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Saturday, April 25th 9:00 AM-12:00 PM Pacific
Chris Morita Clancy and Susan Lowell de Solórzano

Biotensegrity provides an alternative to the machine and architectural models that have been used for analyzing human structure and movement for hundreds of years. Tensegrity is a way of perceiving structural possibilities that is relatively new to human understanding. Biotensegrity investigates tensegrity in biology.

Through a series of experiential activities, we will explore the concepts of tensegrity and biotensegrity, and the related ideas that give us a new perspective on what's going on with our dynamic, moving, and constantly changing physiology.

Through your own somatic awareness, discover why and how movement teachers and manual therapists worldwide are applying the concepts of biotensegrity in their work.

Chris Morita Clancy is the founder of Embodied Biotensegrity, a leading platform for education in biotensegrity, serving practitioners, educators, and researchers worldwide (embodiedbiotensegrity.ca). She is a board member of the Stephen M. Levin Biotensegrity Archive and a founding member of the Pacific Northwest Biotensegrity Interest Group (PNWBIG) and BIG Portugal LIVE! She is a contributor to Everything Moves: How Biotensegrity Informs Human Movement by Susan Lowell de Solórzano (Handspring) and Spiral Bound by Karen Kirkness (Handspring).

Alongside Graham Scarr and Susan Lowell de Solórzano, Chris co-hosts and produces the BiotensegriTea Party, an ongoing series exploring the latest in biotensegrity. She facilitates biotensegrity-focused trainings and immersions in Canada and Portugal as well as workshops and conference presentations, including the ReVIEWING Black Mountain College Conference and the International Fascia Research Congress.
chris@embodiedbiotensegrity.ca
embodiedbiotensegrity.ca

Susan Lowell de Solórzano first stumbled onto biotensegrity in 2008 while trying to deepen her understanding of the practice and classic writings of T’ai Chi Ch’uan; she has been a student of biotensegrity ever since. Susan began working directly with Steve Levin in 2009, and co-founded the Stephen M. Levin Biotensegrity Archive with Steve and his wife, Olga Cox-Levin, in 2015. Susan's book, Everything Moves: How Biotensegrity Informs Human Movement (Handspring) serves as an experiential guide to biotensegrity. Susan is showrunner, co-producer and co-host of the BiotensegriTea Party episodes on Youtube, author of the Biotensegrity Archive’s BX101 Guide, and producer of the Colloquy on Biotensegrity & Equine Health.

Susan is an ATCQA Level III certified T’ai Chi and Qi Gong teacher, and holds an MA in Human Development and Education specializing in kinesthetic learning. She is also the co-author of The Soft Answer—Verbal T'ai Chi for Sociable Self Defense.
susanlowell@mac.com
biotensegrityarchive.org
TheSoftAnswer.com

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Bridging Somatics and Pilates—Integrating Hanna Somatic Principles into Pilates Movement Practice

Saturday, April 25th 1:00 PM-2:30 PM Pacific
Chris Barnett

Discover how the foundational principles of Hanna Somatics can deepen awareness, precision, and ease within the Pilates environment. This experiential workshop invites Hanna Somatic Educators to explore familiar neuromuscular concepts—such as pandiculation, sensory-motor awareness, and movement differentiation—through the lens of Pilates exercises.

Together, we’ll examine the core movement patterns of flexion, extension, and rotation—including internal and external rotation—known in Hanna Somatics as the Red Light, Green Light, and Trauma Reflexes. Through this exploration, we’ll uncover how these reflex patterns influence and shape our experience of Pilates movement.

Whether you’re new to Pilates or already familiar with its repertoire, you’ll gain insight into how these two embodied practices can inform and enrich one another. Learn practical ways to translate somatic principles into Pilates sequences, enhance client outcomes, and expand your professional toolkit for teaching embodied movement with greater clarity, awareness, and connection.

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Whether you find the subject of lymph exciting, or more likely yawn-inducing, it is certainly an often overlooked, yet extremely important system—one that assists with all other functions and systems. This presentation will see a return of the Gabriel Posner and John Loupos matchup, this time with a focus on the role of Hanna Somatics in regards to lymphatic health. Gabriel will speak to the medical and theoretical aspects of the HSE/lymph system relationship. John will follow with a specially designed movement series of interest and benefit to many and all individuals, but particularly applicable to persons who may be lymph compromised.

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Sensing Strength—Bringing Hanna Somatic Education to the Weight Room

Sunday, April 26th 9:00 AM-10:30 AM Pacific
Brian Justin

Where does Hanna Somatic Education belong in the fitness industry? Hanna Somatic Education is a self-regulating movement system to help clients manage persistent pain and to sense and move better! The role of the fitness professional is to help people improve their movement alongside their fitness capacities. HSE provides a strong development of the mind-body connection. But this isn’t just for yoga and Pilates, it belongs on the weight room floor. “If you can’t sense it, it is challenging to strengthen it.” Join Brian as he explains the applications of Hanna Somatic Education to strength training and planned recovery of fitness training. Even if you are not part of the fitness industry, this session will:

• Help you integrate your HSE practice with your fitness routine

• Get a better sense (pun intended) of the vital role HSE plays in fitness training

• Integrate HSE movements with strength training movement patterns

• Understand the need to balance fitness activities with HSE to promote better recovery

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From Crawling to Connection—Reclaiming Early Patterns of Development

Sunday, April 26th, 10:40AM-12:00 PM Pacific
Gena Rho

In this somatic movement workshop, we will explore the vital role of crawling for whole-body integration. Although some children skip this developmental milestone and proceed directly to walking, bypassing this stage can lead to missed opportunities for crucial neurological and physical development.

We’ll discuss how crawling helps integrate the body through its center, supporting eye coordination, spatial awareness, and overall sensory-motor development. Despite its importance, the medical community often undervalues or overlooks crawling. This session will examine the long-term implications of that oversight and how somatic movement practices can help restore and reintegrate missed developmental patterns in both children and adults.

Participants will be guided through patterns of early development—such as creeping, crawling, and rolling—to illuminate their lasting impact on the body and nervous system. By exploring these foundational movements in connection with Thomas Hanna’s reflex patterns, we can deepen our understanding of how early disruptions can influence overall function, including gross and fine motor skills, as well as emotional well-being.

This developmental lens offers practical insights for enhancing personal awareness and opens new possibilities for practitioners and students working within the field of Clinical Somatic Education.

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Canine Hanna Somatics®, and How Working with Animals Can Enhance Your Human Somatics Practice

Sunday, April 26th, 1:00PM-2:00 PM Pacific
Alissa Mayer

Dogs, horses, and other animals (like humans) experience stress in their daily domestic lives, and can develop chronic involuntary muscle contractions (tension). Practicing Canine Hanna Somatics will not only enhance your relationship with your dog and make your dog feel wonderful, but it also gives you an opportunity to hone your non-verbal communication skills and the feel of hands-on guided somatic exercises that will greatly enhance your skill and effectiveness when working with human clients.

In this presentation, you'll learn how to start recognizing the characteristic postural presentations of the Red Light Reflex, Green Light Reflex, and Trauma/Asymmetry Posture in dogs of any breed and how to guide any dog through three gentle Canine Hanna Somatics exercises that will help them begin to reset the resting levels of muscle tone back toward a healthy neutral—also known as letting go of their chronic tension!

Alissa Mayer, BSc (Equine), EHSE-C, is a Certified Equine Hanna Somatics® Educator and the founder of the Association for Equine Hanna Somatics Education (AEHSE). She co-taught the Equine Hanna Somatics Professional Training & Certification program with creator and founder Eleanor Criswell Hanna for 8 years, and became the Director of the program in 2024, after Eleanor’s passing. Alissa is an author, mother, posture specialist, international clinician, serial horse rescuer and teacher with a passion for using neuroscience to help animals (and the humans who love them) live their best lives.

With a bachelor's degree in Equine Science, Alissa has 30+ years experience in the horse industry as a groom, trainer, riding instructor, hoof trimmer, and traveling clinician. Since 2010, she has worked somatically with thousands of horses, dogs and humans (and one cat) all over the US, Hawaii, Canada, and western Europe. Alissa teaches the same foundational concepts to everyone: whether serving Olympic teams or backyard horses, horse-husbands or seasoned equine bodyworkers, Alissa's approach is to first resolve postural dysfunction, chronic tension, and pain by restoring neutral resting muscle tone with Hanna Somatics. Alissa then teaches clients to develop the brain-body connections and skills to leverage the power of their personal electro-magnetic fields to connect and communicate on a non-verbal, nervous system level with animals, regardless of discipline or training style.

Alissa teaches and mentors students and certified EHS professionals all over the world, both online and in person at her home farm in Oregon. When she isn't working or playing with horses, Alissa enjoys spending time with her family, cooking, reading, writing, foraging for wild mushrooms, and going on adventures! alissa@equinehannasomatics.org

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Hanna Somatics for Dancers—Going beyond Stretching and Reclaiming Strength, Flexibility, and Coordination Through the Nervous System

Sunday, April 26th, 2:05PM-3:35 PM Pacific
Nikki Semeniuk

Dancers, athletes, yogis, and even movement educators may unknowingly reinforce cycles of tension, compensation, and weakness through well-meaning but outdated stretching and conditioning habits. Overstretching can lead to unstable joints, decreased functional strength, and long-term imbalances. These patterns not only compromise performance but also increase the risk of injury and chronic pain.

Hanna Somatics provides an essential missing link—re-educating the brain’s connection to movement through gentle, conscious engagement rather than force. This approach enhances nervous system regulation, proprioceptive awareness, and functional movement quality—tools that are crucial for dancers but deeply applicable across all movement modalities.

This experiential presentation offers a fresh perspective on flexibility, recovery, and injury prevention in dance and somatic practice. Participants will explore how Hanna Somatics and NMP Somatics (Natural Movement Pattern Somatics) can enhance body awareness, reduce injury risk, and improve functional flexibility through neuromuscular reeducation.

Movement will be integrated throughout the presentation, alternating between short discussions, demonstrations, and guided somatic explorations—some standing, and others on the floor. Participants will experience how pandiculation and mindful movement can safely release muscular tension, restore balanced tone, and rebuild integrated strength. The session emphasizes how these neuro-somatic principles can be directly applied to dance, teaching, and therapeutic movement contexts for more efficient, embodied, and sustainable motion.

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This year’s movement collage will offer variations on the Cat Stretch series. Many of us develop habits in the way we practice the sequence. Identifying and relinquishing those habits can lead to new insights and movement possibilities. Join us for the perfect way to wrap up the 2026 Convention and embody its focus. Enliven your personal practice, break from the habitual, unlock potential, and find novel ways of moving through the Cat Stretch series.

Lisa Sack, CHSE, C-IAYT, E-RYT-500, C-AHC, is a certified Hanna Somatic Educator (CHSE), certified Viniyoga® therapist (in the tradition of TKV Desikachar and Gary Kraftsow) and an Āyurvedic Health Counselor (in the tradition of Dr. Vasant Lad). Her goal is to meet clients where they are and to offer these ancient and modern teachings in whatever way a student can receive them, so that each person discovers authenticity, ease, and wellbeing. She offers HSE, yoga therapy, and Āyurvedic consultations both online and in person in Brooklyn, NY. flourish@clearsightyoga.com
www.clearsightyoga.com

Indu Vashist is a recent graduate of the Novato Institute's 3 year Clinical Somatic Education program and a seasoned yoga teacher. She has worked in theatre of the oppressed with the Madras-based Marapachchi Collective from 2010-present. She has been the Executive Director of SAVAC (South Asian Visual Arts Centre since 2013. In all of her practices, she aims for a blend of creativity and critical thinking.
induvashistyoga@gmail.com

Alexandra Ni is a trauma-informed somatic movement facilitator, registered yoga teacher, and sound practitioner whose work bridges the intelligence of the body with the clarity of modern nervous system understanding. Her path has taken her across continents and industries—from Swiss private wealth management to fashion design—but it was through yoga that she stepped into a more embodied and intentional way of living.

Alexandra’s curiosity in anatomy, physiology, and kinesiology led her to Hanna Somatic Education, a neuromuscular approach that supports pain-free movement and nervous system regulation. She is also a certified Biofield Tuner, working with the electromagnetic field of the body to support coherence and vitality.

Currently deepening her trauma-informed practice through formal training in Somatic Experiencing® and Compassionate Inquiry®, Alexandra integrates neuroscience, epigenetics, and relational safety into her work—elements that shape how we hold experience in the body and how we find our way back to steadiness. Her intuitive sensitivity allows her to attune to the emotional and energetic layers of experience with precision and care.

Based in Jacksonville, Florida and teaching internationally, Alexandra creates immersive experiences that support sustainable living, emotional integration, and genuine connection. She is a passionate advocate for local arts and culture and the founder of ANI-concepts, a platform offering tools for balance, vitality, and transformation.
Alexandra@alexandrani.com

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