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Essential Somatics

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Manitou Springs, CO
Essential Somatics

Essential Somatics is a revolutionary approach to eliminating muscle pain. It's safe, easy, and common sense. Learn to move without pain!

It goes to the root of most chronic muscular pain: the brain and its control of muscles and movement. Since 2010, Essential Somatics® has grown from a small solo practice to a team of highly skilled and devoted Clinical Somatic Educators who teach multi-day introductory courses, clinical certification trainings, and embodied movement for corporate leadership. The trainings we provide are offered in the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Europe. The teachings of Somatic Education have helped thousands of people worldwide to return to a more vibrant life of movement, self-agency, and awareness.

03/24/2026

We just finished Module 1 of this year’s ESMTT training, and these are some behind-the-scenes moments from the program.

It’s nine months. That sounds like a long time, but there’s no way to compress this and have people actually understand what they’re doing.

A lot of the year is spent on the floor. The students are experiencing the movements in their own bodies first, because you can’t teach this if you haven’t felt it yourself. You can’t guide someone through releasing a pattern you’ve never released in your own nervous system.

They’re learning the theory too - the neurophysiology, the reflex patterns, how chronic tension develops. But the real learning happens when you can feel the difference between contracting and slowly releasing, when you start to recognize the patterns in yourself and then see them in other people.

Those who graduate from the ESMTT understand Clinical Somatic Education and Somatic Movement in a way that truly allows them to help people. Not because they memorized the sequences, but because they’ve done the work themselves and understand that this is the start point for every good Somatic Movement teacher.

That’s what makes the difference.

03/22/2026

There’s a reason we chose the mountains of Portugal for our retreat

We could host retreats anywhere. A beach resort. A city hotel. Somewhere easier to get to, closer to an airport, more convenient.

But we don’t.

Because the environment matters more than you might think.
Clinical Somatic Education asks something of you that daily life rarely does: it asks you to slow down, turn your attention inward, and notice what’s actually happening in your body.

That’s genuinely difficult to do when you’re surrounded by noise, obligation, and the familiar pull of your usual routine.

Vale de Moses sits 500 meters above sea level in the hills of central Portugal. The yoga shala is built of wood and glass with floor-to-ceiling windows framing views of forested hillsides.

Walking paths wind through the property and into the surrounding countryside. The Rio Zêzere flows a few miles away.

October means mild days and cool evenings. The temperature drops after sunset, creating natural rhythms of activity and rest. The mountain air, the sight lines to distant hills, being somewhere genuinely different - all of it gives your nervous system permission to soften in ways it won’t in familiar surroundings.

We’ve found that people work differently in these settings. The nervous system softens when it feels safe and unhurried. And when the nervous system softens, the work goes deeper than it ever could in a classroom or online.

The setting does some of the teaching alongside Martha. That’s why we keep coming back to places like this. That’s why we chose the mountains of Portugal.

October 19-24, 2026. 20 spaces. Early bird pricing ends June 8.

Comment RETREAT below and we’ll send more info!

03/20/2026

That stiff back when you wake up isn’t about your mattress.

Your nervous system doesn’t stop holding tension just because you’re asleep. The same tension patterns your brain learned during the day - the Red Light reflex, the Green Light reflex, the Trauma Reflex - stay active all night.

You sleep in those patterns. Your muscles stay contracted. And you wake up feeling like you’ve been clenched for eight hours, because you have been.

Morning stiffness isn’t about how you slept. It’s your nervous system showing you what it’s been unconsciously holding all along – even when you’re asleep.

When you address those patterns of muscle tension at the source, you don’t just move better during the day. You wake up feeling refreshed in the morning.

Because your body finally learned how to let go.

03/07/2026

How we choose retreat locations.

It’s not just about finding somewhere beautiful, though that matters more than you might think.

When we’re looking for a place to host a retreat, the first question we ask is whether the environment itself will support the learning. Clinical Somatic Education asks something of you that daily life rarely does: it asks you to slow down, turn your attention inward, and notice what’s actually happening in your body. That’s genuinely difficult to do when you’re surrounded by noise, obligation, and the familiar pull of your usual routine.
So we look for places that make it easier.

Places where the pace is different. Where the air feels different. Where you can walk outside after a morning session and feel the ground under your feet without a single thing demanding your attention. Where the environment itself becomes part of the practice.

That’s why our retreats have taken us to the old growth forests of Hollyhock on Cortes Island, to the warm Pacific coast of Mexico at Mar de Jade, and now to the hills of central Portugal at Vale de Moses. These aren’t conference centers with breakout rooms. They’re places with their own rhythm, their own quality of light, their own invitation to be present.

We’ve found that people learn differently in these settings. The nervous system softens when it feels safe and unhurried. And when the nervous system softens, the work goes deeper than it ever could in a classroom or online.

That’s what we’re looking for every time. Not just a beautiful backdrop, but a place that does some of the work alongside us.

03/05/2026

After nearly a decade of leading retreats, here’s what we’ve learned.

People don’t come because they want to go to Portugal or Mexico or British Columbia. They come because something in their body has been asking for attention for a long time, and they’ve finally decided to listen.

They arrive carrying years of tension they thought was just part of getting older. Stiff backs they’ve learned to work around.

Shoulders that have forgotten how to drop. A general feeling of disconnection from their own body that they can’t quite name but can’t ignore either.

And within a few days, something shifts.

Not because we push them or put them through grueling sessions. But because we slow everything down and give them something most of us are genuinely starved of: time. Time to feel how they actually move. Time to notice the patterns they’ve been carrying unconsciously for years. Time to learn that their body isn’t the problem. It’s been trying to protect them all along.

What we’ve learned is that the setting matters more than people expect. There’s something about being removed from daily life that allows the nervous system to genuinely soften.

Learning happens differently when you’re not half distracted. You feel more. You retain more. You leave with something that stays with you.

We’ve also learned that people consistently underestimate how quickly things can change. Someone arrives convinced their tight back is just their reality now, and by day three they’re walking differently.

That’s what Clinical Somatic Education offers. And it turns out a week in a beautiful place, with a small group of people all learning the same thing, is one of the best ways to learn it.

Have you ever been on a retreat? What was your highlight?

02/18/2026

If you’ve got sciatica, you’ve probably been told it’s nerve entrapment or a disc issue or something structurally wrong that can only be fixed by a specialist.

And maybe that’s true. But before you assume the worst, consider this: tension in one part of your body almost always means there’s tension somewhere else.

If your sciatica is only showing up in one glute, that’s a sign you have a habituated pattern in the center of your body. We call it the Trauma Reflex, the protective twisting and guarding your nervous system does when you’re startled or trying to avoid pain.

The problem is, your brain never turned it off. So you’re still holding that twist, still compensating, still pulling everything slightly to one side without even realizing it.

Here’s what to do:

Lie on your belly with your legs straight and your head to one side. Slowly lift one leg a few inches and feel the contraction, not just in your glute but in your back and down your leg. Slowly release it.

Notice if your pelvis rocked to one side as you did that. Keep your pelvis evenly on the floor. Repeat. Now do the same with the other leg.

Make sure your belly is soft, your pelvis is flat on the floor, and you can feel your glutes contract. Go slowly. This isn’t about lifting your leg high. It’s about feeling what’s actually happening in your body.

If you haven’t already, this is a good time to start building a daily somatic movement practice. That’s the best way not only to reduce the tension that keeps creeping back in, but to enhance your self-awareness so you can actually understand why the sciatica developed in the first place.

Martha has dealt with sciatica many times. It was usually compensatory, from an accident or injury or the way she was sitting slightly tilted to one side without noticing.

Your sciatica might not be about your spine at all. It might just be about a pattern you didn’t realize you were holding.

And you can release it.

02/14/2026

Every human responds to stress through three full body patterns.

Not just tight shoulders. Not just a stiff back. Full body reflexes that happen automatically, without you even realizing it.

Thomas Hanna discovered these patterns decades ago. And once you understand them, you’ll start recognizing them everywhere. In yourself. In the people around you.

The Green Light Reflex

This is your go-go-go pattern. Leaning forward. Rushing through life. Your back arches, hip flexors tighten, shoulders pull back.

You feel it as lower back pain. Tight hips. That constant backward pull even when you’re trying to rest.

The Red Light Reflex

This is fear. Withdrawal. Bracing. Your shoulders pull up and forward. Your chest tightens. Your whole body contracts inward.

You feel it as neck and shoulder tension. Shallow breathing. That sense of being constantly on guard.

The Trauma Reflex

This is how you adapt to injury or avoid pain. One shoulder higher than the other. Weight shifting to one side. Twisting through your waist.

You feel it as one-sided hip pain. Imbalance. That nagging sense that something’s off but you can’t quite fix it.

Here’s what matters:

You’re probably holding all three right now.

Years of stress have layered these patterns on top of each other. Your nervous system learned them so well, you can’t even sense them anymore.

That’s sensory motor amnesia.

But Clinical Somatic Education teaches you to recognize these patterns. To sense where you’re holding. And to release.

Not through force. Through awareness. Through gentle movements called pandiculations that reset your nervous system.

Once you learn this, you can’t unsee it. You’ll notice when you’re in Green Light at your desk. When Red Light kicks in during a stressful conversation. When Trauma patterns show up in how you stand.

And you’ll know how to release them.

That’s the power of understanding your stress reflexes.

02/12/2026

“Those years are behind me.”

How many times have you told yourself this?

That adventure is for younger people. That your body just can’t do what it used to. That it’s too late to feel different, move differently, be different.

You’ve accepted it. Made peace with it. Adjusted your expectations.

No more hiking. No more getting down on the floor to play with grandkids. No more spontaneous trips because your back can’t handle it.

But here’s what we know:

Chronic pain and tight muscles isn’t aging. It’s sensory motor amnesia.

Your muscles have learned to hold tension over years of stress, repetitive movements, and adaptation. Your nervous system has forgotten how to release.

And that? That can change. At any age.

We’ve worked with people in their 60s, 70s, even 80s who’ve regained mobility they thought was gone forever.

Not through extreme interventions. Not through pushing harder or forcing their bodies.

Through gentle, mindful movements that re-educate the nervous system. Through learning to sense what they’d been ignoring. Through understanding why their bodies held tension and how to let it go.

The difference isn’t their age. It’s their willingness to try something different.

Clinical Somatic Education doesn’t care how old you are. Your nervous system is still capable of learning. Still capable of releasing what it’s been holding. Still capable of change.

Those years aren’t behind you.

They’re ahead of you. Waiting. Ready.

If you’re willing.

What have you stopped doing because you thought you were “too old”? Tell us in the comments.

Address

Manitou Springs, CO
80829

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 5pm
Tuesday	9am - 5pm
Wednesday	9am - 5pm
Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 5pm

Website

http://essentialsomatics.com/, https://www.unionsquareandco.com/9781454953173/the-mindful-motion-deck-by-martha-peterson

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Our Story

Essential Somatics is grounded in the revolutionary approaches of Hanna Somatics, Moshe Feldenkrais and other modern day somatic pioneers. We teach people to eliminate their own muscle pain and create more freedom and ease in their bodies and their lives. Essential Somatics gets to the root of most physical discomfort and restriction: the brain and the way it communicates with the muscles through movement. Come learn safely and gently to move through life with mastery and joy.