Somatics Practice

My Somatics Offer

New to practiting somatics with me?

Start with the 1, 2, 3…

I have two approaches to my work:

Container Approach

As I develop my practice, I learn and I change. In these past three years, adapting my practice, I started to notice a real need for gentleness, structure and containment from the people I was working with, as well as for myself. With over x hours experience, I am currently navigating an approach which sees that people have a base knowledge to return to, something they can practice and call their own. I call this the Container Approach, as we navigate together, step by step.

Every new participant that decides to work with me with this approach, will go through different experiences - developed based on their circumstances and needs; however, the building blocks will be the same. No matter your previous experience with somatics, we will start from the basics and move towards empowering you to continue the practice outside the sessions.

Container Compass

We are living through floods of heart-wrenching events, genocide, climate collapse, mass unemployment, the heightened experience and fear of active racism, transphobia and ableism. For many, maybe including you as well, this is a time where so much feels outside of our control.

I am reminded by the teachings of somatic teacher and political organiser Prentis Hemphill, that, before giving it all to change the world, we are called to look in. That is not to say, ‘withhold action towards collective liberation’, or stop any changework movement you’re organising or want to be involved in.

We are called to look in, to know: why are we moving?

What keeps you moving in a direction that is aligned with that which you truly care about?

A somatic practice I teach is inspired by Spenta Kandawalla and Staci Haines, Somatic Centering, found in their method called Politicised Somatics. This involves connecting to an embodied center as well as a spiritual center: your sense of purpose; that which you care to see and dream of in the world.

Steps

This is part of Step 1. We start with the inner world because when the world outside changes, we need a grounding sense of self, or a sense of purpose to come back to and figure out the next steps. Your space of respite, your space of power, your space of hope - your space, that no one else gets, but you. This is the step where we explore body awareness and find resources.

Next, the inner world is connected to the outer, Step 2. The soma is a mirror of the systems that work with and against us, individually and collectively. As an example, one intersection of those systems is our social positioning. I am a white East European, mixed class migrant, in a queer, trans non-binary and able-leaning body (with some mingling chronic fatigue and inflammation symptoms). I see my social positioning as information of where I might find spaciousness, where I can find the resource, the abundance, that which can be shared with others. At the same time, other parts of my social positioning, interacting within the same soma, might also nestle inflammation, tightness, numbness. The conversations that happen between the external world and our reactions, whether based in social positioning or not, are called habituations. These are ways in which we got used to think, feel, be, behave in the world.

I believe, having access to our soma intelligence gives us access to more choices: in how we behave, how we respond to our needs, how we respond to our wounds in relation. This is Step 3, when we bring the inner and outer information all together, to change our responses, so that they are in alignment with our soma. This happens with two ingredients: the desire to create this alignment + a sense of safety. In this step we bring the resources learnt and practiced in Step 1 to real life scenarios. We do bodywork and co-regulate. And eventually, when the soma feels safe, a somatic release can happen.

I am not here to dig deep into your trauma story, that is not where my experience lies. I am here to support you as you explore awareness of your own bodily sensations, feelings, thoughts and dreams. I am here to witness and co-regulate, as we create more somatic spaciousness together: by practicing and teaching you ways to release and let go somatically. I am here to support you in coming back to your center.

Experiential approach

Through my experience as a somatic, body and energy worker; as well as through the curiosity and the intuition that guides me. This approach is more relational, it is more tied to my own ancestral and folklore knowledge and fits closest to energy work framing. The pace and depth of exploration at which I work with is still trauma-aware, centered in consent, and adjusted to meet you where you are at. Additionally it also considers our somatic connection.

Experiential Compass

What that means is:

Who is this for?

I do not use this approach unless I have clear indicators that the container for the work is solid. The participants I usually work in this way with are those who have had successful long-term therapy, have a reliable support network or their own practices to process and reflect post-session, are skilled at asking for care as well as self-soothing, can clearly communicate boundaries and adjustments, are accountable for their part of a relational dynamic.