I will tell you briefly about the techniques of individual somatic work with an instructor, so that you understand the differences from group work and the possibilities of individual lessons.
Somatics is vastly different from anything you've tried before, as it is primarily based on your internal, subjective sensations. That's why, as the saying goes, "It's better to feel once than to read a hundred times."
We begin the session with a passive joint assessment where the instructor moves the client's arms and legs to explore the range of motion available. This technique, borrowed from F.M. Alexander, is known as the "means-whereby" approach. During this process, you may experience for the first time how your limbs move without your active participation – almost as if by themselves. Letting go of habitual control can be surprisingly challenging.
When you stop making the usual effort, such as rotating your hip joint, this experience becomes a primary way to heighten your movement awareness. Together with the instructor, you observe where movement is easy and where obstacles arise, such as tension, trembling, or "step-like" motions. These observations indicate areas of muscle dysfunction.
Next, we begin the work of transforming sensorimotor amnesia into sensorimotor memory - essentially restoring the connection between your nervous system and muscles. The primary technique we use for this process was introduced by Thomas Hanna and is called pandiculation, which translates to "stretching".
Pandiculation is a natural mechanism for waking up the body through a voluntary muscle contraction followed by a deliberate lengthening and complete relaxation. Think of how amusingly babies or pets stretch after sleeping - they actively contract their muscles and then stretch their bodies.
During a clinical somatics session, the instructor will ask you to slowly perform a movement that engages the very muscles we previously identified as tight. The instructor provides gentle resistance to this movement with their hands. To execute this slow and smooth motion, you will need to fully engage your motor cortex and focus on controlling the movement.
If control is lost, it quickly becomes clear that even a simple motion is beyond the reach of your voluntary attention. The movement becomes jerky or step-like, making smooth control seemingly impossible.
Pandiculation is designed to restore the brain's lost control over movement. As a result, chronically tight muscles relax, and movements become smoother and more harmonious. If you practice somatic exercises regularly at home, you will be able to notice emerging tension and correct yourself in daily life, reducing your reliance on specialists.
Another technique used in clinical somatic education is called "kinetic mirroring." This method was developed by Moshe Feldenkrais as part of his Functional Integration practice. The essence of the technique is that the instructor, using their hands, gently moves the opposite attachment points of a muscle toward each other, bringing the muscle into a passively shortened state.
In this state, the brain receives a signal that the muscle - which it habitually keeps in constant tension – is now contracted. Since the muscle is already in a contracted state, the brain recognizes that it can stop sending contraction signals, and the muscle naturally relaxes. This process effectively "resets" the residual muscle tone.
We use this technique specifically for extremely tight muscles where movement is significantly restricted.
There are a few more techniques we use in clinical somatic sessions.
Once you've learned to control your muscles via the cerebral cortex (which occurs during pandiculation), it's crucial to integrate this new quality of movement into your everyday life. To achieve this, we use a technique called "rapid release." The client is asked to perform a movement quickly within the new range, such as "throwing" the elbow or knee. This allows the learning to be stored in the cerebellum, which is responsible for integrating slow movements, balance, and coordination.
The cerebellum operates on an involuntary, subconscious level and is involved in sensory-motor amnesia. Thanks to this technique, you won't need to constantly monitor your muscle movements; your nervous system will automatically optimize them because you've already shown it how to function correctly.
After the "rapid release," we typically perform a technique called "locking." The instructor will ask you to make an active movement in the opposite direction. This results in a full contraction of the antagonist muscles, which in turn lengthens and relaxes the muscles that were just worked on. This effect is known as "reciprocal inhibition."
The techniques are different, but the basic idea of somatic training is the same - the client must be actively involved in building connections between the muscles and the brain. This is the only way to achieve long-term improvement in muscle tone.
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