What is somatic coaching?
- Jenny Adams Coach
- Oct 18, 2023
- 3 min read
Updated: Mar 18
What is somatic coaching?
The word 'Somatic' relates to our physical body and our perception or relationship to it. You could think of it as the mind-body connection or how our thoughts respond to our body, and our body to our thoughts. The route between these is often through our autonomous nervous system, which is responsible for our "automatic" processes such as breathing and heart rate. Somatic coaching works so well because we are tapping into our bodies natural state, how we have evolved to survive before smartphones, careers and the pressures of modern life came along and disturbed our natural processes.
What does somatic coaching look like?
Somatic coaching with me involves some trauma informed coaching, we look at your mindset and beliefs and how they show up in your body. It is a safe space to feel truly heard, for all your feelings and emotions to be welcomed and held. We do some weird and wonderful movements and nervous system regulation based on the polyvagal theory. This helps to release trauma and old emotions that have been stored in your body.
How is this different to talking therapy?
You may have heard of a "top down or bottom up" approach, talking therapy takes a purely "top down" approach- looking only at the mind and talking through things. Movement practises take a purely "bottom up" approach and work with your body but not to process emotions. I help you with both, so you can build up your physical strength, release emotions, and work on your mindset and make sense of beliefs that are keeping you stuck.
Can this help ME/CFS or other chronic illnesses like Fibromyalgia or Long Covid?
I see in a lot of my clients, and from my own personal journey, that trauma gets stuck in our body and turns into chronic illnesses such as ME/CFS in my case, or fibromyalgia, or long covid. Working together, we encourage your inner wisdom and how to get your body into a healing state. We look at how to reduce your stress, or complete your stress cycles so you are no longer carrying such a stress burden.
How does it work?
We work on finding safety so you can release trauma from the body, we complete stress cycles so it doesnt accumilate, we look at mindset and setting better boundaries, we build up your tolerance, find stillness and calm, and learn how to self regulate.
Is it natural?
If you look at how indiginous people live or hunter gatherer tribes, they are natually regulating their nervous system daily- they sing, dance, shake, rely on their community, have purpose, deal with issues as they arise, have a spiritual practise, show their true emotions, respect how everything is connected.
What are the results
Imagine living in a body that feels safe, strong and confident, being a person who can speak up for what they truly want and isn't driven by "shoulds" and societal expectations. Imagine no longer being driven by fear and trusting that you can handle any situation that life throws at you.
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