Regular sessions generally last one hour. Your first session will last approximately one hour to one-and-one-half hours.
The first session will begin with a conversation with your practitioner, including health history and related intake. This will include some visual assessment and palpation (“palpation” means the practitioner will gently and noninvasively feel your back and other muscles to assess patterns of muscular contraction). The practitioner will determine a course of action for the session and possibly future sessions, and explain what you will do in your Somatics session.
The session will then typically involve about 45 to 60 minutes of gentle, easy movement on a clinic table or mat. Much of this movement will be active on your part, but all within your comfort range: The movements are very effective, but still easy to do for clients in any condition; you will not need a certain amount of strength, you won't break a sweat, and you do not need special training in advance to do these movements — anyone can do them! For some movements, you will be passive, slowly moved within your comfort range by your practitioner; practitioners are trained to handle clients with special techniques that are safe and painless for clients of virtually any condition.
At the end of the session, you will probably be taught a brief series of a few movement pattern you can do for 5 to 15 minutes at home to maximize the benefits of your session; these easy exercises will help maintain the improvements from the session, and sometimes continue to enhance those improvements over the time until your next session.
Typically, sessions are scheduled about one to three weeks apart, which is generally the optimal time frame to allow maximum improvement with minimal backsliding of those improvements.
Regular sessions after the first session begin with a few minutes of discussion and assessment to determine your progress, and to adjust the plan for the current session. The sessions continue logistically very much like the first, with a continual reassessment and progression of your your somatic education process. By the the end of your process, you will likely acquire a whole, short routine of exercises that you can use for the rest of your life to maintain and expand your Somatic health.
