Can Somatic Coaching Improve Your Life?
Most coaching can measurably improve someone’s life if they’re eager and open to change. Somatic coaching is increasingly being utilized as coaches, therapists, and other practitioners are seeing positive and lasting changes for their clients.
Choosing the best type of coaching plays a big role in your client’s outcomes. A holistic approach could be the missing piece of the pie, and somatic coaching is often just what many people need.
What Is Somatic Coaching?
Traditionally, most types of coaching and therapy have focused on transforming people’s thoughts. Newer methods however take into account that human beings are motivated by more than just their minds.
Somatic coaching takes a holistic approach to the complex interactions between the body, emotions, and the mind. A somatic coach helps you begin to track the sensations happening in the face of our emotions and thoughts. When we tune into these bodily sensations, it’s possible not only to learn more about who we are and what we want, but also to begin releasing past traumas and self-regulate better.
While there are many therapeutic ways to change, not all techniques create sustainable shifts. Non-somatic methods can lead people to revert back to old patterns and habits. Somatic coaching can help you stick with the changes due to the shifts having happened on a much deeper physiological and emotional level.
What Does a Somatic Coach Do?
If you decide to go to a somatic coach for help, they will start by listening to your goals and challenges. As you talk, they will guide you to tune into what is happening in your body as you share your thoughts, feelings, and experiences. They may take you through exercises that include movement, breath, or specific postures, and see what insights arise when you focus on your embodiment.
Ultimately, they will not only help you be more self-aware around any embodied reactions or responses, but also aid you in tuning into the wisdom that is held in your body. Embodied wisdom is generally a much more accurate guide for making crucial life choices than thoughts or feelings alone.
For example: you have an important decision to make, and you’ve been going back and forth arguing with yourself about it. In somatic coaching, your coach might invite you to imagine taking each of the different possible options and, instead of listening to your brain’s arguments, see how your body responds.
When you picture the options, do you feel uplifted in your body or downtrodden? Light or heavy? Excited or neutral? These sensations you feel when you imagine those outcomes can help you make a decision that fits with your own internal compass.
What Can Somatic Coaching Help With?
Somatica coaching has been utilized to help people with a wide variety of psychological issues. One of its most prevalent uses is in the realm of enhancing physical well-being and performance, such as improving posture, movement patterns, and overall body mechanics. Athletes, dancers, and individuals seeking to optimize their physical capabilities often turn to somatic coaching to refine their skills and prevent injuries.
Additionally, somatic coaching has proven effective in honing interpersonal communication and leadership skills, promoting authentic presence and charisma. Overall, the versatility of somatic coaching makes it a powerful tool for unlocking the inherent potential within individuals across various aspects of their lives.
Somatic coaching is also frequently employed to address stress and emotional challenges by fostering a deeper connection between the mind and body, allowing to cultivate greater resilience and emotional intelligence. Body-based, integrative coaching can help with many different personal growth goals, including:
- Resolving trauma
- Building self-esteem and self-love
- Lowering anxiety
- Attaining deeper self-awareness and emotional regulation
- Overcoming sexual dysfunction and intimacy issues
Why is Somatic Coaching so Helpful for Intimacy Issues?
Somatic coaching is the most powerful tool for you to become more adept in the realm of sex, dating, and relationships. As a result of becoming more integrated through a deeper level of embodiment and self-awareness, somatic methods will increase your bandwidth for both sexual and emotional intimacy.
This type of coaching can be particularly helpful in uncovering and transforming negative personal narratives that get in the way of believing people will love or want you. The more in touch with your body and emotions you are, the more you will be present and authentic in relationships with others.
When people talk about being “grounded” and “centered,” they are really expressing how they feel in their bodies. These sensations lead to a greater sense of confidence and connectedness. Somatic interventions are also effective for healing body image, and can help people celebrate their bodies for all of the wisdom and pleasure it holds.
What to Expect from a Somatic Coaching Session
When you visit a somatic coach, you should expect to engage in practices and body-centered awareness exercises that facilitate a deeper connection to your physical sensations and emotional responses. Depending on what kind of somatic coaching you seek out, your coach might use any of the following example techniques in a somatic coaching session:
- Guided visualization: your somatic trauma coach might have you imagine a place — real or made-up — where you feel safe and then invite you to notice what in your body is telling you that you feel safe.
- Experiential exercises: you might practice a conversation with a loved one that you are afraid to have, and notice your bodily and emotional responses. Actually registering and moving through your responses can help you overcome any blocks you have and clarify what you want to say.
- Authentic movement or dance: your somatic coach might have you use authentic movement or dance to express a feeling or boundary.
- Memory recall: you may be asked to remember a difficult or wonderful memory and pay attention to tensions or relaxed places in your body to help release emotions.
Regardless of the exercise, your coach will remind you to pay attention to your sensations, impulses, and emotions, and help you notice where these are located in the body. You might be asked to notice the depth of your breath, flushing in your face, heaviness or lightness, etc. A good somatic coach will work collaboratively with you to identify and address patterns of tension, stress, or disconnection, helping you tap into your body’s wisdom and innate potential.
What’s an Example of Somatic Coaching?
The Somatica Method is an example of effective, powerful coaching that uses somatic exercises to help you practice intimacy in real-time.
Instead of just talking about emotional and erotic exchanges, you have a chance to practice these embodied skills with your coach in a safe and boundaried container. You also have the opportunity to somatically address any trauma history, and move towards a pleasure-based approach to life.
If you are ready to experience powerful personal transformation and lasting life-improvement, find out more about how the Somatica Training can help you reach your personal growth goals here.
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