For over 30 Years, the work of Dr. Thomas Hanna has been helping Body Workers, Physical Therapists, Chiropractors and Physicians unlock the Mind-Body link to pain. This revolutionary health care system incorporates cornerstones of Western medicine along with clinical methods to dramatically improve control over the muscular system and reduce discomfort.
Throughout a lifetime, the body develops a vocabulary of contractions and reflexes in response to external stresses. These memory paths (such as poor posture, soreness, stiffness of joints) often inhibit freedom of movement – and can easily lead to chronic pain if left untreated.
Clinical Somatics™ overcomes the long held assumption that the signs of aging are inevitable, and sets out to recalibrate overused or injured muscles through a simple series of training sessions and prescribed at-home movements.
As a fully recognized and certified practitioner of this informed approach, you will have mastered the hands-on techniques and acquired the physiological knowledge necessary to help achieve real, cumulative results for your clients.
Courses of Study
Professional study in Somatics can follow several paths, or those paths can even build on each other:
- Certified Clinical Somatic Educator: A 3-year training (taking place over several convenient short modular class sessions) to become a certified hands-on practitioner, including full qualification as a clinician who works with clients one-on-one to treat advanced musculoskeletal disorders, chronic pain, injuries, conditions related to stress and trauma, and fitness and athletic performance challenges and enhancements. This degree also provides the expertise and certification to teach somatic movement exercises — including all the training provided in the Somatic Exercise Teacher training programs (see below) and more. Trainees in this program include healthcare professionals, physical therapists, massage therapists, bodyworkers of all modalities, yoga teachers and therapists, pilates practitioners, occupational therapists, dance teachers, and personal trainers who will complement and dramatically enhance their existing practices and results, as well as laypeople who wish to embark upon a new career in the movement and health field.
- Certified Somatic Exercises Teacher: Convenient weekend training courses to become an expert and fully qualified coach and teacher of individuals and groups in Somatic movement exercises, workshops and classes. Working with CSE practitioners or alone, you can provide dramatic and unparalleled improvements or even complete corrections in chronic pain, injury, movement disorders, athletic and fitness performance challenges, and more. Trainees in this program include movement teachers, yoga teachers, pilates teachers, occupational therapists, dance teachers, healthcare professionals, physical therapists & assistants, bodyworkers of all modalities, and personal trainers & coaches who wish to enhance or even transform the strategies and benefits they offer to their clients in movement, fitness, and exercise efforts of all kinds, from the gym to rehab to the bodywork or yoga studio.
- Fundamentals of Clinical Somatic Education: Short (one day), highly valuable and exciting course in the science, theory, and methods of the field Clinical Somatic Education (including clinical work and exercises). Prospective students considering either training course described above will benefit from this program (as well as fulfilling a pre-requisite for the training programs). This program is also essential training for healthcare and movement and education professionals of all kinds, even they do not plan to seek full professional Somatic training — the physiological issues and approaches learned in this course will inform and support work of any kind with movement, learning, health, wellness, stress, trauma, psychology, or development.
