Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/68008
FOUNDATIONS OF SOMATIC PRACTICE First, we could divide somatics into inexact and overlapping areas of interest. • Spa and "fluff and buff" massage • Remedial massage • Sports massage • Body-centered psychotherapies • Energetics • Structural/integrative • Awareness/movement education (Forgive any omissions; I'm just trying to present a spectrum.) My personal interest as a consumer extends to all of these specialties; my interest as a practitioner is more focused on the last three or four; and as a teacher I confine myself to the last two. If your interests lie elsewhere in this list, adjust as you read to counter my prejudice. Secondly, I am well aware that suggesting higher education for somatic professionals goes against the trend in the industry right now, which centers around programs of primarily 500 –1,000 hours to produce competent practitioners ready for licensing. These events are structured as trainings—short, intensive courses designed to immerse the student in a craft, induce a confident state of mind, and convey the practical considerations that come with the territory. I attempt to run such a school myself, and believe such intensives are adequate for producing someone who is capable of going out there and becoming a competent practitioner with practice and continuing education. Trainings work. They probably will remain the primary foundation for skill-building and preparing a relaxation massage practitioner. Every other category in our field, however, is rapidly getting more complex, meaning that we need not only competent practitioners with ever more knowledge and background, but also connection to the researchers and people diving deeper into the field to support them. We need an education—a more extensive exploration of our field and all the factors that surround and affect it, preparing the student for a lifetime of productive navigating within an area of inquiry, just as an architectural degree does for architecture. Not everyone who builds a shed needs an architectural degree, but the things learned in such degree programs lead 80 massage & bodywork november/december 2008