My first experience of Basic Body Awareness Therapy

One of our participants in BBAT1 in Quebec, Canada 2025 share some reflections!

Recently, I have had the privilege of participating in a BBAT 1 course in Quebec.  It has been an incredible experience on every level.  I travelled from Australia to experience the training and it was well worth it.  In Australia we do not have many if any mental health physiotherapists.  The last Australian Physiotherapy Conference this month had two streams of speakers for musculoskeletal topics, and one for orthopaedics, neurology and chronic pain – but nothing for mental health.  Mental health is a very important aspect of health - influencing the capacity of a person to cope with physical injuries, disease and general level of function.  Mental health can influence physical function in the absence of identifiable physical pathology and can be the cause of many different physical presentations that we work with.  A good example is the condition Functional Neurological Disorder where neurologists are coming to understand the complex interplay of the brain and body connections – in the absence of brain pathology.  Addressing the whole person and especially the state of the nervous system has never been more important.

The location for the BBAT1 was Phare Cap-Chat in Quebec – a beautiful camp site located on the coast overlooking the widest part of the St. Lawrence River.  The sunsets over the water were stunning with autumn leave colours.  The perfect location to locate your body and movements and enjoy nature in our free time.  Our house for meals overlooking the water was next door to the light house.  It was beautiful at all times of the day, peaceful and the wildlife was abundant.

The two teachers Anne Marie and Dannie Cormier are gifted in their gentle teaching abilities, which is quite critical for this technique.  We spent four days immersed in BBAT techniques to experience this for ourselves in preparation to be able to teach it in the future.  We experienced how effective the small functional movements are to recalibrate our nervous system.  Without giving too much away, as a physiotherapist you learn how to use three key elements (from the teaching of Dropsy): Breath, Balance and Awareness.  These three elements bring harmony to your movements.  To perform the movements is easy, they are gentle and small and I found them quite easy to do once you worked things out with your body. 

My experience was that I have connected with myself through the movements and with others around me in the group.  I am feeling calmer, more connected with the people around me and excited to share these techniques within my professional world.  BBAT1 is part of the Step 1 of five steps to become clinical competence in BBAT. Through the next steps in this education, we will have the focus on individual therapy, assessment, group therapy and finally do our own project.

It's been an incredible learning opportunity personally, professionally and culturally.  I believe BBAT has a well structure framework and research background.  Studies exploring outcomes for a wide variety of conditions are available with good results.  I am now committed to develop my BBAT skills to help my clients with pain, mental health issues and neurological illnesses.

Kind Regards,  

Debbie Douglas

APA Titled Neurological Physiotherapist, Australia