Here's how Clinical Somatics has helped Yoga Teacher Becky Hill
'I’m reasonably active, teaching and practicing yoga as well as the occasional gym trip. I also have a pretty stressful day job, all of which means I put my muscles through quite a lot on a weekly basis! I’ve had four sessions of Somatics with David and it has been a really insightful experience. Although I knew I carried quite a lot of tension and tightness in certain parts of my body, it’s opened my eyes as to why and has educated me in which muscles I need to relax and engage in order to move with ease. David has also given me some really simple exercises to release tension and ‘re-train’ my brain into subconsciously using my muscles more efficiently. As a yoga teacher, it’s also changed the way I teach certain postures, and has made me think about the verbal and physical cues I can give to allow my students to find the muscle release they need. I’m now integrating the principles of somatics into my teaching, as well as my everyday life.'
Becky Hill is a Yoga teacher based at Yoga Kula in Chapel Allerton, Leeds.
Here's how Seb Bustos has benefited from Somatic Coaching sessions.
My experience with Somatics via David’s instruction has been eye opening. As a Tai Chi practitioner it has given me a better appreciation of my training & a new perspective on the physics of the human body. I have not completed many sessions but even from the first one I got lots of benefit, physically I felt less tense, & more relaxed, my ability to sense my body had increased. Mentally I felt calmer and sensed a clear mind. You can feel that David’s passion really comes through in his practice & I will happily continue to refer potential clients to David knowing that they will be in good hands. I am looking forward to many more sessions with David with the aim of self-development & discovery. Yours Sincerely Sebastian Bustos. Temple Holistic Fitness Centre, Meanwood, Leeds
Here's how dancer and dance educator Rose Chadwick benefited from Hanna Somatics
I first met David whilst taking part in one of his sessions on the healthier dancer day, held at NSCD in the induction week for the BPA students in September 2014. This is the first time I had encountered Hanna Somatics but soon learned that the program is built on the work of Moshe Feldenkrais, whose method I had a basic understanding of through studies whilst in training. During the session David guided the group through a series of subtle and simple exercises/movements in which we explored and identified new ways of moving as well as activating muscles, which I had forgotten existed. David explained this discovery as sensory-motor amnesia, I was immediately hooked on this and wanted to know more, I felt I had just opened up a whole new world and a possible explanation to some questions and feelings I’ve always had about an old injury. After injuring my neck during training in 2007 and never feeling like id fully recovered, I had spent lots of time and money with various therapists over 7 years but was still unable to dance without being in some pain and unable to move without tension. I put myself forward to work with David as a case study to find out more about the method, how it could help me and what I could learn from it. Fortunately David agreed to work with me over 4 sessions, which took place between December 2014 and January 2015. At the start of each session David assessed me based on what he saw and how I felt, we then worked through a series of movements/exercises, some new and some that I had done in the NSCD session. What I found really valuable was having David there to bring a physical sensory awareness to which muscles should be working by tapping along the area whilst I was moving. This enabled me to connect the mental/physical sensation. We generally worked through maybe 4/5 exercises each session, and coming up to standing at the end was strange but wonderful experience. I say strange as at first my body doesn’t really feel like my own but then gradually once it has begun to work things out everything starts to fall into place. The sense of openness throughout the whole body is the most dominant sensation, from the centre of the body outwards, as well as the awareness of the whole body, as a whole. Of course I then had this immediate urge to explore moving through space, playing with ideas and concepts from a recent study in Skinner Releasing Technique in particular, but overall a real desire to feel how it is to dance with this “new” body. The Somatic exercises are very simple and I found that it was easy to remember and slot them into my daily/weekly routine. 5-10 minutes on a morning or evening, or even before teaching class. Doing this during in between the session with David allowed me to get the most out of the experience, as there was a continuous development and shift happening in my body. Following the end of the case study I feel I have a good level of awareness to continue practicing what I have learned, I generally do 2/3 of the exercises daily and continue to feel the benefits.
Rose Chadwick Learning & Participation Dance Officer, Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Leeds
Here's how Clinical Somatics has helped Runner, Katie Phillips
I have been running for four years and run a variety of distances from 5k to ultra marathons on a mixture of surfaces - road, trail, fell. I am currently aiming to run 12 marathons in 12 months, having had a good start to my running challenge and successfully completing my first 3 marathons, my body started to show signs of the high training mileage showing niggles and stress. It didn't help that I have an office based job, working for long periods of time sat working at a PC and carrying stress in my upper body, all of which means I put my muscles through quite a lot on a weekly basis! I’ve had four sessions of Clinical Somatics with David and it has been a really insightful experience. Although I knew I carried quite a lot of tension and tightness in my shoulders & upper body, the sessions opened my eyes as to why and how this affected my running and has educated me in which muscles I need to relax and engage in order to move with ease. David has also given me some really simple exercises to release tension and ‘re-train’ my brain into subconsciously using my muscles more efficiently, which in turn will help to strengthen the weaker ones enabling a smoother end to end movement. David also showed me to focus on my breathing while working through the exercises, which I found valuable to help me focus on relaxing the muscles. As a runner completing these exercises helps me to balance my body's movement and focus on relaxing into my running stride, which has in turn helped me to continue the high level of mileage in the most economic and relaxed way. I’m now integrating the principles of somatics into my running preparation and warm down as well as my everyday life.