The word Somatics comes from the Greek root soma which means 'the living body in its wholeness.' In other words, it is the best word we have come up with in English to understand human beings as integrated mind/body/spirit, or a psycho-biology. The understanding is that people are not mind over matter (if only I think differently I will be different), nor matter over mind or spirit (a change in chemistry or medication will wholly change my experience), rather we are all of these things combined-we are thinking and conceptual, we are emotional, we are biological, and we are spiritual. Somatics approaches people as this integrated whole, working with all of these aspects of who we are.

Perhaps what is most unique thing about Somatics is that it integrates the body (ourselves from the neck down) as an essential place of change, learning and transformation. You can think of it like muscles having memory and the tissues having intelligence. We have learned a more objectifying or dissociated view of the body as a pile of bones and tendons we think of as a science project. Somatics looks at the body as a place of evolutionary intelligence and learning. Somatics sees the 'self' or who we are as inseparable from the psycho-biology. Of course, the mind and body are never really separate (a mind cannot live without a body and visa versa) but we certainly try to operate as if they are. When we reconnect the vast intelligence of the body with the mind and spirit, powerful things happen.

About Staci

Staci Haines authored the The Survivor's Guide to Sex (Cleis 1999), a how-to book offering a somatic approach to healing from sexual trauma and developing healthy sexual and intimate relationships. She is an innovator in the field of Somatics specializing in working with trauma. She is the originator of the Somatics and Trauma training and leads courses teaching psychologists, therapists, social leaders, and community activists this work. She has also produced a DVD called Healing Sex: The Complete Guide to Sexual Wholeness

Haines is also the visionary founder of Generation Five, whose mission is to end the sexual abuse of children within five generations. Staci has been organizing and educating in the area of sexual abuse, sex education, and mind/body healing for over 15 years. She has organized in the sex positive, domestic violence and racial justice movements, and has extensive experience in facilitation and training.