Somatic Groundwork is a gentle and natural movement patterning approach that provides therapeutic, creative and functional outcomes. The movement system follows a progressive inside out and ground up developmental process that influences the physiology of the nervous system and fascial matrix.
Participants learn how to track sensations through force flow, volume changes and effort fluctuations in relatedness with gravity, ground and space. The techniques and methods apply sensing and movement skills to generate regulation, support, vitality and equanimity for the whole person – physical, mental, social and spiritual. Teachers and therapists around the globe weave Somatic Groundwork methods and principles with their craft in unique ways.
Somatic Groundwork (SG) commonly:
- restores feelings of pleasure and well-being
- promotes self-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 compassionate partnership with our body
- attunes sensory awareness
- offers recovery from chronic stress and overload
somatic patterning
Patterning is simply the process of consciously changing what is to something else. Somatic patterning is a system of movement education and bodymind awareness used to interrupt holding patterns and discover healthier replacements. The somatic patterning process sets the stage for optimal learning in an environment of care and curiosity. In Somatic Groundwork, we use somatic patterning recipes that help our clients improve their body-to-brain feedback providing enhanced function and feeling. We invite people to be with their body moving and to learn from their experience.
Through somatic movement and inquiry, we directly participate with how posture and movement are organized. The intimate weaving between the nervous system and fascial matrix provides a body-wide sensory architecture that gives us the gift of feeling felt. Through attention and mindful movement activities, we can modify our movement maps to affect change in both perception and behavior.
The nervous system and fascial matrix are interdependent self-regulatory communication systems that can be directly influenced through somatic movement practice. SG effectively alters the tone of the autonomic nervous system by way of sensing into/participating with the global fascial matrix. Tracking sensation and force transmission through the fascial matrix in relationship with ground, gravity and space changes the viscoelastic properties of the connective tissue, alters myofascial tension, elicits nervous system harmony and increases vagal tone.
Somatic Groundwork is like a soothing tonic medicine for both immediate phase change and sustained revitalization. For example, common immediate phase changes from SG includes 1.) improving tissue glide and hydration by altering the gel-like properties of fascia and 2.) eliciting the parasympathetic nervous system which dampens chronic stress responses. Both of these autonomic shifts lead to feeling more physically grounded, mentally calm and emotionally steady. An example of sustained revitalization is an expanded capacity to maintain a flexible and relaxed baseline and greater ease of movement in daily living activities.
Somatic Groundwork returns us to a place of equanimity and presence through guided movement experiences. The progressive learning encourages gentle healing, inner stability and support; eases cumulative injury and improves movement skills; and boosts perceptual flexibility and creativity. Indeed, with practice over time and honesty in self-research, Somatic Groundwork bolsters our ability to pattern healthier relationships.
principles of Somatic Groundwork
Linger in Curiosity
begin with inquiry and wonder
stay with the question
allow for the unfolding
Return Here
experience presence now
explore resources of support
embody felt-sensing of ease and okay enough
Practice Your Body
pay attention to your body impulses
make agreements as you move
aim to cooperate with your body and not control the outcome
Lean into Possibility
stay with the process
explore systems sensing
experiment with possible “degrees of freedom”
Relational Participation
listen to the spaces in between
dance creatively with arising phenomena
participate with forces and efforting
systems sensing & movement vocabularies
The Somatic Groundwork movement system follows a developmental process and includes several somatic patterning methods including: yielding, unwinding and core support. Patterning methods are applied through systems sensing and specific movement vocabularies. The movement vocabularies in Somatic Groundwork are based on developmental patterns and natural movement skills.
The Somatic Groundwork movement vocabularies include:
- ten basic patterns
- unwinding forms
- core support series
- all fours push/reach
- star/seed patterns
- standing fundamentals
- gentle mobility & dynamic elastics
Systems sensing is a practice of pairing specific sensing channels with somatic techniques while in movement. In SG the first systems sensing set learned are the grounding resources. The grounding resources are applied to yielding and is the first of the Somatic Groundwork ten basic patterns.
The pattern of yielding is embodied active rest in relationship with the support of the ground (or other contact surfaces). In yielding we practice giving our attention to presence and feeling received by the force of gravity. The primary somatic techniques learned through yielding practices include: body breathing you, organic sounding, sinking weight, orienting, rolling point of contact, pandiculation and titration.
With yielding as the base for repatterning, the next systems sensing set applied is the spacializing resources. These somatic techniques include expansion breathing, micromovements, constellations and spacializing. Together the grounding and spacializing resources help create connections with our tensegral, shape-shifting living architecture.
learning & teaching methods
Somatic Groundwork is guided in a way that provides both structure and clear direction while also encouraging personal choice, curiosity and autonomy to follow intuitive body impulses. Participants need a welcome place for practice with enough room for your body to lie in X/star on the ground. Floors covered in wood, carpet or grass are ideal and mats or blankets are fine to use as well. Clothes without big buttons, snaps or zippers are recommended along with appropriate layers to maintain comfort. Verbal cues are the main method for guiding the learning process and it is usually not necessary for a participant to see or model someone else doing the movements.
In practice we learn how to track sensations through force flow, volume changes and effort fluctuations in relatedness with gravity, ground and space. With research indicating that the fascial matrix is our largest sensory organ and body-wide tensioning system, these attentional games in movement exploration/play involve mapping interoceptive, exteroceptive and proprioceptive inputs to the brain. The inputs are communicated through the neuromyofascial web, integrated in the brain and emerge as perceptual output- or experience. Through somatic movement and inquiry (participation and play) we modify the experience by experimenting with the inputs.
The intention in Somatic Groundwork is to help people cultivate feelings of well-being and pleasure through somatic movement and inquiry. Somatic inquiry is a bottom-up learning process that begins with identifying sensations and exploring how these underlie perception and behavior. Bodily sensations are often subconscious and may be coupled with perceptual artifacts (images, feelings, beliefs, memories, etc.). When revealed to consciousness, sensation may bring forward unexpected phenomena.
As a patterning approach, SG recognizes that somatic inquiry is capable of getting to the root of a holding pattern. In order to skillfully hold the space of change (the unknown), Somatic Groundwork practitioners maintain the first teachings in every class/session. The first teachings encompass trauma-informed principles and include somatic inquiry, somatic containing and the cultivating grounding resources.
Somatic inquiry is the language poetry of cueing somatic practice- a vehicle for inviting a participant to experience their inner landscape, personal consciousness and relational matrix. SG practitioners design verbal cues to: inspire curiosity and self-research; provide clarity and structure; and encourage personal autonomy in practice. Somatic containing is the intentional means of holding space and relating to the field while maintaining personal self-regulation. As practitioners with our participants, we also align with heterarchy, unconditional positive regard and respect for the process of self-organization. The grounding resources are baked right into the process of guiding Somatic Groundwork and provide the participant with embodied tools for inner support and stability.
Within a trauma-informed context, participants mostly avoid triggers and instead are able to contact subconscious holding patterns in a titrated way that leads to gentle healing and desired change. Through exploration and discovery, participants experience new thinking and moving possibilities and actively participate with positive neuroplasticity, or the brain’s ability to change itself.
development of the work
The bones for Somatic Groundwork came from dance training, dance making, improvisation and embodied movement research. Floor-based contemporary dance, creative movement, Contact Improvisation, Bartenieff Fundamentals, Laban Movement Analysis, Bodymind Centering, Authentic Movement and general yoga asana contributed to the early framing of the Somatic Groundwork movement system. As well, personal experiences with developmental trauma, low back pain and sacroiliac joint dysfunction, birthing two children, psychosomatic illnesses, loss, despair and lineage repair have called for alternative healing solutions. Somatic Groundwork has both developed from and been an abiding container for these inquiries.
More than 2 decades ago, SG began with a small group of dancers and artists exploring touch and connection. Next I started teaching Somatic Groundwork classes and workshops in studios and gyms. Then I honed the SG patterning process when I started my 1:1 client practice in 2009. The ten basic patterns became the foundation for every client no matter age or background because they promoted physiological recovery, healthy spines and core integrity. Further, these movements offered a developmental approach to posture, locomotion, daily living activities and improvisation.
The movement system continues to develop and evolve as people participate with the work. Since 2018, I have taught Somatic Groundwork online to an international community. Teachers and therapists from all over the globe can now learn to teach Somatic Groundwork through Interdisciplinary Movement & Somatics. Somatic Groundwork is a dynamic system whose form appears in response to somatic and social interactions. My inquiries and embodied research continue to revolve around movement patterns, human development, healing (or not) cumulative injury and trauma, Indigenous worldview, ancestral lineage repair, creative expression and movement science.
yielding practice
Yielding is a creative and relational practice that brings attention to sinking weight and ground touch. As mentioned above, the pattern of yielding is the entry point to Somatic Groundwork. From this baseline of ease and receptivity, new learning begins.
In this 12 minute practice, follow a guided yielding session . This particular guided practice is for beginner’s new to somatic practice or for those who are simply new to the experience of yielding. Start by lying on the floor, or a bed, or seated in a comfortable position. The intention in this practice is deep rest and to soak in relational support, softness and ease. May this guided practice return us to the place of natural being, belonging and connection.
Want to know how to begin your path with Somatic Groundwork? Message me here.