FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions
Natural approaches to healing and recovery are gaining ground. In fact, in 2017, the ACP (American College of Physicians) are saying "this is the first thing to do to relieve pain".
The approach of alternative medicine morphed into complimentary alternative medicine (CAM). This is now called Integrative Medicine which covers a wider array of approaches such as…
Hanna Somatic Education® (HSE) or Somatics (for short) is proven to restore comfort and feelings of well-being for the following conditions.
How does this get rid of pain?
Will this help me become more flexible, get better range of motion and not feel so stiff?
How long does it take? What kind of timeline are we talking about?
Will this help with my neck, back, hips, knees, hands, feet, leg, eyes, etc.?
Can this help with anxiety and nervousness?
Will this help with my neck, back, hips, knees, hands, feet, leg, eyes, etc.?
Who else has gotten help with this?
What if I have a history of pain and compensations or am not quite sure you can help me?
How is this different from other exercise programs?
But what I’m not quite sure if I can do this?
If this method works so well, why hasn’t my doctor heard of it?
Q: How will this help me?
A: This approach helps you:
- Confidently return back to comfort
- Decrease pain effectively & naturally without any drugs
- Ease tension back to neutral
- Take the edge off of stress
- Calms the nervous system
- Speeds up healing
Q: How long does it take? What kind of timeline are we talking about?
A: Your brain will reset tension levels immediately. As you become more familiar how to do it, you get much better.
With our understanding of neural plasticity, your brain and body will recover as fast as it can.
It all depend on your personal history and present circumstances.
Some people will feel the subtle changes taking place quite quickly. Others will need the time it takes to rewire the nervous system and get used to newer and enhanced levels of coordination.
We know it takes 16 weeks to make a more lasting genetic change.
The brain and body will be undergoing this change so it needs time to reorganize and get used to it as the nervous system is able to shift back to comfort more easily.
You can gradually unwind compensations such as an elevated or rotated hip.
Other compensations such as in the spine, need a gradual rewiring and rebuilding phase.
In the meantime, the brain will be reversing course. Instead of going haywire, as it can with pain and inflammation. Brain programs are being rewritten to work for you in the long run.
Q: Will this help with my neck, back, hips, knees, hands, feet, leg, eyes, etc.?
A: Yes! While we can focus on a specific part, your body is a whole unit and will be treated as such since there are 17 layers of muscles and fascia to reorganize.
In fact, it's not unusual to experience an improvement in a different part of your body and learn there is some improvement to be made elsewhere which you can easily do.
A lot of people use this somatics approach for back pain remedies and chronic back pain relief, but realize that the body as a whole becomes the focal point.
- Get the nervous system to more relaxed states.
- Feel greater control and more self-assure.
- Understand how your nervous system works for you and how you can feel it to reset it back to comfort.
Q: What will this do for me?
A: Yes! You will learn how to:
• Effectively decrease your pain and control it by yourself naturally without any drugs
• Achieve chronic pain relief in a manner you never thought possible
• Recover from injury more quickly and confidently since you are in control
• Be able to ease your guardedness and stiffness by yourself
• Be able to take yourself to states of comfort and relaxation with not a lot of effort
• Feel less anxious, less nervous and more self-assure with greater control
• Speeds up healing
• Deal with handle with stress easily
• Release muscle spasms or cramps
• Increase your flexibility instantly
• Increase your comfortable range of motion naturally
• Develop a better sense of body awareness which help to improve posture
• Understand your nervous system and how you can reset it back to comfort
• Increase your focus, attention and self-awareness
• Sleep more easily
• Feel a sense of increased vitality
• Get stronger
Q: What results can I expect?
A: You’ll learn how to do the following yourself
• Increase comfort in the muscles and fascia to get pain relief quickly
• Improve mobility, flexibility and agility with a greater range of muscle stretching
• Readily decrease and handle stress
• Protect yourself from injury or release the binds from guarding so you can get right back into life…
• Develop a better sleep habit
• Enjoy chronic back pain relief
• Gain better balance
• Move much easier and gain greater range of motion without trying
• Feel yourself get stronger and more coordinated…
• Increase focus and attention
• Improve digestion
• Feel more confident to move successfully in new endeavors
Q: Will this help with my neck, back, hips, knees, hands, feet, leg, eyes, etc.?
A:Yes!
While we can focus on a specific part, your body is a whole unit and will be treated as such.
In fact, it’s not unusual to experience an improvement in a different part of your body and learn there is some improvement to be made elsewhere which you can easily do.
A lot of people come to somatics for back pain remedies and chronic back pain relief, but realize that the body as a whole should be your focus.
Q: Who else has gotten help with this?
A: All sorts of people.
You can watch some videos and read more what people have to say about this approach.
Q: What if I have a history of pain and compensations or am not quite sure you can help me?
A: The less of a history you have the sooner you’ll be on the road to recovery and rejuvenation.
If you have a longer history of compensations and issues, then your road back may take a little longer since you are first de-compensating troubling patterns ( i.e. how you have been moving) and then you’ll be adding in a movement software update which you’ll adjust to.
Research shows that it takes 16 weeks to make a genetic change.
This is what you'll be able to accomplish.
First, you take out the weeds, if you will. Then the process of a new you begins.
You'll learn how to adjust as your brain makes more chemicals of relaxation during the rewiring process.
Pain levels will decrease as you continue self-adjusting.
Naturally, there can be hiccups much like a software update. Yet the body will re-adjust as quickly as it can so it will smooth out and operate at higher levels of function.
Q: Is this exercise?
A: No. Not in the usual sense or manner.
This is quite the reverse since you will be targeting a different part of the brain.
The somatics exercises, which are a misnomer, have more to do with movement and the quality and feel of how you engage and disengage a particular movement.
The movements are done in a very easy, gentle, relaxed manner.
The less you do and the more you focus on the feel will give you faster results.
You’ll be more focused on movement and learning how to find an easy way to sense self-corrections which integrates your ability to move more successfully and confidently.
The movements are simple and easy.
I call them un-exercise since you’ll be learning how to un-do stiffness, un-lock immobility or guarding and un-learn patterns which are no longer useful.
The good news is you don’t even have to do them.
You can merely imagine yourself doing the movements and your body will still benefit and the rewiring of the nervous system will take place.
Myself, I actually mangled them initially since my focus was on doing them like exercise until I learned to do it another way, the very way you’ll quickly re-establish.
What makes this more powerful than exercise is that you are using the brain’s ability to reset the muscles and create the necessary chemicals of relaxation which you’ll be able to do.
With a focused approach to moving yourself probably slower and less than you would expect, you can expect to surprise yourself at what seems like you’re doing nothing but dinky little movements which can make such positive changes.
Q: How is this different from other exercise programs?
A:This has more to do with rewiring the nervous system so it can shift back to comfort more readily.
First, you are specifically targeting a process of resetting your muscles with your brain’s motor cortex, which no other exercise program does.
Stretching or strengthening exercises can’t reset your muscle tension since they are not targeting that part of the brain.
In fact, traditional muscle stretching is harmful according to the research, so you’ll learn what healthy vertebrate animals and babies naturally do to self-correct, through proper muscle lengthening by using the muscles rather than stretching the muscles.
To self-correct and change through a cortical process has to be specific and intentional.
You will learn how to apply a specific 3 step method which makes it easy to follow along.
We use this 3 step method with the process called a pandiculation.
This act is the heart of somatics exercises where you learn how to consciously use your muscles, feel them as accurately as you can… and then consciously pay attention to how you let go.
When animals pandiculate, you’ll see them stretching but they are not stretching.
Animals are tightening or contracting certain muscles along a series or chain of muscles -- and it is done during a movement -- rather than holding on for a length of time.
The reset allows them to maintain agility and mobility.
The mobility is what sets us up to maintain natural flexibility which allows us to remain sufficiently strong since you will be reminding the muscles of their function.
These reminders follow along the use it or lose it principles of neural plasticity.
Q: If this method works so well, why hasn’t my doctor heard of it?
A:First, most doctors and even physical trainers aren't yet aware of this.
In 1680, Herman Boerhaave, the founder of clinical medicine noted that pandiculations bring the muscles to rest.
In Europe, they have been working for quite some with various types of sensory-motor modalities such as this one.
Thomas Hanna, who wrote Somatics (1988) systematized pandiculations as somatics exercises and created Hanna Somatic Education.
Modern day Somatics has been with us over 100 years now.
A key distinction is in the holistic body wide approach which encompasses the brain, mind and body.
U.S. doctors mainly look at pathologies and seem to treat muscular pain with medicine, whereas this doesn’t fix the problem nor does it get to the root of the matter where the brain can reverse course.
Instead of producing inflammation. This can be reversed when the nervous system begins to adjust back to neutral.
We can self-empower ourself and learn how to soothe, ease and repair our muscles & nervous system from a standpoint of self-awareness using the brain as the change agent.
Many doctors are coming on board after being frustrated themselves since we all want successful outcomes in the area of health & well-being.
New for 2017
The American College of Physicians (ACP) are now saying "this is the first thing to do to relieve pain".
What they are referring to do is what is known as MCE, MBSR, and PR.
Our system - known as somatics exercises is a combination of MCE (motor control exercises), MBSR (mindful-based stress reduction), and PR (progressive relaxation).
In effect, you get a 3 for 1.
Q: How can I get help?
A: Please call 360-329-2730.
You can access our online programs or work directly with me over the internet.
Check our products/services where we have books, classes, videos, audios, workshops and coaching programs to meet your needs wherever you have an online connection.
So here’s what a few people have been saying:
Thanks so much for your work!!!
- Mariya, Washington
“You’ve given me the gift of movement for which I am very thankful”
- Joyce, Massachusetts
I’m really making great progress!
- Carlton, Texas
I am having amazing results.
- Heather, Canada
Ed Barrera is a Hanna Somatic Educator®, Holistic Health Advisor and author of Amazon Bestseller Move Like an Animal with over 20 years of experience, helping people find natural pain relief through somatics exercises which are the reverse to most approaches since it is a brain and body un-exercise system to muscle lengthening, recovery, relaxation and control.
Essentially it's motor control exercises (MCE), mindful-based stress reduction (MBSR) and progressive relaxation all rolled into one which now the American College of Physicians (ACP) are saying is "the first thing to do relieve pain".
We use conscious gentle body movements that targets the brain’s motor cortex to reset the nervous system back to comfort and along the way you get into deeper states of relaxation.
This leads to a healthy, fully-functional body.
Muscle range of motion, recovery, relaxation and control are restored by this "alternative to exercise” approach; plus it's natural pain relief that actually works!
The brain is a pathway to a healthy, fully-functional body. It’s not just “alternative medicines” or “an alternative to exercise”; it’s natural pain relief that actually works!
If you’re unfamiliar with the somatics, visit our What is Somatics? page, where we define somatics and explain more about it and how it can help you direct your “well being” towards natural healing and pain relief.