A real story of somatic insight and a mother’s intuition
There are few things more unsettling than pain without a clear answer. Especially when tests, scans, and consultations lead only to uncertainty — and a suggestion to remove something, just in case.
My daughter experienced this.
For a long time, she lived with persistent headaches and sharp pain in her teeth. Nothing obvious showed up. No clear structural issue. And so, the assumption was made that her wisdom teeth might be the cause. The recommendation was surgical removal.
But something didn’t feel right. Not in her body, and not in my instinct as her mother.
She began to feel anxious at the thought of surgery — a deep, visceral resistance that went beyond simple worry. Her whole system seemed to recoil, and that something we don’t always consider is that the anticipation of an invasive procedure can itself be experienced by the body as a form of stress.
Listening More Closely
Eventually, she was referred to a different consultant. This time, the answer was different.
Not dental.
Not structural.
But functional.
Temporomandibular joint dysfunction (TMJ) — a pattern of tension and strain through the jaw, face, and neck – not something to remove. but something to understand.
A Pattern, not a Problem
What she was experiencing was not damage, but a pattern. A learned holding. Subtle, ongoing contraction — shaped over time through stress, clenching, and the body’s attempt to cope.
This is closely related to what Thomas Hanna described as Sensory Motor Amnesia — where the brain loses clear communication with certain muscle groups, and tension becomes the new normal.
The body is not choosing to hold. It has simply forgotten how to let go.
A Different Approach
There was no need for surgery. Instead, the work became gentle and gradual:
- Bringing awareness to the jaw
- Softening patterns of clenching
- Restoring ease in the breath
- Reconnecting the head, neck, and body
Over time, things began to change. Not instantly, but steadily.
A Wider Reflection
This is one story. But it raises a broader question: How often is pain understood only through structure, when it may also involve pattern?
This is not to dismiss medical care — far from it. But sometimes, alongside structural investigation, there is value in listening to how the body is functioning, holding, and adapting.
Listening Differently
In somatic work, we begin from a simple place:
We listen.
Not only to where it hurts, but to how the body is organising around that pain. Because the body is not asking to be fixed. It is asking to be understood. And sometimes, in that understanding, something begins to ease.
About the Author
Lala Menen is a movement and somatic practitioner, a yoga teacher, researcher and author offering gentle, restorative practices that help the body release tension, calm the nervous system, and restore ease of movement.
Her work is an exploration of how the body holds, adapts, and eventually lets go.
Blending somatic practice with quiet contemplative awareness, she offers a gentle approach to restoring ease in the modern body—one that listens rather than forces and allows change to emerge naturally.
Author of The Soma Awakens Understanding SMA and how to undo tense holding patterns in the body to reduce common aches and pains.
Purchase The Soma Awakens: https://amzn.eu/d/00omSl03
Author of Release — A practical guide to easing tension and restoring ease in the modern body (Coming Soon)