Laura Bond (Lead Instructor/Trainer) is the founder of the Emotional Body® method and is a somatic practitioner and scholar dedicated to providing safe and reliable techniques for physical emotion regulation for personal expression development for all individuals and promoting somatic wellness initiatives within the performing arts. She is a Full Professor of Drama and Interdisciplinary Studies at UNC Asheville where she teaches courses on acting, directing, somatic practices for personal expression development, vocal production, and physical emotion regulation and resiliency.
In July 2022, Professor Bond was awarded the Ruth Paddison Distinguished Professorship for promoting interdisciplinary connections between fields, excellence in teaching, engaging in faculty development, and supporting an active scholarly agenda. Part of her professional development activity during this Professorship is pursuing a new somatic movement certification in The Kinēsa® Process, a Feldenkrais®-Inspired Movement System for Pain Relief and Heightened Physical, Emotional & Spiritual Wellbeing. Laura has already completed over 80 contact hours of lessons and meetings as a learner and invited small group facilitator as the course completes its first 6-month cycle.
In addition to her expertise in acting, directing, and voice production, her primary research centers around the development of a physical emotion regulation method using somatic education philosophies with the evidence-based emotional effector patterns (EEP). After 20 years of practice-research, teaching and writing in this area she developed new ways to teach the EEP and founded a new method for physical emotional regulation and somatic resiliency, called the Emotional Body® method. Her research included collaborating and co-teaching with Feldenkrais® method practitioners since 2007 and an intensive teacher-training sabbatical in Chile in 2006 with neuroscientist and research psychologist Susana Bloch, an original member of the team that discovered the EEP. Laura is a master teacher and practitioner of Alba Emoting™, a method for teaching the EEP developed in the 1970’s by Susana Bloch.
Laura is also a master trainer of Estill Voice Training®, a research supported vocal technique that also bases its theories in scientific vocal production elements and core patterns of vocal expressions, which compliments her teaching of the Emotional Body method and helps practitioners understand how the voice expresses emotion. She is also certified in Mental Health First Aid for adults and minors, and has trained in over 50 hours of the consent-based and trauma-informed practice of Theatrical Intimacy Education, and applies these care support philosophies into the teaching, and teacher training of the Emotional Body courses.
Laura Bond teaches the Emotional Body method in university courses, as well as workshops and intensive trainings nationally and internationally. She has presented on the method in international summits, conferences and podcasts. She has also served as a professional consultant and workshop instructor for individuals and specialty groups from such diverse areas as city officials, prison inmates, cancer survivors, scuba divers, therapists/counselors, somatic practitioners, actors, public speakers, performers, and first-responders. Laura develops specialty lessons to help each learner gain approachable and reliable methods for such needs as expanding expressive capabilities, developing public speaking skills, acquiring physical emotion regulation methods, and providing short and easily accessible somatic resiliency methods.
She also offers private lessons, workshops and courses for national and international attendees using in-person and online delivery methods. She is the author of two books: TEAM for Actors: A Holistic Approach to Embodied Acting, and The Emotional Body: A Method for Physical Self-Regulation, which is the core text used in Emotional Body courses.
Contact Laura through the Emotional Body Contact Page.
Visit her author page.
Location: Western North Carolina
"Laura Bond offered a good-humored and enthusiastic exploration of the Emotional Effector Patterns which, at first glance felt intimidating and complex. With expert ease, she managed to break down the learning process into easy-to-digest portions and had confident, detailed, patient answers at the ready as our curiosity grew with each new step. Speaking neither down to us nor over our heads, Laura matter-of-factly gave us the tools, information, and support we needed to do and explore the work. From providing a safe emotional space to neuro-scientific explanations and everything in-between, she had it all. I will be eagerly awaiting the next workshop in my area to deepen my understanding of this brilliant and under-utilized emotional method. If you’re working in any field that requires emotional labor or emotional management, you should attend this workshop and read Laura Bond’s book, Emotional Body." – Margaret Hild, Actor/Director/Spoken Voice Coach (Toronto Training, 2018)
