About Somatic Consent

Founder of Somatic Consent

Meet Matthias Schwenteck

Matt is a German-born citizen who has been traveling and teaching around the world since 2010.

He is a trained facilitator in the fields of Sacred Sexuality and Tantra, and has been working with different healing modalities such as counseling, guided meditation, and bodywork, for over 20 years. His sessions and teachings are grounded in a background of trauma research and neurophysiology.

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Matt considers himself a student of life, and finds himself inspired by everything that resonates with the key values of connection, transformation, and love. In his unending search for authentic experience, Matt has walked many paths, including those of Tao yoga, shamanism, and energy work. In 2011, he found his calling within somatic practices and consent, and has been studying and fine-tuning this work ever since.

Matthias developed the Somatic Consent Engagement System in 2019, and has dedicated his life to guiding thousands of people through this evolutionary process in settings that range all the way from festivals, to workshops, to professional private sessions.

Somatic Consent teaches an approach which builds clarity and connection to self—as well as bonding in relationship with others.
By expertly guiding you to regain your full capacity to experience sensation and feeling—you re-learn to understand and perceive through the ‘language’ of your own body.
This dramatically elevates your ability to be and act as your natural, genuine self—with autonomy and integrity. It supports your body's resilience to stress, promotes emotional intelligence and compassion, and offers an enormous neurological improvement in coping with the ups and downs of life.
Somatic Consent enables children, adolescents and adults to develop their authentic voice—rooted in inner wisdom and guided by their desire to recognise and embody their own inner truth, wishes and needs. This creates incredible space for new uplifting experiences.
Somatic Consent supports people in developing the awareness to see life as a way of expressing oneself and to feel safe and at home in their experience of it.
The end result is living and working according to your own ideals while knowing that you always have a choice, are flexible, adaptable and free.
Together, we practice spiritual, cultural, social and ecological renewal and create forward-looking narratives for a new relationship to ourselves, others and the environment and society in which we live.

Values of Somatic Consent

Somatic Consent is built on the foundation of the following values. We try to maintain these values in every interaction, no matter how big or small, easily detectable and seen or more obscure.
Courage We create a culture in which we feel safe to explore and express what is alive for us. We encourage each other to experience the great depth and breadth of human emotions and expressions—while taking care of individual and group-oriented needs.

Embodiment
The body is a powerful tool to bring out and nurture the seeds of growth within us. If we give priority to our body’s wisdom, we can live our values safely and with integrity.

Responsibility and Consent
We are all experts in ourselves and responsible for our thoughts, feelings and needs. We show radical love and respect by asking someone for their readiness to fulfil our desire to connect. We practice staying connected and appreciate the answer despite whether it's a yes or no.
Radical Imagination We know that human imagination fills our landscape with possibility and is a key element in maintaining a world that serves all. Radical imagination requires; 1. the courage and intelligence to recognise what is possible to change 2. the ability to set new action and collaboration in motion, in order to drive social change forward.

Collective growth
We utilise intergenerational knowledge, share experience and insight. We strengthen connection to self and others while celebrating our differences. Through this we free ourselves from the feeling of separation and division. We move instead towards a system of life without hierarchical structure—where individual sovereign rights, choice and flexibility is encouraged, while maintaining what is most efficient for the whole.

Community
We work and regulate ourselves together. By both understanding and reflecting on light and shadow aspects of being and celebrating diversity—we remember how we can thrive together. We prioritise interpersonal well-being, in order to build resilient networks that strengthen collective consciousness. In this way we explore a new form of society in which each individual can align themself with what resonates within.

Practices / Methods

Somatic exercises
Neurological lessons
Trauma education / self and co-regulation
Resilience building
Relationship and encounter theory
Meditation / mindfulness
Emotional Embodiment practices
Communication Skills

The History of Somatic Consent

2011

It all began with the practice of bodywork and deep listening.

In 2011 Matthias attended a practitioner training in which the students were introduced to conceptual consent work. At first, he wrote the concept off as being “too mental” and found himself much more interested in learning true somatic techniques. But after a deeper look, Matthias found the essence behind the theory was in two key questions: “who is doing the action, and who is the action really for?” Based on the 3-Minute Game by Harry Faddies.
He immediately realised how crucial this understanding was for all human engagement.

2011

2012

This is when the inspiration took hold.

Matthias found that although this training carried a valuable piece of the puzzle, there was something missing. The key piece lacking from this work was that true conceptual consent implies that ‘doing an action and receiving’ is not based on getting a response through an action, but rather the sensation of the action itself.

2012

2013

This is true somatic experience.

However, the more he practiced on his own, the more confused he became. Matthias fell quickly into the misconception that the pleasure he was causing another person through his actions was what he ‘should be’ aiming for – instead of feeling the sensation in his own skin (for his personal pleasure).

2013

2014

Matthias began to look for answers.

In 2014, he attended a practitioner workshop in which the concept was narrowed down to one tangible point of awareness. The dynamic of taking action and receiving could be clearly differentiated and experienced through the awareness of the sensory inflow of direct pleasure through the somatic nervous system and the skin.

2014

Everything fell into place.

This led to the discovery of the infinite possibilities of exploring somatic embodiment within the domains of personal and spiritual development. Matthias had found a learning system that was not based in a system of beliefs, but rather in the individual experience of the authentic self. He became deeply motivated to facilitate this embodied understanding and provide guidance for as many people as possible. He had found a path to awakening through direct somatic experience.

2014

2020

Launching Somatic Consent

Somatic Consent is making its way to a worldwide stage in which thousands of people are participating.

Be part of it – Download Your App, FREE PDF Student-HandBook or get the Selflove Course now.

2020

2021

International expansion

Facilitation Certification trainings.
Somatic Consent Year training.
ConsentLab Leadership Online training

International Professional Facilitation Certification and a individual program for personal/spiritual development.

German, Spanish app and Student HandBook translations

Publishing the Somatic Consent Book

– Love Maps Decoded

2021

Intention

I have been on a journey of personal and spiritual development for more than 20 years.

I am a student of life and curious about what works in day-to-day encounters and on my soul’s journey of being here in this life and sharing my gifts with the world.

I am an explorer and discoverer, a pioneer of unwalked territory. I am talented at connecting dots and ideas that resonate in my cellular system, in my mind and body, and sharing this with the world in different forms.

I was one of the co-founders of the School of Consent in 2018 and co-created curriculums for courses to educate consent facilitators around the world. For five years, I was studying and embodying the somatic dynamics of consent and facilitating sessions and workshops for individuals, couples and groups, and then educating facilitators on how to teach this transformative work to others. I am proud of what we achieved. Now my intention is to deepen in my teaching journey and educate about consent with my projects here on Somatic Consent.

I am wholeheartedly dedicated to sharing this work with the world in empowering ways that serve the purpose of transformation for individuals, people and the collective.

I am sharing here my embodied knowledge and practices of Somatic Consent through a variety of resources, including a free Student Handbook, Selflove, Connection, Foundation, Relating and Practitioner Courses, and a series of Certification. Take a look here.

My purpose is to inspire love, connection and healthy communication and sex positive life. Wherever you are on your journey, I hope you can use the tools to deepen your experience.

We are looking for Ambasadors who are dedicated to facilitate this transformative work in their Country. I invite you to reach out if you are interested.