{"id":1428,"date":"2013-02-17T19:24:00","date_gmt":"2013-02-18T02:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/somatics.com\/wordpress\/mainstreaming-hanna-somatic-education-part-1\/"},"modified":"2013-02-17T19:24:00","modified_gmt":"2013-02-18T02:24:00","slug":"mainstreaming-hanna-somatic-education-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.somatics.com\/wordpress\/mainstreaming-hanna-somatic-education-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Mainstreaming Hanna Somatic Education, part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Folks,<\/p>\n

I’m too busy.<\/p>\n

Between clients, consultations by telephone, filling orders, creating
\nnew instructional videos, writing, answering email messages, answering
\nquestions as a featured authority on AllExperts.com, developing new somatic
\nexercises and refining somatic education techniques<\/a>,
\n my days are used up, even working as fast as I can (Imagine what that’s
\n doing to my Landau Reaction).  I’m getting behind on my creative work
\n— and on the work of mainstreaming Hanna somatic education.<\/p>\n

— and I have the idea that it’s time for somatics to get bigger.  <\/p>\n

After twenty years since Wave 1 students gained certification, it’s a
\ngood time for Hanna somatic education to get “mainstream” enough to make
\n meaningful differences to public health and to national economics.  I
\nwould like to see that to happen (far better than it’s happening, now).<\/p>\n

Hanna somatic education can go beyond being a small discipline practiced
\n by a number of people small in comparison to the general population —
\nto — a discipline carried on and spread by<\/i> the general
\npopulation. With certified practitioners serving those with needs beyond
\n what somatic exercises, alone, can do, and with us training people
\nembedded in special advantageous positions in mainstream culture, who
\ncan teach somatic exercises in their own place, we can set the stage for somatics
\n to go “mainstream”.  Then, we can reasonably expect a stream of
\nreferrals from somatic exercise teachers to clinical somatic education
\npractitioners.<\/p>\n

I can’t bring that about, alone, and I know that a few enterprising practitioners are making some inroads.  However, I believe we could go about this in a much better organized way, generate a smooth mindset for gracefully taking our place far more deeply in human cultures, take some artful steps, end up with a much more solid standing as a discipline serving the public, and fulfill the mission Thomas Hanna envisioned.<\/p>\n

I need more hands.<\/big><\/p>\n

But failing that due to my own genetic limitations, I’m asking people to lend me their ears.<\/big><\/p>\n

We have an opportunity and we face a potential danger — that being the definition of risk. <\/big><\/p>\n

\nThe danger?  the success of Thomas Hanna’s contribution — in other people’s hands than ours — at a lower level of contribution than we could make.<\/span><\/p>\n

The opportunity?<\/big><\/p>\n

The potential to have somatics integrated into mainstream culture with such poise, mastery and assurance as to take our place as a matter of course.<\/big><\/p>\n

Why now?<\/p>\n

Three reasons:<\/p>\n

Thomas Hanna’s Reason<\/b><\/p>\n

1. It’s what Thomas Hanna envisioned when he spoke of “the millions” in his
\n lecture to his Wave 1 students.  He was speaking of a long-term
\nproject, since the thirty-eight people he was addressing, and the ~300
\nwho practice, now, can hardly serve “millions”.<\/p>\n

The Other Reasons:<\/b><\/p>\n

<\/big>
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\n 2. A need exists beyond the need for people to be out of pain.   <\/p>\n

In today’s health care system, disability, pain management, and
\nrehabilitation are stupendous costs to the American economy and to the
\nworld-economy.  Somatic education can cut those costs down to size and
\ntransform people’s health and aging expectations; it can be part of
\n“health care reform” (where what we have with Obamacare is “health
\ninsurance reform”).<\/p>\n

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\n3. Hanna somatic education could easily be “eaten” by two teaching streams
\nwell-established in mainstream culture:  Pilates and Myofascial Release
\n(Barnes) — and there’s talk in the Feldenkrais camp about mainstreaming Feldenkrais Somatic Integration, a good thing, but also a contrast to how we are handling mainstreaming.<\/p>\n

Both teachings are close enough to Hanna somatics that the addition of
\npandiculation and the “three-reflex theory” would put them well within
\neating range of Hanna somatic education.  Thomas Hanna’s book, Somatics<\/i>, is out there, and so is Jim Dreaver’s book, Somatic Technique, <\/i>with step-by-step illustrations of Lessons 1, 2 and 3.<\/p>\n

They wouldn’t necessarily be as good as Hanna somatics practiced
\nmasterfully and with right understanding, but they might be close enough
\n to take top position in mainstream culture, doing what Hanna somatics
\nuniquely does best.  Remember, “The race doesn’t always go to the
\nswiftest, nor the contest, to the strongest.”<\/p>\n

I have it from one of our practitioner colleagues that:<\/p>\n

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