The year 2021 saw a continuation of the global pandemic, with increasing restrictions on travel, in-person gathering, and so many of our daily activities. This, of course, affected all Rosen Method professionals, students, interns and the schools and training centers.
However, despite the increased challenges that our professional community faced, we witnessed your commitment to supporting each other and staying connected to the work and your continual growth. Schools and training centers quickly adapted to the new circumstances offering online intensives, introductory workshops and peer gatherings to support students and interns. The dedication of so many teachers and school owners to meet the needs of their students was, no doubt, an amazing help to bridge the gap between trainings and supervisions created by the pandemic.
Secondly, similar to 2020, the Rosen Method movement community continued to flourish with the creation of the Rosen Method Movement Collaborative (RMMC) led by Marjorie Huebner, Madeline Martin and Alok Srivastava. The collaborative has many projects on the go including working towards securing permission to reprint the original movement book by Marion and Sue Brenner and to develop various writing projects, a website and videos. We look forward to seeing their creativity grow and become fruitful in the coming years. The year 2021 also saw more and more movement teachers taking their classes online, providing a much-needed opportunity to move and connect when lockdowns were isolating and monotonous.
In Spring 2021, the RI conducted a survey with the greater Rosen professional community to learn more about how you interact with us and how best to support you. This included what resources you find most useful and your ideas and areas of interest. Thank you to all who took the time to respond. We learned a lot and are putting your ideas to good use.
There were also many positive changes within the organization. Firstly, Claire Palo, our administrative person was promoted to Administrative Director of the RI. She will be taking on increased responsibilities and have a larger role in overseeing all the various committees and projects that the organization will be taking on. We are thankful to have had Claire’s constant support over the last years and are happy to have her take on an increased leadership role.
The Rosen Institute also received some amazing news in the beginning of 2021, thanks to a very generous individual who made a large donation to the organization. We are so excited to be able to dream bigger and look further into the future knowing that our organization is stable and able to provide the best container for the Rosen Method to grow. We send our sincere thanks to the donor.
Their gift will allow us to provide more translation, increasing our inclusivity of the global Rosen community, as well as offer more continuing education opportunities for all Rosen Method professionals. This is just a sample of the ideas we now get to pursue and we will have more information to share with our members once we begin to solidify plans for the donation.
The last change I will mention is my own; I have now stepped away from the RI Board Presidency and have passed on the reigns to Mette Finnebråten, who started in January 2022. Mette is a practitioner from Norway and has extensive experience working on Boards, in marketing and finances. I know she will continue our amazing work while offering new and fresh insight to the organization. My fellow Executive Team members, Theresa Garcia and Ingrid-Maria Nordgren, will also be stepping down from the ET. Jane Spilsbury (UK) and Karen Peters (USA) have now joined the ET and will work with Mette and also have Kate O’Shea’s years of experience in the ET, as she will stay on the team. My years as president have been a wonderful experience and I will remain on the RI Board to ensure a smooth transition and support our new Executive Team if needed. I will also take over as Chair of the All Teachers Group (ATG) starting in 2022.
Moving into 2022, restrictions are beginning to lessen, increasing activity within the schools and among practitioners. We hope to continue to grow the amazing communication and support that has developed, in part, due to the pandemic and help our members and professional community to build stronger together. And with all the changes and developments I’ve just mentioned I am very confident in the longevity of the organization and excited to see what the coming year(s) bring for the professional community.
Sincerely,
Maud Guettler, RI Board President (2018-2021)
Membership
In general, membership remained strong in 2021, with just a slight decrease from 2020, but still exceeding pre-pandemic years. As mentioned in the president’s report, the RI’s increased support of the professional community through these difficult times has reflected positively on our membership numbers.
RI MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS
The Rosen Institute ET and Board made translation a focus of 2021. The bodywork brochure for practitioners and interns is now translated into 5 languages including English, French, German, Danish and Bosnian. The 12-page extended brochure (seen below), providing information on bodywork, movement and training was also released in early 2021 and has now been translated into eight languages including Bosnian, Croatian, English, French, German, Russian and Spanish. Funds from the new donation were used to help support the translation of these marketing materials. The RI was also able to begin translating some of the online library resources and other organizational documents that would benefit schools and professionals using DeepL, an online translation software.
RI Webinar
In 2021, the RI hosted more webinars than ever before with the help of some amazing speakers and journal contributors. The seven webinars organized throughout the year were attended by more than 200 people. The RI Executive Team also decided to continue to offer webinars for free for all members.
The first German and French language webinars were given at the end of the year by Board President Maud Guettler with the help of Senior Teacher Martial Duvoisin. The webinars were well attended and it is planned to have more non-English webinars to expand the accessibility to continuing education opportunities for all. As always, most of these webinars are recorded and available for members to watch in the members-only area of the RI website.
2021 RI Webinars
Marion Rosen: A Personal Portrait with Senior Teachers Sara Webb and Valerie Luoto
What Lives Under Your Diaphragm? Three Part Webinar Series with Senior Teacher Kate O’Shea
Rosen Method International Journal ‘Fireside Chat’: A Discussion of Rosen and Spirituality with authors of the article ‘An Initial Inquiry: Thoughts on Rosen Method and Spirituality Parts 1 & 2’
Rosen Method International Journal ‘Fireside Chat’: Variety is the Spice of Life: Emerging Conversations about the Intersection of Gender, Race, and Class in Rosen Practice.
Rosen Method International Journal ‘Fireside Chat’: Building Collaboration and Growing Your Idea for a Journal Article
The Lineage of Rosen Method: Who was Lucy Heyer-Grote? With Senior Teacher Maud Guettler
Racines de la Méthode Rosen : qui était Lucy Heyer-Grote / Wurzeln der Rosen-Methode Wer war Lucy Heyer-Grote ?
Thank you to Sara Webb, Valerie Luoto, Kate O’Shea, Maud Guettler, Martial Duvoisin and the entire RMIJ Board and Journal contributors who shared their time and expertise with us, creating lasting resources for future Rosen students and professionals.
The Rosen Method International Journal
The Rosen Method International Journal (RMIJ) continues to be an invaluable and free resource for all hosted on the RI website for Rosen professionals. In 2021, Annabelle Apsion (UK) took over as Acting Editor from Carol Cober. Annabelle and the RMIJ Board team launched the successful ‘Fireside Chats’ which were all well attended. The Board also welcomed new member Alexandra Dolnykova (Russia).
Although an issue was not released in 2021, the journal remained very active and the Board has been focusing on the writing process and inspiring collaboration and creativity to expand the number of journal contributors. There are also a number of articles in the works and we can look forward to seeing the results of some interesting research being done currently by Rosen writers.
Acting Editor: Annabelle Apsion
RMIJ Advisory Board Members: Carol Cober (USA), John Bosman (AUS), Sarah Dandridge (USA), Maja Skau-Olsen (DK), Anette Koegler (DE), Gail Bourque (USA), Alan Fogel (USA), Alexandra Dolnykova (RUS), and Ivy Green (USA).
Schools and Training Centers
The situation across countries and regions varied greatly with some schools restarting in-person trainings and others still unable to return to some kind of normalcy. However, as mentioned, the year also produced much creativity with newly developed online trainings, CE workshops, intros and peer gatherings, allowing people to continue their training and also experience the skills of faculty members in other countries from their own living rooms.
The future of online training and its potential adoption and boundaries is still being explored within the All Teachers Group (ATG) with subcommittees in both bodywork and movement meeting weekly. These committees are carefully considering if and how various aspects of the training could be adapted to an online format. This is a long-term project and we thank all the teachers who are dedicating their free hours to work on this.
To read the full report please sign into the members area