Hanna somatics

Domain X · Body, movement, breath & physical · Thomas Hanna · 1976

What it is

Hanna Somatic Education (HSE) is a movement-education method for chronic muscular pain and restricted movement. Thomas Hanna (1928–1990) was a philosopher who coined the term "somatics" in 1976. He studied with Moshé Feldenkrais and founded the Novato Institute for Somatic Research and Training…

Format

• Self-practice. The client learns exercises that repeat the sessions' pandiculations at home, so that progress does not depend on the practitioner.
• Move from sessions to self-practice once the client can make the contract-and-slow-release movement independently, without pain.

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Assessment of posture and movement. The educator identifies which reflex pattern or patterns are present. The Somatic Systems Institute's training teaches "diagnostic recognition" of the Landau, startle and trauma patterns.
• Clinical sessions (hands-on). The educator guides the client through pandiculation of the involved muscle groups, usually starting with the trunk. Published course content runs from the trunk and spine, to shoulders, arms, hips and legs, and then to gait and balance.
• Clinical sessions are one-to-one. Practitioners compare them to a massage or physical therapy visit, with the client clothed on a table.

Evidence status, as the guide reports it

• Systematic reviews. No systematic review or randomised trial of HSE is known.

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• Dissociation. Agreeing in order to please. Shame about stopping.
• Dizziness or nausea during eye movements. Stop if they appear. Neck pain.
• Minimising ("it was probably nothing"). Practitioners discouraging medical care.
• Clients pushing through pain to "do it properly". Shame about modifying. Normalise it.
• Neck strain. Holding the breath. Any abdominal or hernia history: get medical clearance first.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.