This Website has been built and is maintained by a small, volunteer collective of bodywork/ movement practitioners and social justice activists who came together through a shared enthusiasm for radical bodywork, friendship connections and the radical bodywork network. We are currently spread over Scotland, England, Germany and Colombia. While we are a diverse working collective we do not represent all marginalised experiences. While this is a space for everyone to learn, we seek to prioritise and bring together the voices of those who are part of marginalised and structurally oppressed communities.
We hope the website can grow and be a truly collective project to share solidarity and re-sources, so please get in touch with comments, suggestions, questions, or resources to add. We’d love to hear from you and we welcome feedback. If anything included on this website feels inappropriate, or your own re-source is included and you would like it removed, please let us know. You can submit the contact form or email us.
What is the Radical Bodywork Network? The Radical Bodywork Network is a network of bodywork practitioners and other people interested in bodywork as part of social justice. We have a loosly moderated group on facebook for the exchange of ideas and activity. You are welcome to join that here.
What do we mean by Bodywork? We’re using bodywork as an umbrella term for any transformative or healing work done with or through the body. For example massage, acupuncture, dance, yoga and various somatic practices.
What do we mean by Radical Bodywork? We acknowledge that transformative work that is radical (from the Latin radix — ‘root’) looks at the roots of problems. When bodywork is radical, it is truly holistic and understands health in the broadest sense of the word — the emotional, psychological, physical, spiritual, social and political.
The various causes of ill health are acknowledged such as the stress of low paid, insecure work, inadequate housing and poor diet,which result from structural oppression. Radical bodywork is about support on an individual level as well for the wider health of communities, and necessarily seeks to be part of addressing structural inequalities such as classism, racism, ableism and environmental damage. Radical bodywork is usually done in a way that makes it more accessible and particularly for oppressed groups.
We see bodywork – when done well, and with awareness and critical analysis – as a political tool and an integral part of radical social change. We celebrate it as one of the ways we can facilitate profound wider healing.