BRUCE
WOCHHOLZ

SOMATICS WEB RESOURCES AND NEW MEMBERLINKS ON AHPWEB

What is Somatics? . . . Thomas Hanna defined somatics as ?. . . the field of study dealing with somatic phenomena, i.e. the human being as experienced by himself (or herself) from the inside . . . .? {He created the word ?somatics? in 1976 to name the approaches to mind/ body integration . . . . Somatics is a method for reawakening the mind’s control of movement, flexibility, and health. . . . The Novato Institute . . . is committed to the actualization of full human potential for all people within a healthy environmental context. — Eleanor Criswell Hanna

WEB RESOURCES

The April 2001 All Somatics Perspective issue contained articles on the following two resources.

Yamuna Zake’s Body Rolling is a therapeutic self-care practice for body therapy practitioners and an educational tool used by body therapists to empower clients to develop a deeper and more subtle relationship with their own bodies, which improves any type of body-oriented practice, from massage and physical therapy to bodywork, yoga teaching, fitness training, and somatic therapies such as Feldenkrais and Alexander technique.

Ilana Rubenfeld has been called “the Great Mother of the body-oriented therapy movement,” a world recognized pioneer in integrating psychotherapy, intuition, and bodywork. She is the founder of the Rubenfeld Synergy Method, an approach to personal development and healing—physical, emotional, and spiritual—a gentle, non-invasive therapy that combines touch, talk, and movement and views the individual as a whole being capable of self-healing, self-regulation, growth, and change. In 1994, Ilana was given the Pathfinder Award by AHP.

Welcome to Somatics is an online resource center, featuring information on somatic education, health care, and science. The Somatics Web Ring, an “internetwork” of everything somatics on the web, and Somatics Center, a companion site, include links, a library, extensive resources, and a wide variety of somatics-related websites from around the world. The Novato Institute for Somatic Research and Training was founded in 1975 by Thomas Hanna and Eleanor Criswell Hanna and is devoted to somatics theory, practice, and research.

Guild for Structural Integration (Rolfing), is dedicated to the traditional teachings of Dr. Ida P. Rolf. The product of her life’s work and teaching is the “Recipe”; a ten-session sequence of structural, fascial, and educational goals, which establishes order in human structures. From Germany, Robert Schleip practices both Rolfing and the Feldenkrais Method. His site has a variety of international links and resources for structural and functional integrative therapies.

Functional integration is exemplified in the Feldenkrais Guild, established by Moshe Feldenkrais in 1977 to be the professional organization of practitioners and teachers of the Feldenkrais Method, which directly addresses the question of how to facilitate the learning that is necessary for organizing the whole self and recovering excluded and unconsidered movement patterns or actions. This is done by expanding the selfimage through movement sequences that bring attention to the parts of the self that are out of awareness and uninvolved in functional actions.

Alexander Technique International is a worldwide organization of Alexander teachers, students, and supporters of the Alexander Technique created to promote and advance the work discovered by F. M. Alexander. The common factor in all aspects of life is that how we are using ourselves, the way we do things, affects the results we get. This is also essentially a preventative technique to improve and maintain our health.

The Complete Guide to the Alexander Technique index provides a wealth of available international translations of resources and links.

The Alexander Technique and Tai Chi Chuan website describes how Tai Chi principles point to, or describe, a state of being “how we would like to be.” The Alexander work provides directions with which we can move toward that state.

Reiki literally means “universal life force energy” and is a method of natural healing based on its application. “Ki” is the same word as Chi or Qi, the Chinese word for the energy that underlies everything. Reiki is a system for channeling that energy to someone for the purpose of healing. Since there is no time and space to limit spirit, Reiki can operate without regard to limitations of space and can bring healing to a recipient regardless of distance.

The American Organization for Bodywork Therapies of Asia (AOBTA) is a national notfor- profit professional association of practitioners of Bodywork Therapies of Asia. All forms that are recognized by AOBTA originally had their roots in China. Over the centuries, China, Japan, Thailand, Korea, and more recently, North America and Europe, have changed and evolved these forms into separate and distinct modalities. AOBTA accepts all forms of Asian Bodywork Therapies that meet their professional level curriculum.

Today, a more comprehensive view of human nature is developing. It recognizes our personal uniqueness as well as a transpersonal dimension, something which is beyond our individual egos, and yet still is a part of us. Based on observations and practices from many cultures, the transpersonal perspective is informed by modern psychology, the humanities and human sciences, as well as contemporary spiritual disciplines and the wisdom traditions.

The ATP Guide to the Transpersonal Internet links and content areas include the WWW Virtual Library Online Resources for Transpersonal Psychology. As Roger Walsh and Francis Vaughn observed in 1993: Transpersonal experiences may be defined as experiences in which the sense of identity of self extends beyond (trans) the individual or personal to encompass wider aspects of humankind, life, psyche or cosmos.

MEMBERLINKS

Doris Jeanette’s love your body site highlights The New Psychology—it is not psychotherapy as it is practiced today. The way to health and happiness is to allow pure energy to flow in the physical body. The New Psychology works directly with the body, the nervous system and the emotions to create the vital energy the body needs to grow and flourish.

On her healing words site, Sally Watkins, a Life Coach and Psychotherapist, describes how her work utilizes Jungian archetypes, synchronicity, the hero’s journey, intuition, guided imagery, psycho-synthesis, and Gestalt practices to uncover the deep wisdom in each of us.

BRUCE WOCHHOLZ, ahpweb Content Developer, is an AHP member who contributes his experience in health education, gerontology, and humanistic psychology and expert knowledge of web content and architecture to AHP publications. In addition to writing this column, he will also be helping AHP to explore "e-learning" and distance education opportunities. Note: Members are encouraged to submit sites for consideration for Web Resources and AHP Memberlinks to Kathleen Erickson, at EricksonEditorial@att.net or AHP, 1516 Oak St., Suite 320A, Alameda, CA 94501. These sites and more can be reached through ahpweb.org. Click on Web Resources and Memberlinks. Your next issue of AHP Perspective will be a Somatics issue, so if you have submissions, please send them in as soon as possible. Sites for review in the Perspective must be primarily educational or informational, and relate closely to AHP’s interests. AHP member submissions for the Memberlinks section may emphasize current members’ services, books, workshops, tapes, or other commercial offerings.