Inviting the body into coaching: the power of integrative somatic coaching
what the heck does somatic mean anyway?
The word somatic comes from the Greek word soma meaning the body.
The term “somatics” was first coined by Thomas Hannah in the 1970’s, however long before this kind of mind-body work cam about in the “west”, ancient and indigenous lineages have long known about it and it’s importance. So I would like to just pause here for a moment and recognize that somatics are heavily influence by eastern, indigenous, and shamanic cultures but often over looked, culturally-appropriated and not given their proper credit.
So from a social justice, anti-racist, and trauma-informed point of view you could say that the term somatics is the product of white washing and colonization.
The idea of the embodiment is nothing new. Our ancestors have been dancing, singing, connecting, growing, and healing through different mind-body-spirit rituals since we were expressing ourselves through drawings in caves. It all changed around the time Decartes said “I think therefor I am”, and the mind and brain sat up on a pedestal. We started to disregard the body as a tool or machine, and the spirit was thrown away along with it.
Welcome to the era of disembodiment.
Today there isn’t just one but many different somatic frameworks, lineages, and modalities, and even though they are different they all agree in the importance of including the body in our life and connecting to all of it’s inherent wisdom, intuition, and instinct.
In general, somatics is the study and practice of the mind and body working together to enhance the human experience though inner dialogue with the emergent wisdom and implicit cellular memory, meaning unconscious body memories. It’s a process of self discovery, self awareness, and cultivating the sense of interception, in other words learning to speak the language of the body from the inside out.
zooming out
From a holistic perspective, our soma includes not just our animal body, but also our mind, and perhaps even the spirit.
So the soma isn’t just the biological body, it is the whole, complex, living organism. This includes the conscious and unconscious mind and all of its thoughts, beliefs, internal narratives, imagery, and symbols, as well as the body’s sensations, feelings, emotions, and nervous system states.
The thing is, our soma doesn’t live in a vacuum. We are biopsychosocial beings, meaning besides the biology and psychology, there is also the in between relational world. And so all of these things and our life experiences literally “shape” us, the shape of our body, our actions and non actions, our relationship to our Self, to other people, to the world around us. And so this somatic shape of ours also holds our learned behaviours, automatic embodied habits, relational strategies, societal “norms”, masks, survival roles, protective parts, younger child parts, and many different adaptive patterns living and running our life from the shadows.
If we were to zoom out a bit more we might recognise that besides the obvious impact of family dynamics and other close relationships on our soma, there are also the cultural and collective layers. So depending on where we are born we may inherit certain beliefs, norms and traditions.
If we zoom out even more we might recognize how somatics also invite us to look at the impact of systems and institutions that operate in our westernized dominant culture. And depending on what you look life, your ability, your skin color, your income, your gender, your sexual orientation, you will have less privilege and be set up to suffer more injustice and oppression.
And if again we zoom even further out we are invited to look at the collective, environmental and perhaps even spiritual landscapes. Here we might see that our soma is also shaped by our ancestors, all their lived experiences, and the history of the culture we were raised in (intergenerational trauma and resilience). We could also see that our relationship to the planet, nature, the animals and plants also reflects in how we are shaped. After all we are made from the same stuff as all other living beings on this planet, and yet many of us forget and treat nature as something to conquer and dominate. And if this is in your belief, our soma to many people is also tied into the energetic, ethereal and spiritual realms, but that’s a whole other long topic.
inviting the body into coaching
Most coaching out there centres around mindset, beliefs and story but understanding something alone often isn’t enough to create embodied transformation.
Somatic approaches are gaining popularity over the last 15 years because they can bring about positive transformation more quickly – via the nervous system.
A whopping 80% of the information that travels to the brain comes from the body via the vagus nerve and only 20% of the information travels from the brain to the body. Much of the western world has become disembodied, putting the mind on a pedestal, but when were disconnected from our body, we lose out on important information , which is sent from the body to our conscious mind.
Neuroscience studies have shown that the brain and body are interwoven – we cannot change one without the other. Ancient and indigenous traditions have always understood the importance of inner work, the transformational potential of repetitive movement on the body and the impact it has on the mind.
The good news is through neroplasticity we can reprogram the brain, rewire the nervous system and reshape the body, not only during the activity but in all areas of our life. This is embodied transformation,
When we are using our felt sense, parts of the brain responsible for emotional processing, self-awareness, and interception (inner felt sense) come online, which means we tap into the possibility of embodied transformation of neurophysiological, emotional, and postural patterns. When we work only cognitively (with story, mindset, beliefs and other content) this isn’t possible.
my approach to somatic coaching
My personal approach to Somatic Coaching is trauma-informed and integrative, which means I do not follow just one body-centred methodology but integrate many as I believe we are all complex beings and there is never a “one size fits all”.
As a trauma-informed somatic practitioner and coach I will always center the needs of my client and follow the ethical guidelines set by the International Coaching Federations (ICF). You can check out those guidelines at www.coachingfederation.org/ethics if you’re interested.
Trauma-informed means that I as the coach am trained and aware of the nuances of working with folk who might still hold implicit traumatic memories in their body . You are in charge and we do not of dive in head first, because too much, too fast, too soon, is how trauma happens in the first place, and not embodied transformation. It also involves understanding the prevalence of trauma in our dominant culture, how that past wounds might still affects our present day experience, and how to reframe it as a superpower and is future focused and solution orientated, meaning we do not dwell on the past instead we use it as information on how to move forward towards a solution.
I continue to educate myself and the trainings and certifications I have done have been influenced by both modern science and ancient and indigenous wisdom from traditions and lineages like: Somatic Psychology, Mindfulness, Gestalt, Body-Mind Centering, Yoga Philosophy, Focusing, Aikido, Hakomi, Somatic Experiencing, Strozzi Somatic Coaching, Integrative Somatic Parts work (IFS), Expressive Arts, depth processing + solution-focused techniques, as well as the latest research from Neurophysiology, Polyvagal Theory, Trauma-Informed care, and Interpersonal Neuro-biology.
what is integrative somatic coaching?
Integrative somatic coaching is a holistic and organic process in which you are invited to discover fufillment, freedom, and transformation on a body, mind, energetic, emotional, nervous system and spiritual level.
It is an approach to coaching that sees you as a WHOLE human and focuses on not just the mind, but also the body. On not just thinking, goals, and mindset, but also on the language of the body and all of its INHERENT self-correcting and protecting wisdom: hidden treasures, sensations, feelings, emotions, nervous system states, desires, needs, wants, and potential.
Integrative somatic coaching is a courageous journey that invites you to peel off these layers of conditioning, beliefs, patterns, masks, roles, that live in the subconscious mind (subcortical brain) and nervous system. It’s about creating an unshakable core, centred presence, and felt sense of safe enoughness, resource, worthiness, to finally take off the armour and start embodying your athentic Self, who you truly are in this present moment.
From a somatic perspective our soma is “shaped” by all our lived experience. Since the day we are born, or perhaps even before, our subconscious mind starts to become programmed and our nervous system starts to take in cues from the environment and we begin to get shaped, embody, and adapt in all sorts of genius ways in order to meet our instinctual core needs of safety, belonging, and dignity – all of this is linked to our survival, especially as little babies that arecompletley dependant on their caregivers.
It is well understood by attachment science that our family of origin has immense impact on how we are shaped, but so does the greater environment and all the societal “norms”, cultural traditions, community, systems, institutions, history, collective, and spiritual landscapes that surround us.
The ways in which we learned to perceive ourselves and the world around us, has impact on all the ways we learned adapt, and over time they become so embodied, automatic, and unconscious, that we often do not even recognize them – I like to call this our somatic shadow. And yet what served such a genius and protective role in the past, is often the same thing that may keep us stuck, repeating patterns, feeling unhappy and unfulfilled, and seemingly getting in our own way and keeping ourselves from moving towards what we truly care about in life.
When you see it you DO NOT have to be it, by making the unconscious, conscious we reclaim our empowered choice, voice, and agency.
It’s a process of whole-ing and an invitation to meet not only those parts of Self that adapted to protect you, but also those orphaned parts of Self that you may have learned are not allowed to be known, expressed & felt. The parts that were shamed. The parts that we were taught are not safe. The parts that we may still hide & deny, because it threatened your sense of belonging & need for love, connection, and dignity. It is in the integration of ALL these parts of self, hidden within the body, psyche, nervous system & maybe even spirit, that you can find your greatest gifts, your wild aliveness & your deep sense of enoughness.
It is in befriending our somatic shadow and integrating body+ mind+ heart, that we find a deep sense of intimacy and experience feeling free and safe to be and embody our wild organic authenticity.
Cultivating this kind of attunement to your soma offers you a way you can always return home to your Self, no matter what’s happening and kind of pressure you might be under. When we begin to slow down, land in our body, and honestly allow ourselves to just be and feel whatever is there, this sends a signal to our nervous system that it’s ok to have these feelings, that it’s safe to feel. And it’s from this centered place we can tap into our inner wisdom, intuition, instinct, and internal compass – the home of our needs, our heart’s desires, what makes us feel ALIVE, and our embodied authentic Self.
…….
some benefits of integrative somatic coaching could be:
- embodied transformation– through embodiment, insight and action, we rewire the brain, befriend the nervous system and create new ways of being, inviting a new version of you to emerge- life is constantly moving towards life.
- greater body awareness, insight and intuition– befriending the sensations and feelings of your body and reconnecting to your internal compass that guides you through life
- embodied emotional intelligence – learning how to recognize, express and speak the language of your emotions
- embodied boundaries – learning how an embodied, yes, no and maybe feels in your body and how to take action on it.
- discovering and moving towards your desires, dreams and vision – goals live in the mind but the things that you deeply care about and desire live in the heart and can be discovered through the body.
- less stress – learning how to understand, recognize and complete the stress response. So releasing it from the body after it may have been (for good reasons, to keep our inherent needs met) kept stored and active by our thinking mind.
- more confidence and self-worth – reconnecting to your true Self and getting to know your many layers and parts could support you in trusting yourself, your instincts, and the wisdom that lives inside you – which inevitably will reflect on on your relationship with yourself.
- better communication and relationships – learning about what your needs and desires are and how to express them will impact the depth and quality of personal and intimate relationships.
- expressing more authentically – learning to take up space, following impulses and speaking your truth through voice, movement, art, and writing.
- embodied presence– creating a life that’s more mindful and on purpose, so turning off the autopilot and getting into the drivers seat.
- more comfort, pleasure and joy– disembodiment leads to numbing, when we reconnect to our body, we also invite the possibility of experiencing all the pleasant feelings in life again.
- transforming patterns/habits, unearthing unconscious beliefs, and befriending your shadow parts – getting to the ROOT and understanding that none of these patterns, habits, beliefs, strategies, or parts are inherently “bad”, that they all served as a very important adaptation and self-protection, could help understand the genius wisdom of the nervous system softening the grip of shame, stuck-ness and moving toward transformation.
English 
Polski