What Does Somatic Mean?
In somatic therapy, we use special techniques that connect the mind and body. These techniques come from many cultures and ways of healing. We also use science to see how well these techniques work according to science. In somatic therapy, we think scientific knowledge is important, but that it's also just one type of knowledge. We like to see how tried and true healing practices can be explained by science and where those practices are in a different knowledge category all together.
Somatic therapy includes many ways to help with problems in the mind and body, focusing on how you relate to yourself and others. It uses both mental and physical exercises, treating them as equally important. The word "somatic" means "body-related." It reminds us that these techniques involve the body because Western culture often focuses more on the mind. By using different types of knowledge in therapy, clients can experience deep changes.
The term "somatics" was created by an American named Thomas Hanna. He taught that being aware of our bodies can help with pain and tension. Hanna talked about "sensory motor amnesia," which means forgetting how to connect with parts of our body. He believed that reconnecting and relearning movement could help. Other therapists like Wilhelm Reich and Alexander Lowen also focused on the body in their psychological work.
Early therapists noticed that body problems like tension and weakness were linked to mental distress. People like Moshe Feldenkrais and Ida Rolf worked on movement and body therapies, and they are part of the somatic tradition even though the term "somatic" wasn't used then.
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In somatic therapy, we use special techniques that connect the mind and body. These techniques come from many cultures and ways of healing. We also use science to see how well these techniques work according to science. In somatic therapy, we think scientific knowledge is important, but that it's also just one type of knowledge. We like to see how tried and true healing practices can be explained by science and where those practices are in a different knowledge category all together.
Somatic therapy includes many ways to help with problems in the mind and body, focusing on how you relate to yourself and others. It uses both mental and physical exercises, treating them as equally important. The word "somatic" means "body-related." It reminds us that these techniques involve the body because Western culture often focuses more on the mind. By using different types of knowledge in therapy, clients can experience deep changes.
The term "somatics" was created by an American named Thomas Hanna. He taught that being aware of our bodies can help with pain and tension. Hanna talked about "sensory motor amnesia," which means forgetting how to connect with parts of our body. He believed that reconnecting and relearning movement could help. Other therapists like Wilhelm Reich and Alexander Lowen also focused on the body in their psychological work.
Early therapists noticed that body problems like tension and weakness were linked to mental distress. People like Moshe Feldenkrais and Ida Rolf worked on movement and body therapies, and they are part of the somatic tradition even though the term "somatic" wasn't used then.
Contact us today!
We cannot sense without acting and we cannot act without sensing.
- Thomas Hanna
For the therapist of the psyche as well as the therapist dealing with the physical man, the goal is appropriate movement.
- Ida Rolf
Movement is life. Life is a process. Improve the quality of the process and you improve the quality of life itself.
- Moshe Feldenkrais
Once we open up to the flow of energy within our body, we can also open up to the flow of energy in the universe.
— Wilhelm Reich
Mature love is not a surrender of the self but a surrender to the self. The ego surrenders its hegemony of the personality to the heart, but in this surrender it is not annihilated. Rather it is strengthened because its roots in the body are nourished by the joy that the body feels.
— Alexander Lowen
- Thomas Hanna
For the therapist of the psyche as well as the therapist dealing with the physical man, the goal is appropriate movement.
- Ida Rolf
Movement is life. Life is a process. Improve the quality of the process and you improve the quality of life itself.
- Moshe Feldenkrais
Once we open up to the flow of energy within our body, we can also open up to the flow of energy in the universe.
— Wilhelm Reich
Mature love is not a surrender of the self but a surrender to the self. The ego surrenders its hegemony of the personality to the heart, but in this surrender it is not annihilated. Rather it is strengthened because its roots in the body are nourished by the joy that the body feels.
— Alexander Lowen