What is somatics?
Somatics is the intentional practice of bringing awareness to our embodied experience, for healing, learning & transformation.
Somatics is a Western field, that emerged in-part as a response to the mind/body split that lies beneath the West’s own oppressive ideals & systems. Though much of the wider field lacks this political analysis, somatics can play a key role in our collective re-embodiment to reckon with & heal from centuries of collective harm, empire & domination.
It is essential to recognise that in many indigenous & diasporic cultures, embodiment is intimately tied to spirituality, worship, music, dance & relationship to land. As a practitioner, I reject the colonial notion that somatics is somehow exceptional, original or advanced. Rather, I hold it as a bridge – one which many of us can step onto from different directions, in order to reach more life-affirming futures.
