It's not me, it's you

"You have magic hands, that doesn't hurt at all." 

~ client, as her shoulder moves without pain

"My knee doesn't hurt anymore. Whatever you did is amazing!" 

~ client, who's knee I never touched in her session

"I thought my left shoulder was my issue, since that's where I feel pain. 

But it feels better after our session, and we focused on the right side of my body. Fascinating!" 

~ client, who is a bodyworker herself

"I've never felt this good, and I've been going to a chiropractor for 30 years." 

~Think Somatics class student

It's not me, it's you.

When clients sing my praises, I tell them, "Don't thank me. Thank your brain!" 

All I did was help your brain take back control of how you move and sense yourself.

Somatics is not bodywork. 

When you get bodywork, like an adjustment, massage, or other treatment, you are passive. You've taken your body to an "expert," who does something to parts of your body.

You could even fall asleep and the results would the same. Because you are passive, your brain does not learn anything. So nothing changes for long term.

Somatics is neuromuscular education.

The brain controls how you function, move and sense yourself. When you feel pain, that's your brain signaling something is wrong. A broken bone would need outside intervention. But "pain out of no where" or ongoing pain is a signal that the body is functioning in some sort of restricted, contracted way.

Your motor patterns are off.

With Somatics, you are in charge of correcting your motor patterns so you can stop moving in ways that hurt you. You learn to move more intelligently, with grace and ease.

Somatics works so well because your brain is learning.

Your sensory motor cortex is learning.

I may be helping you sense those areas your brain has lost control of (what's called Sensory Motor Amnesia), but you are ultimately the one laying down the neural pathways between your brain and body.

After some initial help from me, you are free to do what you need on your own.

No need to repeatedly come to me. Again, very different from body work. :-)

Just tend to your nervous system, and you function well and live well.

We could actually never meet, and you can get relief by learning Somatics on your own.

That's because, like all animals, humans are meant to be able to self sense, self regulate, self soothe.

Bodywork creates dependency.

Bodywork is ultimately about the practitioner because she has something you think you must have that you can't do for yourself.

Regular bodywork is more of a dependency. A luxury. Nothing wrong with that, if that's what you want.

But what if you are in pain and can't get an appointment for days or weeks?

Imagine a life in which you seldom felt pain. 

If you have a Somatics practice—a routine of simple, safe movements you can do anytime, anywhere —you can change so many things we attribute to age, injury, and degeneration.

You can keep yourself functioning well, well into older age.

On the occasion you do feel uncomfortable, you'll know what to do, right at that moment, instead of freaking out and relying on someone to "fix" you.

Somatics is true self care.

By sensing yourself you can care for yourself.

Taking your body to another person to tend to it, is not self care. Because it's not administered by the self.

Somatics is a paradigm shift

Now, I know some of you may bristle at the thought of all this.

You may love all your bodyworkers.

After all, you've turned to them time after time for help.

But how have humans—the supposedly smartest species on the planet — become so dependent on others to fix us?

Thomas Hanna, the man behind the work I do, was a philosopher.

He's main question to life was how do humans remain free and autonomous?

With Somatic awareness, we are able to sense how we react to the world around us.  Be able to release ourselves from emotional, mental and physical tension that hold us back from being our true selves.

You can continue to turn outside of yourself in hopes that there is some pill, surgery or bodywork to fix you. You are free to do whatever you want, after all. :-)

But why? You have innate ability to self soothe. We are all born to do certain movements—movements called pandiculations— that release tension in our bodies with ease. We did these moves as babies, in the womb, and as children. For some reason western adults forego this technique, instead seeking outside themselves for answers.

If you want to be in charge of your body and life, start a Somatics practice and see what happens.

Check out my free Introductory Think Somatics class in the Think Somatics Online Classroom.

Visit my website to register for the next Free Online Intro To Clinical Somatics. (Look for it at the bottom of the homepage.)

Thanks for reading! I look forward to connecting with you in the future.

create change for good,
Kristin