“I have more of a sense of ease and less pain with daily activities.”

The end result of your somatic self-discovery is you unlocking your full potential:

• Providing you with strategies and tools to manage, reduce and/or completely resolve pain on your own
• Preventing recurring injuries by changing how your brain communicates information to your muscles to prepare for movement
• Increasing your mobility, energy, strength, coordination and balance
• To increase muscle function in preparation for surgery or to restore muscle function after surgery
• Establishing a sense of relaxation and ease in your body, breath, mind and spirit
• Improving your quality of life as you gain more freedom and choice through your movements so you can do what you love to do for as long as you want to
• Complementing and supporting physiotherapy, massage therapy, chiropractic, acupuncture and other methods of healthcare
• Turning your attention inward to reconnect to yourself on a physical level as a complement to talk or trauma therapy

No, Clinical Somatic Education can be practiced at any age with no previous experience.

Creating a quiet space for a daily somatic movement practice of 15 minutes at home will help you to teach your brain and muscles how to move more effectively and efficiently, re-establishing freedom and ease in your movements.

For some there will be a noticeable difference within one private session or group class to one week of beginning their practice, however, if you’ve had long-standing Sensory Motor Amnesia from experiencing years of stress or compensatory movement patterns it may take longer to re-pattern your movements to release the muscle tension they have been holding.

Clients of Yoga Therapy seek out this practice to help them find relief from a symptom or health condition they are experiencing.  They may not have the mobility, stability, strength, or balance to attend a regular yoga class.  An individual intake and assessment is done through listening, questioning, observing and appropriate touch.  Alana will identify and share methods that may include breath work, somatic movement, or guided meditation practice dependent upon the individual client’s needs.  



A personalized program for home practice will then be provided to help the client take an active role in their self-care that best supports and empowers them to manage or reduce their symptoms.  Clinical Somatic Education and Yoga Therapy are complementary to each other.

Clinical Somatic Education sessions and Somatic Movement Education Group classes will both provide you with a means to support you in self-sensing, self-guiding, self-correcting, and self-actualizing to reach your greatest potential.

Clinical Somatic Education Private Session:

In a Clinical session the focus is on your individual health concerns. Your movement patterns will be assessed to determine where you are holding muscle tension from stress reflexes that are the root cause of your tension or pain. You are then guided through hands-on clinical somatic education techniques encouraging you to grow your awareness of where you are holding habituated muscle tension (Sensory Motor Amnesia) and how to gently release it to improve muscle function and decrease discomfort.

You may also learn breath practices or receive guided meditation. Your practice will vary each session depending on what your needs are on that specific day. These sessions are done while laying on a table similar to a massage table, sitting in a chair, or standing. As Clinical sessions are focussed solely on your individual needs with hands-on guidance, you will find a faster transformation in your movement patterns than in a group class.

It is recommended that 3-6 clinical sessions be attended followed up by establishing a home practice to continue your self-discovery and transformation in how you move.

Somatic Movement Education Group Classes

Bring your curiosity to discover where you hold muscle tension and learn self-care practices that will empower you to move with more ease, freedom, and joy. You will learn about the stress reflexes and how they may be impacting your movements creating tension or pain.

We will explore slow, gentle, mindful somatic movements educating you to release muscle tension through the front, back, and sides of the body, the hips, shoulders, and the periphery depending upon the focus of the class.

You will always be encouraged to move in your tension and pain free range of motion, allowing for the body to trust in this process of restoring health and wellbeing. These movement practices are explored on the floor, standing, or sitting in a chair. We may also explore breath practices and guided meditation.

Whether you choose Clinical sessions or Group classes, you will be provided with a typed description in a pdf format to support you in continuing to develop your home practice and journey to more mastery and freedom in your movements and abundant choice in the daily activities you wish to participate in.

Clinical Somatic Education looks at how we may be holding tension through the centre of the body that may be affecting the periphery. We look globally as well as locally to where you are holding tension. There may be a full body pattern that is inhibiting the freedom of your movements and causing pain in a specific area. it is imperative to begin with movements that address muscle tension being held in the large muscles of the front, back and sides of the body that may be impacting the periphery before focusing on a specific area. The pain is not always where the problem is.

Once you have received approval from your doctor for movement Clinical Somatics would be appropriate. As you recover from your surgery your brain will learn to adapt to dysfunctional movement patterns to try and relieve the stressor caused by the surgery. This causes habituated muscle tension and dysfunctional movements resulting in your limited mobility, discomfort, or pain.

Yes! As an athlete there will be repetitive movements that you perform in the sport you love to play and excel at. This may cause habituated tension that will impede the full range of motion available to you. Somatic Education will help you to find an optimum resting length for your muscles creating a fuller range of motion to increase your strength, mobility and balance.