Soma literally means “the body in its wholeness,” and somatics is a field of study (knowledge?) that prioritizes or integrates the body into an understanding of humans as a coherent (or unified) whole being—mind and body together.

Many different methodologies/approaches are included when we talk about somatics. Overall, somatics views humans as embodied conscious beings, where our thoughts, feelings, experience, and behavior are not separate from our embodied existence. Our energy, nervous system, emotions, muscles, thoughts, experience, beliefs, and socio-cultural context all come together in how we show up in the world moment to moment. This is our embodied presence.

Like psychology (the study of the mind and behavior), somatics includes a wide array of different theories and practices. Like anatomy (the study of the body), somatics can be utilized in relevant disciplines such as neuroscience, evolutionary biology, trauma therapy, and kinesiology. Somatic practices and knowledge have been around for hundreds of years, but it is only recently that these different wisdom lineages have been brought together, along with modern research, under the term “somatics”.

Because somatics is relatively new as an cohesive field of study and practice, it can be difficult to get a clear sense of what is included. Examples of somatic methodologies include: Hanna Somatics, Feldenkrais, Core Energetics, Alexander Technique, Somatic Experiencing, Somatic Psychology, Strozzi Somatics, Structural Integration, as well as yoga, tai chi, qi gong, and aikido, depending on how they are practiced.

What ties all of these together is that when we reference the body in somatics, we mean more than just the anatomical structure. Somatics includes the energetic, emotional, contextual, physical, nervous, and sense systems of the body to approach humans as whole, integrated beings.