What Does Soma Mean?

Learn how our name came about and what it means to us.

This is a very popular question we frequently get from our clients, and would like to expand on the topic. Soma can have different meanings depending on the context:

1. In biology, soma refers to the body of an organism.

2. Latin for body.

3. In psychology, soma is a term used by some schools of psychology to refer to the body as a whole, including the physical sensations and experiences.

4. Soma is also a term used in some philosophical and spiritual traditions to refer to the ultimate reality or essence of the self.

We chose Soma for its latin meaning of body. We strongly believe that every injury we encounter is not an isolated incident, even if surgery was involved. When evaluating an injury it is imperative to see what is happening up and down the kinetic chain with normal daily movements, what our patient's daily postures look like that may have led to the current injury or are now changed due to the injury, and how to best optimize movement and posture throughout the body to best address the injury.

A common example of looking at the whole body with injury could be shoulder pain. If the patient sits at a desk for 6-8 hours a day at a computer, their chest muscle may become tight, tight lats, weakness in the upper back muscles, limited thoracic extension, poor scapular movement, tight hip flexors. The sustained posture is now causing poor shoulder stability when lifting over head or even limiting the person from reaching all the way over head. This person now has to attempt to move through their thoracic spine or lumbar spine to achieve the required motion to reach to a top shelf or cabinet, now potentially causing the person to develop some form of low back pain.

Without looking at the whole body (soma), we are not truly fixing the root of the problem, only giving short term symptom relief. Soma Physical Therapy takes pride in looking at the whole person/body to develop a plan to optimize movements and postures in everyday life, to allow you to return to what you enjoy and maximize your life.