SomaLab
The Sacred Vessel Part 1
The Sacred Vessel was part of a body of writing I did in the 90’s that explored the experience of the person in body centred clinical practice. As you’ll see, this essay is a meditation on the influence of Jungian ideas about the intersect between psyche and body through image, and is a deeper dive…
Body, Depression and Anxiety
Life can be overwhelming. It can be hard to stay connected to body centred practices when we are feeling depressed and anxious. But our body is still there, providing a constancy that can support us in difficult times, if we only know how to connect with it. In this 15 minute podcast, Matthew describes the…
Embodiment Project Week One: Noticing Yourself
© Lan Yao Notes from the Embodiment Seminar: Week One Matthew van der Giessen 20 April 2020 what would happen next for those disavowed places in yourself if they just experienced you being present to them. The nine weeks of the Embodiment Project were built on practices that I slowly gleaned or distilled out…
This Is How It Begins: Podcast Transcript
The is How It Begins Matthew van der Giessen When I was a child, I would go into the woods, find a quiet spot to sit, and listen. Slowly, nature would emerge – a bird on the path, a squirrel carefully working its way down a tree trunk, or the sounds of rustling in the…
Introduction to Somatics: Podcast Transcript
Understanding Somatics It was a cool morning on July 30, 1990, when 38 students gathered expectantly at the Dominican College campus in San Rafael, California waiting for Thomas Hanna’s arrival. He would be introducing the second module in the inaugural training of Hanna Somatic Education. Hanna had built a reputation as a leading thinker in…
The Biology of Boundaries
I’m standing at the front of a conference room, filled with people in rows of folding chairs. “Breathe into your body, feel yourself sitting in your chair”, I tell them. “Now move your chair until you feel like you have the space you need.” There is a brief pause, and then the room is filled with the sound…
Living in Your Body
I was feeling a bit whoozy when I made it back home to Bowen Island. I’d just had a dental procedure dealing with an abscess. A bit messy but I thought I handled it pretty well considering my history of nasty dental experiences. I seemed to be doing well enough that I decided to fit…
Why Somatic Studies
From its inception, my practice has been guided by the question, “what makes somatic practice work?” It has turned into the guiding star on my long and winding road, leading me through the emerging landscape of this field, and helping me hear its voice. Like a mantra, it has also guided me into the depths of…
Constellating Patterns
Constellating Patterns On a dark night, the sky is aglow with stars – the longer we look, the more we see. The patterns we call constellations are relationships formed by our imagination. Some of the stars in the Big Dipper are more than a hundred light years from each other but we connect them as…
Connective Tissue – Easing the Ties that Bind
Rebecca and I have been getting our house ready for sale in the last couple of months. And, of course, I’ve been spending lots of time fixing those things that I never seemed to get around to. I think about how those new owners will never know how hard I worked getting the place ready…
The Body’s Story
Comment: This is a short article I wrote as an introduction to my Anatomy and Expression workshop series. It gives a bit of insight into the intersect between body practice and our inner experience. As I am working through a twist in yoga, the instructor kneels beside me, and with gentle support starts helping me…
Where Softness Begins – Justin Stone and T’ai Chi Chih
Where Softness Begins Justin Stone and T’ai Chi Chih Matthew van der Giessen I had positioned myself toward the end of a long row of workshop participants when Justin Stone walked into the room and sat himself down right in front of me. My placement of safe anonymity evaporated immediately. Justin sat there, looking at…
Anatomy for the Inward Path
Here’s an article I recently wrote for the Yoga Association of Alberta. It gives a taste of the paradigm I use in my anatomy courses with yogis and other somatic practitioners. Some very good resources becoming available to support a somatics infused approach to anatomy, particularly those that approach patterning from myofascial or neuromuscular paradigms.…
Matthew’s Internet Radio Interview
On April 15th I had an invitation to talk about the SomaLab, the blog and somatics related stuff on Somatime, a program on Blogtalk Radio, an internet radio service. Somatime described the event this way: “It’s time to turn the mirror around and take a closer look at how this ‘somatic paradigm’ gets communicated…
The Essential Questions of Somatic Practice
1. What is This? Open your awareness to all possible sources of sensory information including: Surfaces Movement Breath Moods 2. How Does It Want to Go? Give your body the fullest possibility to make movements that use all sensations available in the moment. 3. Where am I Using Unnecessary Effort? Watch for two kinds of…
Practicing in the Dojo of Everyday Life
Richard Strozzi-Heckler tells a story about coming out of an Ikido dojo and almost getting run over by someone running a red light as he crosses the street. But what caught his attention more than the car hurling itself past his body was his rage, and the way he was thrown off centre. Strozzi-Heckler, an…
The Orienting Response
As I go through the flow of everyday life there are certain events that pull my attention. Some come to me externally – a car unexpectedly coming around the corner as I step off the curb. Others emerge from my inner life such as the awareness of a strain from sitting for too long peering…
Climbing Stairs
In early December we had the first meeting of the SomaLab. In it I introduced some of the concepts I have described in the first two posts to this blog. I also presented an example of how we can use somatics principles to guide us in our engagement with body experience. The reading, entitled, “Climbing…
What is Somatics?: Principles and Techniques
In the fall of 1986, Somatics Journal published an article by Don Hanlon Johnson entitled “Principles versus Techniques: Towards the Unity of the Somatics Field”. In it he outlined an argument for the study and development of a theory base that, he postulated, underlay and united all body-centred practices. These principles, Johnson wrote, became the…
What is the SomaLab?
Welcome to the first post of my SomaLab blog. The SomaLab is year-long journey of exploration into the underlying principles of body-centred healing, and their integration into practical application. This version of the SomaLab is the latest manifestation in my 25 year study of the question, “What is it that makes body-centered practices work?”, that…
Articles
(Writing may be copied and reproduced in whole or part as long as credit is given to the author.)
Other Resources
Somatics Pioneer Don Hanlon Johnson PhD
Integrative Hanna Somatic Education Practitioner Servaas Mes
Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen and Bodymind Centering
Emilie Conrad and Susan Harper's Continuum
Mary Ann Foster's Somatic Patterning
Yoga Instructor Pam Moskie's Falling Open
Video Series
Soma: The Body Experienced from Within
Workshop I: Body and Identity