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Somatic education
Somatic education is a disciplinary field of methods that focus on dynamic relations between body movement, consciousness, the learning process and the environment. Under the name Somatic education one can find among others the following methods: Feldenkrais, Antigymnastics, Holistic gymnastics, Eutonie, Alexander technique, Trager, Somarythms, Continuum and Body Mind Centering (BMC). These methods were born in Europe and North America between the XIX and the XX centuries and are defined as body movement education.
The word somatic comes from the Greek word soma that means living body. According to Hanna (1977), soma is the subjective body, perceived in the first person. Where as the objective body is perceived in the third person, that is, from the exterior.
The potential of health and the movement of the body
The goal of Somatic education methods consists of unfolding the potential of health of man in harmony with his environment. Considering their different techniques and pedagogy, Somatic education methods are based on a constellation of values that oppose a purely mechanical view of the body. The somatic approach follows the principle that the body is indivisible and indisociable from consciousness. For somatic educators the human body is the carrier of its environment, emotions, thoughts, socio-cultural and spiritual values. In this view the body is not inert matter inhabited by consciousness, but rather the body itself is a state of human consciousness.
In between the fluidity of art and the rigor of science, Somatic education methods offer awareness through movement to those who would be interested in/to:
- Learn stress management skills
- Regain physical and mental strength
- Appease chronic pain
- Prevent musculo-skeletal dysfunctions
- Improve flexibility and articulatory amplitude
- Balance the tonus of the whole body
- Work motor coordination
- Rediscover a natural and satisfying way of breath
- Experience a greater movement repertory
- Augment the capacity of concentration
- Transform inadequate postural habits
- Gain awareness of the dynamics between body, perception and emotion
- Develop the potential of expression, etc.
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Relearning from one’s inner sensations
In Somatic education, instead of focusing on the dysfunction or the correcting of the pathologies, we work so that the person can find the optimal organization for the whole body. The understanding that the body and consciousness form a whole supports somatic educators’ pedagogical strategies.
This means that the somatic educators’ workshops are not based on the symptoms presented by the participants. Somatic educators choose to lead the participants to an awareness that his/her problem exists in relation with the way he/she moves. In the learning process of Somatic education, the person is brought to reconsider their life habits, their relationship with the environment in general (such as the position used at work), self perception and that of his/her affective and social life.
The role of the somatic educator is to guide the person to make sense of their imbalances through their own inner sensations and to teach how to reactivate their natural auto regulation mechanisms in order to regain his/her wellbeing.
It is possible to face daily constraints when we enhance our skills of adaptation while using
the natural resource of auto regulation
within our own organisms. |
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In general, the human being’s chronic health problems are due to a weakening of their capacity to auto regulate, especially in the cases of trauma, stress, and unhealthy life style, etc. It is important to nurture ones capacity to recognize the states of equilibrium and imbalance and to be able to recognize the way to go from one to the other. It is possible to face daily constraints when we enhance our skills of adaptation while using the natural resource of auto regulation within our own organisms.
By recognizing the unexpected possibilities of the body, while respecting its limits, the participants in the Somatic education workshops can establish a greater intimacy towards themselves and integrate a new quality of movement that reflects in daily life not with standing their age, sex and careers.
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