The term was coined by philosophy professor and somatic educator Thomas Hanna (1928-1990), whos extensive work with patients who suffered from mild to severe movement-restrictions informed his method. Hanna wrote about the effects of what he called Sensory Motor Amnesia, the temporary loss of sensation and motor control that occurs as we learn muscular patterns. He believed most of age-related changes in someones posture and overall mobility are due to lack of regular motion and stress, triggering trauma reflexes in the body. A trauma reflex is either a neuromuscular adaptation to negative (distress) or positive stress (eustress), or it occurs as a protective reflex to sudden trauma. In all three cases it manifests differently in the body, or soma, rather.
So what is soma exactly?