What is somatics, where does it come from?

Somatics invites us to discover how our experience is being deployed in our body (the soma: the living, experiencing body).

It taps into our experience as a whole, without artificially separating between mind and body, the individual and the collective, human and animal/nature, the masculine and the feminine, the inner world and the outside world. For this reason, it is deeply indebted to Indigenous worldviews and practices as opposed to Eurocentric, (post-)modern, patriarchal/colonial ones based on binaries and oppositions. Starting to see, feel and support interconnectedness in ourselves and with others is a way to start overcoming the devastating effects those binaries have had on individuals and on the world. If you are interested in more resources about this aspect, I am happy to share!

How can it help me?

At an individual level, somatics reveals that our patterns of feeling, behaving, reacting, being in relationship and even thinking also live in our bodies. During a process, we just open a non-judgmental space where to meet, observe, recognize and explore our sensations, emotions, and feelings. We learn to develop curiosity for our own lived experience. This in turn invites movement and transformation in ourselves and in our relationship with our environment.

Somatics and trauma

In this space, we can encounter what has hurt us (or continues to hurt us) and/or has felt like it was too much for our mind-body. Somatics can be a way to approach our trauma. For me working as a trauma-informed practitioner, however, never means reducing someone to what happened (or didn't happen) to them. It is not about "fixing" ourselves either – nobody is "broken", just as nobody is, essentially, "whole". It is about connecting with our resources and about being held and witnessed while feeling our pain. It is about learning to own our story and its shadows, and grow around it. It is about reclaiming our agency and our power. The disconnection and fragmentation that lives in our bodies can slowly, softly, change into an orientation to connection and wholeness. Which in turn makes us more connected and integrated with others and with the world.

The best is to experience it...

If this all sounds mysterious, I get it! Some practitioners prefer to describe somatics with the language of neurobiology, or psychology, or magic and spirituality. Ultimately, I think each person develops their own way of feeling and speaking about their experience, about their process. I am happy to adapt to everyone's particular language, and always welcome questions and conversations on the methodology before and during the process: start an individual process.

A somatic process is also very beneficial when combined with or in continuation of talk therapy or other modalities.