The CERAP and its SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS
Introduction to the laboratory and its research area, by Danis Bois, CERAP director
In June 2004, the Director of the Modern University in Lisbon (UML) gave me the opportunity to create the Centre for Applied Research and Studies in Perceptual Psychoeducation (CERAP = Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches Appliquées en Psychopédagogie perceptive), in association with my colleagues Professors Mark Humpich and Maria Léao. We immediately accepted this challenge. I saw in this offer the opportunity to carry out research which would give a scientific framework to the emerging disciplines of somatic-psychoeducation and perceptual psychoeducation. Since 2000 the UML had offered post-graduate courses in these disciplines, as well as a masters program in perceptual psychoeducation since April 2004. Having achieved this first objective I wish to introduce fasciatherapy-somatology into our research program in the near future, at it is the discipline from which my journey as a researcher-practitioner originates.
For the most part, students enrolling in our training programs are healthcare professionals who focus their therapeutic and educational processes on the body and on sensory perception. Our students also include educators from the ‘living arts’ and communication fields. It is for this reason that we have quite naturally chosen to base our research projects on formalizing a framework for learning that is centered on the perceptual-cognitive mode of relating of the learner.
The model we offer is perceptual-cognitive modifiability (Bois, 2005) which sits within the academic discipline of “Health Science and Education”. The choice of this theoretical model fits with the advances of theories in the fields of education and healthcare, which we treat as inseparable.The originality of our training practice resides in supporting the emergence of an immanent meaning arising from a specific mode of relating to the ‘sensible’ experience of the body. Research in lived experience is by nature both subjective and deeply engaging, and therefore requires that the researcher adopts a posture which takes these characteristics into account. When faced with the link between embodied experience and the potential existential transformation of the learning adult, only the most rigorous posture can allow the development of a valid process of understanding and interpretation. Our approach therefore brings a new contribution to the debate between formative practices and therapeutic practices. It is an epistemological posture inspired by phenomenology and hermeneutics that allows researchers to participate in their own process of research.
This process is not achieved naturally; it requires specific support methodologies to help the person gain access to an authentic verbal and gestural expression through an out-of-the-ordinary bodily experience, establish a renewed relationship to self through the body and connect with immanent knowledge. The teaching framework what we propose during our training courses is based on the facilitation of out-of-everyday practices (Bois, 2005) which use touch, movement and sensorial introspection. Another component is the analysis of the practical sessions and their experiential content based on the information collected during body-centered verbal dialogue. Analyses of these details are used to assess the subjects’ ability to mobilize resources that could be related to what Gardner calls bodily kinaesthetic intelligence, intrapersonal intelligence and interpersonal intelligence (Gardner, 1983/1997). What is more, they show that it is possible to educate what we have chosen to name sensorial intelligence. (Bois, 2001). The main objective of our current work is to formalize the precise definition of this particular form of perceptual-cognitive resourcefulness and to identify the prerequisites for its emergence and development.
With either an educating or healing intent, we use in our approach a specific type of verbal dialogue centered on the body and on the ‘sensible’ (Bois 2005), because it affords the person who is experiencing a bodily event the opportunity for first-person verbal expression. It is on the basis of this embodied lived experience that the person is invited to unfold his/her reflection to gain an understanding of the meanings emerging from his/her experience. It is interesting to note that this type of therapeutic dialogue can also be used as a research interview when it is done with the objective of gathering, classifying and analysing data within the context of a research project. This illustrates how closely practice and research are linked in our approach. Our perceptual-cognitive and cognitive-behavioral enrichment programs go beyond developing potentiality in the context of adult experiential learning: we bring the practitioner to move from the posture of therapist to that of a reflective practitioner and of a researcher-practitioner. This explains the multiplicity of approaches assumed in the research publications that are posted on this website.
1. constructing the conditions for a self-referenced existential process of understanding,
2. providing a framework for the acquisition of a range of procedural know-how for professionals interested in bringing somatic education into their work,
3. allowing the development of a practical and theoretical expertise aimed at supporting a person in a process of transformation using somatic-psychoeducation,
4. devising qualitative assessment procedures in the context of the current research, specifically with regards to research relating to the emergence of immanent knowledge by means of a particular relationship to the body.
Within this site, my colleagues and I wish to create a focus for reflection and to allow the exchange of points of view on the role of the ‘sensible’ body in educational as well as in formative and existential learning processes.
Download do artigo (PDF - French version)
Research team
CERAP coordinators
Prof. Danis Bois : CERAP Director
Guest Chair and Professor of Psychoeducation and Health Sciences at the Modern University in Lisbon (UML)
biographical note
Prof. Dr. Marc Humpich : Joint CERAP Coordinator
Lecturer of Psychosociology at the University of Quebec at Rimouski, Associate Professor at the Department of Psychoeducation and Health Sciences at the UML
Prof. Dr. Maria Leão : Joint CERAP Coordinator
Assistant Professor of Psychoeducation and Health Sciences at the UML
Researchers
Corinne Arni
Post-graduate diploma in Perceptual Psychoeducation at the UML
Dr. Didier Austry
Doctor in sciences and Visiting Professor of Psychoeducation and Health Sciences at the UML
Eve Berger
Visiting Professor of Psychoeducation and Health Sciences at the UML, PhD student in Education Sciences at the Laboratoire Experice, Université Paris VIII, psychomotricity practitioner
Hélène Bourhis
Visiting Professor at the UML, Curative Psychoeducator
Christian Courraud
Visiting Professor at the UML, Curative Psychoeducator
Emmanuelle Duprat
Psychiatrist, Post-graduate diploma in Perceptual Movement Education at the UML
Agnès Noël
Visiting Professor at the UML, Post-graduate diploma in Perceptual Psychoeducation
Nadine Quéré
Visiting Professor at the UML, Curative Psychoeducator
Jeanne Marie Rugira, Ph.D.
Ph.D. Professor of Psychosociology in the Departement of Human Sciences at the Université of Quebec in Rimouski (UQAR) Canada
Catarina Santos
Masters of Arts in Perceptual Psychoeducation at the UML, Curative Psychoeducator
CERAP Research Publications
Relating to the body : adding value to the life stories approach within a formative context
Danis Bois & Jeanne-Marie Rugira
This was presented at the Congresso International sobre Pesquisa (Auto) biográfica (CIPA), Tempos, narrativas e ficções : a inveção de si.
Salvador, Bahia, Brezil - 10 to 14 September 2006
Universidade do Estado da Baía – Brasil – Departamento de Educação – Campus 1
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The ‘sensible’ body : where does it stand in educational research ?
Eve Berger
This article was published in Corps et formation, Revue internationale Pratiques de formation, Université Paris 8, No 50, december 2005, pp. 51-64.
The ‘sensible’ dimension of the body, seen as the relationship between experience and its resonance in the body, has not yet been formalized within the context of educational research. This article present some ways to address the issue, namely through a theoretical and experiential approach that is centered on the sense of movement.
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Learning support and strategies of attention to human movement
Download this document (PDF) (J’ajouterais : ) in French, English version not yet available
Research projets
The CERAP’s research projects explore the ‘sensible’ experience of the body and constitute the topics explored in the Masters programms.
Marc Humpich
Presentation to the Colloque International sur L’accompagnement et ses paradoxes (International conference on the theme of support and its paradox - Questions to scientists, practitioners and politicians)
Fontevraud, France, Mai 2003
This presentation explores a researching-acting-formative endeavour centered on the perceptual dimension of learning support which began in 1998 in the Department of Psychosociology of the University of Quebec in Rimouski (UQAR). By exploring the experiential and conceptual components of human movement, it is possible to offer a formative direction which allows the gradual construction of a sense of identity that is new to the learner. Choosing to direct the supportive action towards the perception of what is common to all – the physiological ‘universals’ of human movement – has the paradoxical effect of allowing each one of us to construct ourself, bypassing in this process any cultural or autobiographical boundaries.
Download this document (PDF - in French, English version not yet available)
Research projets
The CERAP’s research projects explore the ‘sensible’ experience of the body and constitute the topics explored in the Masters programms.
Ciro Aprea
La experiencia extracotidiana, la relación a la formulación y su dimensión formadora.
Cual es el impacto formador de la formulación que nace del contacto con la experiencia sensible en el marco de la formación del actor ?
Research project for Masters
Elsa Braga
Frameworks for the practical experience offered by perceptual psychoeducation and the development of a vocal presence.
The link between body-mind tuning, physical action through codified movement and vocal presence.
Research project for Masters.
Emmanuelle Duprat
The link between relating to the ‘sensible’ body and self-image.
How the experience of the ‘sensible’ body offered within the framework of perceptual psychoeducation impacts on the way that people suffering from food disorders relate to themselves.
Research project for Masters.
Teresa Gonçalves
O lugar do corpo sensível na relação interpessoal.
A influência da consciência perceptiva no processo de transformação na relação a si próprio.
Research project for Masters.
Géraldine Humpich
Intensity and transformation when in contact with the ‘sensible’.
The dimension of intensity as experienced during the phase of negotiation : force for renewal and force of preservation in the process of transformation offered by the contact with the ‘sensible’.
Research project for Masters.
Jean Humpich
Heuristic understanding of the nature of the emotion arising from the relationship to the ‘sensible’. Study carried out within the specific framework of somatic-psychoeducation. The nature of emotions in the relationship to the ‘sensible’. Conditions for the transfer into everyday life.
Research project for Masters.
Patrick Large
Process of transformation and perceptual psychoeducation.
The nature of the transformation through the ‘sensible’ body and how to support it.
Research project for Masters.
Anne Lieutaud
Journey of a researcher in an epistemological rupture.
Epistemological challenge centered on the issue of the subjectivity of the ‘sensible’ at play in somatic-psychoeducation.
Research project for Masters.
Hélène Marchand
Learning focussed dialogue.
Dialogue and the inter-reciprocity between practical experience and theoretical models.
Research project for Masters.
Nadine Quéré
Interaction between psychology, biology, the ‘sensible’, the manual dialogue and bodily experiencing
Research project for Masters.
Nuno Ribeiro
Da experiência emocional à experiência sensorial.
Emoção gerada com estímulos do sensível (movimento interno).
Research project for Masters.
Christophe Roman
Relating to the immediate in a professional setting.
The skills of the perceptual psychoeducator and the ability to access the immediate.
Research project for Masters.
Alexandra Santos
Sintonização somato-psiquica ajuda a percorrer o processo de avaliação das aquisições experiênciais de uma forma diferente
Research project for Masters.
University courses
Danis Bois and his research team offer the following training courses within the Modern University in Lisbon :
Master’s in Perceptual Psychoeducation 2007-2008
Modern University in Lisbon
Program pending
Open university course of the Modern University in Lisbon 2006 – 2007 (equivalent to a French university diploma)
Movement, Art and Therapy : Specialization – Expressivity and Group Facilitation
This university course is organised and given in France by Point d’Appui. The program direction and its administration are shared with the Modern University in Lisbon. The course takes place in Ivry/France.
Open university course of the Modern University in Lisbon 2006 – 2007: (equivalent to a French university diploma)
Perinatal sensorial training.
This university course is organised and given in France by Point d’Appui. The program direction and its administration are shared with the Modern University in Lisbon. The course takes place in Ivry/France.
