I have been dealing with a back injury that causes pain and weakness for some time now. A relative of mine, who is normally a pretty down-to-earth person and not a new ager, has repeatedly pushed me to try out various alternative medicine routes for treatment, stuff like chiropractic, acupuncture, and so on. The most recent one being recommended for me is Hanna Somatics, which according to Wikipedia is " holistic body-centered approaches to assist people in integrating and transforming self through movement and awareness practices intended to promote psycho-physical well-being."
Like chiropractic and acupuncture, it sounds pretty hokey. However, chiropractic and acupuncture have at least been investigated to some extent by medical professionals and scientific journals evaluating any positive effects they may have unrelated to the spacey language used to hype them. I have been looking around for information about somatics before considering humoring this relative but have found nothing except websites written in vague terms by people who seem connected to the various organizations that teach somatics to practitioners. No medical journal articles, no scientific arguments for or against, no criticism, etc. What’s the real deal on this stuff?