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Trajectory
Camila Valenzuela Moguillansky
Camila studied biology at the University of Chile where she was strongly influenced by the school of biology of cognition developed by neuroscientists Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela. She then completed a master's degree at the École de Hautes études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) and a PhD in cognitive sciences at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris. She was an adjunct researcher at the Institute of Complex Systems of Valparaíso and at the Center for the Study of Argumentation and Reasoning at the Diego Portales University in Chile.
In 2018 she founded the Laboratorio de Fenomenología Corporal in Chile, a study center focused on the formation and development of first-person methodologies for the study of the human experience from an enactive approach. Her investigations, published in various scholarly articles, have focused on the relationship between body awareness and pain, as well as the development of an enactive approach to the scientific study of the human experience. She has organized various seminars on the study of experience, among which the international conference An Embodied Approach to the Study of Experience, where she promoted dialogue between researchers from different disciplines and continents.
Camila has addressed the question of the relationship between corporeality and cognition not only from an academic dimension, but also from her bodily practice, which she has developed and enriched through different disciplines. From an early age Camila dedicated herself to contemporary dance, studying with teachers such as Magali Rivano and Makiko Tominaga. She studied circus techniques and physical theater at the Circomedia school in Bristol, and Corporeal mime at the International School of Corporeal Mime, in London, England, a country where she worked together with the artist and film director Isabella Rocamora participating in various internationally renowned works such as Horizon of Exile. Upon arriving to Brazil, in 2016, she begins to delve into the field of somatic practices doing trainings in massage therapies and the Somatic Experiencing method.
In the year 2000 she began her yoga practice in England, which she continued on her return to Chile at the Ashtanga Yoga Chile school with Loreto Cortéz and during her stay in France with different teachers, including Charley Bensusen, Kia Naddermier and Stéphane Collet. She also participated in workshops with Mark and Joanne Darby, Kino McGregor, Petri Räisänen and Dena Kingsberg. In Mysore, India, she began the practice of pranayama with B.N.S Iyengar and the study of yoga sutras with Dr. Jayashree and Sri Narashimhan. She currently follows the teachings of A.G Mohan, a direct disciple of Sri.Krishnamacharya. She has taught yoga in different schools since 2007: in the Shantosha and Yoga Mukti schools in Santiago de Chile; at the Théâtre de Verre cultural center in Paris; at the Théâtre du Petit Matin and at the YAMA school in Marseille; at the Yoga Sadhana school in Valparaíso; at the Ashtanga Yoga school in Rio de Janeiro and at the Arraial d'Ajuda charity association (ABAA) in Brazil.
She is currently developing the project A Multidimensional approach to presence: somatic practices and the study of experience (MAPS) and directs A MATHA, school of body phenomenology in Arraial d'Ajuda.
Yoga Practice and Teaching
I began practicing yoga in 2000 with Elisa Garrido in Chile. Later, I practiced Ashtanga yoga during my circus studies in England and, upon returning to Chile, continued for four years with Loreto Cortés at the Ashtanga Yoga Chile school. During my time in France, I practiced with various teachers, including Charley Bensusan, Kia Naddermier, and Stéphane Collet. I also participated in workshops with Mark and Joanne Darby, Kino MacGregor, Petri Räisänen, and Dena Kingsberg. In Mysore, India, I began my studies of pranayama with B.N.S. Iyengar and the yoga sutras with Dr. Jayashree and Sri Narashimhan. Upon arriving in Brazil, I studied Kum Nye, a form of Tibetan yoga, at the Nyingma Center of Tibetan Buddhism in Rio de Janeiro, and I currently follow the teachings of A.G. Mohan, a direct disciple of Sri Krishnamacharya.
I have taught yoga at various schools since 2007: at Shantosha and Yoga Mukti in Santiago, Chile; at the Théâtre de Verre cultural center in Paris; at the Théâtre du Petit Matin and YAMA school in Marseille; at the Yoga Sadhana school in Valparaíso; at the Ashtanga Yoga school in Rio de Janeiro; at the Arraial d’Ajuda Charitable Association (ABAA) in Brazil; and currently at my school, A MATHA, in Arraial d’Ajuda.
Dance and Somatic Practices
From a young age, I studied contemporary dance with teachers such as Magali Rivano and Makiko Tominaga. I trained in circus techniques and physical theater at Circomedia in Bristol, and in corporeal mime at the International School of Corporeal Mime in London, England. I worked with artist and filmmaker Isabel Rocamora, participating in various internationally renowned works such as Horizon of Exile. In Brazil, I began to delve deeper into somatic practices, training in Thai massage and the Somatic Experiencing method with teachers Liana Netto and Cornelia Rossi.
In 2024, I participated in the artistic residency Resonancias da dança with Eva Santoro and Dani Lima. Also in 2024, together with artist Robson Vieira, we won the Lei Paulo Gustavo grant for the creation and production of the performance Olhar é Movimento.
Publications
Ongoing projects
MAP - Multidimensional approach to presence
MAP is an action research procedure that places the state of presence as a central element for the study of experience from an enactive/embodied perspective. Its objective is twofold; on the one hand, allow the characterization and better understanding of a given experience, capturing the subjective and intersubjective elements that compose it, and on the other, promote a space for observation, familiarization and awareness of one's own experience.
The proposed procedure articulates different tools that work on the state of presence – somatic exercises, micro-phenomenological interviews and expressive techniques – and different descriptive levels – verbal, gestural and plastic – in a group work where the participants are, at the same time, the researchers of their own experience.
Application of MAP to an Anthropological Study on Child-Rearing Techniques, Memory, and Care in a Shellfish Gatherers' Association in Belmonte-BA, Brazil
This project explores the implementation of the Multidimensional Approach to Presence (MAP) in an anthropological study. To this end, we designed a series of workshops that apply the MAP framework to explore the memory of a group of shellfish-gathering women regarding the practice and transmission of knowledge of their craft, using key moments in their life trajectories as a starting point.
This work is carried out in collaboration with Professor Ana Carneiro from the Federal University of Southern Bahia (UFSB).
Supervisions
Master’s Thesis Review
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Maira Dourado - Childhood and Finitude: A Phenomenological Study on the Meanings of a Child’s Death. Postgraduate Program in State and Society, Center for Training in Human and Social Sciences, Federal University of Southern Bahia. Thesis reviewer (January 2019).
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Isidoro Astudillo - Chess Expertise from a Phenomenological Perspective. Center for Research in Cognitive Sciences, University of Morelos, Mexico. Thesis reviewer (September 2020).
PhD Thesis Review
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Carolina Orellana - Micro-phenomenological Study of the Experience of Vocal Congruence and Incongruence in Trans Women. PhD in Psychology, Diego Portales University. Evaluator for the doctoral qualification panel (January 2025).
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Carine Challandes - Conveying Synaesthetic Resonance: The Impact of Jacques Lecoq’s Pedagogy on the Creative Process of Lecoq-Trained Theatre Makers. Doctor of Philosophy in Creative and Performing Arts, University of Newcastle, Australia. Thesis reviewer (August 2024).
Master’s Thesis Supervision
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Laura Jereb - Experiential Components of Fibromyalgia: Phenomenological Understanding and Awareness of the Experience of Symptoms. University of Primorska. Co-supervisor (defense in June 2021).
PhD Thesis Supervision
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Esteban Fredin - Sharing Weight: A Study on Interpersonal Connection in Contact Improvisation Dance. School of Humanities and Education, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Monterrey Campus. Co-supervision (ongoing).
Workshops
Conscious movement and the study of experience
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This workshop explores a research procedure that combines the practice and observation of conscious movement with a research methodology called micro-phenomenological interviewing, to investigate the experience of "presence." First, a shared experience of conscious movement inspired by exercises from the theatrical dance form Butoh is proposed. Next, the micro-phenomenological interview is used to obtain verbal descriptions of the participants' experiences, as well as the gestures they use to describe them. Finally, the verbal descriptions and gestures are collectively analyzed to identify invariants among them and outline a possible structure of the studied experience. This work seeks to raise questions about the distinction between "object of study" and "instrument for study" in the context of art-based research, and to what extent the arts, as a means of generating knowledge, can redefine the principles of the scientific method.
Taller en ABAA - Arriala d´Ajuda - Bahia - Brasil, con Regis Bailux.
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Taller en Symposium Arts-based Research del Research Institut for Creative Arts Therapies, Bonn Alemania, con María Isabel Gaete.
Presence and the landscapes of experience

This workshop explores a research procedure that combines the practice and observation of conscious movement with a research methodology called micro-phenomenological interviewing, to investigate the experience of "presence." The work is organized into three stages: in the first stage, the aim is to generate a shared experience using the somatic technique Matching as described by Elizabeth Behnke (Behnke 1995); in the second stage, participants will work in groups of three to describe the experience using micro-phenomenological interviewing and body mapping. Here, one of the group members will take on the role of "observer," paying attention to the gestures made by the interviewee while describing their experience. In the third stage, a collective composition will be created based on verbal, gestural, and pictorial descriptions, combining the identification of invariants from micro-phenomenological analysis and the "witnessing" work as described by Janet Adler (1999).
Links to interviews and presentations
Entrevista en científicamente mujeres. Octubre 2023.
Entrevista por Roxana Girju en el podcast Creative Language Technologies. Agosto 2022.
Entrevista por Rosanna Dematté, publicada en el libro Beauty before wisdom. The knowledge of art and the art of science. Marzo 2020.
Entrevista en científicamente mujeres. Noviembre 2022.
Presentación en el coloquio Enaction in perspective and in foresight. Agosto 2021.
Presentación en el coloquio Experiencia Musical de la Facultad de Psicología de la Universidad Diego Portales. Abril 2018.