BY Amanda Blake
with Richard Strozzi-Heckler, Ph.D., and Staci Haines
History of Strozzi Somatics
For the last 40 years, Strozzi Institute has been training leaders in business, education, military, non-profit, social change, and many other domains. What distinguishes our work is our unique mind-body approach to developing a greater capacity for effective action. Some have seen this approach as cutting-edge; others have seen it as marginal at best. Despite a long history of positive results, the question “What does the body have to do with leadership?” remains bewildering to many.
As science turns its attention to the study of the brain, this question is becoming easier to answer. Discoveries in neuroscience confirm that the somatic approach we use is actually the most direct route to developing the behavioral and interpersonal skills that exemplary leaders share. This explains why over time, our Embodied Leadership methodology has come to be seen more and more as “the missing piece” to transformational learning and leadership development.
However we didn’t start with the science. Our somatic approach grows out of a lineage that stretches back decades and often, centuries, drawing upon what people have observed across time and culture about what it takes to become an exemplary citizen, leader, and human being. The work is grounded in traditions that have influenced human transformation for generations, including Eastern and Western philosophy, meditation, and martial arts. It also draws upon relevant work in more contemporary disciplines such as psychology, linguistics, management theory, and bodywork. Each of these time-tested domains has made an important contribution to our understanding of the nature of being human. Strozzi Institute’s place in these multiple streams of wisdom has been to interweave their insights and then focus the lens on questions of leadership. In designing our programs we used what has worked for generations, paying close attention to the results as we experimented with applying those lessons to today’s needs. Over time we have built a truly transformative discourse on somatic leadership. Continue reading »
