Clinical Somatic Education

What is Clinical Somatic Education?

Clinical Somatic Education ("CSE") is a journey of self-discovery with the underlying goal of gaining awareness of the mind and body from within. The somatic educator does not "fix" the client, but guides him or her to a place of openness where change can be achieved autonomously. CSE is based on the work of Thomas Hanna, Moshe Feldenkrais and F. Matthias Alexander. Hanna believed that many conditions, including the stiffness and deformed posture considered to be an inevitable part of aging, are due to sensory motor amnesia (SMA). SMA is the brain's response to the accumulated stress and trauma in our lives. It causes us to become rigid because the voluntary part of our brains has forgotten how to feel, move and release the affected muscles.

You can obtain the benefits of Clinical Somatic Education in several different ways: Hands-on sessions provide individualized, efficient care for your pain and injuries. Somatic Exercises teach you to educate yourself to become more somatically free and comfortable, and avoid problems in the future. Somatic Exercises can be learned in group classes or in one-on-one as part of your hands-on sessions with Patience.

What does a Clinical Somatics session look like and why is it effective?

As a Clinical Somatic Educator, Patience uses hands-on guided movement (using a table or a mat) as well as a series of brief self-care exercises. These comfortable movements help the brain to focus specifically on the contracted muscles and movement patterns. Once the brain is made aware of the held contractions, it is able to release them back to a relaxed state. Inefficient movement patterns are thus corrected; chronic muscle tension and pain are thus eliminated.