Somatic Groundwork

moving from relaxation & embodied relationality

As a contemporary somatic movement approach, Somatic Groundwork has been developed over the past 25 years through dance research (training, performance, choreography, improvisation, somatics), fitness training (corrective, functional and resistance exercise) and a desire to apply movement for healing, recovery and creative expression. Along the way, Somatic Groundwork has been shaped by hundreds of participants and teachers.
somatic groundwork practice
Benefits of Somatic Groundwork:
  • brings relaxation and ease
  • promotes embodied regulation skills
  • reduces and/or eliminates low back, hip, neck and shoulder pain
  • relieves emotional overwhelm and angst
  • improves movement quality and function
  • helps to develop body awareness/kinship
  • offers recovery from chronic stress and overload
  • enhances creativity and intrinsic motivation

Somatic Groundwork (SG) is a gentle and developmental movement approach that provides therapeutic, creative and functional benefits. The movement system helps improve self-regulation, coordination, mobility/stability and feeling states. Yielding Practices, Unwinding Methods and Patterns of Connectivity are applied to basic movements in every Somatic Groundwork class. These Approaches influence sensory processing related to interactions between the nervous system and tissue architecture/ fascial matrix.

SG acts like a soothing tonic medicine and provides good feelings after each practice. From a neurofascial perspective, this comes from improved tissue glide and hydration due to alterations in the gel-like properties of fascia and from dampening chronic stress responses by eliciting the rest and digest system. Additionally, somatic awareness changes body-to-brain communication and alters sensorimotor processing. Collectively the results are commonly reported as ‘feeling more physically grounded, mentally calm and emotionally steady’. Over time with frequency of practice (this is called training) participants experience greater nervous system flexibility, a reduction in pain and angst, feeling more relaxed and moving better overall.

The combination of cues, ground touch, somatic techniques and movements directly influence neurofascial interactions and bodywide effects. Based on developmental patterns and natural movement skills, the practice begins with resting and receiving through somatic yielding practices like pandiculation, rhythmic rocking and soft body rolling. Slow flow unwinding, core support, dynamic movement and stability are progressively added to the movement design as appropriate.

principles of practice

Listen & Notice listen with awareness, slow down and notice what happens

Return Here relate with resources of support, pay attention to direct experience and learn to relax

Practice Your Body follow intuitive movement, cooperate with your limitations and track the effects

Explore Novelty enhance motivation by experimenting with movement options and specific constraints

Somatic Relating participate with tensegral forces, the surrounding environment and your own felt-state

Instead of quick-fixes, medications and surgeries that can fail to provide long-term solutions, SG offers another path: somatic patterning. Somatic patterning is a process of movement education and bodymind awareness used to uproot holding patterns and discover healthier replacements. Somatic movement practice is a method of embodied research. Our path of inquiry begins by tracking sensation and learning to listen to impulse. Tracking sensation opens learning doors, opportunities for participation, to notice, identify and relate with patterns of feeling, thinking and acting. Tracking sensation brings us directly inside the learning cycle giving us access to change how we do things that are otherwise reflexive and subconscious.

Somatic patterning is a form of titrated behavior change- it happens bit by bit. The initiation for the change process, or point of entry is bodily-based inputs. Through somatic inquiry and movement, holding patterns and places of resistance are discovered and interrupted. New options for relating with the feedback are explored through the moving experience. Along the way, a variety of body systems are affected that lead to experiences of recovery, rest and renewal. With repetition through practice over time, phase shifts occur and change is realized. Patterning effects are both immediate and emerge over time as a result of repetition.

Somatic Groundwork Patterning Principles

Organicity The principle of organicity reflects our inherent capacity as living systems to self-organize, adapt through direct experience and maintain a harmonious and coherent state. Organicity is instrumental to our basic motivation for learning or ‘desire to do’. Intrinsic motivation is sparked by curiosity and play and acts as a catalyst for development, growth and change.

Mutuality The principle of mutuality lifts up our intention to value the interactions between ourselves and others as a mutual exchange of giving/ receiving. We work toward growth and change together for the benefit of all beings. Our interdependence is basic and inherent. Learning, development and growth happen through and toward relationship.

Circulation The principle of circulation underlies our natural, relaxed and easy state. Movement activities and somatic processes are guided to circulate fluids, forces and impulses through the structural matrix. The soft matter qualities of dense, rigid and concentrated areas are encouraged to phase-change and flow more easily. Neural mapping enlivens sensory awareness improving body-brain communication. As bodymind obstacles are dissolved, circulation improves allowing for regulation and force distribution through the system as a whole.

Adaptability The principle of adaptability is the ability to monitor reflexive behaviors, shift states and relate appropriately to fluctuating conditions. Adaptability comes from paying attention to participant feedback, attuning to the field through somatic listening and being willing to make adjustments when presented with novel situations. Shifting perspectives, revising strategies and modifying internal processes in response to new conditions, or appearances, are qualities of adaptability.