Somatics is brain work, not exercise. It is about improving your control over your sensory-motor nervous system, which is a feedback loop; you sense as you move. The somatic experience is uniquely yours - only you can experience what you are sensing as you make that movement. The more awareness you bring to this internal experience of sensing, the more control you have over the movement and the more efficient or functional your movement becomes. There is no limit to how much you can improve.

 

In Somatics you move slowly, which gives your brain time to absorb and integrate the new sensory information. The movements are comfortable and easy - it is a bit like yawning or sighing. All you do is concentrate on the movement. You do not stretch your muscles but instead you lengthen them by slowly releasing the tension that is unconsciously held in them. How do you do this? By doing movements called "pandiculations" (see below). You only need to repeat the movement two or three times for the brain to integrate the new information. This is how you change long term habits.  This is how you get relief from long term pain.

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Pandiculation comes from a Latin word "pandiculare", meaning to yawn; it's an enjoyable, natural movement. Pandiculation is the main method we use in Somatics to release unconsciously held tension in muscles. We call this tension "sensory motor amnesia" or SMA (see below). A pandiculation has three parts: a contraction, a slow release, and a pause to integrate. Crucially, when you contract, you connect the contraction to your centre. Your centre is your gravitational centre, which is your belly, the small of your back, your waist, and your centre line. Once you learn how to pandiculate you can release muscular tension anywhere in your body. The saying we have is "do more of what you're already doing". This means you deliberately contract muscles that you want to release, so that you can feel them more clearly. Then you slowly release, and wait for the change to take place in your brain. 

 

 

 

 

​Sensory-motor amnesia is unconsciously held muscular tension. The tension builds up over time through habitual movement or through habitual triggering of the three stress reflexes (see below). The brain takes a short cut - if the muscles are constantly being used there is no need to let go of them. So your muscles forget how to let go and can't find their full resting length. The constant tension leads to pain. 

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Thomas Hanna, the inventor of Somatics, identified three main stress reflexes. These are natural survival reflexes, common to all living things, or "somas" (see below). They are instinctive movement patterns, governed by the brainstem, the unconscious part of the brain. They are there to protect you and are innate responses to environmental stress

 

Over time, if these reflexes are constantly triggered and never fully released (due to SMA), they become habitual and cause chronic muscular tension and pain. All three reflexes can happen suddenly or build up over time. Usually people have a mixture of all three but one will be more dominant than the others The reflexes are:

       

- the "red light" reflex, also known as the "startle reflex", which is a contraction of the front of the body, a curling forward to make yourself smaller, in self-protection. The classic "red light" position has all the elements associated with old age: bent forward, hump back, rounded shoulders, depressed chest, knees drawing together, chin tipping up as the back of the neck disappears into the shoulders (turtle neck).  

 

-  the "green light" reflex, also known as the "landau reflex", which is a contraction of the back of the body, in preparation for action or escape (fight or flight). The classic "green light" posture is with the back arched into a sway back, a protruding belly with the hips pushed forwards, the neck protruding forward and the weight coming forward to the front of the feet.  

 

- the "trauma" reflex, which is about imbalance side to side, particularly concerning the sides of the waist. It has two aspects: a lean or tilt to one side, which is a shortening of the waist on one side, or a rotation of the shoulders out of line with the hips. Trauma reflex is often the result of an injury or an operation, but can also be the result of emotional trauma. Or a trauma reflex can build slowly as the result of long-term one-sided repetitive movement. 

 

In Somatics you explore the three reflex patterns by pandiculating. By bringing these unconscious reflex patterns into your conscious awareness you become able to feel them more clearly. And when you can feel them you can change them. It is that simple!

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​A soma is a living being, an organism or a living system, dependent on and connected with all other living systems. Thomas Hanna identified four dimensions that apply to all somas. These are: all somas know which way is up (a response to gravity); somas all face forward so they can find what they need; all somas have two sides so they can move. The fourth dimension is time. Somas exist in time. Change takes place over time and movement is co-ordinated in time.

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​​​Private Clinical Somatic Education Sessions

 

These are one-to-one, hands on sessions that help you find and undo your own patterns of habitual movement. At least 4 sessions are recommended to give time to explore the three stress reflexes identified by Thomas Hanna - the red light, green light and trauma reflexes and to make sure you have all the information you need to practise independently and change your ingrained habits. Hands-on feedback or "assisted pandiculations" help you feel more clearly which muscles to contract and which to turn off, and how to improve your control over them as you gently release the contraction.

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For more information please have a look at the Clinical Somatics page (click here) and then phone or email for further information and booking

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