Find out more about Somatics
About Somatics
“In 1976 Thomas Hanna coined the term “Somatics” to refer to the discipline of somatic education which seeks to foster internal awareness of one’s own body. To experience something somatically is to experience it from within your own body, to be aware of your own bodily sensations and movement from within.
However it is Thomas Hanna’s discovery of sensory motor amnesia, and his understanding of the reflex patterns that our bodies create in response to stress that distinguishes Hanna Somatic Education from all other modalities past and present.
Somatics stands alone in its rapid and long term effectiveness in teaching people to reverse some of the mysterious, and supposedly structural, conditions responsible for chronic and often debilitating pain, sciatica, scoliosis, chronic back pain, herniated disks, and poor posture, to name a few.
Somatic perception is quite literally your first person experience of what it’s like to be in your own body. Hanna noted that this kind of experience is distinctly different from experiencing your own body from the point of another person, such as a doctor, chiropractor or massage therapist.
Early pioneers in the field of Somatics education included F M Alexander (Alexander Technique), Gerda Alexander, Elsa Gindler and Moshe Feldenkrais. Yoga and Tai Chi can also be considered as a form of Somatic Education. All of these disciplines foster a deep sense of internal awareness and an ability to control one’s body in space.
Why is Somatics Different from other approaches?
Hanna Somatics goes to the root of most chronic muscular pain: the brain. Just as the brain can learn positive things like riding a bike it can also learn negative things, like holding oneself stiff and out of balance. Because the brain controls the muscles, the brain must be involved in teaching the muscles to relax, release and remember how to move again.
There are three key things that set Hanna Somatics apart from other approaches such as physical therapy, massage therapy, surgery, stretching, acupuncture or drugs:
Somatics focuses on full body patterns of muscular contraction, rather than just focusing on one area of pain. Tightness in the centre of the body translates to tightness in the periphery (hip, knee, foot, neck).
Somatic Education is Active not Passive. Physical therapy, massage, and other methods confer temporary pain relief because they are passive. You are being worked on. Only you can release habitually contracted muscles for the long term through your active participation.
It is your brain that controls your muscles, therefore the best method for long term pain relief is through active improvement of your sensory motor system.
The technique of Pandiculation the “aha!” moment of Hanna Somatics. You learn to reset muscle length at the brain level and regain voluntary control of habitually contracted muscles for pain relief and increased mobility. Cats do it 40 times a day. They gently contract muscles and then slowly release back to zero.