Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What can I expect in somatic therapy sessions?

Somatic therapy sessions are a unique and holistic experience in which the wisdom of the body is centered. 

Initial sessions typically involve your therapist inviting you to discuss the problems or issues that brought you into therapy and how those issues may be showing up for you physically. The earlier sessions also focus on you and your therapist co-creating a therapeutic space that will feel safe enough for you to do exploration in the body. Co-creating safety in somatic therapy sessions will include collaboration with your therapist on when and how you would like awareness brought to your body (i.e. posture, facial expressions, gestures, bodily patterns, words/thoughts/beliefs, and emotions). It will also include increasing your awareness of your body in the therapeutic space and your body’s relational proximity/distance to your therapist. When co-creating relational safety in this embodied way, material can emerge and relational difficulties can happen with your therapist. You are invited to share any difficulties as this creates an opportunity to simultaneously offer healing to a misattunement experience and collaborate with your therapist on adjustments you need.

Somatic therapy sessions, especially in the early work, also focus on building or enhancing the external and internal resources of your body. Somatic sessions may involve somatic exploration of your body using your body only or your body with music, movement, or art. If processing experiences and trauma is something you’re looking for, somatic sessions can also include processing memories and integration of new ways of being in the world (including physically).

How would this differ in somatic life coaching?

Your initial somatic life coaching session involves us talking through your coaching goals and what’s been getting in the way of those goals. We’ll use mindful awareness, or noticing what’s happening in your body, as you talk about this. Using that information from the body, we’ll collaborate on a plan for the responses in your body blocking your movement towards those goals using body-oriented and parts-informed techniques in session and out of session. You’ll be expected to use your bodily awareness while practicing these techniques between sessions and report back your observations to help guide any modifications we may need to make to the coaching plan. Coaching typically is not as long term as therapy and the ongoing coaching relationship depends upon the regular practicing of the techniques between sessions. If material begins emerging that is beyond the scope of the coaching relationship, your coach may request you engage with additional providers (including a mental health clinician) to maintain the ongoing coaching relationship.

Will I have to talk through the details of my trauma if I do therapy or coaching?

No, and for many people, retelling the trauma narrative and reliving the trauma can be activating and, at worst, retraumatizing. All of the services The Art of Healing offers include modalities that do not require the re-telling of trauma.