Somatic Lineage & Resource Library

The rituals and teachings inside Wild Wisdom Studio are rooted in a living lineage of somatic wisdom. These are the books, teachers, and frameworks that inform our practices — offered here with gratitude, reverence, and transparency.

Somatic Theory and Practice

• Thomas Hanna – Somatics: Reawakening the Mind's Control of Movement, Flexibility, and Health
  Originator of the term "Somatics." His work centers on reclaiming awareness of bodily sensation and control through movement.

• Bessel van der Kolk – The Body Keeps the Score
  A foundational text on trauma’s imprint on the body and the use of somatic therapies, movement, and mindfulness in trauma healing.

• Peter Levine – Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma
  Creator of Somatic Experiencing. Emphasizes working with the body’s instinctive responses to heal trauma without re-traumatization.

• Stephen Porges – The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological Foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, and Self-Regulation
  Introduced the concept of the vagus nerve and its impact on safety, connection, and nervous system states.

• Resmaa Menakem – My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies
  A groundbreaking somatic framework for healing racialized trauma, specifically within Black, white, and police bodies.

• Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen – Sensing, Feeling, and Action
  Creator of Body-Mind Centering. Explores movement development, cellular awareness, and the embodied mind.

• Linda Hartley – Wisdom of the Body Moving
  Integrates Authentic Movement, Body-Mind Centering, and Jungian depth psychology. Emphasizes body-based ritual and archetypes.

Dance, Race, and Embodiment

• Dr. Thomas F. DeFrantz
  Scholar of Black performance, dance studies, and embodiment. His work challenges Eurocentric dance traditions and uplifts the politics of Black movement.

• Brenda Dixon Gottschild – Digging the Africanist Presence in American Performance
  A critical exploration of African diasporic movement aesthetics embedded in Western dance forms.

• Kariamu Welsh – African Aesthetics in the Americas
  A foundational scholar of African diasporic dance practices and their influence on contemporary movement forms.

• Jacqueline Shea Murphy – The People Have Never Stopped Dancing
  Documents Native American dance traditions and the embodiment of cultural memory through movement.

Creative Practice, Memory, and Ritual

• Ruth King – Mindful of Race
  Integrates meditation, awareness, and embodied presence in processing race and internalized trauma.

• Adrienne Maree Brown – Pleasure Activism & Emergent Strategy
  Weaves somatic intuition, collective healing, and systems transformation through movement, pleasure, and connection.

• Audre Lorde – Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power
  While not strictly somatic, Lorde’s framing of the body and emotion as sources of power is foundational in Wild Wisdom’s ethos.

• bell hooks – All About Love
  Her work on care, boundaries, and the body as a site of transformation informs many relational and self-return practices.

• Malidoma Somé – Ritual: Power, Healing, and Community
  A West African spiritual leader whose work on ancestral ritual and embodiment has influenced the development of Wild Wisdom’s nature-based rituals.

Ancestral and Nature-Based Embodiment

• Toko-pa Turner – Belonging: Remembering Ourselves Home
  Explores the intersection of myth, dreams, and embodied longing.

• Sage Maurer – The Folk Herbalism Course
  Rooted in intuitive herbalism and embodied plant practice, aligned with seasonal awareness and somatic rhythm.

• Robin Wall Kimmerer – Braiding Sweetgrass
  Weaves Indigenous knowledge, botany, and a felt connection to land and reciprocity into a holistic body-land practice.

• Dr. Daniel Foor – Ancestral Medicine
  Practices for somatic connection to lineage, ancestral healing, and embodied ritual with the dead.

Contemporary Somatic Practitioners and Movements

• Prentis Hemphill – Founder of The Embodiment Institute
  Their work focuses on embodiment and healing in social justice spaces, offering somatic tools for collective care and liberation.

• Staci K. Haines – The Politics of Trauma
  Combines somatics with social justice, emphasizing trauma-informed leadership and healing through embodied awareness.

• La Maida Institute
  A contemporary center offering nervous system education and body-based healing for modern burnout and disconnection.

• Generative Somatics (gs)
  A political somatic practice focused on transformation for movement leaders and marginalized communities.