Somatic Educator

Q. What advice do you have for a customer looking to hire a provider like you?

A. There are a number of practitioners who will say they provide somatics services.

There is an entire nexus of providers which include massage therapists, other hands-on body workers, feldenkrais, physical educators, somatic therapists, dance therapists, physical therapists and martial artists.

You'll hear terms such as somatic experiencing and soma body work too.

There is a great deal of semantics when it comes to somatics. : )

Thomas Hanna, who wrote the book and coined the term Somatics, described it as "the body experienced from within".

He taught what is known as Hanna Somatic Education® and it is primarily taught at the The Novato Institute of Somatic Research & Training.

This is the 3 year national certification program which I graduated from in 2003.

Hanna Somatic Educators® are competent in both hands-on bodywork and the movement education which is key and known as somatics exercises.

Q. If you were a customer, what do you wish you knew about your trade? Any inside secrets to share?

A. While we all know exercise is vital, many of us blow it off for many reasons... of course we know that being in pain, living with stiffness, feeling our own immobility hampers our ability to move effectively - so why bother to exercise.

Movement on the other hand is the great equalizer and since movement is highly involved with learning, then learning how to move more effectively will allow us to eventually exercise if we so desire.

Get this, I never exercise and this just kills the guys on my soccer team since they do things like run, lift weights and well take ibuprofen to deal with the pain.

Instead I learned that healthy vertebrate animals pandiculate and this is the very process which has been systematized as somatics exercises.

These are not really exercises in the traditional sense since they are movements geared towards getting the brain to release the neurochemicals of relaxation so the muscles reset their contraction levels.

By resetting the levels as animals will do so periodically throughout the day, the healthy vertebrate animal continues to run easily, have great mobility and agility.

So for me, I'm going with the animals on this one and so instead of all the training I used to do - oddly enough which kept me in pain. Heck I didn't even know as many people still don't...

That stretching in the traditional manner most of us were taught is just plain "bad for us". I've done my own research and haven't stretched for over a decade yet have better flexibility than most 15 year olds.

Moving like a healthy vertebrate animal using the knowledge of the process of a pandiculation keeps our muscles free from stiffness and freer to move overall.

The brain is really the one big muscle that can reset all the other muscles so I'll go with brain over brawn and keep ambling comfortably.

Q. What questions should a consumer ask to hire the right service professional?

A. Well, there's the usual, how long have you been practicing?

What kind of somatic practitioner are you?

Have you dealt with "my" condition, predicament, situation before?

What have been the outcomes using this service for "my" circumstance?

Will you give me the self-help tools to keep improving my situation? In what form or manner?

How often will I need to do the self-care part so I can keep going in the direction I want to?

What type of commitment is involved?

Do you offer the hands-on approach?

If I'm too far away to travel what other options do you have like a web-based solution such as 1 on 1 webcam or online weekly classes?

Q. What important information should buyers have thought through before seeking you out?

A. What is somatics or somatics education?

What is involved in a session or online class?

Is it painful?

Do you have a goal or a result you want to achieve?

Are you willing to reasonably do what it takes to improve your health and well being?

Are you willing to see it through?

Would you benefit more from a one on one, group or online class approach?

Can you adjust your schedule to take the necessary time it will take to achieve the result you want?

Is this a short fix or a long term solution?

Can the program be individually tailored to suit my needs and concerns? What are the trade-offs?

How long will it take depends on the history and length of time you've had dealing with a certain set of circumstances?

Are you into learning and enjoy learning?

Q. Why does your work stand out from others who do what you do?

A. The only online Hanna Somatic Education weekly movement classes are offered at GravityWerks.com.

As someone who lived with fibromyalgia, chronic pain, I know first hand what it's like to live daily, monthly and yearly in states of pain and discomfort.

I also know there is a way out and this way is so simple it can be mind boggling but once the body is reminded of its natural ability to generate chemicals of relaxation as well as reorganizing how we move, then our bodies ability to recover its mobility and flexibility returns so that pain leaves us and our mind eventually gets it.

As an exercise trainer, I offer what I call un-exercises since most exercise is dependent on activating rather than using the brain cortex of its inhibition process.

Whereas stretching has been proven to be bad for us, it still continues and will be argued in favor of because we haven't experienced our natural birthright of pandiculation.

As a divorce counselor for stretching, the brain can far exceed what force will do to bring us back to states of health.

Q. How did you decide to get in your line of work?

A. Was diagnosed with what "they" said was incurable, fibromyalgia, fortunately I overcame the physical pains that I lived with in my 20's and 30's.

So I began to teach a form of exercise to re-align the body through the use of biomechanics and a proper sequencing which allows a body to end up less compensated.

However... as life happens, I had a sport injury from playing soccer that exercise couldn't address so surgery was on the horizon until an acupuncturist suggested Somatics.

When they let me know that I would have to pass a test on neurophysiology, I was in, yet only to the point to see if the first year of the three training would be worth my time.

Within 3 weeks my knee was responding and I returned to playing soccer but what was incredibly odd was that in spite of all the exercise routines I had learned, this was a completely different animal.

Such that I had to learn to move like an animal using the little known process that animals use called a pandiculation to reset the muscles.

Little did I know that 10 years later I would offer the first online somatics exercises classes.

Once I felt my feet balanced over 14 years ago, I knew if I could finally overcome all the struggles and all the pain, maybe I too could help others cut that time down so we can all get back to doing what we want to do ASAP and enjoy our body over and over, even as we age.