What is somatic coaching really like?

“Somatic coaching is like regular coaching, but has an extra juicy ingredient that makes all the difference. “

That ingredient is your body.

Let’s say you come into a session, and you’re feeling nervous about an upcoming event or important meeting coming up. You might want help feeling confident to say what you gotta say.

I might check, are you’re open to checking with what’s going on with your body around this topic, or do you just want to talk about it? (Either is fine btw.)

You might say you’re cool with the body conversation, and you also want to walk away with a strategy. (Great.)

I’d probably ask, how do you know you’re nervous?

You might say, my stomach feels nauseous. (Great awareness! That means your interoception is online! And no worries if it’s not. We can slowly tune it in.)

I might check to see if there’s another part of you that doesn’t feel nervous.

And you might quickly scan your body to see, and you might find that actually, your hips are feeling alive and strong.

I’d say, “Great, you’ve got choice here. Would you rather explore what’s going on with the nauseous feeling, or pay more attention to the life in your hips?”

Let’s say on this particular day you want to hang out with your hips. I’d give you some time to see what else you notice going on with them.

We might sit in silence for however long you need until you want to share what you discover. Maybe you connect to a subtle movement of energy around your hip bones, or maybe you feel an impulse to move your hips, or maybe a memory from when you were a kid and you were getting ready for a school recital starts to replay.

We’d work with what you’ve got. Which looks like: follow the sensations in your body, allow for any emotions that want to surface, let any impulses for movement happen, and listen to any stories that want to be told.

Then we’d check if perhaps something in you wants to rewrite an old story. We’d see how your body could guide you to do that. Which might look like allowing for new sensations, movement, emotions, or story to unfold in relation to a specific point in time.

At some point we’d circle back to the topic of the day and see if a strategy is still needed.

And wherever you’re at…

It’s all good.

That’s the beauty of bringing your body into the equation. You can’t screw it up. Wherever it’s telling you, it brings you to where you need to go.

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