Somatics for Schools
Somatics for Professional Development Days
  ‘Mobilizing Awareness for Teachers’
  ‘How does emotion change motion?’
Somatic Education: A Scenario of the Future

Somatics for Schools

As a teacher, it is important to understand ‘learning’. Learning and being able to evolve is a basic human skill that is deeply rooted within everyone’s system. Our current educational system focuses mainly on upgrading knowledge and skill level in courses like mathematics, languages, chemistry or physical education. Skills that are essential to be able to succeed later in life. However, when understanding the somatic viewpoint, it becomes apparent that all these courses are ‘external’ experiences for the student, meaning that they are related to events and area’s outside their own being. How would it be if the students would not only be taught academic skills, but at the same time upgrade their ‘first person’ knowledge about themselves, meaning that they will gain a higher level of internal control over movements and emotions ? At the moment, unfortunately, most students will represent their current knowledge without a true embodiment of that knowledge and without having proper knowledge about themselves. Just think about events like bullying, school violence, school shootings, ADD etc.. It will be a new generation of students who, when educated with a basic understanding of human existence, will also have developed the skill to be aware over processes inside their own body. They will be able to understand themselves better as well as other people (students, teachers, parents) and others will be able to connect better with them.

Incorporating the somatic philosophy and concepts within the educational system will be revolutionary. Due to the calming effects on your body and the increase in general awareness, your students will be able to make better and healthier choices, find easier ways of learning and feel fitter and less fatigued. Many of them will express more joy inside and outside the classroom. Incorporating somatics within the educational system is a fundamental requirement for healthy learning and is, at the same time, very complimentary to existing educational programs.

Somatics for Professional Development Days

The Somatic Health Center offers workshops to the teaching staff in the schools (Professional Development Days):

• Somatic Education Workshop
  ‘Mobilizing Awareness for Teachers’
  A workshop that will teach each participant to recognize common stress patterns and how these stress patterns affect your own health and productivity. A process of Somatic Education will be offered to teach each participant how to release and reverse these patterns of accumulated stress within minutes. You will learn not only how to understand yourself better, but a greater awareness will be achieved in relation to your colleagues and your students. The workshop will be focussed on the needs and requests within the educational system. A handout for each participant will be provided by The Somatic Health Center. Please also read Somatics for the Workplace.

  ‘Mobilizing Awareness for Teachers’ - Workshops can be organized at your school. Please contact The Somatic Health Center for further information.

The above mentioned workshops will require a large room (preferably carpeted). The workshop will be mostly experiential; please wear comfortable clothing. Please contact The Somatic Health Center for further details.

Somatic Education: A Scenario for the Future

When you will have acquired the skill to become aware over your own internal processes (meaning emotional/behavioral as well as physical) you will start to understand the mechanics behind bullying, aggression, depression and ADD/ADHD. To incorporate the somatic understandings within the existing educational system requires a change in basic philosophy within your school. To be able to educate these new principles to your students, it will be necessary for the teaching staff to become ‘somatically aware’ as well. In general, teachers have little or no background in the structural and functional aspects of the human brain. However, they are dealing with ‘learning’ and ‘behavior’ all the time. When understanding the somatic concepts, teachers will finally start to understand how to adapt their skills and experience to achieve a higher potential for all. To ‘somatically’ educate the teaching staff will require time. Time for instruction, time for experiential movement explorations, time for digestion and time for growth. The result of this investment will be a new generation of teachers, surrounded by a new generation of students. A staff that is willing to grow and evolve beyond ‘normal standards’ in education will be surrounded by students that will show a significant improvement emotionally, physically and behaviorally. To fully implement a process like this and to increase its chance for success, a support program will have to be in place as well for the parents involved and for the support staff at the school. The Somatic Health Center is very interested in assisting the planning, organization and evolvement of such a project. If you have any comments or questions, please contact us at your convenience.