Martha Eddy, DEP, CMA, RSMT, EdD, and Licensed TBMC, is an international advocate of Somatic Movement Education & Therapy and speaker on Health, Wellness, and the BodyMind connection for over 30 years. The author of Mindful Movement: The Evolution of the Somatic Arts and Conscious Action, Dr. Eddy has a new book coming out this year titled Dynamic Embodiment of the Sun Salutation. She is a lecturer on embodied cognition, eco-somatics, the interaction of neuro-motor and socio-emotional development, and the role of the body and movement in peace education and violence prevention. She is the Founder and Director of the Dynamic Embodiment® Somatic Movement Therapy Training program, Co-Founder and Director of Programming and Research at Moving for Life, and Co-Founder and Director of Somatic Studies at Moving on Center. Since 1981, she has served at Laban Institute as faculty of special programs, certification programs, President, Executive Director, Advisory Council member and Senior Research Associate. Dr. Eddy has served on the certification program faculty for the School for Body-Mind Centering® and on the boards of CORD, NDEO, and as President of ISMETA. In 2017, she received the National Award for Outstanding Leadership in Dance Education from NDEO.

Her teaching positions have been at universities including but not limited to: New York University, Princeton University, Teachers College, Columbia University graduate program, Barnard College, University of Connecticut, Hope College, Hampshire College, San Francisco State University in the Kinesiology department, and with low-residency programs at Montclair State University, St Mary’s College (Bay Area) MFA, UNC-Greenboro Masters in Dance Education.

Dynamic Embodiment® Somatic Movement Therapy is Dr. Eddy’s forty year blend of Laban/Bartenieff Studies with Body-Mind Centering® that conveys how to maximize embodied cognition for deeper psycho-physical understanding. The method is based in a process called OSO – Observe, Support, Optimize Options. The underlying course work – Laban Movement Analysis, Body-Mind Centering(R), Perceptual-Motor Development, Bartenieff Fundamentals, and Embodied Anatomy and Physiology are all linked to these degree programs: – Marymount Manhattan College, St Mary’s College in the Bay area, and UNC-Greensboro.

Dr. Eddy worked with Linda Lantieri and the TIDES/Inner Resilience Program post 9/11, working with over 900 teachers. In 2003, she founded the Center for Kinesthetic Education to provide professional development and pre-K-12 programming within NYC public and independent schools with a focus on how to use movement and dance for self-regulation, expression and health. She has engaged nationally in research using her CKE assessment tools and curricula. In this capacity, she has been facile in working with administrators, educators and students involved with inclusive classrooms and shaping movement experiences for anyone with behavioral, physical, and emotional disabilities.

Dr. Eddy developed Moving For Life in 1999 to help women with breast cancer as part of the community outreach for Moving On Center in California, which also taught skills in Participatory Arts, Social Somatics, and Movement Therapy. In 2014, Moving For Life became its own non-profit tax deductible entity in NYC. Moving For Life DanceExercise is now effectively providing programming to older adults and people of any age affected by cancer through movement and wellness programs and has been featured on NPR, NY1, CNN, Fox News, the NBC Today Show and CBS News. Martha received the John Mack Arthur Founders Award from Komen of Greater NYC for outstanding service in the cancer recovery community in September 2020.

As a dance advocate, she collaborated in the development in 2008 and is part of the ongoing steering committee of Global Water Dances. Global Water Dances guides choreographers worldwide to develop dance works that inspire environmental awareness through site-specific performances about water concerns. Over 200 cities in over 60 countries have been engaged.

Dr. Eddy has received hundreds of invitations internationally to teach, lecture, dialogue with different communities – university, corporate, dance, and health among others. She maintains a private practice with a small group of individuals each year while still maintaining an active speaking schedule and guiding performance events. Graduates of her programs – Dynamic Embodiment® Practitioners (DEP), Certified Teachers of BodyMind Dancing (CTBMD), and Moving For Life Certified Instructors (MFLCI) are beacons of light and social action internationally.