Somatic Movement Therapy

“Somatics means that my whole self feels different; I always come out of classes having learned an awful lot. I feel more at peace and at times tingly from the practice."

Prepare for something truly powerful, truly soothing and experience yourself and your body in a whole new and very different way.

These classes offer profound relief from pain and help to restore the brain body connection after periods of extensive pain, trauma, surgery, injuries, burnout, fatigue and chronic discomfort.

These classes are extremely popular. Regular and visiting students are overwhelmed by the short-term and sustained changes somatic movement practises have brought to their overall sense of well being.

As well as providing relief from pain, the invitation and permission the somatics approach and movements offer reconnects us to our body and the felt sense. We can work through, process and discharge old stress and survival energies that keep us stuck, tired and limited and with more flow in our system, we can heal and experience a sense of goodness, wholeness and well-being.

Developed by Thomas Hannah at the Nevato Institute in California, somatic exercises and sequences help to relieve pain and release deep muscular tension by re-educating our bodies nervous system and re-connecting our brain with our bodies, through our felt sense.

Through slow, conscious and gentle movements and pandiculations, we learn how to release involuntary muscle contractions, relieving joint and muscle pain. As we re-educate our muscles to fully relax, they can regain their strength, our posture improves and our body moves in a more energy-efficient and
pain-free manner.

Each class begins with a somatic body scan and somatic experiencing exercises where we dive into the felt sense, attune to and connect with our body. For those of us (like me) who are over-thinkers, sensitive or sometimes feel overwhelmed by feelings and emotions or have an over-active mind, this alone, can be profoundly calming and restorative.

Each class aims to release the joints and muscles of the feet, legs, hips, pelvis and back and the shoulders, arms, neck, jaw, face and head. We also explore the breathing body and use various props to release, re-awaken and massage the skin and fascial network of connective tissues.