It seems medicine is finally shifting away from the idea that the body is an organic machine. Functional medicine has arrived.

Emotions and pain so readily spread between people that researchers describe them as “contagious”. The automatic sharing of emotional state (affect) happens all the time without our knowing. However, sometimes we notice that we are sharing how others are feeling and when this happens social neuroscientists call it somatic empathy…

The board game GO is the hardest in the world. Can an AI called AlphaGo beat Lee Sedol, the best of the best, and what does somatic empathy have to do with the outcome?

To understand how hands-on bodywork can influence a person’s emotional, physiological and mental state, we need an appreciation of feedback loops.

Somatic empathy is not about being nice; nor is it something only ‘empaths’ experience. It is an ancient intelligence that enables us to understand and therefore predict the intentions of others.