Somatic comes from the Greek word sōma, meaning body. Somatic coaching means we include the body in the process of understanding your experience. Where traditional coaching works on mindset alone, this approach looks at the integration of mind and body, and how they relate to each other and shape the experience you are having.
We do exploration and discovery through conversation, but where I see fit, I may invite you to slow down and notice what is happening internally. Perhaps a sensation, an impulse, a change in breathing, tension, emotion, or the urge to move away from something. That gives us access to patterns that may be operating automatically, before you have consciously put them into words.
My work is informed by a combination of somatic and experiential modalities, nervous system work, contemplative traditions, depth psychology, and ongoing personal study and practice.
Some of the frameworks that inform my work include Hakomi, Internal Family Systems and parts-based approaches, mindfulness and contemplative practice, and depth-oriented psychology.
My work is intentionally interdisciplinary. I draw from different bodies of knowledge where they help illuminate the same core questions. Despite this, I do not hold any theoretical framework more tightly than the person in front of me. Each client I work with has their own history, capacities, patterns, and range of experience. My role is to facilitate an exploration of that landscape rather than force it into a predetermined model.
Burnout is one doorway into the work. People may also come because they feel disconnected from their creativity, are navigating a major transition, repeatedly encounter the same relational patterns, feel stuck between different directions, or want greater internal capacity for the level of responsibility they already hold.
You remain in charge of what we work with. I may invite you to notice or explore something, but an invitation is not a demand. Agency is an important part of this work.
Not generally. I may challenge an assumption, reflect a pattern, or help you examine what is influencing a decision, but the goal is not to tell you what to do or make you dependent on my judgment. The work should make your own perception and judgment more available to you.
Coaching and therapy can sometimes explore similar territory or draw from similar change modalities, but they have different scopes and purposes. My work is oriented around self-understanding, integration, leadership, creativity, relationships, and how your internal patterns are affecting the way you operate now, along with helping you discover and move towards your highest potential, and the version of you that you seek to express. It is not a substitute for mental-health treatment, diagnosis, or clinical care.
No. Regulation is not permanent calmness. Life includes pressure, grief, anger, excitement, uncertainty, ambition, conflict, and intensity. The aim is to develop more capacity and choice inside those experiences rather than automatically suppressing them or being controlled by them.
If something here raises a question I have not answered, please bring it to the call.