Somatics: A Gentle Way to Release Stress, Pain, and Tension

Somatic Movement Education was developed by Thomas Hanna, a philosopher, teacher, and pioneer in neurology. He recognized that the aches and pains we experience as we age aren’t simply the result of time. They emerge from patterns of tension built up over a lifetime of stress, posture habits, and repetitive movements.

In the mid-1970s, Hanna founded the Novato Institute for Somatic Research and Training. He taught that pain-free living is possible at any age by bringing awareness to the connection between brain and muscles. Through neuromuscular re-education, habitual tension patterns can be released, restoring ease, movement, and comfort.

What Makes Somatics Different

Sensory-Motor Amnesia (SMA)

Thomas Hanna identified Sensory-Motor Amnesia (SMA) — a condition in which the brain forgets how to fully relax muscles after stress, trauma, posture habits, or repetitive movement.

At first, tension is noticeable. But when patterns repeat day after day, the nervous system begins holding them automatically. Over time, the tightness begins to feel normal, and the brain forgets how to fully release as the patterns become habitual. What starts as a brief protective response can develop into chronic aches, stiff joints, or repetitive strain injuries.

The Three Stress Reflexes

As we carry stress and tension, the body develops patterns that can become automatic, hidden even from our conscious awareness. These habitual muscle contractions don’t just cause discomfort — they shape the way we move, breathe, and respond to the world.

Somatics recognizes that stress expresses itself through the body in predictable ways. By understanding these patterns, we can address tension at its source rather than simply treating symptoms.

• Green Light Reflex – stress that pushes us forward to achieve. The go, go, go response to life! Often seen in Type A personalities, this pattern can appear as an arched back, shoulders drawn back, and outward rotation of the arms and legs.

• Red Light Reflex – stress and anxiety that cause us to slow down and move inward. Common with prolonged laptop or cellphone use, it shows as a rounded forward posture, head forward, lifted shoulders, and inward rotation of the arms and legs. Often linked to fear, worry, or protective stances.

• Physical Trauma Reflex – stress caused by an accident or injury. This can appear as one-sidedness: one shoulder lower, imbalance in the hips, weight shifted to one side, or rotation through the trunk.

Once we can recognize these habitual patterns—whether from stress, trauma, or repetitive movement—the next step is learning how to let them go. Somatics offers a gentle, effective way to release chronic tension and retrain the nervous system: pandiculation.

Pandiculation: Resetting the Body

Pandiculation involves gently contracting a muscle or habitual pattern, sensing the effort, and then slowly and consciously releasing it. Through slow, mindful movements, we reconnect the brain and muscles, allowing holding patterns to dissolve from the inside out. Pandiculation rebuilds communication, restores ease, and helps the body remember how to move with freedom and balance.

In simple terms: contract → sense → slowly release → rest.

The focus is not on repetitions or reaching a goal, but on experiencing the movement itself. When we pay attention to sensation, we engage the brain, and that is what allows tension to truly ease.

As Thomas Hanna said, “If you can sense it, you can change it. If you can’t sense it, you can’t change it.”

Stretching vs. Pandiculation

When SMA affects a muscle, it loses some conscious control. Simply stretching does not engage the brain and can even trigger the stretch reflex, a protective mechanism that can tighten the muscle further. Pandiculation rebuilds communication instead: the brain participates, the muscle receives the signal to let go, and tension melts away.

With regular practice, muscles relax more fully, pain diminishes, posture improves, and movement becomes effortless. As habitual holding dissolves, a sense of freedom and ease naturally returns.

The Whole-System Approach

In Somatics, pain is not always where the problem originates. It’s often part of a larger pattern. Rather than chasing a single symptom, we listen to the whole system and work to restore balance to the overall pattern of movement, instead of focusing on just one area.

“The human body is not an instrument to be used, but a realm of one’s being to be experienced, explored, enriched and, thereby educated.” — Thomas Hanna, founder of Hanna Somatic Education