The lineage of somatics

We would like to acknowledge here the lineage of the work that we do, as well as the specific lineage of my training.

If you were to look up the history of somatics and trauma healing, you will find the names Thomas Hanna (who coined the term ‘somatics’) and Moshe Feldenkrais (creator of the Feldenkrais method), Peter Levine (a brilliant therapist and creator of Somatic Experiencing), Bessel Van Der Kolk, Gabor Matè, and the many more names of primarily white male therapists/psychologists, sometimes neurologists - you get the gist. I have been a student of Gabor Matè’s Compassionate Inquiry training and Peter Levine’s Somatic Experiencing training - both of which deeply inform my perspective and support my understanding of movement, trauma, my own life, and the collective. I am so grateful.

AND, most of what we now call ‘somatics’ was known, practiced and taught by Indigenous communities and mystic/spiritual practitioners from around the world. Honouring an embodied and aware experience wasn’t a field of study, it just was. It was paradigm, perspective, the way of being.

Industrialism and colonialism all but destroyed this way of being, until the western world went ‘eureka!’, being aware of your bio-psycho-social environment is imperative to a life well lived! Indeed, it is not a good idea to be a talking head, burnt out and chasing an external, media-driven carrot! Meanwhile Indigenous communities, South Asian yogic practitioners, Qi Gong masters - the list could go on - are watching on as the western scientific world is ‘legitimizing’ that which is ancient, and was forbidden to teach and practice for at least 150 years.

My lineage of learning is a combination of the mystics, the yogis, the spirituals, and the scientific resurgence, the naming and practice of ancient knowledge. And because of my privilege, I have afforded the opportunity and experience to study with prominent teachers, and travel around the world to learn from the masters.

I have contemplated my place in this work, and have concluded that it would not be ‘the answer’ to not share the knowledge and wisdom of transformation and healing. That being said, the imperativeness of acknowledging and repairing the white-washing of somatics, embodied-living and awakened creation (manifestation) practices remains at the forefront of our work at Homebody.

We feel it would be not be appropriate to list all the ways in which we are in reparation, as it is a daily, embodied reality in our business. It is in every training, 1:1 interaction, and creative process that we consider how we are reversing the appropriative hierarchy that exists in the world of somatics. Nevertheless, we wish to be transparent. If you have any questions as to how we are embodying this acknowledgement, please contact us. We would love to hear from you.

I would like now to acknowledge my first spiritual, movement and yoga teacher, Yogrishi Vishvketu - it is because his openness in sharing the transformative practice of yoga that my whole world turned upside-down and my heart turned towards Creation. Namaste, Guru-ji.