Hanna Somatics Education
What is Hanna Somatics Education?
Hanna Somatics Education (HSE) is a natural, safe, noninvasive way to end chronic pain, relieve stress, and restore freedom of movement. HSE employs a unique method of reeducating the brain so as to restore sensory awareness and voluntary control to the brain over the muscles in it’s domain. What is SMA?
Hanna Somatics is perfectly designed to address the effects of Sensorimotor Amnesia, or SMA. SMA occurs when you learn to hold yourself tightly (often unconsciously) in reaction to pain, injury, or emotional stress – causing your brain to forget how to fully sense or experience muscles in your body. In such a case, your muscles may function improperly due to strong reflex messages from the brain causing them to involuntarily over contract. Chronically contracted muscles can become sore, painful, or weakened from constant use, even to a point of causing general or chronic fatigue. Tightness such as this can lead to soreness in the joints and muscular stiffness that distorts posture.
What causes SMA?
SMA can be caused by any number of factors. Injuries and surgeries can cause compensatory tightness, even in non-involved areas. Overuse and stress can also result in chronic or habituated muscle patterns. Often, just the process of living allows for an accumulation, layer upon layer, of the effects of minor and major insults against the body and/or mind. John Loupos has coined the term “archeology of insults” to describe this downward trajectory of health and wellness. Fortunately, the effects of SMA may be reversible as pain and discomfort are relieved and freedom of movement is restored. Hanna Somatic Education reverses the effects of SMA and restores flexibility through pain-free movements that increase your brain’s motor output and override unhealthy reflex patterns. HSE movements are within normal limits of the body’s range of motion and remain under your control at all times. You are never asked to complete painful or uncomfortable movements.
Think of Hanna Somatics for…
If you suffer from headaches, neck or shoulder pain, lower back pain, sciatica, muscular pain and tension, insomnia, aches and pains, the tightness and immobility often (mis)associated with aging, traumatic acute or chronic injuries, or other similar conditions, you the likelihood is you suffer from some degree or other of Sensorimotor Amnesia.
What Can You Expect from Hanna Somatics?
It is recommended that you commit to four sessions and reevaluate as your program progresses. The goal of Hanna Somatics is to move you toward your own self-care maintenance program. There are two components to the HSE approach.
- First, you can expect a series of one-hour individual sessions where you will be guided through slow-motion exercises that relax tight muscles, strengthen weak ones, and improve coordination and proprioception overall. Unlike a massage session, you will be fully clothed during your HSE session. It is suggested that you wear loose, comfortable, nonrestrictive clothing for ease of movement.
- Second, you’ll be given specific moment exercises for home practice. These exercises will be designed to reinforce the lessons of your individual sessions, so that your benefits will be cumulative with continued practice and the likelihood of recurrence of old problems made less likely. Home practice exercises take only about 15 minutes daily and require no special equipment. These exercises will be the key to maintaining beneficial results and long-term wellness.
The Pain and Mobility Clinic
John Loupos is the founder of the Hanna Somatics Pain and Mobility Clinic. John maintains an active clinical practice at his Jade Forest location in Cohasset, Ma. John is a graduate of the Somatic Systems Institute in Northamptom, Ma, where he studies directly with protégés trained by Thomas Hanna and instructors at the Novato Institute that Hanna founded. John is available for individual private session as well as for special interest group presentations. You may contact John Loupos by calling 781-383-6822, or by visiting our companion website www.jfkungfu.com, or via this site’s e-mail link.