'“Somas are not ‘bodies’; rather, they are processes of patterned movements” — Thomas Hanna Ph.D.

Hi, I’m Emma. I’m an Essential Somatics® Movement Teacher in the tradition of Thomas Hanna Ph.D. and an Accredited Breathworks Mindfulness and Compassion Teacher. My aim and is to provide each individual I meet with the means to make beneficial changes for themselves in the way they move, feel and behave. My approach has compassion at its heart; our nervous systems can only change when we meet our experience with kindness.

Twelve years ago I fell while trail running and developed persistent pain. As the pain persisted I sought to understand. I heard about US based Essential Somatics®, teaching Clinical Somatic Education and Somatic Movement. Right away I realized that I couldn’t change my patterns of contraction and holding by working with my muscles. I had to work with how my brain was controlling my muscles. What an epiphany!

Essential Somatics® teachings were originally founded in the work of Thomas Hanna and Moshe Feldenkrais, but have evolved to incorporate perspectives from trauma research, ontological coaching, and developmental movement; as the Soma develops, so does the teaching, learning and growing. On top of my ESMT certification I continue to learn, so I can help every Soma I meet to change the effects of stress (including traumatic stress), feel comfortable in their own skin and move through life with more ease and less effort. I have deep knowledge of chronic pain science via ongoing learning with Noigroup.

What I love about Somatic Education is that embraces the whole human — from the inside out. “A Soma isn’t a body and it isn’t a mind; it’s the living process” — Thomas Hanna. We, are a living process, an adaptable, ever-changing intelligent organism, with nervous systems capable of self-regulation and improvement for as long as we live. Somatics is an entirely different approach to healing and wholeness — Somatic Movement changes the mapping in the brain (via the sensory-motor nervous system), harnessing our nervous systems’ ability to re-learn more optimal and efficient movement patterns and the way in which we experience our world via neuroplasticity. Somatics empowers us to make the changes we need in our own nervous system, via sensing and moving, no ‘expert’ required! The beautiful thing is we have the agency to make the changes ourselves— nobody does it for us. And wonderfully, more choice in movement equals more choice in life. With the guidance of a good teacher, and a regular movement practice there truly is no end to improvement possible.