Somatic Approaches to Healing
Providing context for Feminine Embodiment work
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Many have tried to articulate the reality of what embodiment is with limited success. Language can give us a sense of, or an indication to, what we might expect - but very rarely does it truly capture what it means to be embodied. This is because being embodied is an experience that we feel within.
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Embodiment is being with the combination of our emotions, sensations, movements, and impulses/actions in the present moment. When we move towards greater embodiment in our lives, we are committing to respond to ourselves and our environment in a fluid way. There is no fixed sense of ‘now I am embodied’ rather it is a development of greater bodily sensitivity and awareness.
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Embodiment also focuses on the integration of the felt sense on the inside of the body, which we call interoceptive feedback and environmental feedback also known as proprioception. What can I feel within my body, the sensations and feedback that exist under the skin? (E.g., emotions, memories, stories, sensations, etc). How much space am I taking up, who is around me, and how does my environment influence my reactions?
The term embodiment and somatics can be used relatively interchangeably. Soma has a Greek root that means ‘the living organism in its wholeness’ whereby somatic work really just means practices and techniques that include the body. Somatic therapy is a term that holds hundreds of varying therapies and techniques within it that all focus on the integration of the mind and body using sensations, symptoms, and emotions as a guide.
As Dr Arielle Schwartz writes, “Somatic psychology centralizes body awareness as a primary healing agent in psychotherapy; taking the therapeutic experience beyond where words can take the client. This allows you to focus on unwinding the stories held within the body. Embodiment in somatic psychology applies mindfulness and movement practices to awaken body awareness as a tool for healing. Embodiment is cultivated through reflective awareness of sensations in the present moment. Embodiment is an integration of three sensory feedback systems—exteroception, proprioception, and interoception.”
Somatic work facilitates the processing of emotions, completes stress responses, restores the body as a place of safety, builds trust in our automatic bodily sensations, facilitates greater emotional tolerance, increases trust and well-being in the body, provides strong internal and external resources, and allows for holistic whole-of-person healing to take place.
The Western Capitalist model views the body as deeply objectifying, it is a “thing” that we have been taught to abuse and neglect. There are also patriarchal and colonial narratives that see the body as less than the mind, where intellect lives outside of self; through our education and authority figures. When we apply an embodied perspective, we are reconnecting to our internal power and instinctual knowing that acknowledges the sensual and feeling self. As we continue to devote to this way of living, the somatic intelligence grows and we can live our lives from an embodied space of purpose and safety.
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When I talk about being embodied, sometimes it can be easier to understand by talking about the opposite. We all live in a body, but that isn’t to say we all stay there. A lot of people live from the neck up; with endless to-do lists and a day that spans a lot longer than the 8-hour work day, we can become chronically disembodied.
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Sometimes disembodiment looks like not eating when you’re hungry, pushing yourself to work long hours even though you feel fatigued, or not going to the bathroom when you need to. Sometimes disembodiment looks like not feeling alive in your sensual/sexual self, not hearing or ignoring your intuitive messages, and seeking guidance and direction in everyone other than you.
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Our body, unlike our brain, remembers every interaction, every circumstance, every traumatic or non-traumatic event we have been through. When we start communicating directly with the nervous system, we’re able to bypass a lot of the conscious bias we carry and go straight into the unconscious mind.
Embodiment coaching is a process that involves the coach inviting their client(s) to review their internal narratives and belief systems by connecting with mindful body awareness. Stressors and challenges, especially those from early childhood development, contribute to patterns of tension in the body. Body awareness is the vehicle that allows us to access an internal source of wisdom. By engaging body awareness and healing movements at a tolerable pace decided by the client, the healing process begins.
Allan Schore noted embodiment work, “allow[s] our client to reexperience dysregulating effects in effectively tolerable doses in the context of a safe environment, so that overwhelming feelings can be regulated and integrated into the client's emotional life”. The coach allows the client to reconnect to their wisdom and experience themselves as a whole, powerful, and alive individual. Instead of reaching for the world around you to guide and influence you, your power is sourced from within. An enlivening and enriching way to live; plugged into the depths of your own body, psyche, and soul.
The ‘Feminine’ approach to embodiment coaching is rooted in the feeling. We welcome the chaos, the shadow, the depths, the richness, the sensuality, and the full emotional spectrum of what it means to be human. It is a depth-first, direction-second model. Traditional coaching methods rely on cognitive "strength and willpower” whereas feminine embodiment work allows us to be with and process the truth of what is within us. Sometimes, we can’t make sense of what has happened to us through intellectual processing alone and require some support to access the implicit messaging alive in our bodies.
The feminine allows us to be vulnerable so that we may truly witness what our hearts and bodies yearn for. When tapped into this realm, we can free up our energy so that we may stop circulating old unconscious patterns and welcome new ones in.
It’s important to note somatic therapies have been influenced by cultural wisdom traditions globally. Somatics has its origins in dance movements, collective healing, rituals, and beyond witnessed in ancient lineages. Indigenous cultures have known and utilised this wisdom for centuries.
