Introducing Hanna Somatic Education; Sensory-Motor Integration
INTRODUCTION
Somatics is a deliberate way of re-associating with the body so that body functions improve and dysfunctions resolve or disappear.
A common response to pain associated with movement is to squirm or shift positions. This response is, at once, an attempt to avoid pain, to find a comfortable position, and to 'work out' or eliminate the pain itself. One form of movement education, Hanna Somatic Education, transforms this natural response into a decisive maneuver that succeeds at what it intends -- elimination of pain associated with certain movements or body positions.
HOW THE METHOD WORKS
From an article written by Thomas Hanna, Ph.D., originator of the method.
There are two distinct ways of perceiving and acting upon physiological processes: (1), one can perceive a body and act upon a body or (2) one can perceive a soma and act upon a soma. The first instance is a third-person standpoint that sees an objective body 'there' which is separate from the observer. A body upon which the observer can act, for example, like a doctor 'treating' the patient. The second instance is a first-person standpoint that sees a subjective soma 'here' which is oneself. A person's own soma upon which one can personally work on oneself.
A soma, then, is a body perceived from within.
Somatic Education is the use of sensory-motor learning, facilitated by a somatic educator, to gain greater voluntary control of ones physiological process. It is 'somatic' in the sense that learning occurs within the individual as the process is internalized.
The Pandicular Response is the primary sensory-motor method that is used by practitioners of Hanna Somatic Education. Pandiculation is the name given to an action pattern that generally occurs throughout the vertebrate kingdom. It is a sensory-motor action used by animals to arouse the voluntary cortex by making a strong voluntary muscle contraction in order to feed back an equally strong sensory stimulation to the motor neurons. A way of 'waking up' the sensory-motor cortex. It prepares an animal for normal sensing and moving by readying the voluntary cortex for efficient functioning.
Assisted Pandiculation is an intentional way to facilitate the pandicular response for sensory-motor learning. It brings involuntary muscular spasticity under voluntary control so the person can relax. With relaxation, pain ends.
APPLICABILITY TO PAIN CONTROL
Dr. Hanna writes: "It is my understanding that perhaps as many as fifty percent of the cases of chronic pain suffered by human beings are caused by Sensory-Motor Amnesia (SMA)."
Sensory-Motor Amnesia is a common condition, often unrecognized in diagnoses of the causes of pain. It consists of an interruption or diminishment of the ability to sense one's body and the ability to control it. The pain of SMA results primarily from chronic muscular hypertonicity (contraction) and soreness (fatigue) and only secondarily from resultant joint compression and nerve entrapment.
Diminishment of sensory awareness occurs the way it commonly does with exposure to any unchanging stimulus: sensory saturation or autogenic feedback saturation. We experience such sensory saturation with perfumes and environmental sounds, we get used to them. SMA involves proprioceptive 'saturation'.
SMA is a state of habituation rather than of injury. It typically starts as a temporary, adaptive, neuromuscular response to stress or injury (including surgery) that persists even after healing. Habituation cannot be corrected by mechanical, chemical or surgical means but it can be corrected by sensory-motor learning.
A more complete discussion of Hanna Somatic Education can be found in the article, Clinical Somatic Education -- A New Discipline in the Field of Health Care, by Thomas Hanna, Ph.D. Somatics Magazine, Journal of the Bodily Arts and Sciences, Volume VIII, Number 1. Autumn/winter 1990-91.
Copies of the issue containing this article can be purchased for $7.50 plus tax and shipping from The Novato Institute for Somatic Research and Training, 1516 Grant Avenue, Suite 212, Novato, CA 94945. Phone 415 892-0617.
Lawrence Gold is a Certified Hanna Somatic Educator #003 and is nationally certified in therapeutic massage and bodywork. He is a former Associate Instructor, The Novato Institute for Somatic Research & Training
For more information:
Write to E-Mail: awake@somatics.com
or Visit: www.somatics.com
or Phone: 408 464-8909
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