Somato Respiratory Integration (SRI)

What is SRI?

Breathing exercises can help calm anxiety, keep us grounded and bring us back to ourselves. There is strength in breath. Somato Respiratory Integration (SRI) is a set of exercises that brings together breath and body: soma meaning body, and respiration meaning breath. SRI exercises help you connect with the natural rhythms of your body through energy, touch and movement.

SRI is grounded in Reorganisational Healing. Put simply, it is a series of exercises using breath, awareness, touch and movement, developed to help you connect your body and mind and meet life more easily and positively.

SRI breathing exercises

Holistic tools like SRI can be invaluable when you need them. Have you ever been in emotional pain and been told to just get over it? That is the last thing you want to hear. SRI lets you be where you are, without judgement. Only when you can work through that state can you move forward.

The Twelve Stages of Healing

Through working with thousands of people over many decades, Network Spinal founder Dr Donald Epstein noticed predictable patterns in the way people move and breathe through both difficult and positive life events. He described twelve distinct rhythms, which he called the Twelve Stages of Healing. Each stage has its own SRI exercise, from Stage 1, suffering, to Stage 12, community.

Two principles run through the exercises:

• It is much harder to free yourself from tension by concentrating on the area of stress, which can increase the body’s defences.
• Instead, you start from an area of peace or ease, and bring its energy and memory to the area that feels blocked, stressed or painful.

The first three stages

These help when you are suffering physically, emotionally or mentally. You become aware of the rhythms of your suffering, and discover that you are part of a process, often linked to being stuck in a particular perspective.

The next four stages

These are about breaking through: making meaningful changes, finding new ways to create change and reaching resolution.

The last five stages

These represent a more awakened awareness. Having worked through difficulty, you are left with a deeper sense of wellbeing and ready to take part in life more fully.

What people use SRI for

Practice members tell us SRI helps them to:

• get more from their Network Spinal care
• stay connected and present in their body
• feel more focused and energised
• relax and handle stress more easily
• make positive changes in their life

Hannah Emmett, Doctor of Chiropractic, guides practice members through SRI as part of their care at Anttz, and we run SRI webinars from time to time (see upcoming events).