Diverse Bodies, Diverse Practices: Toward an Inclusive Somatics

What makes their work possible in a world riven by conflict is that they are operating on the subconceptual, nonideological level, where the sensations of rhythm, movement, sound, and words felt in the throat and mouth take precedence over the ethereal philosophies and theologies that are used

is “the mother tongue” (Le Guin, 1986), a binding form of subjective and conversational expression that covets “a turning together,” a relationship between author and reader. Voiced in a language of emotions and personal experience, the mother tongue exposes rather than protects the speaker through a medium that can bring author and reader closer t

Sometimes I place my hand on the center, massaging it gently like you would a clenched muscle. The goal is to disperse the sensation so that my whole body can be used to digest and metabolize it, so it does not just become an acute burden for a small part of me to manage.

This is a way in which power dynamics perpetuate, by continuously focusing on how the marginalized or oppressed can better communicate to get those with more power or privilege to listen. We know that is not real. We know that if people are not willing

“mind” from “body,” a virus that was harmful not only to infected individuals but to larger communities when it became a weapon used to justify colonialism, slavery, displacement of tribal peoples, and ravaging the earth. We always knew that different viruses were alive in other parts of the world, and that wise people were crafting other ways to d

The original innovators of somatics emerged in the climate of two World Wars, the Holocaust, and the residues of slavery in the United States and the devastations of our indigenous populations. Most of them were fully aware that personal and small-group healing, though necessary, was not enough to assure a truly human life within institutions that

even though they intellectually recognized the equality of men and women, that recognition was not embodied in their patriarchal stances. In addition, they held unquestioned assumptions about sexuality—ideally penis in vagina with simultaneous orgasms—which

monographs are confined mainly to what Le Guin (1986) refers to as “the father tongue,” a high-minded mode of expression that embraces objectivity. Spoken from above, the father tongue runs the risk of distancing the writer from the reader, creating a gap between self and other. What is

am holding the tension of centering my own white, wealthy body in this writing, while knowing my body should never be at the center of the collective liberation I put my reflection in service of. I am