PT Profit Podcast

The Neuroscience of Dance with Sophia Martins

Oct 14, 2021

47:40

Coaches, today we have Sophia Martins, a neuroscientist and dancer, joining us to talk all about neuroscience and how it can help athletes, dancers and our clients. In this episode, Sophia shared her detailed knowledge on what happens to a performer's brain when experiencing memory lapses. She also discussed how she as a neuroscientist helps performers and dancers in fixing their performance anxiety in a very simple and fun way, a tool that could be used for anyone nervous about going to the gym.

You'll hear:
- How neuroscience can help the dancing community.
- Neurological impairment.
- What happens to a brain when experiencing memory laps.

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About Today's Guest

Sophia Martins is an international neuroscientist, dancer, performer, and dance teacher.

Through her postgraduate studies in neuroscience, she joined her passions by doing her research thesis on the brain mechanisms beyond dance, having worked with one of the most influential researchers in the field. Her research has been published in the "Dance Data, Cognition, and Multimodal Communication" Routledge volume and presented at various international conferences/summits.

She trained in dance therapy, butoh and somatic practices, has a double degree in Psychology and Forensic Psychology and did her postgraduate studies in Brain Sciences. Apart from her experience in fraud prevention and crime prevention at Lloyds and the Scottish Government, she is a certified suicide first aider and worked as a mental health practitioner for 4 years. During those 4 years, she counseled adults (including dancers) with anxiety, depression, bipolar, schizophrenia, eating disorders, OCD, PTSD, personality disorders among others. Her passion and skills in mental health are intertwined with her being.

Through her Neuroscience of Dance project and Dance Integrated Healing Method, Sophia provides neurocognitive and dance healing tools. She has been helping dancers and dance teachers all over the world for the past two years through 1-1 sessions and various workshops with the following key aspects: dealing with injuries, neurological recovery, overcoming struggles (memory, equilibrium, learning difficulties), improving dance environments and teaching techniques, improving mental well-being, improving dance skills, and using dance for healing purposes. Seeing people improving, recovering, falling in love with dance fuels her drive to do more for others.

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