Body-Mind Centering® (BMC) is developed by Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen in the 1970s in the USA, based on work with Basic Neurological Patterns (BNP) also called Developmental Movements. This approach deals with the movement patterns (our developmental patterns) we move through from the time we were a cell to embryo, fetus, and our first three years of life. This approach looks at how movement patters form how we think, feel, and move as adults. Practically, BNP can be used as a diagnostic tool to see how a weakness in a person's movement development originated. The pedagogue/therapist tracks back to where the problem started in the student's/client's movement pattern and starts a movement reorganization from there, a movement repatterning process.

BMC® also accesses various body systems such as organs, the skeleton, muscles, ligaments, nerves, glands, etc.  The teaching of BMC® is based on experiential anatomy, in which anatomy is experienced in the body. In BMC®, experiential anatomy prepares the student for experiencing and becoming aware of the various body systems. We  establish contact with the different body system tissues through the use of breathing exercises, touch, “inner travel”/focused meditation, and dance and movement.

The study of Body-Mind Centering® is a creative process in which embodiment of the material is explored in the context of self-discovery and openness. Each person is both the student and the subject matter, and the underlying goal is to discover the ease that underlies transformation.

The Body-Mind Centering® approach has an almost unlimited number of areas of application. People in movement, dance, yoga, bodywork, somatic studies, physical and occupational therapy, psychotherapy, child development, education, voice, music, art, meditation, athletics and other body-mind disciplines are currently using and exploring the work.