Learn Somatic Movement Practices and...
Somatic movements are a variation of gentle movements everyone can learn to release muscle tension and holding patterns in the body while deepening awareness and connection to oneself.
I offer one-on-one and small group somatic movement sessions in the comfort of your home where we will explore and learn these gentle practices, based on the work of Somatic Pioneer Thomas Hanna, together.
The word SOMA refers to the physical body. Somatic means that learning occurs from within the person as an internalized process.
Let's dive in a little deeper.
Have you noticed that when somebody asks you to relax your muscles, your shoulders, back, chances are that you don't know how to do that? Because: if you could, you would! Meaning if you knew how to relax your muscles they wouldn't be in a state of chronic tension. Not being able to relax ones muscles at will is only natural because we are dealing with a broken connection.
Muscles are controlled by the brain. When the communication lanes from our brain to our muscles are interrupted, we have lost voluntary control of our muscles, they remain stiff and unresponsive, somewhat separate from the whole of us. We can restore voluntary control over our muscles once again by re-establishing the communication highways from our brain to our muscles.
We want to become self-regulatory in a way that we can allow our muscles to naturally move in and out of contractions so we don't get "stuck".
And getting STUCK can happen quickly.
A Story
I heard somebody talk about a scene they observed on a tape showing scenes from war-torn Bosnia.
They saw three nuns walking on the side of a road. When gun shots went off their shoulders went up and down again. Then, there was another gun shot. Their shoulders moved up and down again. The third time they heard a gun shot, their shoulders moved up and didn't come back down. The nun were now walking on the other side of the road, their shoulders were still up.
Pandiculation
The above story illustrates how easily we can get stuck when trauma hits.
Where do you habitually tighten when stressed? Where are you most likely to become stuck in a holding pattern because of repetitive stress (computers), emotions or past injuries? What reflexive responses have you adopted as a response to stress?
Resolving holding patterns becomes possible when we tap into our body's ability to self-regulate. When we feed it the information it needs to integrate again what was "lost".
The core element of Somatic Movements is the notion and application of pandiculation. A term that describes the voluntary contraction and lengthening of muscles. Think of animals, cats and dogs how they pandiculate whenever they get up from rest.
Overnight when we sleep, our fascia shrinks and we often feel tight when we wake up in the morning. When we pandiculate, just like animals intuitively do, we wake up our cortex by gently tightening our muscles, then lenghtening them. We have activated the brain-muscle communication highway and allowed the cortex to set the muscle's resting length anew.
Learning To "Move" in a Human Body
Somatic movements are gentle pandiculative practices that help in restoring full range of muscular function and control so we can experience again what it means to move with lightness, ease and efficiency, like nature intended They are movements that everyone can learn and do. You may find that moving slow, with attention and an internal focus, experiencing somatic movements can open up a new world of connection and presence in your life.
𖦹 Somatic Movement Sessions
Somatic Movement sessions are suitable for all ages and fitness levels and meant to be enjoyable and feel good. The movements are done in comfortable clothing on a exercise mat or on a soft carpet in the comfort of your home.
Verbal cues and gentle hands-on guidance if necessary and slow pain free movements are combined while you are encouraged to connect with your internal awareness and experience of how the movements feel like to you from within you, the soma.
In a 90-minute Assessment and Introductory Session you will
- learn about three reflex patterns that we adopt through life stressors such as injury and emotional trauma limiting us in our ability to move freely and without pain
- receive a postural and gait assessment
- experience somatic practices to restore freedom in the back, front, and sides of your body, and in your ribs, hips and shoulders to release muscle tension, improve breathing and greater mobility of movement.
- learn these somatic practices for your personal self-care tool-kit so you that you can use anytime, anywhere.
- receive a guided Somatic Movement Audio
Session costs $120.00
Follow up Appointments/Single sessions (75 minutes) include
- review of practices and 1:1 coaching for movement refinement
- answering questions and reflecting on the previous session
- more tips and new movement practices for continuous self-care
Session costs $90 (incl. GST)
Sessions can be booked for one-on-one or two people (add $15 to session costs)
