Is Clinical Somatics "Enough" for Nervous System Health?

Since Thomas Hanna developed Clinical Somatic Education in the 1980s, and the more recent, far wider appreciation of work by neuroscientists like Antonio Damasio and Norman Doidge – not to mention the work of Peter Levine – it’s becoming almost commonplace to talk about ‘nervous system health’ and the importance of dealing with stored stress.

That doesn’t mean the true insights of pioneers like Hanna have truly started to change more mainstream approaches to healthcare, but it’s a start.

It does mean that talking about Clinical Somatics as ‘re-training your brain’, and as ‘neuromuscular re-education’ can get somewhat lost in the crowd... As all sorts of nervous system-focused ways to better health, and to addressing stress, have emerged and are evolving.

Many of them suggest that ‘it’s not just your brain’ and reference studies about cellular-level health and other new discoveries.

It’s true that your nervous system stores stress at a cellular level, in your whole body – not just your brain.

But it’s also true that your brain is in control of the most important way you can start shifting and releasing that stored stress – that is, your brain (and only your brain) controls your movement.

You cannot release muscles tension stuck from stored stress or habituated patterns that cause you pain by eating the right foods, or by looking after your cellular health – nor, even, by doing a ‘body-aware’ therapy. Those all help, there’s no doubt.

But to make real, lasting change? You really have to use your brain to make changes, and to use movement too – so that the changes you make last.

If you’re suffering from chronic pain – in the form of back pain, headaches, fatigue, RSI or something else, and whether or not you have a specific diagnosis – the most helpful approach is one that has a clear focus, but holds an awareness of multiple ways to attend to and release held stress when it shows up as stiffness, discomfort, pain, and more.

My Clinical Somatics work is informed by my experience as someone who suffered with chronic pain for over a decade.

Before changing my life to teach Clinical Somatics (because it got me out of chronic pain in a few short months after years of getting nowhere with doctors and therapists and more), I worked as a psychotherapist for several years, and my clinical work is also Somatic Experiencing® Informed.

In my experience, most people can create huge changes in their wellbeing by using movement to release specific patterns of stuck stress and tension in their bodies. Clinical Somatics is by far the most focused, specific and effective way to do that.

But is that enough?

For some people, yes! It’s definitely changed the lives of many of my clients, who use it to overcome pain and discover a deeper, more far-reaching sense of wellbeing and better health (including gut health, and better sleep, just for example).

For others, it’s not enough: it benefits from being supplemented by another practice – such as Somatic Experiencing® – that often helps them start the process of stress release at a deeper-held level, which they need to do before they can use Clinical Somatics to build on that and increase their freedom (from stress, and from pain).

For still others, Clinical Somatics seems like it’s enough – they banish their pain, and feel much better in themselves. But then an additional practice, again such as Somatic Experiencing®, or Focusing – help to maintain their newfound sense of wellbeing, and also turn out to be important to maintaining their freedom from physical discomfort and pain.

All of this has in common, dealing with the stresses, strains and trauma that are inevitable parts of life.

There’s not just one day to do that. And Clinical Somatics done well, recognises this and can point people in the direction of what else might help them – in their, individual, body.

This is why despite focusing on Clinical Somatics – an easy choice for me, as I’ve seen it make the most profound, and most long-lasting changes in myself and in others – I’m also able to recognise when something else, or something different, might help a client, or is needed by them to truly improve their health and well-being. It’s why my Clinical Somatics teaching is informed by wider neuroscience, polyvagal theory, SE, Focusing and more.

The principles of Clinical Somatics – its underlying philosophy – are as important as the movement and awareness techniques I teach.

In grasping some of those core principles, as you learn the specific movement patterns that will help ease you out of stiffness and pain, you will also come to know yourself better, and be able to improve your capacity for self-care along with self-knowledge.

Clinical Somatics is not a therapy. It is education.

Primarily, it’s movement and sensory awareness self-education.

But it can be a whole lot more – and if you embrace that, then you will get so much more from it – and be able to take your learning into your daily life, including into making decisions about how best to use the movements to deal with any stiffness and pain that shows up in you over your lifetime, as well as decisions about what other approaches might further support your well-being and ability to process stress and trauma most effectively for you.

Sign up for my online course, SoMA Essentials, here.

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