“Recent research supports the fact that negative thoughts, emotions and expectations can negatively affect our physical bodies and conversely, that ‘dis-ease’ in our physical body can negatively affect our mind and emotions”, says Paula Curtiss, Founding Director for Healing Hands School of Holistic Health (HHSHH). “We think it’s really important for Massage Therapists to understand this correlation, which is why we added, ‘Somatics’ to our curriculum of over 80 massage and related holistic health courses,” she added.
At HHSHH, the Somatics course is 48-hours long, approved for Continuing Education Units (CEUs), and is offered at both the Escondido and Laguna Hills campuses annually. The course explores how the quality and awareness of our own movement and posture has a direct influence and impact on our well-being and physical comfort. Students learn how to identify movement patterns and postures that are inefficient or unnecessarily tense contributing to pain and chronic postural problems. They also learn manual techniques to help facilitate client awareness and massage techniques to release muscle tension anywhere in the body. In this hands-on course students also learn a program of simple-to-teach floor exercises that can be customized to help clients reverse the damaging effects of stress on their bodies.
A Somatic body-work session will never be a choreographed routine but rather offers a client customized care for their body’s 
individual needs. The goal of Somatic therapy is to develop a personalized program that focuses on the whole person: body, mind, emotions and Spirit. Though some may find portions of a Somatics body-work session relaxing, the work more closely resembles physical therapy than it does massage therapy.
In a Somatics body-work session, the therapist searches to identify the cause of physical pain and then focuses his/her attention there. Each session is a blend of many different therapies that may include exercise instruction, stress-reduction techniques, stretching, massage, energy-work and cognitive/behavior modification. The aim is to help the client not only achieve but maintain optimal health and a healthy lifestyle.
An interesting fact about the Somatic exercises taught in this class is that their effects are cumulative. In other words, the effects increase over time and one develops greater flexibility and ease of movement as they repeat the exercises over time.
The next Somatics course will be held at our Escondido Campus starting September 30 – October 16 on Wednesdays and Fridays.
To find out more about Somatics or any of the other 80+ massage and holistic health classes offered at Healing Hands School of Holistic Health visit us online at www.HealingHandsSchool.com or call us at 949 305-2722 in Laguna Hills and 760-746-9364.