Aric Spencer, BS from the college of engineering and applied sciences at Western Michigan University, is a school-certified and licensed Structural Integrator, LMP, and somatic educator. A 1999 graduate of the SOMA Institute for Neuromuscular Integration in Buckley Washington, Aric's private practice in Port Townsend, WA specializes in applied Structural Integration, injury recovery, and optimizing breathing habits.

His dedication to body-based healing, movement artistry, and effective client coaching led to an eight-year tenure as a core faculty member of the Port Townsend School of Massage. While skillfully and playfully instructing and developing curriculum for kinesiology -- "the study of movement" -- he brought the valuable art of relating fascial plasticity and postural integration to PTSM students.

Aric is also an enthusiastic educator in his practice and will “stand on his head” to help you "stand correctly" on your own feet! He sees rejuvenating the body through structural integration as an exciting journey toward optimal self-esteem and creative self-expression.

The ability to positively sense our bodies gives us zeal, vitality and joy for living. For me, it is incredibly rewarding to help people improve their natural ability to safely feel and sense their own physical movement and energy. SOMA is brilliant work because it safely, succinctly and sequentially -- through deeper and deeper layers of the body -- frees-up space for confident movement and more clearly felt feelings, improving people’s visceral drive to create, achieve and manifest their dreams.

SOMA work, through its three different forms, can be a profound means to successfully address specific injuries and conditions, support general “touch-maintenance” needs, and to structurally integrate the body and mind within gravity.

* Proprioception (from Latin proprius, meaning "one's own" and perception) is the sense of the relative position of neighboring parts of the body. It is the sense that indicates whether the body is moving with required effort, as well as where the various parts of the body are located in relation to each other.

Why do I choose to do this work?
SOMA is a “systems approach” that makes sense and, personally, it has made my body work smarter. I have participated in sports all of my life, and I sustained injuries that seriously inhibited my ability to breathe, thrive, express myself, and feel my body. Flexibility-wise, my body was super stuck. I was getting old before my time. My body works with me now. Stretching feels good; dancing and singing feels good. I find I have a newfound emotional connection to my life — a strength that drives me to create a much more exciting life for myself with more energy for naturally-expressed encouragement, both internal and externally.

To me, SOMA is about improving a person’s quality of life by removing specifically what is exhausting them from within, from with their body's structure.

2024 represents 25 years of full-time, private practice. ...one person, one session at at time, expressing my joy for untying various compensatory conundrums, encouraging us to live in our bodies, and watching our light shine a bit brighter, and our peace with the gravity of life grow a bit fonder.

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