Our bodies are places of memory. Even when we do not remember the details or experiences that make up our histories, our bodies remember for us. Our resilience, and the resilience of our ancestors lives in each of us, in our muscles and sinews and bones. Each of us has tremendous love and power in our lineages - be they biological, political, or artistic lineages. The experiences of trauma, those that we have experienced and those that have been passed down, also live in our bodies.
Through Somatic Bodywork, I help clients to release experiences of trauma.
During experiences of trauma, oppression, abuse or stress, your body contracts for self-protection and you may dissociate or “numb out”. Your muscles hold these contractions until your system feels safe enough to release, which can take years, even decades. These contractions impact you physically - causing rigidity and sometimes pain; emotionally – limiting your range of emotion and mood; and relationally – shaping how you relate to others and others relate to you.
Somatic Bodywork uses breath, attention, and touch to support your body to release long-held contractions.
What happens in a Somatic Bodywork Session?
Somatic Bodywork is done fully clothed, lying on a massage table with your eyes open or closed. It’s participatory, meaning you and I both bring our attention to various places where your body holds tension, such as your neck, back, shoulders, legs, and ribcage. I will invite you into breath patterns and movements that help your system release, and with your consent, bring attuned touch to those areas.
Memories and emotions may surface.
Your body may cool down, heat up, or tremor.
After, you may feel more connected to your body
With time, you may experience increased body awareness and presence, decreased chronic physical tensions, widened range of mood, and deepened connection to yourself and others.
Somatic Bodywork is particularly useful for helping you to get "unstuck" in those areas that have been hard to heal, the impacts of trauma and oppression that live in our tissues. This can include generational trauma, internalized oppression, and the impacts of violence and sexual trauma.