Hanna Somatics
Hanna Somatics refers to the body of work established by the late Thomas Hanna (1928-1990). Hanna’s legacy is built on the foundation of his diverse education and interdisciplinary wisdom in the fields of philosophy, divinity, neuroscience, and somatic education.
Hanna Somatic Education (also known as Clinical Somatic Education [CSE]) is a powerful and transformative method of movement education that teaches self-awareness and improved movement with a focus on relieving muscle pain and tension primarily through the technique of pandiculation.
While there are a variety of Somatic methods emerging in the broader field of Somatics, Hanna’s method is the only method of Somatic Education with this unique approach.
In his 1988 book, Somatics: Reawakening the Mind’s Control of Movement, Flexibility, and Health, Hanna describes in detail Sensory Motor Amnesia (SMA) which he identified as a pathology where the individual loses awareness of how certain muscle groups feel, how to move them, and the inability to voluntarily relax them.
SMA is the result of unaddressed, habituated stress responses that accumulate in the body over time, which leads to stiffness, soreness, and limited range of motion.
Hanna asserts that SMA is responsible for an entire category of health problems that has not yet been recognized by modern medicine, and that most healthcare professionals don’t know how to work with because it requires a re-education of the sensory-motor system, rather than treatment of disease.
Fortunately, these habituated stress responses can be reversed, or unlearned, by applying the technique of pandiculation, which works by first intentionally recreating the stress response through voluntary muscular contractions and then voluntarily releasing those same muscles.
A note from Liz...When I found Hanna somatics in 2024, I immediately knew I had discovered something that would change my life forever!
I have always innately been aware of the deep connection between my physical body and my thoughts, beliefs, and emotions.
Being tuned in to my inner world used to feel overwhelming, because I noticed every ache, every pain, every twinge… I noticed when my breath was shallow and my face held an expression of overwhelm… and I noticed when my body responded to the often loud, messy, fast-paced world around me with tight shoulders and a contracted belly.
Some would say I am “empathic” or “highly sensitive” - both of which may be true - but neither label gave me any freedom over the pain and tension I was constantly feeling.
Hanna somatics has provided language to better understand my internal self -awareness and given me the tools I need to effectively release stress & tension from my body
Elizabeth Espinoza
Essential Somatics Movement Teacher-in-training
Contact me today to book a session!