Free weekly information and inspiration for feeling better in digestible bites. Find updates on Somatics classes, curated events and resources offered by others, along with quick, easy somatic snacks to nourish your busy days.

Somatic Explorers drops on Sundays to start your week with ideas and actions for expanding your brain-to-body awareness so you can begin unwinding painful and dysfunctional muscle patterns.  Scan the headlines if you’re curious or dive deeper and take a class for more.

Somatics offers a safe, gentle approach for reversing functional pain.  Developed in the 1980’s by Thomas Hanna PhD, this movement and body awareness practice helps us move our bodies with freedom and ease at any stage of life. 

Our bodies can get stuck in subconscious patterns of muscle tension due to stress and injury and the unnecessary tension causes postural imbalances, lack of coordination and pain.  Subconscious muscle tension can be hard to treat through typical methods like stretching and massage because it’s the brain and not the muscle tissue that needs to re-learn how to let go.

With mindful movements, we re-create the held patterns of tension in our bodies then slowly and with conscious attention, let the tension go.  In this way the brain can begin to “remember” not to grip and to restore normal muscle resting positions.  

Sometimes a somatic movement practice can provide immediate relief from pain, but more often we need to repeat the movements regularly, working through accumulated layers of tension to find long term relief.  

Both on-line and in-person classes typically involve lying on a firm surface as a teacher guides you through a series of movements. Practice can also take place in seated or standing positions.  While Somatics classes require mental focus, most people find the sessions to be deeply relaxing and restorative.

For those who need more assistance, Certified Clinical Somatic Educators are available to work with you one-on-one.   Please request a referral.

For more information about Somatics, see the Essential Somatics and Learn Somatics websites and YouTube Channels.

Hi I’m Faith, an Essential Somatics® Movement Teacher in Burlington, Vermont, USA.   

I’m excited to share Somatic Movement with you because it’s worked so well for me.  While I’ve been involved movement practices my whole life, from martial arts, to yoga, to Nia, and more, I’m fairly new to Somatics and find it a great compliment to everything else.  I love exploring the soma (our body as experienced from within) - it’s a fascinating and deeply rewarding journey that can enrich every stage of life!