My guest teacher, Mary Poxon, has a wonderful, elegant way of guiding us in both basic Cat Routine movements and enhancements. She starts 
this class with a concise and clear description of Hanna Somatic Education movement. She often has us compare movement on each side of our body and notice our "direction of ease." In Hanna Somatic Education we work first with our direction of ease. This surprises many people. Our direction of ease represents our movement habit. Our movement habit is usually easier to do because our muscles are already more contracted then the muscles on the opposite side. Therefore we are releasing our more contracted muscles first. Mary also takes us through a number of wonderful variations of our basic Cat Routine movements which adds richness and variety. At the end of class many participants described how good they felt and excited about learning these variations.

7/1/23 Zoom Class: Daily Cat Routine Enchancements, with Guest Teacher Mary Poxon

My guest teacher, Astrid Cruse, presented thoughtful and clear somatic movements for the hips, pelvis, shoulder joint, and scapula. She did much of the class from the side-lying position which offers a wonderful differentiation of each side for easy comparison. This is a perfect class for anyone with pain or problems in these areas. The movements in this class are also terrific to incorporate in our daily cat routine. Many participants in this class commented how good they felt at the end of the class. In the first part of the class Astrid focused on legs and hips. Then we had an interlude of somatic movements coming from the basic cat routine. This was followed by movements for the shoulders and scapulas. She integrated the awareness of the upper and lower extremities into our basic contralateral walking pattern. I hope you come back to this class over and over.

8/5/23 Zoom Class: Pelvic & Shoulder Girdles, with Guest Teacher Astrid Cruse

My guest teacher, Nikki Semeniuk, presented a lovely and thoughtful Cat Routine class with many wonderful enhancements. Enhancements included the pelvic floor, hamstrings done in 3 positions, and several variations involving hip rotations. Many participants in this class commented how good they felt at the end of the class. I hope you come back to this class over and over. 

For more information about Nikki's classes and trainings see her website: www.serenitysomatics.com

9/2/23 Zoom Class: Cat Routine Enhanced, Pelvic Floor, Hamstrings, & More, Presenter Nikki Semeniuk

My guest teacher, Karen Meyer, presented a lovely and very thoughtful somatic movement class. Karen started in standing with a number of gentle movement awareness activities so we could discern and notice our posture in standing and in walking, in relationship to our feet, legs, torso, midline, and head/neck. Karen has a very clear and step by step way of guiding us, making it possible for us to notice many aspects of ourself. The floor work reinforced much of what we did in standing and walking. Her guidance of our movements in the prone position was beautifully orchestrated to capture many nuances of the walking pattern which allowed us to feel or experience how our somas coordinate feet, legs, pelvis, somatic center, ribcage, and head/neck in contralateral movement. This class contained many gems and I hope you revisit it many times.

10/7/23 Zoom Class: Walking, Class 1 of 2, Presenter Karen Meyer

My guest teacher, Karen Meyer, again presented a lovely and very thoughtful somatic movement class. Karen again started the class in standing and walking. She added more movement experiences for us to notice how we feel our patterns in our feet, ankles, knees, pelvis, spine and on up the body through our head/neck. Again the floor work repeated and enhanced many of the movements we did in standing. In this second class she brought in more awareness and movement through our shoulder girdle in relation to our pelvic movement. She very skillfully guided us into the rotational movements of the pelvis and shoulder girdle, culminating with very clear contralateral/rotational movements between the upper and lower torso. She ended the class with an excellent series of walking movements. She carefully guided us to focus on bringing our right hemipelvis forward which brought our right leg and foot forward and then she did the same with the left hemipelvis, leg and foot. At the same time she carefully guided our arms/shoulder girdle/ribcage to coordinate contralaterally with our lower body. These 2 classes will help all of us walk more freely and with more awareness and joy. Thank you Karen for this wonderful series.

11/4/23 Zoom Class: Walking, Class 2 of 2, Presenter Karen Meyer

Lee Brewster's interest has always been how to integrate her meditation practice with her Hanna Somatic Education training.This class gives you a wonderful introduction to Lee's style and integration process. She starts the class with a short breathing and meditation session, so that at the end of the class we can compare our experience with a longer ending breathing and meditation session. In between she guided us in a number of somatic movements. Her instructions are very clear. Her choice of somatic movements ranged from basic and foundational to more sophisticated. For example, she guided us in some very interesting psoas movements from the prone position. Enjoy!

12/2/23 Zoom Class: Somatic Movement & Meditation, Presenter Lee Brewster

Lisa Sack, my guest presenter, led an elegant and very clear somatic movement class focused mostly in the abdominal region. This class was based on her personal experience working with women who have had many children, sometimes as many as 8 children by the time they are 40. These women always request that they want their abdominal region, their core, to be stronger. Lisa guided us in a number of somatic movements that are centered in the somatic center, the center of our body. She nuanced and created a number of variations that built on each other using many of our basic Cat Routine movements including: Arch and Flatten, Arch and Curl, Sidebending, Contralateral Arch and Curl, The Washrag Twist, The Back Lift, and more. She educated her clients so they could understand that becoming stronger is not just about building more muscle mass, but also increasing muscle efficiency and coordination. The content of this class applies to all of us and is a class you could view many times. Enjoy!

1/6/24 Zoom Class: Somatic Movements for Abdominal Awareness, Presenter Lisa Sack

Kelli Peacock presented a lovely class. I need to mention that due to the extreme windy weather in Northern California, Kelli's internet was somewhat unstable and there are some frozen moments. They pass quickly. Enjoy her class anyway.

She started with breathing. Kelli has a gift for guiding us in our breathing and keeping our focus and attention on breathing into different areas of our body, respiratory basket, and into our pelvic rhythm of "Arch & Flatten." We did many interesting things in this class including movements for our head and neck, chest and sternum, and even getting up and sitting down from a chair. She spent a section of the class guiding us in side lying with various lateral movements. In one of these side lying movements she had us opening and closing our chest through arm movements and at the same time opening and closing our legs-pelvis in a wonderful twisting, almost dance like, somatic action.Thank you Kelli.

3/2/24 Zoom Class: Breath and Movements for Pelvis, Neck & Shoulders, Guest Presenter Kelli Peacock

Back by popular demand, Nikki Semeniuk, presented another wonderful and informative class.  Usually in Hanna Somatic Education we only give instructions verbally to encourage the participant to use their internal proprioception "to find" the movement. Nikki requested that we use a model so that participants could take a peek if they got lost. I finally gave in and consented. Jacqui Neurauter agreed to be our model and she was wonderful. I've gotten very positive feedback on using a model.

Here is one example of feedback Nikki has received from a participant, Pamela Frydman.  "Great class today. Nikki’s pace, clear instructions, and calmness were perfect. She created a sense of trust to allow participants time to slow down and release. My sense is that instructor’s letting go of ego is key to inviting participant healing. Thank you for these monthly offerings."

I will piggy back on Pamela's feedback. Nikki has a way of guiding movements without any sense of rush. She cleverly builds each movement sequence starting with a simple foundational movement and then is able to add to that movement with grace and ease. Nikki selected movements geared toward a sense of freedom and mobility in walking. 

She culminated the class with a walking movement series in which she deftly guided us, first in slow motion, to bring our right hemipelvis forward as we bent our right knee, and then we placed our right foot forward on the floor to take a step. We practiced this movement with both sides. We increased our speed slowly as we continued to walk forward. Nikki then guided us to add  contralateral movement in our upper body, completing normal adult contralateral walking. This was an elegant, easy to follow, walking series.

4/6/24 Zoom Class: Somatic Movements For Walking, Guest Presenter Nikki Semeniuk

Danny Burke did a wonderful job of combining and intertwining Hanna Somatic Education movements with Somatic Yoga. Somatic Yoga follows the same principles as Hanna Somatics, and there is no stretching. He guided us to move slowly, within our comfort zone, and to pay attention to our internal experience. After our initial body scan Danny led us in a 5 count breathing exercise to bring us into a calm, relaxed state. He often used intentional breathing between movements. From Somatic Yoga he added, for example, standing movements and movements for strength and balance. Whether he was leading more traditional Hanna Somatic movements or Somatic Yoga poses, called asanas, his cadence was wonderfully calm and well paced.

5/4/24 Zoom Class: Somatic Yoga and Hanna Somatics, Guest Presenter Danny Burke

Disclaimer: These recordings are for educational purposes only.  Please do all somatic movements comfortably, slowly, and without pain or force. Please consult appropriate medical or health care providers if you have any concerns about whether the movements are suitable for you, especially if you are dealing with an illness or injury, are pregnant, or have other health, balance or mobility issues.

New tracks tagged #Trunk Rotation