Somatic Development

Posted on October 25, 2014 by Heather Edmondson, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.

Somatics is a term that was derived from the Greek word soma, meaning “a living, aware bodily person.”1 It has gained popularity in the field of leadership as a way of shaping both leaders and clients into more whole people. Mandy Blake2, owner of Embright and a coach of somatics, describes it as a way of integrating people to become mentally alert, emotionally balanced, physically capable and spiritually connected beings. It unites a number of contemporary disciplines with Eastern and Western philosophies to bring about change. The essence of somatics begins with the body. It is about using and shaping your body in a way that translates to the way you view yourself, others view you, and how you respond to situations around you.

The Strozzi Institute, considered one of the leaders in somatic training, has written a great deal about the importance of somatic work and its’ effects on bringing about change in human beings. In order to more fully understand its’ importance, Strozzi applies new findings in neuroscience to explain the shifts that take place when a transformation in embodied. This includes having a simple understanding of memory, neurocardiology, neurogastroerentology, and neuroplasticity.

Rational and behavioral learning correlates to the way memory is stored in the brain. When one is looking to change a behavior, it is these forms of learning that are stimulated. Learning is shaped in the brain as memories, both explicit and implicit. Explicit memory develops as you learn something new, such as riding a bike. When first learning to ride a bicycle, explicit memory is brought to the forefront of your attention as you remember where to place your hands and feet, and how to balance as well as pedal forward. As the process of learning continues, the memory of riding will become stored as an implicit memory. Implicit memories are stored in such a way that the information can be retrieved easily without distracting from the current event. This is a survival mechanism which allows for circumstances to be responded to with little mental effort. If you have ever sensed your mind on autopilot, you have directly experienced the power of implicit memory. It is how you now ride a bike without putting the mental effort into where to place your limbs and how to balance on your bike.

The downside to implicit memory is that it is not solely responsible for motor skills. It is also responsible for ways in which you respond in relationships with others. Memories are stored, especially during younger years, as a way to navigate relationships in a safer manner. The danger of implicit memory is that, since it is retrieved as a background process, it is often not in the foregrounds of our thoughts when we are responding to a situation. For example, a child who had a warm loving relationship with her grandmother, who always wore bright red lipstick, may find herself trusting an elder later in life with the same qualities though she don’t relate or realize it brings up the loving memories of her grandmother when she’s around this new person. The feeling did not start with the new person; it started with the loving memories of a grandmother. She later may question why she felt so warm towards this new person because maybe she wasn’t treated well. Yet still she finds herself unable to set boundaries and for a healthy new relationship.
Understanding implicit memory is important to somatics because the idea of somatics is inherently to retrain your implicit memories. If you find your responses to a situation no longer serve you, the best route to becoming a new person is to change those responses. “Shifting a behavioral tendency requires social, emotional and biological learning.”3 It is not as simple as wanting to change. Change requires reshaping the way your mind works – the way your implicit memory has learned to respond.

Neurocardiology and Neurogastroerentology also relate to the work of somatics. Neurocardiology is the study of the heart, and Neurogastroerentology is the study of the gut. Neurocardiology has found that the brain processes information, learns, remembers, and makes functional decisions independently. This phenomenon has become known as the ‘heart brain’. Along with the heart brain is the ‘gut brain’. Neurogastroerentology which has more neurons in it than the spinal cord and sends signals to the brain nine times for every one signal the brain sends down to the gut. In essence, these two other ‘brains’ are in constant dynamic exchange with the rest of the body, and are just as capable of influencing the ways in which one responds to the environment.

The Strozzi Institute focuses on three areas for growth somatically: through feeling, centering, and presence. The relevance of feeling the body enables you to learn what circumstances bring about what responses from your physical body. When you are angry how does it feel in your body? Anger is one of many emotions we experience in the body. It is valuable to know how your body responds to the full spectrum of emotions you experience each and every day. This enables you to learn what is important to you, hence what you care about. Change has to be rooted in something you care about; otherwise the likelihood of it being effective is dramatically reduced. Knowing how your body responds will also enable you to know how a situation is influencing you. This leads to the second practice of centering. Learning how to center oneself, no matter the feelings arising in the body, opens up more possibilities for response. Centering is described as diminishing contractions in the body. An example of how bodily feeling and centering relate could be the awareness of when anger arises. You clench your jaw and furrow your eyebrows. By relaxing your jaw in the moment and releasing your eyebrows, you reduce contractions in the body. Rigidity in the body is believed to produce rigidity in the way one thinks.

Mandy Blake trains her clients to focus on three bodily sensations when centering: temperature, pressure, and movement. Temperature relates to the sensation of heat or coolness on one’s body. Pressure can be felt as your feet touch the ground or your backside touches a seat. Lastly, she states to focus movement, be it your toe tapping on the ground or your chest rising and falling with each breath. These three cues help to bring you back into the present moment, detaching more from the implicit response, and enabling you to have more emotional space around your response.

The last emphasis Strozzi makes is on presence. Ninety-three percent of communication happens non-verbally. For this reason, they find that presence is essential in a conversation. Strozzi defines presence as being “fully attentive, open, and connected”3 with those who you are interacting with. Science has shown through the discovery of mirror neurons that your presence is not just felt but it is processed through the nervous system. In this way, people are in constant exchange with each other in relation to their presence. Mirror neurons are mimicking in your brain of an others actions: if someone stubs their toe your brain will fire as if you have stubbed your own toe. This is the way our brain makes sense of another persons being.

Somatics can be applied to any aspect of a human being. Donald Levine, a Sociologist, explored the use of body cultivated Asian traditions on social conflict. He believed simple techniques, such as relaxing your tongue and softening your belly, could manipulate how you respond to conflicts. He also believed practices such as yoga and aikido could bring about experienced states of reduced aggression and harmony.4 A study done by Suzanne Cohen, ED.D., examined the relationship of somatics in group psychotherapy.5 Her main focus was on whether perceiving another in a therapeutic setting, through mirror neurons, would enable someone to have a better understanding of their own thoughts, feelings, insights and emotional responses. By engaging in group therapy, clients who are more cognitively expressive could learn through verbal input, and those who integrate through physical actions could observe and share the experience through gestures and movements. Through the process of her study, Cohen has a deeper appreciation of important role somatics can have in expanding client’s inner experiences and outer relationships with others in a therapeutic setting.

The high power poses chosen for this study were based off the principles of expansiveness and openness. This includes taking up more space, and extending the limbs away from the center of the body. One high power pose was displayed by putting your feet up on a desk, reclining your torso back on your chair, and intertwining your fingers behind your head in an open but relaxed gesture. The second was more dominant, and involved leaning over a desk with your arms extended out and head looking out as if to dominate whoever may be sitting at the desk in front of you. Low power poses were chosen for just the opposite reasons – space taken up was minimal and the limbs were pulled in towards the center of the body. A low power pose was displayed by standing with arms wrapped across the body, and legs crossed. Another low power pose was taken by sitting in a chair, rounding the shoulders in towards the midline, and folding your hands together on your lap.

The importance of this study is found in the testosterone and cortisol results. After only one minute of a low power pose, cortisol levels raised in the body and testosterone levels dropped: stress increased and confidence decreased. After a minute in a high power pose, the opposite occurred: cortisol levels lowered and testosterone levels rose. The implications of this simple study show that the way in which we shape our physical bodies, chemically influences us. This can impact the way we interact with others, and the way others perceive us.

The general study of somatics as it relates to change in our psyche is still relatively new and unexplored. Studies and trainings continue to shape the significance the body plays in mapping the mind and relating to our daily experiences. As one can come to find, change does not occur in the reading of a book, but in the actions taken and the often uncomfortable road trudged towards a new way of being.