What is Somatic Movement?

Somatic essentially means “what it feels like to be in your body”, no one can feel or sense what is happening in your own body.  When you increase your awareness of these senses, you know what your body is doing and how to control your movement.
Over the course of our lives our muscles can become so tight due to stresses of injuries, accidents, habitual and repetitive movements as well as mental/emotional stress. No matter what you do whether it is massaging, stretching, or even muscle relaxants, the muscles won’t stay relaxed, although there may be temporary relief, the tension comes back because these holding patterns have become deeply engrained in our neuromuscular system.
Somatic movement focuses on working with the neuromuscular system – the circuity that tells our muscles when to contract and relax. By moving into and out of the holding patterns with great awareness, the nervous system gets involved and retrains the muscles to let go of the chronically contracted pattern, and because it is happening in the nervous system the release is longer lasting and with consistency the patterns can be released completely allowing you to move freely.