Not Done

The Three Postural Patterns of HSE

In Hanna Somatic Education we view the overall postural pattern of the person based on, what TH called, the 3 postural reflexes he named: Red Light, Green Light, Trauma Reflex. They are not recognized physiological reflexes, but rather postural patterns expressed over and over, through time, such that they are so habitually held they “act” like reflexes.

RL
GL
TR
4th posture, he called the “Senile Posture” which is a combination of the other three whereby the person has a large number of co-contractions between opposite sets of muscles and thereby is stiff everywhere and displays very little movement mobility.

Of course, the whole person is assessed for variations of limb and head carriage within the general schema of the 3 postural patterns. For example, a person might display an over-all RL pattern, however one shoulder may be more curled forward or held backward than the other, one hip may be more flexed while the other more extended, the head may be both forward and tilted, as well as rotated to a particular side, one foot may be more supinated relative to the other, and much much more subtly of assessment may be noted. However, the central muscles of the center of body in a RL posture, the abdominal muscles, especially the rectus abdominis, will be held in a shortened contracted state and various RL pattern configurations will follow as a general rule.