Somatics help people become more at home in their bodies by encouraging folks to sense, feel, and move better, creating a sense of ease, connection, and empowerment. 

Somatics refers to movement-based approaches that integrate body and mind to improve physical and emotional wellbeing. Somatic methods address how we move to change the way we feel. They engage the body to affect the mind. Used to recover from injuries, improve athletic and artistic performance, aid in developmental challenges, and maintain function, strength, flexibility, balance, and coordination through aging, these practices can effectively improve overall health and quality of life. Somatic practices vary, focusing on awareness of movement, energy flow, strengthening the core, to readjusting the form of the musculoskeletal system. 

Many early practices of somatics were appropriated from non Western traditions, perpetuating white supremacist ideologies that devalued the origins of this knowledge. The commodification of somatic practices under capitalism has led to highly individualistic, isolating practices of care. Somatic practices have contributed to an imposed ideal of how a functional body should look and move. High costs and systemic barriers have excluded broad populations from access to somatics, further perpetuating racial and socioeconomic divisions in health and wellbeing. More recent methods in somatics aim to reframe the work by acknowledging racialized trauma, centering more inclusive language, improving access, and accrediting sources. Newer somatic practices support individualized needs while embracing collectivist approaches that emphasize communal care and mutual aid (Menakem, 2017; Haines, 2019; Drury 2022).

Embodiment is the feeling of being at home in one's body. It connects the mind with physicality, which can be nurtured through somatic practices. To be embodied, you feel present, grounded, aware, and adaptable to life’s stresses. This sense supports agency, the ability to make choices based on how we sense ourselves in the moment.

Polyvagal Theory (Porges, 2001) explains how our nervous system responds automatically to help us feel safe, alert, or shut down. Our nervous system moves through different states depending on what’s going on around us. We might feel calm and centered, ready to fight or  run away, freeze like a deer in the headlights, or fawn, functional but people pleasing to get by. When we feel safe and calm in our bodies, we are able to clearly make self informed decisions. This is called agency, the ability to sense ourselves and respond with intention. Agency helps us to feel and truly be empowered.

Social Cognitive Theory of Agency: (Bandura, 2006) shows how we build confidence in our abilities through practice, reflection, and experience, developing a sense of self-efficacy. My somatic practice cultivates this by encouraging people to move with awareness, notice changes in their bodies, and respond with informed choices. This strengthens their belief in their ability to move toward healing, a form of self-empowerment. Applying Social Cognitive Theory to somatics offers people practical tools to care for themselves, without relying on rigid, prescriptive methods.

References:

Bandura, A. (2006). Toward a Psychology of Human Agency. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 1(2), 164–180. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6916.2006.00011.x

Drury, L. (2022). What’s in a Name? Somatics and the Historical Revisionism of Thomas Hanna. Dance Research Journal, 54(1), 6–29. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0149767722000043

Hanna, T. (1988). Somatics: Reawakening the mind’s control of movement, flexibility, and health. Addison-Wesley.

Haines, S. (2019). The politics of trauma: Somatics, healing, and social justice. North Atlantic Books.

Menakem, R. (2017). My grandmother’s hands: Racialized trauma and the pathway to mending our hearts and bodies. Central Recovery Press.

Porges, S. W. (2001). The polyvagal theory: Phylogenetic substrates of a social nervous system. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 42(2), 123–146. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0167-8760(01)00162-3

Roadman, J. (2021). The power of the mindbody: Collective somatic learning in community organizing groups. AERC [Paper] presented as a part of the Adult Education in Global Times Conference. University of British Columbia. Canada.