Laying More Groundwork

In last month’s blog post I attempted to offer a simple description of what somatics is and why you would want to care. I took a deep, complex topic that is in the early stages of its scientific exploration and attempted to stoke your interest, dear readers.

The therapeutic process named “somatics” was so called by Thomas Hanna, PhD (1928-1990) to recognize any therapy that uses “movement” as part of its mechanism. That includes therapies like:  Yoga, TragerWork, T’ai Chi, Qigong, Feldenkrais, Alexander, certain kinds of Meditation to name a few.

Many of these practices existed long before Hanna adopted the moniker somatics to embrace them (1976). So why would Hanna feel the need to claim this title and what about these therapies made them so special?

The vital aspect that qualifies them to be called “somatic therapy” relates not only to the idea that they include movement, but more importantly, and even more to the point, it’s the crucial component I call “consciousness”. You, as the inhabiter of the moved or moving body, must be present and perceptive, awake and aware of the movement and how this movement feels from the inside. Somatic therapy has, as its critical component, the subject’s perception. This inner sense is what creates the therapeutic effect.

Yoga Therapy IS Somatic Therapy

“… I am convinced that a program of early training in personal sensory awareness and motor control would cause, within the span of one generation, a reversal of the major public health problems – cardiovascular disease, cancer, and mental illness…”

– Thomas Hanna

from Somatics: reawakening the mind’s control of movement, flexibility, and health

Years ago, when I was a budding Yoga Therapist, I remember clearly saying to myself that it would be crucial for me to learn my craft and learn it well. I knew, like I had it on some good and reliable authority, that the day would come when there would be a great need for what I would be doing. I remember thinking that when this day came, people would not be able to get what they need from their medical doctors and what I was learning was going to serve a vital role. 

That day has come. This need is here (and it has been growing for some time now). Medical doctors serve a role and a system that is irreplaceable for diagnosis and treatments including surgeries, and I cannot do what they do. But clearly, friends, they cannot do what I and my colleagues in this field can do and what people are turning to in greater and greater numbers. 

Why I am seeing such success with these practices, I believe, is because of the critical role these people get to play in their own healing. When you work with a Somatic Therapist, you contribute to and participate in the process that invokes the change. In time and with support and practice, people can learn to take their own health into their hands, hearts and minds. Yeah, it’s true that we all need guidance to move from a place of confusion to a place of clarity whether it’s confusion in the neuromuscular condition, in the psychophysical condition or in the sensory-motor system. But once you know the way to stand on one foot, the road to Tree Pose isn’t so hard to imagine, right? It’s no different in any other aspect of the body’s behavior.

In 1988 Thomas Hanna published a book about his work with Somatics. He shared the kind of feedback he was receiving then from physicians, osteopaths, chiropractors, physical therapists. These doctors of medicine felt that what Hanna was doing should have been included in their medical training and it was not. Since then, medical training is even less about physical medicine and barely touches on manual therapies - even in the world of osteopathy which was, at one time, rooted in extraordinary acts of manual therapeutics. And so, in 1999, just 11 years after Hanna published this book, when I was having those intuitive thoughts about my work and its future, it seems it was already a truth playing out in the world.

There will always be people whose mentality is “isn’t there a pill I can take?” But more and more people are realizing that the adage “Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, but teach a man to fish and he can eat for a lifetime” is also true in the basic care that we need to administer to ourself and the body that we inhabit.

Please don’t think I am suggesting that somatic therapies can cure every ill. They definitely cannot! And when a particular state of dis-ease requires the care of a medical practitioner, it is paramount to get to the doctor. But these somatic modalities give us a kind of power over our physiology. They offer us a sovereignty over our bodies and minds that can help to improve immunity; mental health; sleep; and even into the far reaches of things like our relationships. When we feel empowered in our bodies, we feel empowered in our lives. When we feel steady and clear in our minds, we can see more options and possibilities. These things, together, allow us to make better choices and that leads to happier lives. Happier lives are healthier lives.

Living a happier life is something that I have been passionate about for many decades. I believe that there is a better way for people to live and that this better way makes lots of room for the state of happiness. I believe that it begins with feeling good in our bodies and our minds, in our hearts and in our spirits. I plan to continue exploring this topic and sharing and blogging about it, but for now I’m calling your attention to a wonderful quote from Hanna. It’s a passage from the introduction of his book that follows his description of something he calls SMA (sensory motor amnesia). I offer this quote because it is the basis of what I have long believed and am now convinced lays the groundwork for people to enjoy their lives happy, healthfully and productively.