Somatics – The Healthy Alternative Cure for Chronic Pain

According to the CDC (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), during 2021, an estimated 20.9% of U.S. adults (51.6 million people) experienced chronic pain, and 6.9% (17.1 million people) experienced high-impact chronic pain. Given the wide spread of chronic pain, it is surprising that Essential Somatics based on the work of Thomas Hanna, Ph.D., is not well known.

The prevalent treatment for pain ranges from surgery to physical therapy of the affected part of the body and a plethora of pain management tools. We have this idea that a third party will fix us, that our bodies can be divided into parts, treated in sections. Many of the common treatments focus on the symptoms instead of the root cause of chronic pain. For example, I had severe lower back pain. The MRI showed a herniated disc. The surgery fixed the herniated disc. Chronic back pain remained; therefore, the herniated disc was not the root cause of the pain.

If the common treatments worked, would there still be so many pain sufferers? What if the cure is within our own control? What if our chronic pain can only be cured by looking at the whole body, the entire kinetic chain as a system?

Essential Somatics based on Thomas Hanna, Ph.D. looks at the body and the movement patterns as a whole. When I observe a student walking or standing the areas of tension and bracing patterns become obvious. It is my job as a teacher to guide the students to sense and feel their own sensory motor amnesia (SMA), their bracing patterns that are no longer within their voluntary control to release. Through a series of whole body movements, the students learn how to release these areas of tension. Over time the bracing patterns dissolve and every day movements become easier and more fluid. The technique is called Pandiculation. https://www.somaticstampa.com/post/what-is-pandiculation

Essential Somatics is a first-person perspective treatment of chronic pain. It addresses the entire kinetic chain from head to toe and teaches the student to release chronically contracted muscles. Just imagine the amount of freedom that provides, not having to rely on others to “fix” you temporarily!

However, as I am educating and teaching this miracle cure, I am being met with resistance. Even though it only takes one class to know Essential Somatics works, people prefer to pop a pill or have the injection or surgery. Why?