The Somatic Movement Method

PME

PME is a somatic approach that brings together perception, movement, touch, and reflection — a way of sensing and moving in which your body is supported to reorganize itself, from the inside, on its own terms.

How does PME work?

Sensing, moving and touch are treated as questions put to the body. The body answers — through sensations, impulses, images, emotions, movements, and shifts in organization. Those answers are listened to and supported, rather than corrected.

"Rather than imposing change from the outside, we explore how meaningful responses can emerge from within on their own."

The reframe

"How should I move?" "What movement wants to emerge?"
"What should I feel?" "What am I sensing right now?"

Ask a place in your body these questions

01 How is it now? What is there?
02 How would it like to be?
03 Does something want to change or move?
04 How could this be more pleasant, or easier?

One question PME deliberately sets aside — "Why?" The method works from the here-and-now forward; it does not set out to excavate the past.

A distinction to remember

The difference between listening to the body — and listening to the body's response to compassionate inquiry and attention.

PME at a glance

Name PME stands for Physio-Mentale Entwicklung — German. It renders in English both as "Physio-Mental Development" and "Physio-Mental Disentanglement."
Origin Coined in Vienna, 2004 by Dieter Rehberg an Austrian dancer, bodyworker, and somatic movement therapist.
Founding claim The founding premise: "the body knows how to heal."
Four tools Touch, movement, language, and perception training.
Lineage PME draws together dance, body psychotherapy, somatic education, phenomenology, constructivism, and Buddhist psychology. Heritage & lineage →

On the name

EntWicklung

to un-wind

PME defines Entwicklung — usually translated "development" — as the opposite of Verwicklung, entanglement. Written as two words, Ent–Wicklung, it means an un-winding. So the method's name is closer to dis-entangling than to "development" — which describes the practice more honestly: not building something onto the body, but letting what is wound up come loose.

Who created PME?

PME is the work of its founder, Dieter Rehberg.

Dieter Rehberg, MA, MSMT/E · in brief

BA in Dance and Performance; MA in Somatic Studies, Middlesex University, UK.
An ISMETA-certified Master of Somatic Movement Therapy and Education, a Somatic Practitioner with USABP, and a board member of the Somatic Practices and Chronic Pain Network.
More than 35 years of professional experience.

Read the founder directly at academy.somatic-training.com

What makes sensing the active ingredient?

How you sense is the active ingredient — not what you sense.

This is what separates PME from "just pay attention to your body." Sensing mindfully and compassionately is not preparation for the work — it is the work. The offer is as "a practical framework for how we can sense," asking how different qualities of attention shape perception, movement, self-regulation, and the unfolding of experience.

What is PME not?

PME is salutogenic — it works toward health. It does not cure diagnosed disease, and it is complementary to appropriate medical care, not a replacement for it.

PME is not

Diagnosing medical conditions
Physical therapy
Psychotherapy
Massage
Prescribing medication

Why does Kelly teach PME?

I want people to feel good in their bodies. I want bodies to be a comfortable, calm and inspiring place to inhabit.

There are an infinite amount of ways to get to this outcome; establishing a direct, open dialogue with sensory information is the most effective and sustainable way (that I’m aware of) to get there. This is what PME offers. It is a simple method for compassionate self-sensing and moving coupled with experiential education in physiology, anatomy, and Buddhist psychology that cultivates self-development and self-learning to create lasting curiosity, compassion, and wonder for the nature of the inside and its connection to the nature on the outside.

— Kelly Lazzara

RSME/T