What is Somatic Movement?
What is Somatic Movement?
Stay tuned for class info + BIG news about my book
News this month:
Somatics classes start mid-April!
Thanks to everyone who attended my first two intro classes. It was so wonderful to see your faces, even just over Zoom! Your participation and feedback helped me learn a lot about teaching over zoom and starting to work with different groups.
In mid-April I’ll be starting a class series. These will likely take place on Sunday afternoons and Thursday evenings, and there’ll be the option to attend the entire series or just drop in. I’m still working out the details and setting up my booking software. Look out for an email with more details. This will probably be my only series offered at the low low family and friends rate of no cost! Your participation is hugely valuable to me as I work toward my training hours, as well as test-run changes to my website and develop a booking process.
BIG news about my book!
My booklet, The Pelvic Floor: How to Prevent and Manage Chronic Pain, has been published by Microcosm publishing! This is a zine version with a more pamphlet-like feel (and a butchered version of my introduction, *sigh*). I’m working on adding it to GoSlowStudio.space, where you can currently find my sturdier book version as well as a .pdf download. It’s available now directly from Microcosm. Their catalog is really interesting and has lots of fun and inspiring content. I’m honored to be a part of it!
What I’m learning about this month:
What is Somatic Movement Education?
Well, really I’ve been learning about this for a few years now, but I realized that now that I’m training to become a Somatic Movement Teacher, I should really have some kind of elevator pitch to explain to people what I’m doing. If you’ve spent much time with me in the past two years, you’ve likely heard me talk about Somatics. And in brief conversations I know I’ve just called it a movement practice or “akin to yoga”, but I want to craft a statement that encapsulates what it is, and in addition, what I hope to do with it.
I could go on and on about Somatics, and I highly recommend the book The Body of Life by Thomas Hanna (if you’re interested in more of the science and philosophy behind it) or Move Without Pain by Martha Peterson (if you’re interested in a practical and clearly written guide to the movements), but for now, I’ll go ahead here with the summary…
Somatics is a foundational movement practice that addresses the common reflexes that cause us to hold tension in our muscles. Learners use simple movements designed to reestablish neuromuscular pathways, allowing us to become more connected to our bodies by gaining awareness of our own patterns. This awareness supports body-mind functioning by alleviating pain, improving mobility, and calming the nervous system.
Key distinctions:
The movements are not exercises. They’re done slowly and with control and are more about exploration and biofeedback than about form
I’ve heard people say Somatics is somewhere between the worlds of yoga and meditation, and when I taught a lesson to my husband recently he said it felt like a moving version of Savasana.
The learner is doing the actions, and their first-person experience is what promotes healing and brings about lasting change.
Somatics addresses Sensory Motor Amnesia (SMA). This term reflects the stiff, sore muscles, restricted movement, and pain that result from the repeated triggering of stress reflexes causing tension. Over time these habitual responses become unconscious and our neuromuscular system “forgets” to let go, which affects muscle tone, sense, and function. Somatic movements re-educate the nervous system, easing tired muscles and improving function through the reestablished neuromuscular connection.
What does it actually look like in a class?
While a Somatics class might begin with standing or a walking exploration, most of it takes place on the ground. Lying on the ground helps in two ways. First, it takes away the force of gravity–you can focus on certain movements without involving the legs or additional stabilizing muscles. Second, it puts us into a more parasympathetic state, activating the “rest and digest” part of the nervous system. When the nervous system is calm, we’re more available for learning and processing new information. Recently, I told my first group of students that at the end of the class I hoped they might feel a little more balanced and with more ease in their movement, but at the least they would feel relaxed.
The instructor does not model the movements. Participants are invited to close their eyes (if they’re comfortable that way) so that they can focus on the sensations in their bodies. The instructor talks them through the movements and may use purposeful touch to help give feedback. The reason for this is that Somatics is all about the 1st-person experience–what you’re sensing in your own body. We all have different patterns and habits and only you know what it’s like to live in your body. Also, if you can learn how it feels to release tension yourself, rather than someone else doing it, such as through massage (not that I don’t love and value massage), you’ll be able to do it again and to better support your own healing in the long term.
The movements, called pandiculations, sometimes don’t look like much is happening, but they’re part of a slow, deliberate neuromuscular reeducation. The term pandiculation comes from the kind of stretch we do when we yawn or that we see our pets do when they get up from a nap. These stretches bring tension to the muscles and are followed by a slow release to help reset the muscles and fascia after being in a less than ideal position, such as while asleep. As humans age, we tend to do less of these types of movements, but in Somatics we apply the principles of pandiculation. We use purposeful contractions to address muscle tone and tension and to improve our brain's connection with our muscles. As Martha Peterson puts it, “We’re dealing with what is involuntary and unconscious by doing things consciously and voluntarily.”
Ideally participants will take what they learn in class to develop a daily movement practice. Just 10-15 minutes a day can help support neuromuscular connections and improve basic movement patterns. This is essential to maintaining freedom and ease in our movement as we get older, as well as supporting us in doing the activities we love–-biking, gardening, tennis, dance, etc.--at all ages of our lives.
As you begin to invite that freedom into your physical body, many people report benefits that go beyond ease of movement and pain reduction. They begin to feel more embodied; with less anxiety, more resilience, empowerment to make choices that support them in living the life they want to live. This has led to ever growing fields of Somatic and Embodiment work.
“Somatic exercises can change how we live our lives, how we believe that our minds and bodies interrelate, how powerful we think we are in controlling our lives, and how responsible we should be in taking care of our total being. In fact, as these discoveries relate to our conception of what human beings are and can be, they have broad philosophical implications for understanding the nature of our existence.”
–Thomas Hanna, Somatics, 1988
The Question Box:
When I was a teacher, I had a box out for students to submit questions/suggestions. This was especially helpful during the Reproductive System unit in Anatomy and Physiology 🙃
Writing my above-mentioned book, The Pelvic Floor…, was such a great and empowering way for me to research a topic. I want to keep that momentum going by continuing to learn and write about topics people want to know about.
Have a question or suggestion for a topic–submit it to the question box here!!