The word, "somatic", is coming into vogue these days, particularly in the field of bodywork. Since the field of somatic education developed in parallel to that of bodywork, and since the two approaches were never before clearly differentiated, many people are now using the word "somatics" interchangeably with the word, "bodywork". Now that somatic education has come of age, with clinical effectiveness matching and exceeding that of many manipulative therapies, some clarification is in order.

The Meaning of "Somatic"

The word, "soma", means "the body experienced from within". The term, "somatic", refers to ones sense of being alive and particularly to ones ability to sense the processes going on "within" oneself, as well as in the "external" world. The term, "education", refers to the process of becoming more functionally competent in every dimension within reach of human awareness. So, "somatic education" involves awakening ones sense of aliveness and ability to function competently. For that reason, it is more closely aligned with "education" than with therapy.

The word, "bodywork", has traditionally been used to describe both manipulative and educational methods of body improvement. The word, "somatic", has a special meaning that distinguishes it from manipulative therapies and places it squarely in the realm of education.

Beyond Dependency to Self-Sufficiency

At a certain point in our lives, we develop the desire to exert control over ourselves, rather than to have others and circumstances control us. This desire for self-mastery eventually applies to our health as well as to our social relations; it is a sign of somatic development, of maturation.

With somatic education, people improve their ability to feel, to direct attention, and to exercise their intention. The magic of somatic education exists not in what the somatic educator knows, but in how our client or student responds. The change is not created by the somatic educator; it is created by the client, with the coaching of the somatic educator.

I sometimes say something that lies at the heart of somatic education: our attention (awareness) and intention (will) create our life experience. Our attention points our direction in life, our intention moves us in that direction, and our attention experiences it. No attention, no experience; no intention, no attention! (The primal intention is "to be.") The point is, there are some things no one else can do for us; we must do them for ourselves.

Healing methods that rely upon the person's capacity for self- determination produce more lasting improvements of certain conditions than those that manipulate the body from without. Why? Because when one person corrects another, the one who has been corrected eventually re-asserts control over themselves. And if their pattern of self-control created the problem to begin with, it creates the problem again -- unless the person releases the old pattern of self-control and replaces it with a new one.

The question, "How does one person create a lasting change in another?" might seem to be the central question of all bodywork. But the question comes from a mechanistic view of the body. A human being is more than a machine of causes and effects; humans (and all living beings) ultimately control themselves -- in relation to how they are manipulated by circumstances. So the question has no adequate answer. The question should be, "How does a person change themselves?" For that, there is an answer: A person changes themselves by means of learning -- whether from others or from self-exploration and self-determination.

Bodywork deals with the accumulated effects of ones way of life, the consequences of prior learning and behavior on the body. These effects involve tissue changes and chronic patterns of tension, which constitute our posture and attitudinal set -- our "adaptive tension pattern".

Bodywork and manipulative therapies that "do it for the person" move the person into a certain condition, but do not necessarily give the person the ability to maintain that desired state (or to enhance it). Certain manipulations may even conflict with a person's automatic, unconscious, learned tendency to recreate the problem. Such a conflict may considerably slow progress or even make therapy painful.

On the other hand, somatic education guides a person to make the changes within him-or-herself; it enables him or her to choose and to create a desired condition. The somatic educator is initiator and guide, rather than therapist in the authoritarian sense.

Education is More than Therapy

Under the earlier, more authoritarian paradigm of which modern, drug-based medicine is a manifestation, people were (and often are) taught and expected to submit to the gatekeepers of therapy, doctors.

Interestingly, the word, "doctor" can be traced, through words like "indoctrinate" and "doctrine" to another word: "teacher". Whether actively or by default, many (though not all) doctors indoctrinate their patients into a subservient state of dependency epitomized in the words, "heal me", as they themselves were indoctrinated into their belief in themselves as highest medical authority by their medical training. Their authority, however, rests ultimately upon the perception that they are "knowers" -- that is, upon their education and perceptual abilities.

With the emerging, decentralized social structure of the Information Age has increasingly come a new mood: autonomy. It places less power and responsibility upon outside authorities and takes more unto itself. This change marks the shift from an authoritarian, therapeutic relationship toward the partnership of an educational relationship. The better doctors educate their patients and hope for them to take responsibility for their health.

In a therapeutic process, progress occurs only as long as the therapeutic relationship lasts. In an educational process, progress occurs as long as the student applies what has been learned. This self-application carries with it the immediate potential for discovery of more than has been taught and for problem-solving. In an educational process, there is far less likelihood of reappearance of a chronic problem than in a therapeutic process.

To the degree that therapy equips a person for progress beyond the therapeutic relationship, learning (i.e., education) has been involved. This distinction completely changes how we treat our clients from "client/victim" to "client/partner".

Education is not less than therapy; it is more than therapy. It is a resource and an avenue through which one comes to know oneself and to become more completely alive, functional, and self-determining.

There is an old saying that expresses the difference between manipulative therapies and somatic education.

"Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day;
teach him to fish, he feeds himself for a lifetime."

REFERENCE

Hanna, Thomas L. Somatics: Re-Awakening the Mind's Control of Movement, Flexibility, and Health. Reading, MA: Perseus Books, 1988