so you found yourself encountering this word "somatic", pretty much everywhere lately... but you don't know why it matters and what it could do for you. in this blog we'll define some terms and demystify the world of "somatic" guidance, therapy, coaching. this short guide will bring you the plain-speak you've been cravin', plus a bit of her-story for context. i'm serving up all the 411 you'll need to finally feel like you "get it" when it comes to all this embodiment stuff.
#1: let's define "soma" & "somatic" guidance and a few other terms?
"soma" refers to the sensing, self-organizing, self-aware processes that all living organisms are participating in, even down to the cellular level. these processes are not separate from their interactions within the whole, but rather informed by the past and shaped by future trajectories from relationships both micro and macro in scale.
"somatic" means "body oriented perception" or "how we perceive ourselves from within the body"
somatic guidance refers to how we are working within our bodies to better understand ourselves mentally, emotionally & spiritually.
somatically guided therapy or coaching sessions often include working with movement, sound, touch, breathe, posture, gesture, attention & expressive arts to assist people in becoming more aware of sensations happening within the body.
the more aware you can become of your bodily sensations (including numb-ness) the more you can begin to notice your unique body-signals. think of "body-signals" as the way your body communicates its needs, distresses, comfort, fear, safety, threat, social cues, attunement with people and the environment etc. noticing your body-signals is one of the ways you can help yourself get out of unwanted patterns and process trauma stored in the body.
"trauma" is not the actual event, but rather the residual charge or energy stored in the body-memory from events in our lives that didn't get the processing they needed.
either too much too soon of something (overwhelm, violence, boundary violation, systemic oppression) or too little to late of something (neglect, social isolation, rejection, lack of attunement with a care-giver). trauma often blocks our ability to sort what from what, when it comes to our body-signals, which is why it can be really helpful to have a somatic guide or coach to help you in tracking your sensations and experiences.
the aim of somatic guidance or embodiment coaching, is to grow your capacity to be present with challenging emotions and experiences so that you can reclaim the parts of yourself that have become stuck, isolated or shamed away throughout your life.
pushing away these isolated parts and avoiding feeling the feelings are often strands of a long braid of survival strategies that for some of us are ready to be undone. you will know they are ready to be undone because they are no-longer working in your life, except to keep you stuck... stuck in harmful relationships, jobs, addictions, unhealthy patterns etc.
even though somatic practices are often guided or facilitated by a teacher, therapist or coach, somatic practices are considered self-learning processes. this can be super empowering for people when they realize they are co-creating their own healing journey by engaging in acts of self-learning & self-curiosity. somatic coaching is a non-prescriptive and often creative approach to re-building internal foundations (unique to each persons nervous system) for more connection, liberation, maturation and wholeness.
born of necessity and out of revolutionary times, the word somatic has recently become so popular because we are living in a deeply disembodied culture in the west. modern colonial-capitalist-consumerist values, which are predominately western (euro-american)driven, are resulting in global ecocide. our collective disembodiment & isolation has led to catastrophic impacts on each-other and the planet.
isolation and disembodiment are required to sustain the systems that are killing us. basically we are all having to really get real and really get into our bodies and feel what's happening. hence, the growing popularity of the word "somatic"(how we are perceiving ourselves within the body).
i think we all can feel, at least some degree, of the magnitude of the problems we're collectively facing. so some of us are reaching for solutions from within, because that's where we have the most control in our personal lives. somatic practices give us the ability to be in a not-knowing space or rather a learning space with ourselves and because of this, somatic modalities are serving to orient attention towards more connection and creative problem solving, even when the way forward is unclear.
preamble alert : ok this next part is gonna be a bit sloppy...but this is a blog and not a thesis.
"somatic practices" are not new concepts. somatic modalities have been around in the west since the 1960's emerging from major influences of eastern medicine, meditation, yoga, tantra, martial arts, qigong, t'ai chi, aikido, capoeira, dances of african diaspora, polyrhythmic vocalizing, chanting, trance-states, shamanic journeying, toltec breathing practices/dreamwork, and many other influences globally. i see a correlation between the cultural revolution happening in the united states beginning w/ the civil rights movement, vietnam & iraq war protests, women's rights, queer and trans' rights movements and the rise of somatic modalities or interests in fields of study that privilege the wisdom of the body-mind (mostly coming from culture's whose voices have been marginalized)...
also there are too many post-modern artists to count, including dancers who have made major contributions to the world of "somatic practices" in the west. i'll attempt to name a few in another blog post, perhaps a part 2 to this one...?
and, let's be honest healing modalities that approach the mind, body and spirit holistically and not as separate mechanistic parts, have been integral to indigenous cultures and matriarchal cultures around the world since forever. somatic work is de-colonial work. western therapy is only now catching up to what ancient and present indigenous cultures around the world have always known.
my teacher maria yraceburu, (tlish diyan, snake clan, apache) refers to this holistic understanding as eco-psychology. her life's work has been bridging western (euro-american) heart-minds back into understanding earth wisdom ways. in my experiences of learning from her, this is also rooted in deeply somatic work. she calls it sensual telepathy with the earth...
somatic coaching is for anyone wanting time and space to be present with themselves learn more about how their body is communicating. it's for anyone who is feeling stuck. it's for anyone seeking a more creative approach to healing and living.
once you begin your somatic journey a whole world of deeper connection and refined perception starts to open up. it can be really messy at times, to unthaw, to come out of a frozen state and start feeling again. but there are shifts that are also subtle, gentle and reveal themselves in moments of clarity where you once would have gone into a tail-spin of confusion and crusty ole' reactive habits.
if all this is speaking to your heart then consider booking a free consultation call with me, I would love to hear from you!
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