Somatic: soma is ‘of the body’, being able to be in a relationship with the body and to support the body to do what it needs to do to be healthy. This may involve releasing what we hold physically in the
Embodiment and Sensory Systems
body (ie a trauma response).
…somatic psychology, a field which among other things studies how the organization and functioning of the psyche are entwined with the organization and usage of the body.
Walker, Nick. Neuroqueer Heresies: Notes on the Neurodiversity Paradigm, Autistic Empowerment, and Postnormal Possibilities (p. 170). Autonomous Press.
The field of somatic psychology encompasses a broad, diverse, and evolving realm of theories and practices, united by two central principles; these same principles underlie the transformative capacities of numerous practices from a wide diversity of cultures—various martial arts, yogic and ecstatic traditions, bodywork methods, embodiment-focused mindfulness techniques, and more—which are sometimes collectively referred to as somatic practices. The first principle is that body and mind are a single unified system. The psyche or self is constructed and organized somatically; subjective experience and the workings of the psyche are inextricably entwined with specific embodiments. Consciousness, experience, perspectives, mindsets, attitudes, sense of self, and capacities for feeling, cognition, and action are grounded in—and shaped and delimited by—ingrained habits of bodily usage and bodily organization, including habits of tension, relaxation, excitation, posture, breath, restriction, and movement. The second principle follows from the first: since the dynamics of the psyche are grounded in the organization and usage of the body, intentional alterations to the habitual organization and use of the body can effect profound transformations of the psyche (Grand, 1978, 2015a, 2015b; Heckler, 1984; Walker, 2019).
From a somatically-informed perspective, then, the states of psychological rigidity and reactivity that are obstacles to creativity are entwined with and anchored in chronic bodily rigidities. These bodily rigidities, which Reich (1933/1972a) referred to as character armor, have little to do with stiffness or flexibility in the conventional athletic sense; one’s degree of prejudice or open-mindedness cannot be measured by how easily one can touch one’s toes. Rather, the rigidities in question are deeply ingrained and largely unconscious patterns of habitual muscular tension or “holding,” which originate as instinctual defensive reactions to frightening or traumatic events, attempts to adapt to external demands in the developmental environment, or self-protective efforts to suppress feelings, excitations, and/or selfexpressions that are unsafe or unacceptable in the developmental environment (Conger, 1994; Grand, 1978, 2015b; Heckler, 1984).
The Use of Transformative Somatic Practices in Processes of Collective Imagination and Collaborative Future-Shaping – Nick Walker
Somatic Practices
Somatic practices can be used to help people release themselves from the constraints of their character armor and other limiting ingrained patterns of embodiment, which in turn can serve to relax whatever mental inflexibilities and limitations on creativity are entwined with those bodily patterns (Grand, 1978, 2015b). There are numerous practices—ranging from vigorous approaches based in dance, martial arts, and physical theatre to slower and more contemplative movement practices—that can help to facilitate transcendence of ingrained habits of self-limitation (Johnson, 1995, 2018). For releasing character armor, practices with roots in the work of Wilhelm Reich, such as the bioenergetic approach developed by Lowen, can be particularly effective (Conger, 1994).
The Use of Transformative Somatic Practices in Processes of Collective Imagination and Collaborative Future-Shaping – Nick Walker
Somatics and Cognitive Liberty
Q: How does your training in somatics (both as a therapeutic orientation and your aikido background) factor into your work in the Neurodiversity Movement?
I see cognitive liberty as a core value of the Neurodiversity Movement.
The term cognitive liberty was coined by Wrye Sententia and Richard Glen Boire, the founders of the Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics. Cognitive liberty as an ethical value boils down to the idea that individuals have the right to absolute sovereignty over their own brains and their own cognitive processes. Advocates of cognitive liberty often break this idea down into two fundamental guiding ethical principles (originally inspired by the two “commandments” offered by Timothy Leary in The Politics of Ecstasy):
- Individuals have the right to not have their brains and cognitive processes tampered with non-consensually.
- Individuals have the right to tamper with their own brains and cognitive processes, or to voluntarily have them tampered with, in any way they choose.
Those of us who are deeply involved in transformative somatic practices or in the field of Somatic Psychology understand that the psyche is somatically organized, which means that each individual’s distinctive neurocognitive processes are intimately entwined with that individual’s style of movement and embodiment. Changes in movement and embodiment create changes in cognition.
This means that to tamper with a person’s unique individual style of movement and embodiment (for instance, through the behaviorist techniques that are frequently used to make autistic children suppress the outward signs of autism) is to tamper with that person’s cognition, and thus to violate their cognitive liberty.
In other words, freedom of embodiment—that is, the freedom to indulge, adopt, and/or experiment with any styles or quirks of movement and embodiment, whether they come naturally to one or whether one chooses them—is an essential element of cognitive liberty, and thus an essential area of focus for the Neurodiversity Movement. The freedom to be autistic necessarily includes the freedom to give bodily expression to one’s neurodivergence.
Walker, Nick. Neuroqueer Heresies: Notes on the Neurodiversity Paradigm, Autistic Empowerment, and Postnormal Possibilities (pp. 142-143). Autonomous Press.
Neurodiversity and Somatic Psychology
For somatically-oriented psychotherapists, one important implication of all this is that autistic clients will often have acquired habitual unconscious tensions (what Wilhelm Reich referred to as character armor) that prevent them from giving full expression to the movement style that is natural and optimal for them. These tensions will tend to be especially severe and deep-rooted in clients who, in childhood, were frequently shamed or otherwise abused for their physical expressions of neurodivergence, or who were subjected to behaviorist “therapies” or other forms of coerced physical conformity.
An integration of the neurodiversity paradigm into the field of Somatic Psychology would include the recognition of these habitual tensions as somatic manifestations of internalized oppression. And it seems to me that somatically-oriented psychotherapists, once they have embraced the neurodiversity paradigm, are uniquely qualified to assist autistic clients in the task of liberating themselves from the bonds of such tensions, and thus recovering their capacity for giving full expression to their unique potentials.
Walker, Nick. Neuroqueer Heresies: Notes on the Neurodiversity Paradigm, Autistic Empowerment, and Postnormal Possibilities (p. 143). Autonomous Press..
Neuroqueering as Somatic Praxis
My own work has been focused primarily on two aspects of neuroqueer(ing). The first aspect is neuroqueering as embodied practice—playing with the synthesis of the neurodiversity paradigm, queer theory, the field of somatic psychology, and transformative movement practices like aikido and physical theater. Neuroqueering as somatic praxis has been central to my conception of neuroqueer from the start.
Walker, Nick. Neuroqueer Heresies: Notes on the Neurodiversity Paradigm, Autistic Empowerment, and Postnormal Possibilities (p. 164-165). Autonomous Press.
Neuroqueering as somatic praxis has been central to my conception of neuroqueer from the start.
Walker, Nick. Neuroqueer Heresies: Notes on the Neurodiversity Paradigm, Autistic Empowerment, and Postnormal Possibilities (p. 165). Autonomous Press.
