The term, "education" fits with the word "somatic" better than do the terms "therapy" or "treatment," which "are done to" the patient, because the client learns how to self-correct his or her condition, to improve beyond the pre-injury state, and to prevent future injury while maintaining the full range of preferred activities.
Hanna Somatic Education improves freedom of movement and eliminates both pain and the underlying cause of pain. Clients feel different and more like themselves as when healthy and sound.
CLINICAL SESSIONS: Hands-on procedures teach 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 ease, and thus to move more efficiently.
SOMATIC EXERCISES bring the results of clinical sessions entirely under the control of the client, improve coordination and purge out the residual tensions of daily living.
Every injury or stress-period leaves an imprint in memory that shows up as a muscular tension habit, as if the injury or stress situation is still happening.
Hanna Somatic Education teaches how to quickly end such muscular tension habits.
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 capacity for free, voluntary movement free of the memory imprint of stress (evident as accumulated nervous tension patterns). 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.
When physical trauma has occurred, the residual memory imprint shows up as involuntary muscular contractions (guarding reactions) that resist stretching or external therapeutic modalities -- guarding reactions sufficient to cause chronic pain and restrictions to movement. Such guarding reactions operate from sub-cortical, involuntary centers in the brain. In this case, the pandicular response is adequate to shift the center of control from those sub-cortical involuntary centers back to voluntary (neo-cortical) control -- with immediate release of muscular contractures, relief of pain, and restoration or enhancement of healthy functioning.
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 therapeutic approaches to muscular pain (CLICK for comparison) seek to "fix the patient"; they act upon the patient chemically (drugs), mechanically (manipulation, stretching, or surgery), or electrically (TENS, electric stim) or take the patient/client the wrong direction (strengthening -- where excessive muscular tension is already the problem). Clients or patients with chronic musculo-skeletal pain often remain dependent on therapy for a long time. Improvement is often slow, temporary, and may require many repetitions of the same treatment process. Many people exit therapy with some or all of their symptoms (regrettably) intact.
Pain and restricted movement from muscular tension cannot be permanently "fixed" from outside. For a lasting change, the "fix" must occur from within; the client/patient must correct themselves. Hanna somatic education (HSE) guides and assists the client/patient through the process. Rather than being slower than therapeutics, HSE is faster and highly predictable. The client feels results immediately during the session; most conditions resolve completely in 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.
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-relief 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.
You are invited to free access
to previews of somatic self-help programs.
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