Explanation of

Hanna Somatic Education ^®

       Hanna Somatic Education (HSE) is a highly-effective system of mind-brain-body-training and used to overcome health problems often referred for osteopathy, physical therapy, chiropractic, massage therapy, and other modalities.

The term, “education” fits with the word “somatic” better than do the terms “therapy” or “treatment,” which restore function, because the client learns how to improve beyond the pre-injury state and to prevent future injury.

The procedures and processes of Hanna Somatic Education improve freedom of movement and they eliminate both pain and the underlying cause of the pain. Clients feel more like themselves as they are when healthy and sound (at once, "different and more like themselves").

• Hands-on procedures give back control over muscular tension. "Control" in this sense, means improvement in the person's ability to relax and to tighten muscles in movement, to start, carry out, and end movements with precision, and thus to move more efficiently.

• "Somatic exercises" put movements together into more integrated patterns of coordination and also purge out the residual tensions of daily living.

     Hanna Somatic Education teaches how to quickly end tension-holding patterns (tightness) such as those formed during and after injury or surgery. 

    What distinguishes HSE from other approaches is the use of "the pandicular response" (or "whole-body yawn") an action pattern done instinctively by all animals. This action pattern (misunderstood as "stretching") involves contraction of the musculature in certain patterns, in the spirit of a yawn; this action sends a sensory signal to the brain (cerebral cortex) sufficient to refresh the connection between mind and body -- or between sensation and movement. It's a natural action of waking up. Pandiculation simultaneously improves the ability to move and the ability to relax, freeing musclebound muscles and ending the tendency to cramp or go into spasm.

     A distinction may be made between HSE and the aforementioned modalities by comparing their operating viewpoints and the results that the modalities obtain.

Somatic education improves more than symptoms -- it improves the functional condition that underlies the symptoms. Three steps: healing, injury prevention, functional enhancement

Comparing Somatic Education and Therapeutic Modalities

• Most modern therapeutic approaches to muscular pain seek to "fix the patient”; they act upon the body's self-regulatory processes, chemically, mechanically, or electrically. Clients or patients with chronic musculo-skeletal pain often remain dependent on a therapist or drugs for a long time to manage their symptoms. Improvement is often long in coming, temporary, and may require many repetitions of the same treatment process.
• As a practical matter, pain and restricted movement that result from muscular tension cannot be permanently "fixed" from outside. The "fix" must occur from within, by the brain's own self-regulating processes. These processes can be corrected by the client, him-or-herself, via the internalized learning process that occurs in Hanna somatic education (HSE). The results of HSE are highly predictable, making the process highly practical for clinical applications, most conditions being successfully corrected after between two and eight sessions.

  Some practitioners offer a money-back guarantee of satisfaction.

     The specific advantage seen in Hanna Somatic Education by referring physicians is that, while being effective in the relief of muscular pain and spasticity, it has the specific virtue of teaching the client an ability so to control the muscular complaint that there is little chance of a future return of the problem.

     In addition to hands-on methods whereby the client is assisted in getting free of painful muscular contractions, classes in sensory-motor training, presented by certified Hanna Somatic Educators, foster further control of muscular tension and coordination. Educational resources are also available -- instructional audio tapes, books and videotapes. These resources are designed to support people in continued improvement at home, by themselves.

     Hanna Somatic Educators are certified by the Novato Institute for Somatic Research and Training.  Fewer than one hundred certified Hanna Somatic Educators practice throughout the world (Point and click on underlined words for locations.).

     The goal of the process is for the client to become self-sufficient and independent of the need for further therapeutic treatment as quickly as possible, supported as needed by the self-help resources available to the public. Long-term dependency on a practitioner of the Hanna Somatic Education modality is unnecessary and unexpected, as self-awareness and self-mastery are the goals of the modality.