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…

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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…

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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…

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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.…

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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…

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