Somatic Coaching
Somatic Work is an approach that is trauma informed but connection focused. To help guide the approach we ask "what happened to you?" rather than "what is wrong with you?" The purpose of this work is to help your system integrate safely and effectively, believing a safe system is a healing system while also acknowledging and supporting past and present experiences stored within the body and mind. Taking account of your whole story and how your body has essentially 'kept score' allows deeper internal connections to be made and often puzzling chronic symptoms more understood.
Somatic work helps create a conversation of reconciliation, validation, and redemption between the remembered and the experienced holistically in mind, body, and spirit - whether it be past, inherited, or current wounding. With curiosity and courage, we do this via breath-work and meditative practices. Energetic principles, aroma and/or sound therapy, mild massage / pressure, occasional muscle testing, and encouraged movement may also be applicable. In essence, we ask, your body answers, and we listen.
Benefits of Somatic Coaching often include:
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personal revelations in relation to physical and emotional wellness
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deeper connections to self in body, mind, and spirit
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anxiety and stress relief techniques
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emotional and/or chronic symptom release
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ability to regulate and process difficult emotional wounds or traumatic experiences
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better sleep and/or more energy
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better coping strategies and stress management
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chronic pain relief
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an ability to feel safe, present, and capable in triggering situations
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system integration
"As a somatic coach, I help clients find where their body has 'kept score' potentially affecting their ability to heal. Somatic story work asks 'what happened to you' rather than 'what is wrong with you' pursuing connection before correction. I do this through gentle investigative breathwork, and meditative practices with energetic principles and movement where needed."
—Andea Kaye Beims
FAQs About Somatic Work
WHAT IS SOMATIC COACHING? This is an important question, because it is a diverse work. In my practice, I have coupled my somatic trauma therapy certification with my intuitive abilities to help guide my clients in mindful meditative practices, while we discover where their body has 'kept score,' so to speak. In other words, our bodies, though designed to heal, can have difficulty doing so when our stored trauma, stress, anxiety, or past wounds are unacknowledged without understanding. Somatic work is about making connections and seeing the internal emotional tapestry that is often underlying our chronic issues and needs.
WHAT SHOULD I EXPECT DURING MY SESSION? Expect to be human - thus, a bit nervous - and expect to be respected as I guide you into breath and story-work (resourcing your memories and past to help us understand your current circumstances/symptoms.) We will ask your body, and it will answer. Using some or all of these techniques during a session: strategic breath-work, meditation, energetic practices, physical movement, aroma therapy, and gentle pressure, even music, we will find where your body has stored or manifested these experiences and give avenue for understanding and even release. Each session is as unique as each client, though we have distinct goals in each. It can be ever so subtle a shift or a deep revelation that occurs during a session, regardless, allowing the system to progress towards safety, brings us closer to our continued healing journey. Therefore, expect to be curious, surprised, validated, and above all heard.
CAN SOMATIC SERVICES HELP IF I DON'T HAVE TRAUMA? Firstly, absolutely. Trauma is a relative term for some. Some call stress trauma, and some call trauma stress or anxiety.. The point is understanding how your body recorded and stored such memories or your current stress more than what we label it. Going forward you may find your definitions changing as you heal, but that is solely up to you. (Refer to 'How do I know if I need a somatic coach?')
HOW DO I KNOW IF I NEED SOMATIC COACHING? I recommend coaching to anyone who finds themselves with physical or emotional chronic symptoms. Anyone who can definitively say they have experienced trauma or emotional wounding is assuredly a candidate for somatic coaching, but soma story-work is not limited to this experientially. Somatic work is beneficial, because it helps align the nervous system to safety, trust, and internal resourcing where you may be 'stuck,' chronically overwhelmed, depressed, in pain, or experiencing unexplained issues, or issues that keep recurring regardless of other treatments. Clients often say, "I had no idea this issue was connected to this past experience or personal belief I have held." Bringing understanding to our internal connections helps us learn how to listen to our bodies, and thus, effectively treat our root causes.
WILL I RELIVE TRAUMA IN A SESSION? This is NOT our goal. Our goal is to give your body the ability to align to safety, peace, and wholeness so that you may feel and heal not rewound by retraumatization. While you may have memory of a significant wound or traumatic experience come up in a session, I will guide you and give you tools to lead your nervou system and awareness to safe internal resources for your continued connective and progressive healing.
HOW MANY SESSIONS WILL I NEED? I have a distinct foundational path I encourage every client to take. This results in 5-7 sessions at least. Similar to NAET's foundational 15 basic treatments, your first 5-7 sessions create a launch pad, if you will, for internal alignment and understanding within your nervous system. The connections made during sessions are most often deep and interrelated. Thus, it is ideal to allow further understanding with consistent sessions. For those truly motivated toward healing change, if you do your homework and practice the techniques learned in each session privately and within your personal environments, you will see progressive benefit.
