somatic movement for chronic low back pain

Is your world getting smaller because of your pain?

Maybe you used to hike, garden, golf, or just pick up your grandkids without thinking twice. Now you're negotiating with your own body before every move.

And the advice doesn't help. Don't bend over. Don't sleep on your side. Don't cross your legs. One practitioner tells you to strengthen it, the next tells you to rest it, Instagram tells you it's your posture, TikTok tells you it's your core. You've followed the rules and you're still in pain, so you've started shrinking your life just to avoid triggering it.

Here's what nobody's told you: your pain probably isn't a structural problem. It's a learned pattern, and learned patterns can be unlearned.

Why your body got "stuck"

Imagine walking through a field of tall grass. The first time, you pick a path and stomp the grass down as you go. The next time, you take that same path because it's easier than cutting a new one. Do that enough times a day, for long enough, and you forget the rest of the field even exists. That path becomes the only way you know to cross.

Your body works the same way. An old injury, a surgery, a stressful season of life, or just years of repeating the same movement, and your brain finds a "path" that protects you. Your muscles learn to hold a certain way. Over time, your nervous system forgets it has other options. The muscles stay clenched even when there's nothing left to protect against. Physical therapists call this Sensory Motor Amnesia (SMA). Your brain has quite literally lost conscious control of those muscles.

This is why stretching, massage, and even strength training so often give you relief that doesn't last. You're tending the grass. You're not teaching your brain a new path.

The way back: pandiculation

Somatic movement education, developed by Thomas Hanna, teaches your brain to release those learned contractions through a slow, gentle technique called pandiculation. Instead of forcing a stretch, you actively engage the tight muscle first, then slowly release it. That sends your brain a clear, new signal: you're safe to let this go.

With practice, your nervous system starts remembering the rest of the field. You regain movement options you didn't know you'd lost, often the exact ones that had gone quiet around your pain.

What you get back

This isn't another appointment to book, another practitioner to depend on, or one more contradictory rule to follow. It's a skill you build, one that puts you back in charge of your own body instead of handing that job to someone else for the rest of your life.

Clients report less pain, yes. But also better sleep, lower stress, and a body that finally feels like it's working with them instead of against them.

You don't need someone to keep fixing you. You need to re-educate the brain-body connection that got you here, and learn to keep it that way yourself.