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Somatics – quick links
- Read our Somatics FAQs
- 1-2-1 Somatics coaching
- View & complete our health form here.
What is Somatics?
Somatics has its roots in Feldenkrais & The Alexander Technique, and is a safe and easy way to reverse chronic tightness and pain. Somatic Movement engages your brain and teaches it how to re-educate the muscles to let go of chronic tension brought about by habits, injuries or accidents. The movements are gentle, natural and remarkably effective (I speak from experience as Somatic movement massively helped my frozen shoulder).
The Somatics classes we run are called Somatic Yoga classes, but they are quite different to a standard Yoga class, where we focus on improving your strength and flexibility – we run plenty of regular Yoga classes, so please take a look at our timetable to find one that suits you. Somatic Yoga is ideally suited to those suffering from chronic pain or discomfort – students who come to Somatics may be suffering from:
- aches and pains such as neck or shoulder pain, pain when walking, for example
- stiffness
- limited flexibility
- tightness in the hips
- weakness or a feeling of imbalance (often on one side of the body in particular).
How Somatics Works
The idea behind Somatics is that you’re in pain because your muscles are over-contracted due to an injury or repetitive movement (such as sitting at a computer). These tight muscles can then become fatigued and weak, causing other muscles to compensate too.
Your brain doesn’t realise the muscles are contracted and accepts it as ‘normal’ – we call this sensory motor amnesia. The Somatic movements wake up the brain to the reality of these over-contracted muscles, and we can then retrain them to move in a pain-free way.
Somatic movements are performed very slowly and deliberately to re-calibrate the brain: the brain can notice the muscles are contracted, and then relax them (imagine pressing the re-set button on your computer).
You can read in more detail about Somatics here
What Our Clients think of Somatics
“I have been doing Somatics for almost two years for lower back pain. The exercises are very gentle and have helped me tremendously in keeping me pain-free”
“I was slightly sceptical about how beneficial Somatic Yoga would be especially as I had been practising ordinary yoga for many years. However eventually I tried it because I couldn’t get relief for my chronic neck and shoulder pain. Firstly, it felt I had received a proper workout and over the following weeks I gradually improved. Now I feel the best I have felt for several years. (Sue)
“Keeps an old body working smoothly”
“Since taking up Somatics with Karen, my lower back and joint pain has significantly reduced, enabling me to reduce my painkillers from four times a day to once a day. I am now more confident in my mobility and feel less anxious. (Val)