Politicized Somatics: A Soft Pitch
Hi, I have an agenda— an agenda of more somatics practice for our STL and Midwest movements, for politicized healing practitioners, and for everyone out there who knows our healing is connected to transforming ourselves and transforming our social conditions.
Politicized somatics is a methodology and set of experiential practices that builds our potential to be more connected with ourselves and our environment, our awareness and capacity for more choice, and clarity around our purpose and the actions we want to be taking in our lives.
What I personally have found through practicing politicized somatics:
increased presence with myself and others
feeling a wider range of emotion and aliveness (joy, grief, rage, despair)
a greater capacity to be with uncomfortableness in conflict, in the unknown, and in rapidly changing, pressurized situations
deepened clarity of our current political conditions and awareness of potential choices for impactful interventions
expanded capacity to deeply meet others and move and inspire them to commit to actions that they care about
increased resource of a felt sense of my inherent dignity and belonging
We live in social and political conditions that encourage disconnection, isolation, and disembodiment. This reality can create a situation where we are often feeling alone, feeling disempowered, and feeling lackluster and confused about what exactly we want to / can be doing. Racial capitalism thrives when this is our experience, and we miss out on so much.
Somatics offers an alternate pathway back to some things that are inherent about life – our bodies hold knowledge of our and everyone’s dignity, belonging, aliveness, and power. Two of my somatics teachers, B and Ream, tell us that “the central question of politicized somatics centers how we build and wield the power necessary to change the fundamental conditions of our and our peoples' lives.” As an acupuncturist and an organizer, I’m interested in how somatics supports our individual and collective healing and how that magnifies our ability to build power. I’ve seen it happen.
Whether you’re desiring more connection to the wisdom of your body, wanting more feeling and purpose in the immensity of the political moments we’re in, or strategizing how to build effective power in our movements that allows us to transform our current political landscape, somatics had a depth of experience to offer you.
In 2026 and beyond, I will be offering a number of containers to get acquainted with and to continue practicing politicized somatics. I’ll also be sharing other practitioners' offerings! Here are a few below.
Build Your Capacity for intense as f*ck times (register here)
January 29th at 7pm-8pm (virtual)
January 30th at 11am-12n (virtual)
facilitated by Embodying Racial Justice
FREE FREE FREE
Intro to Politicized Somatics (more info here)
Saturday February 2nd 2:30pm - 5:30pm
facilitated by me
at Kindred Currents Clinic in Dutchtown
$30 / $50 / $70 Sliding scale. No one turned away for lack of funds.
Everyone welcome.
Embodied Leadership: Four Day Intensive* (more info here)
March 12-15 in Chicago
facilitated by Embodying Racial Justice
*For white anti-racist organizers and movement workers to build resilience to fuel your ongoing work.
Deepening Our Devotion: 5 week course (more info TBA soon)
Spring 2025, 2 hour weekly sessions
facilitated by me
at Kindred Currents Clinic in Dutchtown
For activists, organizers, and politicized healers to orient us to our purpose in this political moment.
This lineage of somatics is a living lineage and has been primarily developed by The Strozzi Institute and generative somatics. Generative somatics recently sunsetted. Influenced by this reality, newer politicized somatics projects have emerged, like the Embodiment Institute and Embodying Racial Justice. Both have had a big influence on my development. Dara Silverman, Susan Raffo, Ream, Cari Caldwell, Michael Strom, Sarah Abbot, B Stepp, Zoe Paulette, and Eliana Rubin have all supported my somatic learning.
Richard Strozzi Heckler, along with the input of many others, synthesized this lineage. I want to name two influential streams of embodiment work. One is from Eastern European thinkers and bodyworkers (Reich, Feldenkrais, Rolfe, and more) and another is from aikido, a Japanese martial art (Morihei Ueshiba). Both of these lineages more deeply developed and transformed in response to the rise of fascism around the globe in the 1930’s and after World War two when many people were devastated from the violence of war and genocide. They were wondering and thinking, "there has to be another way" and "we think the other way is through the body."
You can find a lot more detail about the many influences of this lineage in this living lineage slide deck compiled by generative somatics practitioners. You can also listen to the Embodiment Institute's excellent series on The Lineage of Embodiment.