Somatic Coaching

An intro to coaching

Coaching has many threads in the rich tapestry of its history. My attempt is to depict the aspects of coaching that informed my training and now shape my practice.

Coaching, rooted in humanistic psychology, views each person as having within themselves the resources for self-understanding, for changing their self-concept, beliefs, and for self-directing their behaviour.

These resources can be tapped through skillful facilitation and a climate that promotes positive regard and respect for the other.

The coaching relationship is deeply grounded in presence and being with what is. Connecting with the present moment helps in recognizing the aligned and meaningful choices to be made.

The coach, as a supportive and equal partner, facilitates the client’s sense-making of their experiences.

“Neuroscience research shows that the only way we can change the way we feel is by becoming aware of our inner experience and learning to befriend what is going inside ourselves.”

Bessel A. van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score

The somatic approach

The word ‘somatic’ comes from the Greek word soma, meaning ‘body’.

Rather than focusing solely on cognitive processes, the somatic approach considers the mind and body to be deeply interconnected.

Integrating mind and body means integrating both the conceptual and the embodied self-awareness.

Conceptual self-awareness involves thinking about the self. Heightened awareness of thought processes support reasoning, evaluating, categorising, or planning.

Embodied awareness implies feeling the self, focusing on sensing and being aware of what arises in the present moment. Spontaneity, intuition, and creativity are also characteristics of embodied awareness.

Working in an integrated way with the bodymind supports deeper understanding and making aligned choices.

Somatic methods

My practice of somatic coaching draws on a range of process-oriented ways of working, including:

Focusing – is the ability to stay with the felt sense as it develops, to look at it with curiosity, without judging. It is the ability to welcome what comes, to maintain a friendly attitude to whatever is inside you. Focusing is the ability to listen to that place that is trying to tell you something and being ready to be surprised.(What is Focusing, focusing.org )

Hakomi – a body-mind method based on the core principles of non-violence, mindfulness, unity, organicity, and mind-body holism. Each principle translates into particular practices and ways of being that evoke your innate impulses toward healing. (The Hakomi Principles, hakomiinstitute.com)

Constellations – embodied practices that unlock natural, systemic intelligence and provide surprising new insights into the situations at hand. This method reveals the dynamics and relationships within an existing system, offering the opportunity to develop entirely new approaches to understanding the situation or creating different responses.

Somatic Experiencing(SE™) – aims to address symptoms of stress, shock, and trauma that accumulate in our bodies and nervous systems. SE focuses on how dysregulation manifests in the nervous system and its impact on daily life. SE methods can help release or complete processes stuck in the nervous system, fostering greater resilience and enabling a shift from reactivity to a range of choices. (traumahealing.org)

Organic Intelligence – our experiences — images, sensations, thoughts, and feelings — emerge from our biology. Any healing or lasting change must happen there, in our biology — a complex system. Organic Intelligence teaches how to align with our biology’s primary, organic impulse toward healing — to enhance processing capacity. With more bandwidth, we feel less overloaded, and more ourselves. (What is Organic Intelligence, organicintelligence.org)

Take the first step.

Book a free 20-minutes session to get to know each other, explore my approach to somatic coaching, and see if working together would be the right fit for you.