Feels like a new buzz word in the arena of movement, yet it’s pretty cool! The name Somatic was coined in 1976 by Thomas Hanna and the premise is that the body regenerates, and that chronic pain is often a question of function rather than structure. Therefore, we can find healing within ourselves if we know where to focus.
The way we move, meaning developing a consciousness of muscular contractions that may have unnecessarily become unconsciousness is a path to healing. As with any discipline, we have to first acknowledge there is an issue. Next, figure out how and where it works, and finally apply. So, the more you move it, the more you sense it. And, the more you can perceive, the more you can guide the re-education process.
Chronic pain and stressful challenges are related. Somatics offers an approach through internal awareness/experience and muscular re-education to remaining and maintaining healthy both physically and mentally. It tosses aside the subscribed notion that most of our alignments are due to aging and a natural breaking down of the body. We can learn to move more gracefully through Somatics, control pain relief, and tune our bodies to a condition of health without stress. It says we can relearn the ways our muscles respond, that chronic pain is preventable and reversible, and that we are capable of more than we give ourselves credit.
Hanna, Thomas. “Somatics: reawaken the mind’s control of movement, flexibility, and health” DaCapo Press 1988
