Somatic Therapy Training
A quiet room can be lovely. It cannot tell you whether the person sitting in it feels comfortable, understands what will happen or knows how to say no. Creating safety in a somatic session begins with those practical questions, not…
You are asked how you feel, and the answer does not arrive. Perhaps the day has been too much. Perhaps you feel far away, flat or unable to engage. Even choosing what to do next may feel like another request…
Some days everything feels turned up: the noise, the urgency, the speed of your thoughts. Other days it is hard to find a feeling, finish a sentence or begin an ordinary task. Hyperarousal and hypoarousal are terms used to describe…
Sometimes a hand resting on a sleeve feels ordinary and reassuring. Sometimes it feels awkward. Sometimes you would much rather leave your body alone and look out of the window. Somatic self-contact begins by making room for all three possibilities.…
You may notice that your shoulders have climbed a little, your answers are arriving faster, or the background conversation suddenly feels louder than it did ten minutes ago. These small changes can be useful information. They do not come with…
There is a particular kind of frustration in trying to relax while keeping up with a breathing timer. The circle expands, you run out of breath, and now you are stressed about being bad at breathing. Coherent breathing is better…
A racing mind can make even a quiet room feel busy. One thought opens another, which opens six more, and suddenly you are holding a committee meeting about something that has not happened. Telling yourself to stop thinking often adds…
The messages arrive, the dishes wait, somebody asks a perfectly reasonable question, and it feels like one request too many. Feeling overwhelmed does not always come with a dramatic story. Sometimes it arrives wearing the clothes of an ordinary Tuesday.…
Sometimes a practice asks you to feel more, go deeper or stay longer, when what you actually need is a smaller spoon. Titration in somatic work offers that smaller spoon: approach an experience in manageable pieces, with room to pause…
You may hear “notice your body” and immediately feel nothing much. Then comes the temptation to search harder, as though a sensation has slipped behind the sofa. Subtle body sensations rarely respond well to being hunted. A quieter question can…