What is Somatic Coaching?
by Sarah Yearsley
“Every client is naturally creative, resourceful and whole.” (International Coach Federation Cleveland, 2021)
Up until the second half of the 20th Century, psychotherapists focussed solely on an individual’s traumatised past rather their client’s growth potential and the equal role both play in the process of healing.
This began to change in the 1950s and set the stage for the evolution of modern coaching practices. As Humanistic Psychology is at the root of coaching’s foundation, coaches today believe that everyone has the resources for understanding themselves, for changing their attitudes, beliefs and self-directing their behaviour.
The idea is that every human has an ‘actualizing tendency’ — a tendency to promote growth, direction and productivity. There are many different ways to work but The Somatic School describes coaching as: “partnering in a co-creative process of enquiry in service to the potential which is seeking to emerge in the life of the client.”
COACHING vs PSYCHOTHERAPY
Many people ask me what the difference is between Somatic Coaching and Psychotherapy. This is the best distinction I have heard:
Psychotherapy deals with how someone’s present life is influenced by their past. Psychotherapy is looking more for a diagnosis — finding the route of an issue. Coaching focuses on someone’s present and how they might design their future. Coaching is ‘being with’ and ‘accepting’ and walking alongside someone’s processing.
SO WHAT DOES A COACH DO?
Coaching at its core is a conversation:
“Coaching is simply a conversation where someone feels heard and gets new insights into their own stuff. The coach’s role is to facilitate someone else’s sense-making, not to solve their problems.” (Claire Pedrick, Simplifying Coaching)
The desired outcome is not so much a fixed solution, as awareness of the problem and the possibilities for future growth. The emphasis is on moving forward, leading to momentum around unblocking. This process should feel spontaneous, improvising, empowering and hopeful.
Claire Pedrick uses this excellent metaphor: “As your coach, I am there to steward your thinking, riding on the back of your tandem (which YOU are captain of). I will support your thinking with some pedal power while you steer us in the direction you need to go in.”
HOW DOES SOMATIC COACHING WORK?
The Greek word ‘soma’ means body. Somatic coaching is a body-oriented coaching practice with the focus on the whole self, sometimes referred to as the ‘bodymind’. Unlike traditional coaching methods that focus on cognitive processes, the attention is on the thinking mind AND what the rest of your body is telling you. Western traditions focus on our mental self-awareness and over time we’ve developed this unhelpful distinction between mind and body. But humans are in fact integrated neuro-psycho-biological beings. The body is a reflection of the mind, and the mind is a reflection of the body.
In somatic coaching, the body is seen as a living laboratory. By learning to interpret bodily sensations, we can gain a deeper understanding of ourselves. During a coaching session, you will be tapping into different types of sensory perception:-
Interoception: information from inside you (e.g. feeling hungry)
Exteroception: information from outside (i.e. via sight, sound, smell, taste and touch)
Proprioception: information about your body in the space it’s in (e.g. your posture)
This holistic approach recognises the vital role the body plays in our overall well-being. Our bodies hold valuable information and insights which can lead to profound shifts in our lives.
THE BODY HAS MEMORY
Experiences, including trauma, can manifest in physical sensations, behaviours, and bodily responses. They are imprinted in the body’s nervous system. Neuroscientific studies have even shown that traumatic experiences can lead to changes in the brain’s structure and functioning, affecting areas responsible for memory, emotion regulation, and stress response. Using somatic techniques, clients can gradually release this stored tension and access the body’s memory to promote a sense of safety and healing.
WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT IN A SOMATIC COACHING SESSION?
In a session (on Zoom or in person), you will be having a spoken conversation as with any other coach. You will bring something going on in your life that you’d like to explore and I, as your coach, will be supporting you by asking exploratory questions. During the session I will invite you to tap into what your body might like to reveal to you, which might not make immediate ‘sense’. But the invitation is to resist a mental interpretation and stay with the felt sense that is emerging. A felt sense is that ‘gut knowing’ inside, when you have an obvious or a subtle sensation in your body that you might not fully be able to name but you can attach an emotion to it and ‘just know’ what it is telling you.
It’s more than ‘interoception’ (i.e. hunger as I mentioned above). A felt sense implies movement and helps you shift from a conceptual to an embodied understanding of something. You will be invited to explore those sensations and start a dialogue with your somatic intelligence to gain insights. This has been described as like “a safe and held space for exiled parts of us to speak.” It can be a truly transformative experience to allow those parts of us to take centre stage.
THINGS TO REMEMBER
You’re in charge: I might make an offer of something I am noticing, or invite you to do something but you’re always in the driving seat and can correct me, adjust what we are doing and say No. I am here to support your process unfolding in the way that’s true to you.
Trust the process: you have the knowledge inside you and a somatic experience will help bring awareness to whatever change or next steps need to occur. This might happen immediately, or it might take a while to unfold. Trust your bodymind’s organic process.
Get comfy: whatever your body needs takes priority. You need some water? Take a sip. You need to lie down? Go for it. You need to pause? Absolutely.
Slow and steady wins the race: the body’s ‘bottom up’ messaging works slower than the ‘top down’ heady approach. The session might feel slow. You might not get obvious cues from your body. That’s ok. This is unfamiliar and takes time.
Treat your body like a lab: let’s experiment! This is a curious and experimental space which requires curiosity from client and coach. Stay non- judgmental and open-minded with your-full-self.
It’s all a bit random: the body is usually non-linear and spontaneous. What arises might be surprising to you. Go with it, if that feels comfortable to do so.
Silence is golden: at points in the session we might be very quiet, letting the body speak to you, checking in with yourself, pausing and seeing what emerges. Let’s get comfortable with being in that silence.
Integration is key: make some space around the session to let the dust settle. It may feel different to how you were expecting, and the insights can take some time to integrate.
Please get in touch if you’d like to book a session or ask a question:
07710 329 449