Somatics

Links to articles concerning the general field of Somatics

Somatics is a re-emerging field of study in the Western world and a path that has been followed in Oriental and traditional cultures worldwide for thousands of years. Most, if not all somatic practitioners follow an integrated approach to learning and change that often includes some form of a martial art, hypnosis, meditation and trance, prayer, intuitive arts, various flavors of psychology, and various forms of bodywork. Somatic practitioners believe that the body is highly intelligent and that we will do well to encourage our somatic intelligence to organize a significant portion of our life's activities.

Charlie Badenhop is the originator of Seishindo, which is a discipline that helps people to live with passion, clarity, and commitment. Seishindo means in Japanese "the cultivation of a pure heart and simple mind" or "the cultivation of the whole self". Charlie is a native New Yorker and has been living in Japan for the last 18 years. He is a licensed instructor of Aikido, a certified trainer in NLP, and a long term practitioner of Self-relations therapy, Ericksonian Hypnosis, and the Japanese healing art of Sei Tai.

The language of the somatic self
Integrating The Body's Four Brains
(Published in 2004 Annual Somatics Issue of AHP Perspective Magazine)
Learning and adapting with a dual perspective
Fundamentals That Support Learning & Adaptation

Kevin Frank is an Advanced Certified Rolfer and Movement Practitioner. He practices in central NH and writes and teaches about structural integration from the perspective of Hubert Godard's tonic function theory. Kevin grew up in an extended family of psychologists and social scientists, and then found Zen Buddhism when he was in high school.

During Rolfing training he had the chance to do Continuum movement and was introduced to the fluid aspect of body. In 1991, Kevin met Hubert Godard, and learned why Dr. Rolf's structural integration protocol works. Kevin uses Godard's tonic function approach to help clients and students gain strength and health, and as a language for linking and demystifying modern and traditional approaches to body-mind integration.

Kevin, along with his wife Caryn McHose, co-founded Resources in Movement, where they teach and host classes in structural integration, osteopathic technique, and perception-based movement inquiry.

Seeing the Ground of a Movement: Tonic Function and the Fencing Bear
Stuart Hameroff's Theories Regarding Microtubules as the Seat of Consciousness
The Evolutionary Sequence - A Model for an Integrative Approach to Movement study

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Hubert is a highly skilled and engaging practitioner. His work is creative and stimulating. If you work in the field of somatics you will most likely find his theories to be of great interest. Below is a self introduction of Hubert Godard as spoken by him in one of his workshops:

I began my university study in chemistry, and then worked as a chemist while at the same time dancing. It was too much, so I had to make a decision between one or the other, and so I quit everything else and just went for dancing.

I spent my life dancing but there was another problem: my body was really unfair to me - I've never seen a worse body than mine when I started to dance. So I was dancing a lot but everyone was telling me, "You can dance as a hobby but you will never change your body enough to be a dancer." At that moment I had the luck to have a friend who was a doctor specializing in biomechanics and movement, I continued to take dance classes in the day, but in the evening I worked with my doctor-friend to understand why I couldn't do this movement or that one. I kept looking for other doctors or techniques of movement that would help me, and finally I succeeded in changing quite a lot and developing an acceptable body for dancing.

... At that time I already had a passion for understanding movement, even more than dancing, and since then I have never stopped studying movement. So for a number of years I would dance professionally for 6 months and for the remaining six months of the year I would work with doctors, study, and do research. For the last 20 years I have only been teaching and doing research.

An Interview with Hubert Godard by Aline Newton.
Reading the body in dance by Hubert Godard. Translated by Aline Newton.
Tonic Function: A Gravity Response Model for Rolfing Structural and Movement Integration by Kevin Frank.

Lawrence Gold's certifications to practice include Hanna Somatic Education, the Dr. Ida P. Rolf Method of Structural Integration, and Swedish/Esalen massage. His background includes the pre-requisite coursework for training in physical therapy. For two years, he served as an Associate Instructor with the Novato Institute for Somatic Research and Training and has written and published an advanced handbook of practice for professional practitioners and a self-care book-of-instruction for the general public. As part of the Novato Institute training team, he presented Hanna Somatic Education to workshop participants at the Esalen Institute at Big Sur, California; as a guest lecturer, he presented Hanna Somatic Education to classes at Life Chiropractic College West. He was a featured speaker at the 1992 Natural Health Convention organized by the National Health Federation.

Defining Somatic Education
New Paradigm Healing: Somatic Education
Concise description of Hanna Somatic Education
Understanding and Improving Breathing: An Introduction

Edward Maupin is a Psychologist-Rolfer. He got his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. For 35 years he has practiced the body therapy method known as Rolfing, or Structural Integration, approaching it as a psychologist might, focusing on body awareness and one's sense of being. An educator, he is former and sometimes emeritus president of International Professional School of Bodywork (IPSB), a massage school which offers a BA degree in humanities (and an MA degree in Somatic Studies) as well as training psychologically sensitive bodyworkers. Two of his numerous books, "A Dynamic Relation to Gravity" - a teaching manual for Rolf Structural Integration", and "The Body Epiphany" - a manual of Somatic Psychology are available through IPSB.

Notes for a Theory of Somatic Bodywork
Somatic Education: its Origins, Ancestors, and Prospects

Aline Newton is an Advanced Certified Rolfer, in private practice for over 20 years. She served for many years as Chair of the Board of Directors of the International Rolf Institute. She has also been on the faculty of the Foundations Program of the Rolf Institute. She holds her BA from Johns Hopkins University and her MA in Education from the University of Toronto.
In addition to her Rolfing studies, Aline has studied cranio-sacral manipulation, visceral manipulation and energetic osteopathic techniques. She also has many years of experience with body-oriented approaches to psychotherapy as well as meditation.
Her interest in movement has led her to explore various paths from yoga to tango to basketball. Since 1990 she has studied extensively with Hubert Godard, dancer, Rolfer and movement educator, and assisted him in many workshops. Through a Rolfer’s eyes Aline integrates movement principles with structural manipulation, bringing the insights of yoga, Tai Chi and Pilates into her approach to Rolfing.

Walking—step by step
Breathing in the Gravity Field
"Man, the Tottering Biped," a review
Core stabilization, Core Coordination
Rolfing®Structural Integration (with Bret Nye and Russell Stolzoff)

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Robert Schleip, M.A., Certified Psychologist and Somatic Therapist. Robert was the first certified Rolfer in Germany, beginning his practice in 1978. He is a Faculty member of the Rolf Institute, Boulder, Colorado, and Director of Academic Affairs of the European Rolfing Association. Since 1987 he has also been a Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner and Trainer and has taught in numerous Feldenkrais and other Somatic Therapy oriented educational centers. Robert is an author and publisher of numerous books, articles and research papers. He is the founder and Director of Somatics Academy in Muenchen, which offers interdisciplinary workshops and courses for somatic practitioners led by world renowned somatic therapists and psychotherapists. Robert Schleip's special area of interest is the complex interaction among fascial tension, autonomous nervous system, emotional attitudes and body posture. His website www.somatics.de is widely known as one of the internet’s richest sources of professional information for somatic therapists of different schools.

Treating the Body as a Self Regulatory Process
Respecting Motor Memory Consolidation - Research News for Movement Teachers
Foreword of Robert Schleip for the German edition of "Body and Mature Behavior" by Moshe Feldenkrais