How a Supple Somatic Centre Transforms Stress Into Movement
When Softness is Strength: The Joy of a Supple Somatic Centre
Sit still—eyes front. Stand up straight. Suck your tummy in.
Hold your breath if you want those jeans to fit.
Most of us have heard these instructions – at school, at home, in a fitness or yoga class, or even from a well-meaning friend. Maybe you still hear them in your own head.
These phrases make me flinch as a Certified Clinical Somatic Educator and SEP. I hear them all the time from clients – whether they’re recalling the past or sharing their current self-talk.
These phrases also appear everywhere in our culture, of course. Wrapped up in ideas about school and education, health and beauty, and how we “should” behave and hold ourselves, especially in public.
And they’re harmful.
There’s the emotional sting of those words, for a start – and the pain caused by trying to live up to impossible ideals around how we should look or behave.
But there’s more.
Why Trauma Healing Needs to Start in the Core
These messages teach us to tighten, restrict, and ignore one of the most important areas of your body: your Somatic centre – the area around your belly, lower back, and waist.
That centre? It needs to move. It needs to be free and responsive. When it’s not, when it’s held tight or constantly stiffened, it can cause real, damaging pain – both physical and emotional.
And no, that’s not an exaggeration.
When I first started this work, I was shocked by how many clients came to me not just with old injuries or chronic pain conditions, but with back pain, stiffness, and discomfort in everyday activities (like gardening, driving, even doing the dishes) and had no clue that the root issue wasn’t physical strain, weakness, or their “age”, but a build-up of stuck stress. Sometimes from trauma, yes – but just as often from years of trying to meet cultural expectations: sucking in their tummies, standing and sitting too upright, dressing to fit an image rather than their comfort.
Here’s the thing:
When you constantly pull in your belly, force yourself into a rigid posture, wear tight clothes, or keep still when your body wants to move? You reduce your ability to move freely, to breathe fully, and to feel at home in your own skin.
This sort of discomfort impacts your whole system. These habits of tightness, restriction, and tension? They create muscle tension that your body just isn’t built to carry long-term.
Humans are designed to move from the centre, to be supple at the centre… to release stress once it’s served its purpose, not hold on to it.
A soft, responsive centre lets us bend, run, breathe, rest, and live with ease.
The opposite – a held-in stomach, rigid sitting and standing, a tight ‘core’ – stores patterns of tension that block healthy, natural movement and restrict full breathing.
Over time, that makes everyday life feel harder. Harder than it needs to be.
It can lead to all kinds of symptoms: back pain, digestive issues, increasing stiffness (no, it’s not “your age”!), feeling stressed-out all the time, chronic pain conditions, and symptoms labelled as “medically unexplained”.
Even more than that, a tight centre can shut down your capacity for joy, connection, and living your life to the full.
Clinical Somatics is all about increasing your ability to release stress response patterns from your neuromuscular system, to ensure stress and trauma don’t stay stuck, and to enable you to move through life free from unnecessary stress and pain.
Having a supple centre, free from stuck stress, is a fundamental aim of Thomas Hanna’s Clinical Somatics (the work that underlies all that I do).
And Polyvagal Theory confirms that Thomas Hanna was right to make this a guiding principle:
Most of the messages about safety in our environment move from the gut to the brain.
So, if your belly is always tight, your body reads that as a sign you’re under threat, and your brain responds accordingly. It becomes almost impossible to feel safe, to truly rest, and to engage positively with the world and other people.
In other words, when your centre is stuck, your whole system believes you’re not okay.
Chronic Pain Recovery Starts in the Centre
And that has consequences for your health, your self-perception, your capacity to move and breathe, your emotional states, and your ability to heal.
Knowing this is relevant for anyone working with eating disorders or anyone navigating struggles with body image, for sure. But it’s hugely important for all issues where stress has become stuck, because embodying change means just that: the soma (your whole self) must be on board.
So, how to release this chronically stuck stress?
Unfortunately, when you’re stuck in a stress or trauma response pattern, your neuromuscular system has quite literally forgotten how to move, and you can’t simply “tell” it to change. So talk therapy alone, meditation, breath work, relaxation techniques, or telling yourself to let go? None of that will work (even if it might bring temporary relief, or other benefits).
Force won’t work, either: even stretching, including gentle stretching, will make things worse. (This was the biggest aha moment for me!)
How Body Image Therapy Can Benefit From Somatic Awareness
The answer lies in pandiculation – the fundamental technique used in Hanna’s Clinical Somatics. This brings conscious awareness to your areas of tightness and tension, enabling you to ease out of them gently, over time. (You can find out more about all this atsomaticsamantha.com)
Combining learning about pandiculation and your individual stuck patterns with embodied talk therapy, or with approaches rich in ‘felt sense’ work, is the most effective way to release over-tight muscles that show up with emotional as well as physical discomfort and pain.
So, to support real, lasting transformation – whether through trauma healing, emotional work, or reconnecting with joy – you need to rediscover your supple centre.
A centre that can move.
That can breathe.
That can experience all of life – the hard parts and the fun parts – with resilient suppleness and joyful ease.
The Impact of Tightness on the Nervous System
Tightness and Emotional Regulation
Muscle tightness can significantly disrupt the nervous system, leading to heightened stress responses and emotional dysregulation. When our muscles are tense, the body perceives it as a signal of threat, triggering the fight-or-flight response. This constant state of alertness can exhaust the nervous system, making it difficult to manage emotions effectively. Over time, this can contribute to chronic stress, anxiety, and even depression.
Understanding the connection between muscle tension and emotional health is essential for achieving holistic well-being. By addressing and releasing tightness, we can help the nervous system return to a state of balance, promoting relaxation and emotional stability. Techniques that encourage muscle release, such as Clinical Somatics, can be powerful tools in restoring the body’s natural state of calm and enhancing overall mental health.
Exploring the Pandiculation Technique
Benefits of Pandiculation in Somatics
Pandiculation is a gentle yet effective technique used in Clinical Somatics to retrain the brain and muscles to release chronic tension. Unlike traditional stretching, which can sometimes exacerbate tightness, pandiculation involves a conscious contraction and slow release of muscles. This process helps reset the muscle’s resting length and improves proprioception, the body’s sense of its position in space.
The benefits of pandiculation extend beyond physical relief. By engaging in this practice, individuals can experience a profound sense of relaxation and a deeper connection to their bodies. It empowers people to take control of their physical and emotional health, offering a pathway to healing that is both gentle and sustainable. As muscles learn to let go of tension, the nervous system can more effectively regulate stress, leading to improved overall well-being.
The Importance of Movement for Stress Release
Unlocking the Body's Potential for Healing
Who Benefits Most from Somatic Release
Essential Support for Those in Need
Somatic release is particularly beneficial for individuals who have experienced trauma, suffer from chronic pain, or are navigating recovery from eating disorders. These groups often carry deep-seated tension in their bodies, which can manifest as physical discomfort and emotional distress. By engaging in somatic practices, they can learn to release this tension, fostering a sense of safety and well-being. This approach is crucial for those looking to reconnect with their bodies and heal from past experiences.
For people with a history of trauma, somatic release offers a pathway to reclaim their bodies and emotions. It helps them break free from the cycle of pain and stress that often accompanies traumatic memories. Similarly, individuals dealing with chronic pain find relief through somatic practices, which teach them to move with ease and reduce discomfort. Those recovering from eating disorders benefit from the gentle reconnection with their bodies, promoting a healthier relationship with food and self-image.
Samantha Holland
Samantha Holland, PhD, is a Certified Clinical Somatic Educator and SEP who specialises in chronic pain and trauma, and in helping SEPs, counsellors & psychotherapists confidently integrate Clinical Somatics into their practice – to get better outcomes for clients stuck in physical pain and repetitive patterns, and to experience more comfort & ease in their own soma. Samantha has been a university lecturer, practising barrister, overseas volunteer, academic copy-editor, student of anthrozoology, and counsellor. She suffered from intense chronic neck, hip, shoulder and wrist pain for well over a decade – then changed her life to teach Somatics after discovering it for herself and resolving the worst of her pain in a matter of weeks, when nothing else had worked.
Unlock the Power of Somatic Healing
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