What is Somatic Coaching?

Since I am frequently asked what is somatic coaching, I felt called to write about it this month.

Somatics… what is that?

The lineage I am trained in is the Strozzi Institute (SI). According to SI, the field of Somatics  explores the “unity of language, action, feeling and meaning.” In other words, are your words and actions congruent? Are you acting in alignment with your vision and what matters most to you?

We are what we practice

One of the pillars of Somatics is that we are what we practice - whether by default or intention. Consider how you hold yourself. How you breathe, sit, walk, talk, and stand. Even the language you use with yourself and others. You’re practicing these activities consciously or subconsciously. Everything we experience shapes our body. In turn, your body shapes how you relate to the world. 

Somatics also holds that you learn through the body. Recall how you learned to write, to read, to walk, to ride a bike. Even drive a car. There is a marvelous saying from Papua New Guinea - “knowledge is just a rumor until it lives in the muscles”.  So often in Western cultures we intellectualize how to do something rather than feel it, consciously experience it, in our body. This saying reminds us that that we don’t truly know something until we fully embody it. Embodying something requires practice.

Building awareness/benefits, new practices, and opening 

Somatic coaching is about affirming life. As humans, we are naturally hardwired for safety, belonging, dignity. When we’re young, to ensure our safety, belonging and dignity in our families, we often perceive the need to crimp a part of ourself to gain approval, acceptance, or feel safe. Over time, these emotional, mental and physical habits become what we call “Conditioned Tendencies.” They’re how we respond under pressure and how we cut ourselves off from the aliveness that is streaming through us all the time. 

Since these patterns are deeply engrained in your body, and usually subconscious, the first step in somatic coaching is reconnecting you to the languages of the body - emotion and sensation. By building your self-awareness you’ll become aware of how your Conditioned Tendencies cut you off from your essential self. Using a variety of practices in our sessions we explore and learn what you’re doing and how you’re doing it.

This exploration opens the possibility of a different future. One where you are able to maintain alignment with your vision and what matters most to you even while responding to the same old pressures. That translates into embodied transformation.

How I came to somatics and why I’m shifting this direction

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, my journey since a near-fatal bicycle accident in June 2014 has demonstrated to me the power of working through and with the body. Osteopathy, which has been the foundation for much of my recovery from the bike accident, showed me how much experience, trauma and emotions are held in the body. Pursuing my Integral Coaching certification I learned how much more I could - and needed to - connect with my body. 

Since certifying as an Integral Coach, my continuing education courses have been largely in somatic coaching. Most recently, I completed the coursework for the Strozzi Institute’s Somatic Coaching certification program. During these 10 months I discovered intergenerational stories alive in my body. I learned how childhood patterns still manifested in how I stood, walked, breathed and responded under pressure. These insights have helped me let go of stories that aren’t mine and of ways of being that get in my own way personally and professionally. I feel lighter, more grounded, softer and more open to possibility. Family, friends and colleagues have commented on the changes, too. 

Having personally experienced the power of this work - and the transformation that I know is possible - I’ve decided to shift my practice entirely to somatic coaching. 

What to expect in somatic coaching sessions

In the first session, we identify what matters most to you. What you’re yearning for, and what you want to commit to your future self to cultivating in our work together. We also identify the cost of not fulfilling this commitment. The clarity around what matters most to you and what you’re yearning for serves as the basis for what is called a Commitment Statement. This declaration of commitment becomes the North Star of our journey together. 

Each session becomes a collaboration to support your movement towards fulfilling that commitment. Through touch, breath, and dialogue we collaborate to identify and release historical patterns of being that are getting in your way. As your awareness develops of what you’re doing and how you’re doing it, you can practice different ways of responding - in the session, and between sessions. This practice facilitates the emergence of new ways of being.

In the words of one of my clients: “Working with Thomas opened my eyes to a whole new way of being! I was telling myself that I was broken and not good enough. With his guidance and support this is no longer my internal messaging.”

Does this spark your curiosity? Do you have any questions? I’d love to hear what’s percolating for you: https://arrangr.com/thomasrosenbergletschat