What is Somatic coaching?
Somatic coaching is a change-work centering on the soma as the primary pathway to thorough change in state and behavior. The word somatic was coined by Thomas Hanna and is from the Greek root SOMA, which means the body or living organism in its wholeness including sensations, emotions, internal narratives, relational stances, impulses, actions and non actions. What we are up to in somatic coaching, and the methodology I was trained in, is transforming through our soma to come more fully into our aliveness. To make new actions available under pressure, which feels different for everyone based on their shaping story. In this context, pressure can be internal, cultural, relational, institutional, religious, environmental, perceived or real etc…
What’s your approach to guiding clients toward their deepest goals?
I guide people toward integrating their strengths, joys, resistances and even wounds into a congruent, present-time whole with more choice.
I don’t usually work with a traditional goal setting model but rather by declaring a new future through establishing commitment(s) and identifying organizing principles which is, in my opinion, a much more galvanizing process. Who do we need to become to feel more at home within our lives and bodies? What new competencies do we need to learn to evolve on purpose? What have we not moved through yet that keeps getting in the way of change?
A big part of the work is to create the conditions for transformation to occur. This means becoming somatically aware, shaping back conditioned tendencies, outdated narratives as well as softening contractions and self-defeating patterns. This is where what has been historically embodied is allowed to be fully witnessed and dignified as wise.
This creates an opening and the emergence of a new shape and new possibilities. As we navigate this unknown territory and re-organize based on what we care about, it is critical to incorporate individualized resilience practices and to build up the river banks - structures to encourage flow and deep focus.
The final step - although this doesn’t necessarily happen in a linear fashion - is to practice repeating ways of being. Here, we foster a supportive environment, integrate new habits and core beliefs and take consistent skillful actions under pressure until they, in turn, become embodied.
How do you guide people to reconnect with their true selves through your practice?
Most of the processes and guidance I offer aims to facilitate the remembrance of what is already there and untarnished - to no longer identify with protective layers. Mainly I encourage my clients to reconnect with the intelligence of their soma and to move beyond the analytical and conditioned mind. This is where we ask, what else is our aliveness communicating?
Complex and intertwined truths can exist simultaneously. They can collapse and create tangles so we work on clarifying these tensions, welcoming and nurturing each side before resting our spines on more inclusive and expansive states. This allows for the core/Self/true-nature to emerge and express essential qualities without an agenda or something to prove.
Through this work we start to build a felt distinction between resilience and endurance, unhealthy cravings and deep longings, healthy risks and recklessness, distractions and restorations, projections and intuitions, invaluable insights and noise, information and manipulation.
Tell us more about Inscape Journey?
Inscape Journey is a (r)evolutionary ride blending Somatics, Internal Family System, Intrinsic Health and Mindfulness and has more of an agenda than somatic coaching. We still travel through an arc of embodied transformation around a personal and a professional declaration but we get the opportunity to explore teachings from other traditions, a wider variety of tools and processes in order to transform and actualize our longings. As part of the journey, we spend a significant amount of time integrating personal demons into allies, establishing a “Self-to parts” relationship, awakening the fearless heart and reclaiming a vital, autonomous body.
How do somatic practices inform your perspective on personal transformation and growth?
Somatic practice is where the rubber meets the road. It is necessary to implement body-oriented practices in order to dissolve habits, behaviors and interpretations of the world that are no longer relevant. When traveling through an arc of transformation this step is particularly critical so as to not default back to our old shape. Working through the body, relying on the repetition of updated practices enables us to transform at the tissue level, embodying a new shape by building muscle memory and new neural pathways.
How has your understanding of beauty evolved through your journey and work?
Beauty is a relationship. It’s dynamic and layered. It starts at the cellular level but is also celestial. It’s a fabric, both a tangible and invisible thread and a true refuge. The result of a life fully felt.
Like many, I vibrate in the presence of something aesthetically beautiful and welcome mesmerizing, fragrant and pleasurable experiences but fostering beauty in its inclusive form requires us to welcome both the darkness and luminosity of life. To access the deeper layers, we must be willing to come into relationship with ourselves, others and the world at large with compassion, a fierce heart, agility and discernment.
Adorning ourselves and our world is essential as long as we don't forget to make direct contact with life’s sufferings, to touch and share the anxieties and uncertainties of others. Freedom without responsibility is destructive to the spirit of beauty. Similarly, resting and protecting our inner peace can be powerful forms of resistance. We need as many people as possible in the garden, watering the seeds and cultivating all kinds of joys.
What’s your advice for someone beginning their journey toward embodiment and self-awareness?
Meet yourself where you are. Let the constellations of emotions, bodily sensations, and internal narratives be your trailheads as they arise. No other consequences except learning at first. See if you can observe them and the patterns they reveal without judgement. Easier said than done. The body opens on a yes, so work toward a compassionate relationship with your historical and current shape.
Find a partner, a coach or a community to be held by and unfold with. We can’t learn new ways of doing and being in a vacuum, especially since so much of this work is relational.
What are some rituals or routines that keep you grounded and inspired?
Eating nutrient-dense and living food, sexy fruits and vegetables and the occasional buttery treat for good measure. Green juices, ocean swims, taking off my shoes or putting on heels - depending!
I do big purges as I tend to feel my best living with less stuff. I find it restorative and fun to clear my desk, rearrange spaces, organize bookshelves and to give things away. I love to look at things under various lights and generally, to curate, pick and choose.
I bookend my day by practicing transcendental meditation and engaging in mindfulness practices which I am currently learning to teach under Tara Brach’s guidance. Contemplative practices and silence have soooo much to tell us. Like sleep they promote integration, true insights, creativity and repair. Another ritual I have successfully been incorporating is an offline day. I highly recommend it as part of resting the nervous system and to better return to our wild and precious lives.
Every month I join the SomaSJ community online who share embodied practice space with others committed to social and climate justice, healing and a life-affirming future. I have been keeping “News Not Noise” close, Jessica Yellin’s substack. A daily dose keeps me feeling informed but not in a constant state of panic. I must admit, the other news I follow without fail is astrology - feet on the ground, head in the sky.
Are there specific somatic or beauty practices you incorporate into your own life?
I pause to metabolize my emotions regularly. That ritual along with sweating, breath-work and a good cry keeps me in flow and glowing.
I center on purpose twice daily. Centering is a standing somatic practice which invites us to physically center in all our dimensions, speak our commitments, leverage our internal weather and to acknowledge the current conditions. An effective way to extend our longings in the present time, realign our actions and meet ourselves on the edge of who we’re becoming.
A current stretch is incorporating half an hour of deep core and cardio exercise daily. I got away with light walking and swimming for most of my life. Now that I am in my 40’s it’s becoming critical to engage in more vigorous and focused forms of movements.
Something new I want to invite this year is a practice of “ally-ship” with my community, close friends and family. This is a beautiful somatic practice where we take turns feeling and offering the specific quality of touch, presence, pressure or physical orientation which is supportive in that moment. We also ask for the words we need to hear the most. It can have profound ripple effects.
NASTASSIA'S CAP EDIT
I was lucky to imagine, alongside the CAP team, some of the initial visuals to promote this transporting and multi-faceted mist. I made it part of my resilience practice and toolkit. It embodies the uplifting quality of women's friendship, the energizing and cooling effect of an ocean swim. I keep mine close and splash heavily during the dryer months, as a pick me up during somber and dark times or whenever I need extra luminosity and to lock in moisture.
Marie Veronique Multi Retinol Night Emulsion
A product that earned my love for its synergistic, alternative and comprehensive approach. It’s a very direct relationship - no fragrance or frills here - but I feel eternally grateful for MV and Kristina Holey for this effective offering.
I was someone who - even though I have been sitting with the urgent knowledge I need to wear some everyday - wasn’t using sunscreen. Until I found Le Prunier’s version. It melts, smells divine and doesn’t leave me looking like a kid at the beach. The ease and deliciousness of its application makes it a number one favorite in this category.
Building up on the sunscreen for an additional antioxidant boost and brightening result.
CAP Beauty blue soothing cleanser
I basically saw KP birth this product. It’s milky, evocative and deeply resetting. I truly look forward to cleansing using Blue in the evening. It contributes to clarifying both my mind and skin complexion as I integrate each day. A keeper!
I keep a bag in my pantry at all times to help with PMS. It’s indulgent but clean and nutrient-dense. I like to add butter, pistachios, raspberries and bee pollen.
A precious healing and fortifying balm I carry in my purse for its sophisticated look which makes for a well-rounded gesture where aesthetic comes into play.
Liquid gold in a tube. Promoting cellular turnover - I make it as playful or as reverent as needed when I turn toward this simple and intensely luxurious ritual.
Another precious ally from my beloved Activist family, keeping my skin quenched and radiant. The object itself - with its bright green, transparent and sexy jar - makes it one of my favorite products to capture and experience.
Instant gratification and satisfaction when using this to care for and protect my hair. I am obsessed with its weightless finish and fragrance.
Might be the most grounding and restorative tech-tool ever made. I sometimes sleep on mine with the quantum pad as an added layer and carry on the mini version when I travel now.
