A Family Lineage of Health

Somatic Stretch® came to me through my mother, Lilian Jarvis, a former principal dancer with the National Ballet of Canada, and through the healing lineage carried by my grandfather before her.

Where it began - but it likely began earlier:

My grandfather, Otto Järvinen, changed the family name to Jarvis when he and my grandmother immigrated from Finland to Canada.

I grew up watching him stretch on his veranda in the mornings, drink herbs he had foraged himself, and live close to the natural healing traditions he carried. Trained as a herbalist and masseur in Finland, he became one of the first masseurs in Toronto in the 1930s, running a successful practice from his home.

He built his own sauna for family and clients, made his own massage oil, and brought a deeply practical, hands-on approach to health into our family life.

He died when I was only nine years old, but the tradition continued. I later trained in Shiatsu and acupuncture, while other family members carried the healing thread in their own ways — my uncle as an osteopath, my brother as a medical doctor, and of course, my mother, Lilian Jarvis, a pioneer in physical fitness and the founder of Somatic Stretch®.

You can read an excerpt from our Somatic Stretch® training program below to learn more about Otto’s natural way of life.

Lilian Jarvis and the Birth of Somatic Stretch®

My mother, Lilian Jarvis, was a celebrated principal dancer with the National Ballet of Canada when it began in the late 1950s. 

Through her years as a teacher and performer throughout her career, she developed an extraordinary understanding of the body — not only as something trained for performance, but as something that could remain supple, responsive, and vital throughout life.

What came through my grandfather as a healing tradition became, through my mother, a more refined and repeatable method. She brought to it the precision of a dancer, the patience of a teacher, and a deep respect for the body’s natural intelligence.

From this foundation, Somatic Stretch® emerged: a way of stretching that uses relaxation rather than force, helping the body release tension and recover flexibility without strain.

Lilian’s vision was simple, but profound: that flexibility, posture, and vitality can be cultivated at any age when the body is approached with attention, patience, and respect.

Meredith Sands Keator: Carrying the Lineage Forward

When my mother was pregnant with me, she stopped dancing and spent hours each day on the floor, working with the postural issues that had challenged her as a dancer. Despite her extraordinary ability, she had knock knees and a sway back, and she was determined to understand and realign her own body.

As a child, I was often called to stand on her pelvis while she lay face down, helping her explore the tensions that kept her body from opening the way she wanted. Slowly, insight after insight, Somatic Stretch® was born.

I began teaching at eighteen, originally, “to help my mother out,” as she was teaching many classes a week in our home studio. Later, through my own travels and studies, I trained in Shiatsu and acupuncture, and have been in practice since 1996.

Today, I carry this lineage forward through Somatic Stretch® classes, workshops, retreats, and teacher training. I also continue to develop the deeper framework behind the work through Geometry of Healing and Neural Resonance Therapy®, for those drawn to the study of pattern, structure, and hands-on practitioner application.