What is Somatic Practices?
Somatic practices derive from the Greek word soma, meaning “the self, or physical body.” Somatics is defined as the body experienced from within, where we experience mind/body integration. The term was coined in 1976 by Thomas Hanna, a philosophy professor and movement theorist, to signify approaches based on the soma, or “the body as perceived from within,” including Alexander Technique, the Feldenkrais Method, Rolfing Structural Integration, and others. These practices focus on cultivating proprioceptive awareness—the internal sensing of one’s own body—to change habitual patterns of movement, release chronic tension, and facilitate healing from trauma and stress-related conditions.
Unlike conventional physical therapy or exercise, which often emphasize external form and performance, somatic practices prioritize the subjective, first-person experience of movement and sensation. Hanna and his colleagues researched and practiced with the aim of understanding how living bodies regulate themselves and how people can perceive and change limiting and unconscious patterns of movement and behaviour through practicing awareness.
Origins & Lineage
An early precursor of the somatic movement in Western culture was the 19th-century physical culture movement, which sought to integrate movement practices related to military and athletic training, medical treatment, and dance. In the European Gymnastik movement of the late 19th century, somatic pioneers François Delsarte, Emile Jaques-Dalcroze, and Bess Mensendieck sought to replace the reigning ideology of rigor in physical training with a more “natural” approach based on listening to bodily cues arising from breath, touch, and movement.
The modern field crystallized in the 20th century. The Alexander Technique was developed by F. Matthias Alexander, an Australian actor, who began formulating the method in the 1890s to address chronic vocal and breathing issues he experienced while performing. The technique gained recognition by the early 1900s. Israeli physicist Moshe Feldenkrais created his method during the mid-20th century, focusing on neuroplasticity and movement learning.
Thomas Louis Hanna (1928–1990) was a philosophy professor and movement theorist who coined the term somatics in 1976. Together with his wife Eleanor Criswell Hanna, he started the Novato Institute for Somatic Research and Training in 1975 and published the journal “Somatics: Magazine-Journal of the Bodily Arts and Sciences,” which provided a venue where the ideas of Somatics could be discussed. He developed his ideas and published them in Somatics: Reawakening The Mind’s Control Of Movement, Flexibility, And Health in 1988.
The field of somatics in the twentieth century was created by pioneers like Wilhelm Reich, Elsa Gindler, Heinrich Jacoby, Moshe Feldenkrais, Charlotte Selver, Thomas Hanna, and Stephen Porges. Peter Levine developed Somatic Experiencing in the 1970s and continues refining it today. The history of Somatics, as the constitution of an American field of research, begins at the Esalen Institute.
How It’s Practiced
Somatic practices take diverse forms but share core principles: slow, mindful movement; attention to internal sensation; and exploration rather than correction. Practitioners guide students or clients to notice habitual patterns and experiment with alternative ways of moving and sensing.
The Feldenkrais Method uses two formats: Awareness Through Movement (guided verbally in groups) and Functional Integration (hands-on in one-on-one sessions) to help the nervous system learn new patterns. The Alexander Technique teaches people to recognize and unlearn harmful physical patterns, promoting better alignment, coordination, and ease of movement. The Alexander Technique focuses on improving posture and movement habits through conscious awareness and gentle guidance, often using light touch.
Somatic Experiencing is a body-oriented approach to healing trauma and other stress disorders, the life’s work of Peter A. Levine, PhD, resulting from his multidisciplinary study of stress physiology, ethology, biology, neuroscience, psychology, and indigenous healing. Somatic Experiencing allows the nervous system to process and resolve the physical effects of trauma through techniques that focus on resourcing (drawing on positive memories), titration (reprocessing trauma slowly, step by step), and pendulation (shifting attention between different aspects of experience to move from a fixed state to one of increased flow).
Other techniques include breathwork, mindful self-touch, grounding exercises, and movement improvisation. Breathwork helps regulate emotional states and release tension stored in the body through techniques such as diaphragmatic breathing.
Somatic Practices Today
Somatic practices have expanded from specialized training institutes to mainstream wellness culture. Certified practitioners offer private sessions in Feldenkrais, Alexander Technique, and Somatic Experiencing. Group classes in Awareness Through Movement, somatic yoga, and trauma-informed movement are offered at studios, retreat centers, and online platforms.
The practices are used in diverse professional contexts: Somatic Experiencing is a body-oriented therapeutic model applied in multiple professions and professional settings—psychotherapy, medicine, coaching, teaching, and physical therapy—for healing trauma and other stress disorders. Performing artists use Alexander Technique and Feldenkrais for injury prevention and skill refinement. Psychotherapists integrate somatic interventions with talk therapy.
Many people seek out somatic practices as a way to relieve stress, attend to chronic pain, or recover from trauma; still others seek ways to investigate the body–mind connection or to repattern functional movement patterns, like posture and walking. The field has grown to include body-oriented psychotherapy, sensorimotor psychotherapy, Hakomi Method, and numerous hybrid approaches.
Somatic practices increasingly appear in trauma treatment protocols, dance and movement therapy training, physical rehabilitation, and chronic pain management programs.
Common Misconceptions
Somatic practices are not massage, physical therapy, or exercise in the conventional sense. While some methods involve touch, the intention is educational rather than corrective—practitioners facilitate awareness rather than “fix” the body.
They are not quick fixes. Somatic learning unfolds gradually as the nervous system integrates new patterns. A single session may provide relief, but sustained change typically requires ongoing practice.
Somatic practices are not purely physical. Practitioners address what they see as a split between body and mind; instead, they believe mind and body are intimately connected, though not always in apparent ways, and thought, emotions, and sensations are all believed to be interconnected and influence one another. Emotional content may arise during sessions, though the emphasis remains on sensation and movement rather than psychological analysis.
They are not interchangeable. While all somatic practices share foundational principles, each method has distinct techniques, training standards, and theoretical frameworks. Feldenkrais differs significantly from Somatic Experiencing; Alexander Technique differs from Rolfing.
How to Begin
Start by identifying your primary interest: improving movement efficiency, addressing chronic pain, healing trauma, or simply exploring body awareness. Research practitioners in your area with recognized certifications (Feldenkrais Guild, Alexander Technique International, Somatic Experiencing International).
Many practitioners offer introductory sessions or consultations. Group classes provide an accessible entry point for methods like Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement or somatic yoga. Online platforms now offer recorded lessons and virtual sessions.
For self-study, Thomas Hanna’s Somatics: Reawakening the Mind’s Control of Movement, Flexibility, and Health (Da Capo Press, 1988) offers practical exercises. Peter Levine’s Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma (1997) introduces Somatic Experiencing principles. Moshe Feldenkrais’s Awareness Through Movement (1972) provides guided lessons.
Approach somatic work with curiosity rather than expectation. The practices invite you to sense, explore, and discover rather than achieve predetermined outcomes.