Release Unconscious Patterns of Tension for Greater Mobility – Free Class with Martha Peterson
Stiffness, tension, and discomfort can gradually change the way you move through everyday life. Activities that once felt effortless — standing up, walking, turning your head, reaching, or simply getting comfortable — can begin to require more thought and effort.
Martha Peterson offers another way to understand these changes through Clinical Somatic Education. Her approach explores how unconscious muscle patterns learned over time can influence movement, posture, comfort, and your sense of physical freedom.
You’ll be guided through functional assessments that bring greater awareness to familiar movements, including walking, standing up from a chair, and using your phone. Martha will also introduce pandiculation, a somatic practice involving gentle muscular contraction and release.
Rather than asking you to force greater flexibility or push your body harder, this event focuses on slowing down enough to notice how you are moving. That awareness can help you explore where unnecessary effort and habitual tension may be showing up in everyday life.
Why Attend “Release Unconscious Patterns of Tension for Greater Mobility: Explore Somatic Practices for More Ease, Freedom & Confidence”
When movement becomes more restricted or uncomfortable, it is easy to assume that stiffness is simply something you have to accept with age. Martha offers a different perspective by exploring how long-standing patterns of muscular tension can become so familiar that you no longer consciously notice them.
Clinical Somatic Education brings attention to the relationship between your brain, muscles, and habitual movement. Instead of relying on force, Martha’s approach emphasizes sensing what your body is already doing so you can become more aware of patterns that may be creating unnecessary effort.
Martha brings more than 30 years of experience in dance, bodywork, and somatic education to this work. Through simple functional assessments and somatic movements, she’ll help you examine familiar activities with fresh attention and explore how small changes in awareness can influence the way movement feels.
What You’ll Learn
We’ll begin with simple functional assessments of familiar movements, so you can notice comfort, effort, balance, and coordination without trying to immediately correct anything. You’ll start with activities such as walking and standing up from a chair, using awareness as a way to observe how your body organizes movement.
From there, Martha will introduce sensory motor amnesia and pandiculation, so you can understand how muscles may remain habitually contracted outside conscious awareness. You’ll explore gentle contraction and release rather than forcing a stretch, and then notice whether your experience of movement changes.
Along the way, you’ll look closely at everyday habits such as reaching for and holding your phone, which means seemingly ordinary movements become opportunities to notice your head, neck, chest, belly, breathing, and muscular effort. The emphasis remains on slowing down and sensing more clearly so that habitual patterns become easier to recognize.
- How unconscious muscle patterns can influence stiffness, comfort, mobility, and everyday movement
- What sensory motor amnesia means in Clinical Somatic Education
- How pandiculation uses gentle muscular contraction and release to build sensory awareness
- Ways to observe the comfort, speed, balance, and effort of your normal walking pattern
- What you can notice about your movement when standing up from a chair
- How habitual phone use can involve your head, neck, chest, belly, breathing, and muscular tension
- Why slowing down can make subtle sensations and movement habits easier to notice
- How tension in one area may relate to compensatory patterns elsewhere in the body
- Why Martha challenges the assumption that every change in mobility should automatically be dismissed as inevitable wear and tear
Who This Is For
This event may be especially relevant if stiffness, tension, discomfort, or reduced confidence in movement has begun to affect everyday activities. It also speaks to people who want to maintain mobility and independence while developing a clearer understanding of their own movement habits.
Martha introduces the foundations of Clinical Somatic Education through guided observation and movement, making the session relevant to people who are new to somatics as well as those already interested in body awareness, movement education, or self-regulation. The event may also be useful for movement professionals and practitioners curious about how habitual muscular patterns influence function.
- People noticing recurring stiffness or tension during everyday movement
- Those interested in maintaining mobility, confidence, and independence as they age
- Anyone curious about the relationship between habitual muscle tension and movement patterns
- People exploring somatic approaches to greater body awareness
- Those who want to understand movements such as walking, standing, reaching, and turning more clearly
- Movement professionals and practitioners interested in Clinical Somatic Education
About Martha Peterson
Martha Peterson, CCSE, is a certified clinical somatic educator, founder and CEO of Essential Somatics®, and author of Move Without Pain. She leads a growing faculty of clinical somatic educators who offer Essential Somatics teacher trainings, retreats, workshops, and seminars around the world.
Her experience spans more than 30 years in dance, bodywork, and somatic education. A former professional dancer, Martha came to this work through her own experience with chronic hip and knee pain following injuries and her search for a more useful way to understand recurring patterns in the body.
Martha also maintains a private clinical practice and teaches Clinical Somatic Education as a way of developing greater sensory awareness and voluntary control of muscular patterns. Her approach emphasizes learning to sense, recognize, and work with habitual tension rather than simply pushing harder against it.
An experienced hiker, Martha has climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro and trekked in Sikkim in Northern India. Her broader approach to healthy movement combines regular somatic practice with vigorous, enjoyable activity, relaxation, self-regulation, and a sense of humor.
Endorsements
“Having not heard about somatics before, I was amazed at how simple and effective Martha’s approach is. I experienced significant improvement in the pain and stiffness I was feeling in my body, which I thought was an inevitable part of getting older.”
“I experienced radical improvement in my back and hip pain after just the introductory session. I have not gone to the chiropractor since, and I had been going weekly or biweekly for a very long time. Martha’s exercises were fairly easy to learn and practice on my own. It is amazing to have these tools to be able to help myself feel so much better in my body — and save so much time and money by not having to get professional treatment. I am so glad I signed up for her course and I highly recommend it.”
“The short sessions with Martha were packed with so much learning. It was amazing how such simple awareness of my body could bring such relaxation and change in posture.”
“Martha obviously loves her work and actively listens to answer participants’ questions. She explains the work well and gives credit to Thomas Hanna and whoever else has influenced these teachings, which gives a historic perspective and honors the original teachers. The class had a very positive feeling and the results can be very helpful. I looked forward to each class because I felt better both physically and emotionally after participating. The process and encouragement was uplifting.”
“The course has helped me become more aware of my standing and my walking. I started doing somatic movements in preparation for Martha’s class, and now it’s just a part of my routine for the rest of my life. I am so happy that I have this practice now, so I can continue to be independent and vibrant as I age. I want to move through life with grace and ease.”
Frequently Asked Questions
Select any question below to reveal the answer.
When and where does the event take place?
Who is Martha Peterson?
What will I learn during this event?
What if I can’t attend live?
How long is the event?
Do I need any special equipment to participate?
Who is hosting the event?
Is this event suitable for beginners?
Is this event religious?
Will there be an opportunity to go deeper after the event?
What can I expect to feel during the event?
Is this event really free?
What is Clinical Somatic Education?
What is sensory motor amnesia?
What is pandiculation?
What will the functional assessments explore?
Why does Martha emphasize slowing down?
How can phone use reveal habitual tension?
Can tension in one area relate to patterns elsewhere in the body?
How does Martha approach aging and mobility?
The contents of this website/e-mail are for informational purposes only and are not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This website does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
We are grateful to be of service and bring you these life-changing events free of charge. In order to do this, please note that whenever you click the links and purchase items, in most (not all) cases we will receive a referral commission. We may receive a listing fee for publishing this event.
Your support in purchasing through these links makes it possible for people in over 150 countries globally to attend these life-changing events for free. Thank you!
Register to receive event access details and reminders, plus the available full-length recording after the event and information about the final replay presentation.
- Nov 24 2026
- 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm
Local Time
- Timezone: America/New_York
- Date: Nov 24 2026
- Time: 8:30 pm - 9:30 pm
More Info
- Worldwide
