What Does Somatic Mean?
Somatic Therapy encompasses various approaches addressing a spectrum of discomfort and symptoms in both the mind and body. By employing techniques that involve both mental and physical engagement, it avoids prioritizing one over the other.
Although the term "somatic" carries a specific association with the body, I believe this primarily due to its origin in a culture skewed towards prioritizing the mind. The word alerts us that these techniques include the body.
Coined by Thomas Hanna, the term "Somatics" is linked to his teachings where clients use awareness to address bodily pain and tension. Hanna introduced the concept of "sensory motor amnesia," describing a state where individuals lose connection with parts of their body. He believed that reestablishing this connection and relearning movement could alleviate pain and tension. While Hanna's focus is primarily physical, body psychotherapists like Wilhelm Reich and Alexander Lowen share similar views, addressing the body in the context of psychological well-being.
Early pioneers of psychotherapies suggested a correlation between bodily disturbances such as tension and weakness and psychological distress patterns. Figures like Moshe Feldenkrais and Ida Rolf focused on movement and body therapies. They are considered part of the somatic lineage although the term "somatic" wasn't yet used in that context during their time.
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Somatic Therapy encompasses various approaches addressing a spectrum of discomfort and symptoms in both the mind and body. By employing techniques that involve both mental and physical engagement, it avoids prioritizing one over the other.
Although the term "somatic" carries a specific association with the body, I believe this primarily due to its origin in a culture skewed towards prioritizing the mind. The word alerts us that these techniques include the body.
Coined by Thomas Hanna, the term "Somatics" is linked to his teachings where clients use awareness to address bodily pain and tension. Hanna introduced the concept of "sensory motor amnesia," describing a state where individuals lose connection with parts of their body. He believed that reestablishing this connection and relearning movement could alleviate pain and tension. While Hanna's focus is primarily physical, body psychotherapists like Wilhelm Reich and Alexander Lowen share similar views, addressing the body in the context of psychological well-being.
Early pioneers of psychotherapies suggested a correlation between bodily disturbances such as tension and weakness and psychological distress patterns. Figures like Moshe Feldenkrais and Ida Rolf focused on movement and body therapies. They are considered part of the somatic lineage although the term "somatic" wasn't yet used in that context during their time.
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