Did you ever meet someone and just not like them for seemingly no reason? Or conduct an interview and have a gut feeling that the candidate was perfect for the job despite not having the best CV? What about romantic attraction? Do you know why you are attracted to the people you are? Much of these phenomena are down to unconscious “somatic assessments.”
So what on earth are somatic assessments? Somatic means the study of the conscious body (rather than the body as an object). A somatic assessments are when you look at someone and get a sense of who the are based on their body. Not so much the physical sense of if they’re tall or skinny or whatever, but how they inhabit their bodies – attention, intention, as well as posture, movement, gestural and breathing patterns. It can be thought of as looking at “self as observed in the body” to use the words of somatic pioneer Richard Strozzi Heckler (pictured below).
Somatic assessments are a key part of the Embodied Management Training I do with organisations to support their leadership, and also of somatic coaching and somatic therapy. It goes far beyond body language and can be thought of as “body being” – i.e. not just what we are trying to say but who we are. I regard being able to make accurate somatic assessments as an essential leadership, communication and life skill. Specific professional applications include choosing staff, sales, appraisals and customer service; as well as life skills for dating, socialising and avoiding predatory criminals.
We all make instant somatic assessments unconsciously, and these can be either based on prejudice and personal history or genuine “gut instinct”. With training you can fine tune this raw skill to great effect. I have been using somatic assessments consciously for about five years and have seen a huge impact in my professional and personal life as a result. It has helped me pick good business partners and saved my life at least once. My clients generally love this work, at first seeing it as a “bit magic” before learning to do it for themselves – the basics are not rocket-science.
Models for Somatic Assessments
There are various ways to assess others somatically. Ethically I like to get permission to do this consciously – though as mentioned it always happens anyway “behind the scenes”. For me the key thing is to be working with people rather than doing it “to” them. The best somatic assessment is still just a guess as you don’t know someone internal state, history or conditions, so it is also important to “check-in” with any guesses. I have added some personal questions here in blue as somatics begins with self-knowledge as this is the lens you are looking through.
Here are a few frameworks for somatic assessments:
Centre
The idea that people have a physical emotional centre they can either be in touch with or “off centre” has roots in a number of Eastern traditions such as the martial arts. It is easy to see if people are unstable and off centre of “have got themselves together.” More on how to centre here.
Are you centred reading this? Physically, mentally, emotionally? Can you be centred in one way without being centred in the other two?
Length, Width and Depth
Introduced by Dr Richard Strozzi Heckler the basic dimensions of length, width and depth of a person are not just physical but have meaning (again this isn’t about being tall or short but how you “live in” your body). Length is associated with grounding, dignity and connection to your higher power (spirituality), width with confidence and taking up social space, and depth with your relationship with time (your history and your vision). Characteristics such as trustworthiness, presence and flexibility are apparent in someones LWD.
In which dimension are you strong and in which weak?
Note: What I have given here is a simplification and I’d recommend attending a course to learn this material properly. That goes for all the others that follow in fact – somatics is an experiential study.
Head, Heart and “Hara”
Wendy Palmer another US somatic pioneer works with head (intellect), heart (emotions) and hara (a Japanese word for the centre of the body, refers to body and intuition).
Notice which of these you lead from – literally and metaphorically.
Mood
People are physically predisposed to act in certain ways. We all know someone who is gloomy or sunny whatever the weather for example. These underlying embodied moods are hard to shift and influence everything a person does. They can be easily seen. One model is that the basic emotions of happiness, sadness, anger and fear can get “stuck” as moods being shown as a tendency towards up, down, forwards and backwards respectively. Coaching organisation Newfield distinguish the four basic moods of acceptance (peace), action (ambition), resentment and resignation (apathy) – which have corresponding bodily states.
What mood do you live in? (hint – in will be invisible to you – ask others).
Intention and Attention
Paul Linden of the Columbus Centre for Movement studies is a master at working with attention (where you “put” your mind) and intention (where that attention is going). See for example this article. This is possible to see and feel in others as it cause micro movements.
Archetypes
Archetypes are embodied blueprints in all of us that we may have more or less access to. There are various models, Newfield’s for example has four – warrior (resolute), lover (open), ruler or king/queen (stable) and joker (flexible). Other models use 12 or 15 archetypes including others such as the orphan, sage, magician or destroyer for example. Each archetype has a definite bodily patterns – warrior for example (a personal favourite) may be expressed by narrow vision, forward posture, a tight jaw and fast deep breathing for example. Which of these four archetypes resonates with you most readily?
Which do you think is less available (hint – if an archetype is repressed you may be very drawn to, or repelled by it in others)
Insults to Form
Stanley Keleman described four somatic patterns that people adopt under pressure – dense, rigid, motile (pushy) and porous (pushover). More here.
What does your body do under pressure?
Group Somatic Assessments
Cultures and smaller groups such as companies an teams can have their own mood and own somatic model. People in the UK can be tight compared to Brazilians for example- this lives in the body and is easy to see in individual’s movements as well as national dances and sports (note that this isn’t about right and wrong – both Brazil and England have successful but very different football styles for example). Groups can be assessed one body at a time, though I have recently attended a course with Arawana Hayashi who works with sensing group directly through “social presencing”.
Next time you are with a group you are a part of feel yourself and then expand this to “feel” the group. What do you notice?
In Conclusion
There are a lot of models and just having some basic distinctions helps – open and closed for example would be another simple distinction. I would also like to reiterate that you can’t learn this on-line, but I hope I have inspired you to look into it further. Happy assessing.
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Somatic So What: Bodies tell you about a person. Listen
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