Michele Torino Hower, MFA, RYT, ST-2

Somatic practices believe the body has its own intelligence.  Learning to operate from the rational mind, most of us are not connected to the information our body is always giving us.  Somatics listen to and work with the body’s information to affect growth and change. I encountered Somatics with my first Yoga teacher, a dancer and yogini, in 1999, in Boston, MA.

Having graduated from college with a BA in Theater and a minor in Psychology, I made the bold decision to go to graduate school to study Contemporary Dance.  I knew my body had a lot to say, to do, to show me, to make, to unfold.  

As I earned my MFA in Dance in Albuquerque, NM, I simultaneously taught Hatha Yoga and earned a 500-hour Yoga Teaching Certification in the Iyengar Yoga lineage.  Connecting with internal quiet knowing and with the subtle energies of the body supported my practice of making and performing Dance.  

Then, living in NYC I taught dance to kids in under-resourced Brooklyn communities, helping kids develop joyful and creative relationships with their expressive bodies.  I also taught Yoga to adults and began my study of Klein technique, a somatic practice that opens, aligns and strengthens deep body connections.  I also made a lot of dance and performed with some very interesting artists.  

After starting my family, my nervous system needed nature.  I moved with my husband, young son and baby-in-utero to Asheville in 2015. Here, I continued to teach Somatics and Dance in elementary schools and at UNCA.  Getting older, however,  I felt a call for more stillness and quiet and turned my attention to the emotionally therapeutic nature of somatics.  I took up study with The Somatic Therapy Center, based in Philly, and am now a Level 2 Certified Somatic Therapist in Transformative Touch Somatic Therapy.  I have been practicing this form since 2020.  

Somatic Therapy offers a full-bodied, lived experience of making connections and gaining insight.  

The body is the ground that we return to again and again as we explore sensations, emotions, beliefs and our relationships with all of it.  

Attuning to the body with awareness and gentle touch, this work helps regulate the nervous system.  When the nervous system is at rest deep healing can happen.