Somatic Health is playing its part in an upsurge of approaches that are enabling us to reconnect what has been broken. I’ve sketched out the core dimensions of this work below, drawn from my studies and direct experience. Ultimately though, this is about nature-in-us, our indigenous wisdom, and it can’t be found on a website or in a book: your body is your primary source. I invite you to step into your own somatic journey – and check out the workshops and coaching on offer here, and perhaps we can travel some of this path together.
What is Somatic Health?
Listening to the Body
Learning to listen to our bodily sensations can lead us to a wellspring of self-trust, health, connection and joy thereby alleviating unnecessary suffering and helping us tune-in to what is natural and life affirming. In this way – integrating sensing, feeling and action – we can more fully align our actions with our deepest values.
Finding Safety
One way in which somatic practice is profoundly life-enhancing is when applied to the current epidemic of stress and burnout which shows itself in a wide range of conditions such as high blood pressure, tension, anxiety and panic attacks.
By bringing awareness to our direct felt sense (somatic) we can facilitate a conversation that tells our body it is safe enough. In turn, our body will communicate information that can lead to a harmonious connection with ourselves and with the world around us.
Addiction Recovery
Somatic Health offers a complement to the more cognitive-based addiction therapies with their emphasis on reprogramming thinking. That approach has its merits, but ignoring or sidelining the body can fall short of uncovering the healing that the body is trying to move towards.
It’s all about connection – not just removing the drugs, but recovering a spontaneous, natural and wider connection with self and environment.
Moving the Body
I am a member of the International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association (ISMETA) which represents the wider field of which Somatic Health is a part. Somatic movement and awareness is all about enhancing human function and body-mind integration, facilitating increased vitality and performance, and expanding creative expression. It’s also concerned with how to integrate learning with personal transformation.
In my work, informed by these approaches, I guide individuals and groups into an inner experience of their bodies, deepening clients’ understanding of themselves in motion.
Bringing us Home
When I become available to subtle bodily sensations, my cells actually feel as if they are jumping for joy! A joy that sensation is ‘seen’ by awareness. There is a vast capacity for wellbeing and for coming into harmony with ourselves when we take simple steps to connect to our body. You may feel a deep curiosity and a subtle sense of experiencing the world more fully. Many clients and practitioners report feeling, not only more present and alert, but also more energised, resilient and safe.
What People Say. True Testimonials.
Enjoyment
‘This is the best experience. I love it’ (S)
‘I can’t say how fantastic this is. It is beyond fascinating’ (B)
‘Apart from being with my children this is my very favourite part of the week’ (J)
Feeling of Body Connection
‘I’m starting to connect to my body for the first time’ (G)
Embodied Visioning
‘The clarity of the visual and gesture that came from Embodied Visioning is still of great value to me now, a year later – I have fully embodied it – it has become part of me and has walked me forward into so much newness in my life’ (Sarah N D)
Understanding the Body-Mind Connection
‘I’m coming to understand that the mind and body don’t function in isolation but in tandem – each informs the other, they are in constant communication’ (H)
‘I learn more about my whole self. I value this time – I’ve denied myself body time. I’m realising that for years I have ignored my body and my mind’s ability to work with it. I am grateful, in no state of need and full of positive expectation’ (J)
Understanding Me Just As I Am
‘Jenny has done more to help me understand and unlock the depths, subtleties and aliveness of my body, through our body work and somatic sessions, than any other practitioner I’ve ever worked with.
Jenny’s humanity and deep commitment to understanding me just as I am in that very moment, comes through every time we work together.
Jenny’s breadth of life experience, skills and talents means she can move in an instant in almost any direction with ease, spontaneity, creativity and presence’ (abie)
– One to One Co-Creation
Healing Shock by Bringing Past and Present Together
‘Jenny has a unique way of connecting people to what deeply matters to them. I could feel the hurt in my body, name it and locate that with the confusion in my mind. I could link what was happening in the present to what had happened in the past.
It put something back into my hands because I had connected to the source of it and got some level of balance again.
I had a desperate need to understand and this unique approach brought me into the zone so that I could safely explore the magnitude of what had happened. I could manage the hurt because I knew what it was.
This is a unique way of helping me to make sense of a difficult situation’ (L)
– One to One Co-Creation
Body as a Source of Relief
‘I felt so safe’ (S)
‘I realised how much more of me there is, unconsciously giving me relief, versus the part of me identifying with the addiction’ (JE)
‘When the word REST was said, in relation to my knee: the restriction I had placed on my body to be well was released, multiple muscle sets released and the body suddenly felt more at peace with itself.
It just hadn’t occurred to me before, as a real tangible option, that I and my knee could have a direct communication as a way of healing. Over time my knee became my friend as I could recognise when I was pushing it and myself too hard or when my body was up for challenging itself more.
This placed the whole recovery process firmly back into mine and my body’s hands. The results were a fast rate of recovery which I hadn’t found through physiotherapy and pain relief medication’ (Re)
