Awareness
Many of us carry tension we can no longer feel. Thomas Hanna called this sensory-motor amnesia. Somatics starts by gently bringing those areas back into awareness.
Somatic movement & education
Restore freedom of movement, bring ease to your life.
Gentle, mindful movement that restores your brain-to-muscle connection so you can let go of tension patterns and move with comfort.
Meet your guide
Hi, I'm Lisa.
I am a Certified Clinical Somatic Educator trained through Essential Somatics in the tradition of Thomas Hanna. I can help guide you to retrain how you move so you can let go of chronic tension that is sucking the life out of you.
Chronic muscle pain is debilitating. Through slow, focused movements with very little effort, you can learn to move differently. With a small daily practice, you can make significant changes in how your nervous system operates.
It's not magic, it's Somatics, and you deserve to inhabit a comfortable body.
- Certified Clinical Somatic Educator
- Online & in-person classes
- Private 1:1 sessions
“People do not decide their futures, they decide their habits, and their habits decide their futures.”
F. Matthias Alexander (commonly attributed)
What is Somatics?
Learning to feel, and change, from the inside out.
You are a Soma. A self-sensing, self-regulating organism that is constantly changing.
The word soma means of the living body. Thomas Hanna, PhD, coined the term that later encompassed an entire field of practices related to the first-person experience of the world.
Somatic movement uses a movement technique called pandiculation to bring your brain's attention to muscle tonus, and then slowly reduces that standing level of tension over time through gentle, mindful movement. You start to feel more calm, less anxious, and more creative as you are no longer clenching your way through life as an unconscious reaction to stress.
Slow, gentle movement
Through slow, mindful movements, you learn to sense and feel automatic stress responses. Through sensing them, your brain releases them and notices the stress response when it is triggered next. Less effort creates more change. No stretching or strengthening involved.
Lasting change
Because the change happens in the brain, not just the muscles, it tends to stick. People often report less pain, better posture, easier breathing and a calmer mind.
People often come to Somatics for
- Chronic back, neck & shoulder tension
- Stiffness & limited mobility
- Posture
- Stress & nervous system regulation
- Recovering confidence in movement
- Just feeling "ick"
Group classes
Upcoming classes
Join a class online or in person. All levels welcome, no experience needed. Click any class for details and location.
Online
Live via Zoom, from the comfort of home. A mat or carpeted floor is all you need.
In person
Small, friendly groups. Bring a mat and a blanket; details are listed in each event.
Class calendar coming soon.
Paste the Styled Calendar embed code into index.html to show classes here.
Can't see a time that works? Get in touch. New classes are added regularly.
Words from the teachers
The wisdom behind the work
“Somatics is the field which studies the soma: namely, the body as perceived from within by first-person perception.”
“What I'm after isn't flexible bodies, but flexible brains.”
“The process of reversing sensory motor amnesia and all of its resulting problems is learning; it's an educational process. What you will learn to do is move better, slower, and with greater control. Subsequently you will learn to feel more, and to feel more accurately what is happening in your body. And as you do that, the aches and pains and other problems of aging go away.”
“People do not decide their futures, they decide their habits, and their habits decide their futures.”
Private sessions
Ready for a more personal approach?
In a 1:1 session we'll focus on exactly what your body needs, at your pace. Sessions are available online or in person. Send a message and I'll get back to you to find a time and answer any questions.
Enquire about a 1:1 sessionOr email [email protected]