a dedicated time for you to deepen awareness of your embodied knowing.
These sessions are a space for being rather than doing. A space for allowing, for emergence, and for listening deeply to the richness and subtleties of our lived experience of body; opening to somatic knowledge and to new ways of experiencing and perceiving life.
I offer these sessions online or in-person from my studios near Kendal, Cumbria & in Skipton/Leeds, Yorkshire.
somatic therapy
The work supports those experiencing:
A desire to move closer to your true and unique self
Significant life transitions
A feeling that, even after years of talking therapy, something is missing.
High achievement and the cost of success on inner life.
Residue from traumatic life events
A desire for depth, truth and devotion to life.
A desire to awaken/re-awaken your creative self
A sense of stuckness and stagnation
A sense of disconnection from your body
Anxiety and depression
An unhealthy relationship to food/eating
Physical discomfort and pain
Social and relational difficulties
Self-esteem issues
Grief and bereavement
Loneliness and isolation
And more…
Please feel free to contact me to book an initial discovery call (free of charge) to discuss how we might work together.
What to expect:
You will be invited to engage with your feeling, sensing body. Throughout the session, I will regularly invite awareness of embodied experience through verbal cues, prompts, questions and exchange; supporting, guiding and moving with what is present as I respond to the uniqueness of you as an individual and what emerges.
For in-person sessions, consented hands-on touch may a part of the process.
The work is a process and in general needs time. We will discuss together the timeline for your unique enquiry. Sessions are weekly and generally on the same day and at the same time each week.
Please see About me and my approach for more information.
Sessions generally last 1hr but longer sessions may be possible, depending on availability.
Half-day, full-day or two-day retreats are also available on a 1-1 basis and can be very beneficial for some. Please feel free to get in touch to discuss this.
As a registered somatic movement educator and therapist (RSME/T) I adhere to the ISMETA code of ethics and standards of practice:
What is somatic therapy?
Somatic Therapy is:
Body/movement-focused:
As a bottom-up approach to therapy, it holds the intelligence of the living, sensing, relational body at its core. Awareness is guided towards experience through sensation, feeling, impulse, intuition, association and image. A body-focused approach does not exclude thought. Involving the whole body, including thinking at focused times, is important in bringing the work to consciousness and realising mind-body unity and nervous system regulation.
Educational:
It offers ‘tools’ and knowledge for accessing and deepening bodily awareness, gleaning knowledge from our embodied experience and enabling understanding, compassion and possibility.
Creative:
At certain points in the process, spontaneous creativity allows the body to be heard. Through accessing imaginal realms, we open to our soulful expression, often surprising ourselves with what emerges. The spontaneous creative act forms a bridge from the unconscious to consciousness.
Therapeutic:
Through its enquiry into aspects of life that the client would like to find resources for towards self-discovery, change, healing and meaning.
What does the word somatic mean?
It relates to how we experience life from the inside; quietening our busy thinking heads and awakening our sensing, feeling, and intuition through bodily awareness. The word somatic comes from the Greek word soma, meaning ‘the living body in its wholeness‘.
For me, this living aspect is soul work. Our awakened and sensitised body becomes our access point to a deeper knowing of ourselves in relationship with the world around us
Studio Staveley, near Kendal, Cumbria