Chapter 1
Catalyzing a person’s ability to thrive in complexity
Visionary Somatics is an extraordinary synthesis of anatomical neuroscience, mindful clinical touch, trauma resolution, somatic psychology, ancestry work, ritual arts, embodied philosophical inquiry, mental imagery guidance, and expressive arts for catalyzing the human capacity to thrive in complexity. It is a living map and modality akin to a botanical rhizome insofar as it has the capacity to grow in nonlinear directions to establish a network of connections. Visionary Somatics thought and practice thus intends to express a vibrant mosaic of many maps and modalities found in our current atmosphere of the healing arts and sciences to actuate individual and cultural systems change.
Students and clients drawn to Visionary Somatics tend to have a foundation of experience in a plethora of therapeutic modalities and periodically feel dissatisfied with the lack of connection or coherence between theory and practice platforms. Such a being intuitively understands what embodied philosophy is and knows that the intellect and symbolic imagination are nourished by the matter of the body which is the mother of all things– the concrete substrate for relating with the real objects of the world. These folks also discern that too much focus on the concrete and pragmatic can tend to stymie the imagination, truncate empathy, feed hubris, and can lead to traits of objectivity that distance us from the visionary cultural collaboration needed for innovation in our complex times.