What is somatic coaching and how might it help you?

 

The body has the natural and innate ability to heal itself under the right conditions.  What are the right conditions?  Some of the more obvious conditions include proper nutrition, good hydration, and enough rest and sleep.  Another condition that is sometimes forgotten is:  a well-regulated nervous system producing a calm, relaxed, and centered state of being.  The body heals more fully and more quickly when the parasympathetic component of the autonomic nervous system is dominant.  The parasympathetic nervous system allows us to more properly rest, digest, and heal.

 

Somatic coaching introduces somatic practices, tools, and techniques to help clients to center themselves, ground themselves, and relax and regulate their nervous systems.  A few examples of somatic practices and tools include somatic bodywork, meditation, deep breathing exercises, postural awareness exercises, yoga, mindfulness, journaling, and emotional clearing techniques. 

 

Somatic coaching also helps clients to access increased awareness of their bodies.  With more bodily awareness, so many things are possible!  We can be more in tune with our bodies and pick up on imbalances before they become more obvious physical symptoms.  We can approach our lives from a more embodied position, bringing more of ourselves to our families and to our work.  We can be more in touch with our intuition, those subtle messages that come from the neural networks in our gut and our heart.  We can mitigate pain, stress, anxiety, and depression by using empowering tools, techniques, and practices.  We can become aware of and release emotions which have become stuck in our bodies.  We can practice being more open and curious about the balance of our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual lives.

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While exploring various somatic tools and techniques is very valuable, it is not really where I feel called or drawn.  My favorite kind of somatic coaching involves offering clients deep listening and presence.  In this way, space is created for awareness to emerge from a deeper place.  We sit together and share, I occasionally reflect back what I'm hearing and feeling, and clients usually connect with their own answers and solutions.  Client and practitioner have a special opportunity to just be together, in their shared humanity, exploring ideas and questions with curiosity, feeling into the subtle messages conveyed by the body. 

 

If you'd like to try a somatic coaching / dialogue session, scheduling can be done through the online scheduler.  It can be stand-alone or combined with a bodywork session.