What is somatic work and do I need it
The word is everywhere and almost nobody defines it. Somatic means of the body. That is the whole definition, and everything else is a variation on it.
The word is everywhere now and almost nobody defines it, which is how it ends up meaning both a serious clinical modality and a stretch class with candles.
Somatic means of the body. Somatic work means working with the body directly, through breath, movement, position and attention, rather than working only through talking and thinking. That is the whole definition and everything else is a variation on it.
Why anyone bothers
Your nervous system does not take instructions. You cannot decide to feel safe any more than you can decide to be hungry. It responds to conditions: breath, muscle tension, temperature, position, whether you have eaten, whether you are moving.
So if your body has been braced for a long time, talking about it will not always release it, and knowing exactly why you are braced will not either. Plenty of people can explain their own patterns beautifully and still cannot sleep.
Somatic work goes at it from the other direction. Change the conditions and the state follows.
What it looks like in practice with me
Nothing mystical. Breath work, where the exhale is longer than the inhale, because that is the lever that tells your body it is not under threat. Movement that is slow enough that you can feel it, which for most people is much slower than they want to go. Attention on where you are actually holding: jaw, shoulders, the floor of the pelvis, the space between the ribs.
Then the boring, unglamorous end of it. Getting light in your eyes in the morning. Eating before you are desperate. Going to bed at a time rather than when you collapse. Those are nervous-system interventions too, and they do more than any single practice.
Twenty five years of Ashtanga and Hatha is where most of this came from for me. It is not a new discipline with a new name, it is what yoga was doing before anyone called it somatic.
Who it actually helps
You are likely to get something from this if you are wired and exhausted at once. If you cannot switch off in the evening. If your shoulders are up by your ears and you did not notice until you read that. If you hold your breath while you work. If you sleep eight hours and wake up as though you fought all night.
It also tends to help the people who have tried everything cognitive, understand themselves completely, and are still stuck. Insight and change are two different things and one does not automatically produce the other.
Where the line is, and this matters
Somatic Experiencing and somatic trauma therapy are clinical modalities delivered by trained, licensed practitioners. That is trauma treatment. It is not what I do.
I do not treat trauma. I do not take you into your history to process it. If what surfaces in the body is trauma, and sometimes it is, that belongs with a therapist trained in it, and I will say so and send you.
What I do is nervous-system regulation as the ground the rest of the work stands on, so that nutrition, sleep and habits have something to stand on. I wrote about why that has to come first in Issue 001, and about where coaching stops and therapy starts in Issue 003.
One thing to try tonight
Before dinner, five breaths. In through the nose for four, out through the mouth for six. The count matters more than the depth: the long exhale is the part doing the work.
If your mind wanders, that is fine, and it is not the point. The point is what your body does, and your body does not need you to concentrate.
Do that once a day for a week before deciding whether any of this is for you.
Questions I get asked
What is somatic work in plain language?
Working with the body directly, through breath, movement, position and attention, rather than only through talking and thinking. The aim is to change the state your nervous system is in by changing its conditions, because you cannot simply decide to feel calm.
Is somatic work the same as therapy?
No. Somatic Experiencing and somatic trauma therapy are clinical modalities delivered by licensed practitioners, and that is trauma treatment. What I do is nervous-system regulation as a foundation for nutrition, sleep and habits. If trauma surfaces, that belongs with a trained therapist and I refer out.
Do I need to be flexible or good at yoga?
No. Most of what matters here happens sitting down or lying still. The movement is slow enough that flexibility is irrelevant, and a good deal of it is breath and attention rather than movement at all.
How long before I notice anything?
Some people feel something in the first few breaths, most notice a difference in sleep within a week or two of doing it daily. It is small and cumulative rather than dramatic, which is exactly why people abandon it early.
If you want it in order
Everything above is the ground floor. The 10 Day Reset is the same work with times on the page, meal plans, worksheets and 79 recipes, for $125, so nothing is left for you to decide when you are tired. Or put your email in below and I will send you the 7 Day Energy Reset, which is free.
This is general wellness education and not medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Talk to a qualified professional, especially if you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication or managing a condition.