my body and the various sensations that arise. There is attunement, curiosity, and appreciation towards it all.””