Awakening Somatic Intelligence: The Art and Practice of Embodied Mindfulness

by Risa Kaparo, Rick Hanson (Foreword), James L. Oschman (Foreword)

“A detailed operating manual for healing pain and awakening embodied joy” through body-oriented Somatic Learning practices that incorporate mindfulness, breathing, and more (Rick Hanson, author of Buddha’s Brain )
 
Awakening Somatic Intelligence offers a guide to Somatic Learning, an innovative body-oriented approach that incorporates mindfulness, visualization, breathing exercises, postures, and stretches. Developed by author, psychotherapist, and award-winning songwriter and poet Risa Kaparo, PhD, Somatic Learning is based on leading-edge research demonstrating the power of the mind to activate physiological, mental, and emotional healing. Kaparo has successfully used her approach with patients suffering from chronic pain, high blood pressure, and mood disorders including depression and anxiety.
 
Recounting her own struggle with chronic pain, Kaparo begins with a moving description of her journey from crippling pain to renewed health and aliveness. Kaparo introduces the concepts and characteristics of Somatic Learning, a method that grew out of her personal healing experience. Incorporating the latest brain research in mindfulness and neuroplasticity, the book presents breathing exercises; postures and stretches for morning and bedtime; instructions for integrating mindfulness practice into one's daily life; and ways of deepening the practice through touch and caring interaction with others. Enhanced with over 100 detailed instructional photos and illustrations, the book includes inspiring case stories and the author's own expressive poetry that illuminate the healing power of this practice.

Genres: Nonfiction, Health, Mental Health

408 pages, Paperback

First published May 29, 2012

Reviews

[Joli Hamilton · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am very sad to have this included in my course readings as the work is intensely pseudoscientific and thus casts a shadow over what could be a useful area of learning. Scattered throughout are guru-worship stories of and from the authors clients, further distracting from the author's actual thesis. She cites several examples from books and papers that are utter nonsense, and I could accept that if she weren't contextualizing them as scientific. The final straw for me is her ableism- as though a body that moves a certain way is somehow more valuable than one that has limitations, as though the preference is always to move towards a different reality. I read sentence after sentence of potentially guilt-inducing new age babble. I could go on, but don't bother with this text unless you like your stretching exercises served up with a big helping of saccharin condescension. Looking forward to reading more useful texts on Somatics.

[Katrine Austin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent read. Certainly incorporates some familiar territory across yoga, tai chi, myofascial release, chakra work and other mind/body meditative exercises. Not sure I learned anything revolutionary. Wished the exercise models weren't all thin and Cirque du Soleil flexible. Social media ads suggest this practice is great for plus size figures...this book suggested nothing of that.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I saw this book on my Goodreads recommendations and made a point of going to the nearest library that carried it. I am glad that I got it from the library and can return it rather than buying it and being stuck.

I really wanted to like this book. More importantly, I really wanted to get something from it. But I could not read it. I had to renew it at the library and still never got past the first 20 or so pages (plus the 40 or so introduction pages). I skimmed through the rest, but it will be in the return slot the first moment I get without me bothering to even try and read the rest. The author comes across as really pretentious, the writing is tedious and could be trimmed by many, many words, and from what I could see there really is nothing new, exciting or useful in this book.

Ah well, maybe when I am returning this book, I can see what else the library has instead.

[Sergio · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read the book with the desire to learn about neuro-somatics. I mean the current stream with strong scientific evidence.
I found a lot of story-telling, an author who gloats about her spiritual teachers and a lot of pseudo-science.
I can say that I found a lot of body intervention techniques, but most of them coincide with a classic on the subject ‘Somatics’ by Thomas Hanna from 1988.

[Pamela Canepa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciated the mindfulness exercises.

[Jean-Paul Eberle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Risa Kaparo presents a rich synthesis of meditative, somatic, and psychological methods of inquiry into cultivating and harvesting the wisdom of the body-mind as self-sensing, self-organizing, and self-renewing. Steeped in the lineage of Yoga Therapy that traces back to Krishnamacharya (i.e. - teacher of Iyengar, Krishnamurti, many others) and the Continuum work of Emilie Conrad, she pulls together many important thinkers (e.g. - namely, Emilie Conrad and Vanda Scaravelli, then Peter Levine, Thomas Hanna, Daniel Seigel, Rick Hanson, Bruce Lipton, to name a few) into a unique and coherent approach in working with pain, stress, trauma, and aging. Her case examples of transformative healing are inspiring, to say the least. I also appreciated her poesy with exploring and depicting the beauty and wonder of the body process.

One strength (i.e. - also, albeit, minor limitation) of this book is the extensive amount of material offered for hands-on exercises; it is only a limitation if the reader reads them and doesn't put them to use. This book is also complemented by practice companion DVDs available through her website (http://www.somaticlearning.com - one available now, one yet to be released), which I highly recommend, as sometimes attempting to recreate the exercise from words alone can be cumbersome. Together, the book and DVDs allow the student-of-life reader to experience first-hand the value of such somatic work.

I'm sure this book will be an ongoing resource for a long time to come.