Somatics for the Workplace
Ergonomics
  ‘External Ergonomics’
  ‘Somatic Ergonomics’
Stress and Stress Relief
Injury Prevention Programs & Rehabilitation
Somatic Ergonomics in Dentistry

Somatics for the Workplace

There is no better place to incorporate the somatic principles as at your workplace. Knowing that your employees are spending a considerable part of their life within their work environment, it is truly important to have your employees happy and productive. When employees are exposed to physical and / or emotional stress, it can be considered the duty of the employer to provide his employees with a program that will teach the employees how to unwind from the strains of the day. After all, we all deserve to be able to enjoy life after work hours as well !

Somatic programs for the workplace instantly result in a reduction in sick time and a reduction in injuries. Somatics will be able to teach the employee to become more active and independent within their job descriptions. Many of your employees will feel empowered and more energetic to perform their duties. When understanding the somatic concepts, you or your employees will be more at ease within their job and job description. You will understand how to modify your workstation independently, will understand how to modify your own body-mechanics independently, will understand how to prevent injury and most important, will have the ability to physically and emotionally unwind from the strains of the day.

Somatic Ergonomics

Combining existing ergonomical knowledge with the new concepts that Somatics brings around results in a very interesting and revolutionary ergonomical understanding. "How is it that many employees who are surrounded by all possible ergonomical efforts, still get hurt or are still hurting?" To help understand this mystery, we need to explain the difference between ‘external ergonomics’ and ‘somatic ergonomics’.

• ‘External Ergonomics’
  Is the traditional ergonomical concept. An evaluation of the workstation, an evaluation of the job description and an evaluation of the posture of the employee are necessary to provide a guideline for action. According to these guidelines, modifications will be made to the workstation to improve efficiency for the employee. Think about the relation in height between the desk and the chair, wrist supports to prevent carpal tunnel syndrome, or better shoes for standing all day on a concrete floor.

  
  

• ‘Somatic Ergonomics’
  This is the exciting new component to the field of ergonomics ! How would it be when dealing with an ergonomically designed workstation (see ‘External Ergonomics’) that is equipped by an employee who can understand what movement and lack of movement will do to his or her own body and to its performance ? A simple example: many office workers sit in a chair that can swivel. Their computer is positioned in front of them and their neck, shoulders and spine are comfortably supported to maintain that position for a long period of time. The employee is positioned and supported in every possible way to make the job easier. When they have to turn, it will be their chair turning for them. What I am trying to make you understand is that because of all the ergonomical support, the actual ‘movement’ is taken away from your employee ! However, the human body is designed to move. When looking at the human spine, you can see that one of its functions is to rotate. You will do your spine a disservice by not allowing your spine to rotate the way it is meant to be. Please also take into consideration that when muscles aren’t moving much, that they will tighten up and develop Sensory Motor Amnesia (meaning that you will have lost the ability to sense and move your own muscles). The result is an employee with tight muscles along their spine, neck, shoulderblades and arms. This habituation of tension will result in an inflexible body, meaning that we now have created an employee who is becoming more rigid and more susceptible to any type of injury.

The employee will be able to easily walk, sit, get up, stretch, and perform many other tasks without feeling stiff, without fearing injury, without feeling inadequate for the actual job. Besides that, your employee will be able to reverse the stresses of the day, resulting in a more interested, energetic, productive and pleasant employee.

Somatic Ergonomics in combination with external ergonomics is a very powerful method to increase job satisfaction, to increase productivity, to reduce cost and to prevent injury. ‘Somatic Ergonomics’ – Workshops can be taught to you and your employees. A specific program will be designed to achieve the maximum result with the least effort, specific to your demands and your type of work. For employees who have been off work for a period of time, individual sessions in Somatic Rehabilitation can make the difference between long-term disability for life or the ability to be reintegrated into the workforce. Please also read Somatics for the Public - Rehabilitation

Workshops for you and your employees tailored to the specific needs of your company can be organized at your workplace. Please contact The Somatic Health Center for further information.

Stress and Stress Relief

Many employees suffer from stress. Physical stress and / or emotional stress. Production, production, production. Deadlines to meet, meetings here and presentations there. All these events trigger area’s within your brain that stimulate a process of increased muscular tension (‘positive stress’ and in many cases, ‘negative stress’). This tension never occurs just in one muscle, but always represents itself in a total body pattern of tightness. When this tightness, with its emotional components as well, will reach a certain threshold within your body, your body will start talking to you in an unpleasant language: pain, stiffness, tightness and numbness will be the words used. For instance, when exposed to stress, the most primal function in human existence, breathing, will be altered immediately. Your breathing frequency will increase and sometimes pauses will occur in between breaths. There will also be a higher chance for ‘anxiety-attacks’. Most headaches, back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome and any other type of Repetitive Strain Injury are definitely directly related to stress. In the same list of stress-induced injuries, certain heart & lung diseases, high blood pressure, strokes, hemorrhoids, impotence, insomnia and constipation can be mentioned. These are all dysfunctions within your system created by a habituated and increased ‘alertness’ of your neural system.

A simple example. Even now, at this moment that you are reading this, are you able to sense what type of breathing pattern you have and which muscles are helping you breathe ? Are you using the muscles in your neck, your shoulders, your chest, or your abdomen ? Are you breathing deep or shallow ? Do you have the skill to sense your own body and if so, are you at this moment able to consciously change your breathing pattern to a more efficient pattern ?

Knowing that the stress response creates a total body reflex pattern of tightness, it will be important that your employee can ‘disengage’ his/her own specific muscular pattern of increased tension. When you or your employee will have become self-sensing and self-correcting, the amounts of stress in the workplace will have been reduced and you or your employee will be able to make it through the day without discomfort. As well, a more productive and enjoyable work environment will have been created, resulting in less sick-time, less injuries and substantial savings for the company.

Workshops for you and your employees tailored to the specific needs of your company can be organized at your workplace. Please contact The Somatic Health Center for further information.

Injury Prevention Programs & Rehabilitation

For many businesses, it has become invaluable to have an ‘Injury Prevention Program’ in place. This can be related to stress relief (‘emotional fitness’), but also to improve physical fitness. Somatics can teach you and your employees the fundamental movement patterns for human existence. With minimal effort you will be able to detect tension within your own system and reverse the tension into muscular and emotional freedom. The increase in awareness over your own body will be very complimentary within your health program and will bring you to a new level of fitness. A higher level of somatic awareness will also show itself within its work environment, having a staff of more relaxed and more alert employees.

‘Injury Prevention Program’ – Workshops for you and your employees can be organized at your workplace. For employees who have been off work for a period of time, individual sessions in Somatic Rehabilitation can make the difference between long-term disability for life or the ability to be re-integrated into the workforce. Please contact The Somatic Health Center for further information.

Somatic Ergonomics in Dentistry

The Somatic Health Center is specialized in workshops for dental offices. The program consists of stress-reduction, reversing the physical strains of the profession (holding instruments very precisely in a forward bend position), movement education and injury prevention & treatment. As well, techniques for your clients in the dental chair will be demonstrated and experienced, creating an easier, less traumatic and less strenuous work environment for them as well as you, the dentist / dental hygienist. Your clients’ experience is nothing else but a ‘traumatic trigger of the Startle Reflex’ which closes off and protects the system. The result is a difficulty in opening the mouth, which doesn’t make the experience for the client and for the dentist any easier. Jaw problems can easily occur because of this and will only start resolving itself after the muscles that are chronically kept in this subconscious tension, will be disengaged from this reflex. In many cases, Somatic Rehabilitation can reverse the damaging effects of this reflex within only a few sessions.

‘Somatic Ergonomics in Dentistry’ – Workshops can be organized for your dental office. Please contact The Somatic Health Center for further information.