“So you’re a movement coach, right?”
Well, yes and no.
This is one of the questions I get a lot when I tell people I'm a somatic coach, and that’s if they’ve even heard of the term somatics before.
Being a yoga teacher as well as a somatic coach, you'd probably think my main focus is helping people with movement.
But somatics is so much more than physical movement. It's about being with the experience in our bodies, in the here and now. It's about becoming more whole - physically, emotionally, spiritually - experiencing and expressing all of us more fully.
So if you’ve stumbled upon the world of ‘somatics’ or you’re wondering what it’s all about,I’ll be sharing in this blog what the term somatics means, and what the difference is between somatic exercises and somatic experiencing.
This is a deep one, so I encourage you to grab a cuppa and allow yourself 15 minutes or so to really let this land for you. To experience it, not simply skim on the surface.
Let’s dive in…
What is somatics?
The word ‘soma’ means the 'body of an organism' - and somatics means ‘relating to the body’.
Often the definition is confined to being about the physical layer of the body, but the soma is actually the whole of our being - physical, emotional, energetic, intellect and our soul, or spirit.
Take the practice of yoga, for example. The aim is to not only work with the physical body (which is typically our entry point to yoga in the west) but to experience these deeper layers of us - also known as the five Koshas.
Which is why you might notice other shifts as you practise the yoga asana (poses) -perhaps you feel certain emotions arise, or you notice your breathing pattern, or as you lie in savasana you feel more connected to something deeper than the physical layer of you.
The more you practice yoga, over time you'll experience a deeper awareness of your whole soma, your entire being. Exercises like this are great for our nervous system, so let's explore other types of somatic exercises that can nourish the whole of our being.
What are somatic exercises?
Yoga can be classed as a form of somatic exercise, if guided in a somatic way (rather than focussing on alignment and getting your body in shapes that can cause more harm than good) and can help you begin to unfurl those layers of tension physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.
Other types of somatic exercises can include breath work/ pranayama, trauma release exercises such as TRE, shaking, dancing, intuitive movement, EFT, self soothing touch - all these modalities are the ‘layers on top’ as I like to think of them, that we can experience for ourselves and feel the impact, usually with immediate effect.
Had an argument? Shake it off.
Shallow breathing? Do some belly breaths.
Want to lift your mood? Get your power song on and have a kitchen disco (that’s my go to!)
Hopefully you get the idea that these are types of exercises that are body-led and help us release something to shift our state.
But what if you try these exercises, yet your underlying nervous system state is feeling stuck, anxious, overwhelmed, or hyper vigilant?
In my case, I’ve definitely been there.
I’ve struggled with anxiety most of my adult life, and in times of heightened anxiety (hello self employment) I’ve got caught up in thinking I need to do MORE self care, more meditation, more yoga, more EFT, to really shift something.
When in reality, I was just adding on more layers that weren’t truly making me thrive.
In fact I actually started to feel worse, on my constant quest for deeper self care, thinking the answer was outside of me and some practice or exercise will eventually be the ‘thing’ to heal me.
Does this sound familiar? If so, read on…
Getting to the root of your default nervous system state
If, like me, you ever find yourself getting frustrated with trying to find the ‘right thing’ to release your tension, anxiety or stress - you might need to do the opposite - do less practices and exercises. Instead, getting more curious about the underlying state your nervous system is in and attuning deeper to your felt sense.
Particularly if you’ve experienced traumatic events in your life which may have led to chronic tension, stress, pain, fatigue or burnout.
And yep, I said it - that word - trauma. It’s often overused these days (how many trigger warnings do we see online now) but let’s look at this in a little more detail in how we can resolve deeper rooted trauma and tension through a body-led approach.
Mind over matter: the neuro-centric approach to healing trauma
Within our culture we have a focus towards neuro-centric healing and therapies that tackle stress and trauma.
This usually means that when you’re struggling with things like overwhelm, anxiety and stress and you seek help, you’ll be sent down the mental health route.
You’ll most likely be referred to a talk-based therapist or a cognitive behavioural therapist, to understand more about the events in your life that led you to feeling the way you do now.
You might talk through the events and learn some techniques to cope or reframe them in your current reality.
Neurotransmitters in the brain travel quickly and over time, we can train them to go down a new ‘route’ in our nervous system, brain and body.
But what if we let the body lead first, rather than prioritising the brain as the control centre for our healing?
It might seem like an odd approach at first, but let’s dive into a bit more about that ‘t’ word - trauma.
Trauma is not actually about the events that have happened in our lives, but the emotional responses to the events, which then get trapped in our soma, our cellular memory. Because we froze, or ran, or fought in a stressful event, our body takes on that imprint, and it clings on to it for dear life, in order to keep us safe if it happens again.
But what the body actually wants to do, is complete this emotional response. How we effectively do this, is in slowness with body-led, nervous system centric therapies such as somatic experiencing.
By leading in this way, the cognitive side of therapy actually becomes easier to tackle as we build nervous system capacity within the body and are then more able to express the things we once found hard to share with someone or navigate ourselves.
What is Somatic experiencing?
Somatic experiencing was developed by Dr Peter Levine in the 1970’s, and was formed as an alternative therapy to treating stress-related disorders and trauma trapped in the body by stressful life events.
It is what’s known as a bottom-up approach to healing, in that we’re letting the body lead the experience, rather than letting the mind lead and getting stuck in the past story, or going ‘straight for the jugular’ of a hard topic.
In somatic experiencing, we never go ‘looking’ for the trauma. The body will naturally let what needs to arise to the surface in our experience now.
By working with a somatic experiencing practitioner, you’re being guided back to focus on the felt sense, and the other parts of you (think of the earlier Kosha model I explained) noticing sensations, emotions, images or memories that may arise as you explore what can be felt in the body.
The body may then start to instinctively move and shift, and a somatic experiencing practitioner will encourage you to slow every movement down, gently tracking it, as the nervous system heals in slowness.
As you are guided through this process, you begin to unfurl the layers of tension that you’ve held onto and stored for years, perhaps even decades.
Through letting it be processed in the body now, you find more nervous system stability and ease. You’re less reactive with others or in your environment, and you’re able to respond to situations and people in a more present, authentic way (exit fawning and people pleasing!)
It’s a process of the nervous system reorganising and rerouting in slowness, just like cultivating more nutrient dense soil in our body.
In short, it’s bloody magical stuff!
Somatic coaching: walking the path together
As a certified Regenerative Alchemy Somatic Coach, I never see myself as 'ahead of 'my clients or that I have the right tools or methods for you. Instead, think of me as a tour guide, helping you navigate your own bodyscape, walking this path together and being curious about what’s to be discovered along the way.
I’m here to help you re-wild your own nervous system, to learn the ways to navigate the boulders, lions and tigers in your path, and learn how to build more nervous system resiliency to overcome them and enter a new terrain.
In somatic coaching, we map out some key mapping points together - your current way of being, and your desired way of being in the world. Along this journey, we move gently towards the parts that feel stuck, and reorganise those parts back to your natural, more easeful state of being.
And by doing this, we can then explore what may be the most effective types of somatic exercise for you, depending on the default nervous system responses you may have, and what you want to cultivate more of in your life.
There is no linear path by working this way. There’s no step-by-step formula. But there is a gentle, guided process to lead you to long term nervous system stability, capacity and resiliency so you can own your power, and express and embody more of who you are.
If you’d like to experience this body-led approach, you can book a free 45 minute exploratory session with me.
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