Somatics is a field of study and practice that focuses on working with the body and movement, with particular attention to internal physical perception and experience.
One of the approaches in somatics is “Body-Mind Process,” where a person begins breathing, moving, sounding, attending, and touching from within a cell or group of cells (tissue or system), observing everything that happens in the process. This includes observing the quality of breathing, movement, sounding, and touch, as well as mental manifestations such as feelings, sensations, emotions, memories, dreams, thoughts, images, and revelations, along with physiological expressions.
Once a person has learned to become aware of a specific part of their body or tissue, they can guide others to become aware of the same in their own bodies, for example, bone through bone, organ through organ, and discuss the experiences obtained with others.
At the core of the deep somatic awareness focus, we highlight Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen’s approach called “Body-Mind Centering” (BMC).
Bonnie herself describes it as follows: “I named my research method Body-Mind Centering. It involves getting to know myself through the life of cells in my body, the differentiation of body tissues, the integration of cells in the organism as a whole, returning attention back into the subconscious, and practicing with other people. In this learning process, each of us is a constantly changing whole, represented as a subject, material, or observer.”
One of the goals of this approach is to develop the ability to recognize systems within the body (organ systems, myofascial system, fluid systems, skeletal system, nervous system, etc.), work with movement patterns (from breath and contraction-expansion to more complex patterns), reflexes, and states. This approach allows establishing a deep connection with one’s body by experiencing one’s anatomy. BMC expands the possibilities of movement expressiveness, emotional expression, and connection with oneself, others, and the surrounding world on various levels—from the cellular to the systemic.
