What’s Somatic Coaching actually like?

Like music, dance, or martial arts, Somatic Coaching is better felt than telt.

If you want to apply to experience what it’s like, you can go HERE.

But let me try my hand at giving you the best explanation I got.

Somatic Coaching with me is kinda like this:

Imagine yourself in your special spot. That place. The nourishing one.

Our container is nourishment. Our connection is nourishment. The moment is nourishment.

This is the baseline we orient from.

Center in your intentions.

What’s most alive? We follow aliveness. We trust aliveness.

Lengthen. Widen. Deepen. Expand.

Rest into your support.

Move with purpose.

When tissues tighten, restrict, or block…

When thoughts criticize, limit, or doubt…

When the heart is heavy, the shoulders weighed down...

We listen, we learn, we support with clear eyes and a gentle heart.

We sense the space around it.

We provide the needed link -- the missed move from that moment.

We pour the challenge in one drop at a time.

Challenge by choice. Challenge at your own pace.

We practice the dynamic together.

You try out some new moves: one step at a time.

What was hard becomes easeful.

What was impossible becomes an embodied skill.

You grow yourself into your goals.

You grow from the fertile soil of nourishment, joy, and love.

We celebrate you every step of the way.

You grow. You expand. You fly.

Nourish. Discover. Train. Transform.

“What’s this whole Somatic Coaching thing really about?”

At its heart, Somatic Coaching is about opening up the realm of what’s possible.

And I mean “possible” in the most tangible and actionable way.

A painful struggle becomes a fun learning opportunity.

Old patterns unravel.

A missing skill is learned.

What was tense becomes easeful.

What was vision becomes realized.

Small breakthroughs add up to evolutionary-level transformation.

Here’s a tiny slice of what it looked like for these incredible folks who chose to walk this path with me:

• An inspiring community activist who struggles with feeling burnt out and disillusioned with his work (and the world) reconnects to his sense of rooted purpose, returns to community action nourished and renewed, and -- from a place of sustained joy and inspiration -- launches a collaborative initiative addressing language justice with local art-activists.

• An intuitive coach struggles with feeling triggered during sales calls and suspects it's connected to ancestral trauma. We work at the core and she learns how to generate an internal sense of safety in high pressure situations leading her to an increased capacity for serving more clients with ease.

• A caring school teacher who grapples with chronic exhaustion and boundaries at work and at home reclaims her capacity to take up space + express her power with integrity leading her to more nourishing relationships and a renewed sense of self-trust, joy, and energy to channel into her creative vision of developing resources for fellow teachers.

Opening up what’s possible -- This is what Somatic Coaching is about.

What moves me about folks who walk this path is the one thing we all have in common -- and yes, I include myself in this group :)

We all hear the call. We all answer it.

We heed that inner voice that says: it’s time.

I know you can feel that heartbeat of purpose or you wouldn’t be here checking this out :)

And I am so glad you’re here.

Answering the call is simple.

But I know that doesn’t mean it’s always been easy.

I would be remiss not to mention, there’s probably some stuff in the way?

Frustratingly sticky things you feel like you don’t know how to do...

Themes you’ve had a tough time with for years...

Patterns that come up again and again…

We ALL got that.

And there’s a reason for it.

Our somas (bodyminds) have a bent for healing.

An intention for growth.

A will to evolve.

This is why we return to the scene of our pain points again and again.

We return until we integrate.

We return until we grow ourselves taller, wider, and deeper.

We return until we learn some new moves.

We return until we transform.

With all that returning, you might feel like you’re spinning.

Moving in circles.

Going nowhere.

As an introspective learner you might be inclined to start questioning WHY you’re returning to the scene again and again?

Why you struggle where it seems others pass through easily?

You might start to think that it’s something about YOU -- that you’re missing something... that you’re lacking... that you’re behind...

No, my friend.

NO.

Don’t believe the hype.

In fact, you are, I believe wholeheartedly, the KEY to our world-changing puzzle.

Yep. I said it.

(more on my theory of why this is so in a moment :)

If you’re picking up what I’m putting down here, then I can say with confidence I know where you’re standing.

Do you know?

Well, look down at the earth. (Yup, take a look! This is an introduction to embodied coaching after all :)

Just for a moment, notice how you’re being held.

Notice how you have a place to rest. Always.

What does that feel like...?

~~

What about the support at your back?

All the people who’ve got your back, all the territory you’ve already traversed to get HERE.

All of that learning and support comes with you into this moment as the ground you rest on now.

And how about where you’re headed?

When you feel into what YOU are about and what matters to you,

when you sense the hands of support at your back,

and when you remember what you’re a part of and what you came here to do,

you might notice that you are standing at the crossroads.

Welcome.

I know the struggle can, at times, feel impossible to transcend.

But this is the challenge.

And this is the opportunity.

You are being apprenticed.

And the world desperately needs your lessons.

Synchronicity in action:

On the day that I am writing this for you, dear reader, and for me, and for our world, I open a “new tab” and this is the quote that appears:

“Everything you want to be, you already are. You’re simply on the path to discovering it. ~ Alicia Keyes

My sentiments exactly, Alicia Keyes! :)

Somatic Coaching is about opening up new paths of action -- for you, for your relations, for our world.

New paths. New moves. New world.

You’re building that world.

A world that transcends winning and losing.

A world that transcends success and failure.

A world that alchemizes wound into wisdom, so we all collectively live better.

You’re a part of it.

And we need your unique medicine.

A world of courageous heart, of graceful skill, of rooted purpose.

A world that operates through a different kind of power.

Your unique power.

The special kind of power that YOU are here to develop and teach by living the example:

Power that cares…

Power that nourishes...

Power that uplifts...

Power that supports…

Power that humbles itself.

This is what Somatic Coaching is all about.

Four Core principles that guide my work:

1. Resource First, Follow Aliveness

Resource here refers to your empowered, creative, compassionate, values-aligned presence. In my approach, this is not something you need to “add” to yourself or “become.” You cannot “become'' what you already are. We work from this understanding. You are already whole and complete. You have your own inner wisdom. You are inherently resourceful. When you forget, our practices will re-center and re-mind you.

2. Every part of us wants to help

There’s wisdom in everything we do. Some parts of us may be misguided or operating on outdated information, but every part has a sweet intention to help us navigate this world the best way it knows how. Integration work starts with honoring that sweet intention, seeing the wisdom in it, and compassionately guiding constricted parts to test out more expansive territory.

3. Everything has value

Just as the earth composts old, decaying foods and alchemizes it into fuel for life, so can you transmute all energy, all experience, into wisdom and life-fuel in service to a greater benefit.

4. Embodied Learning is the quickest route to sustainable change

If you can’t think your way out of a challenge, it’s time to move through it differently. Change your moves, change your path, change your world.

My vision for our world and why you're a KEY part of it

YOU Are The Big Domino

In case you’re wondering…

“What is Jacey about? What does this matter to them?”

Let me share with you my vision for our world and why you’re a KEY part of it.

If you hadn’t noticed, I write about the challenges you might be facing from a place of experience :)

And through my own turbulence navigating this world as a person who steps softly, who moves slowly and deliberately, who feels deeply, I’ve come to some perspective on how we fit into this world-changing puzzle.

My theory on HOW our collective liberation becomes realized:

Buckle your seatbelts, here goes my theory on how this whole thing works…!

1. Everything is Fractal

Let’s start with “everything is fractal.” Everything big is made up of smaller versions of the same pattern. Change the patterns or dynamic in one scale, change it in the larger scales it makes up.

2. Over-Power / Under-Power Dynamic

I imagine you have observed the pattern of Over-Power / Under-Power (One Up / One Down) in our social, economic, and cultural systems?

There is a sense that some folks are “on top” and other folks are “on the bottom.” That pattern is made up of that same dynamic in smaller systems.

One example would be how you relate to any of these: other humans, creatures, the earth, your ancestors, even your goals.

How might you be in a One Up / One Down relationship with your goals?

1. Do you try to “be on top of them” and conquer them?

2. Do you make a plan and then feel victim to it and that you can’t make adjustments?

3. Do you compare yourself to where you think others are with similar kinds of goals?

4. Do you make yourself small in relation to your big visions -- doubting if you’re capable of achieving it?

These are just a few ways we may mirror this dynamic in other areas of our lives.

Curious to try an experience of this concept? Check out this video: Befriending the Unknown and Unlearning Oppressive Dynamics

3. Tension / Slack Dynamic

As a movement practitioner and bodyworker, I see the same Over-Power / Under-Power relationship play out on the cellular tissue level.

In our bodies this dynamic is made up of Tension and Slack.

Controlling Force / Over-Power / One-Up: Tension

Disconnecting Force / Under-Power / One-Down: Slack

Shifting more extreme versions of tension and slack patterns and bringing them into harmony with each other is how bodywork works :)

A nourished, present, resourced system has a balance of tone and relaxation which allows for structure to be supportive (without being restrictive) and flow to be adaptable (without being disengaged).

When a stress is put on the human system that is too much, too fast, too soon (in relationship to available resources and support), automatic survival actions kick in which encourages the tissues to react one of two ways: go tense or go slack.

Both are ways to decrease sensation -- lessen the messages that move from body to brain in those areas. The message was too much in that tough moment, so this strategy is intelligent for our survival.

Long term, living out of strategy has a cost.

There are consequences to being cut off from the messages from parts of ourselves.

When we don’t hear the message, we cannot be responsive or provide nourishment where needed.

Missing the message long-term can lead to feeling disconnected, flat, and numbed out, or overwhelmed, on edge, and stressed.

When we live that way, it takes a toll on our sense of self and what we can do, we lack confidence and trust in ourselves and how we show up.

I want to take a moment to acknowledge that what you’ve survived to get here is nothing short of spiritual genius.

But you, my friend, didn’t come here to just survive, just to get by.

You already know.

So, how do you move forward on that world-building dream of yours?

How do you, practically speaking, physically move forward and change your world?

In my view, the answer to that question has everything to do with transforming dynamics of tension and slack in all areas of your being:

Transform the controlling forces,

Transform the disempowered aspects,

And rise to your humble loving powerful presence.

Transform it all the way down to your cellular tissues.

Let’s talk tissues!

TENSION

Tense tissues are high energy, rigid, sticky, and unmoving.

Most people are familiar with tension :)

It grabs your attention!

Tension is in the foreground. We notice it.

When a system is characterized by tension, it looks like: power over, control, rigidity, limitation.

When a part is tense, it is overly defined in relation to another. It is unyielding, unaccommodating.

We all have some degree of tension in us. We know what it feels like.

How do we be with and ultimately transform tension in our larger systems?

Do we try to convince it that it shouldn’t be there?

Try doing this for the tension in your body...

Is it effective?

We can invite tense parts to stretch at their own pace. It helps temporarily.

But stretch introduces tension in the opposing direction. Stretch is generally done in isolation, therefore, it often doesn’t make the long-term whole system shift we’re looking for.

What’s the alternative?

The most effective, long-term, and holistic way I’ve seen to transform tension is by working with Slack.

SLACK

What’s Slack?

While tension claims the foreground and attention, slack resides in the background.

Slack tissues are collapsed, non-present, low energy.

These parts are slower to arrive, quieter, and more disappeared.

When a system is characterized by slack, it looks like: disempowered, disengaged, disappeared.

When a part is slack, it is under defined in relation to another. At the extremes, it has no self definition and merges with the other. It is completely yielding, accommodating.

We also all have some degree of slack in us. We know what this feels like even if no one has ever pointed it out to us before.

It is the parts of us that hide, collapse, get smaller, implode, disappear.

4. Tension + Slack Hold Each Other in Place

When a too stressful moment occurs for the system, BOTH tension and slack are part of the overall strategy of keeping the whole system intact.

For a part to become tense, it borrows energy and tone from the slack parts.

Both tension and slack actually serve to hold each other in place.

So yes, by extension I am saying that the Over-Power / Under-Power dynamic holds each other in place.

Why does this matter?

Two Words: Adaptability + Choice.

A system (a human, a relationship, a culture, an institution) that is characterized by extreme tension and slack patterns to hold itself together lacks choice. We could say it is non-adaptive to the present.

Present, full of energy, supportive, fluid systems have in their capacity multiple paths of action and are therefore adaptable, resourceful, and response-able (able to respond skillfully to the present).

5. How We Transform Tension Through Slack

So, let’s look at this question again: how do we be with and ultimately transform tension in our larger systems?

How do we transform systems that are controlling, unyielding, and overly restrictive?

How do we transform systems that are non-adaptive to present needs?

Let’s start with how we do it in our smaller human body systems.

The best way I know how to transform tense parts for the long-haul is for those parts to directly experience that the hold it is asserting is no longer needed -- to demonstrate at a felt-sense level that without the tension, the whole system will not collapse. To feel for themselves that when they let go just a little bit, the whole system is already held by something beyond them.

In essence, we build an alternative way to hold the system without tension.

How do we do this?

We do this by bringing presence, attention, resource, and support to the parts that go slack.

We bring new life, energy, and nourishment to the parts that tend to shrink, go quiet, disappear.

What begins to happen is those parts take up more space, more actual physical dimension, more tone, more energy moving through, more aliveness.

When this happens, the tense parts respond in kind and naturally relax.

How does this work?

All parts, all aspects, all relationships are part of a bigger interconnected system with balancing and harmonizing forces.

Pull on one thread, affect all the strands its attached to, affect the entire web.

So, just as tense parts can borrow tone and energy from slack parts...

So too can slack parts receive energy, nourishment, support, softening tense parts.

6. This Dynamic is Everywhere; it’s not just a “weird” body thing ;)

This dynamic of resourcing the quiet parts to soften the loud parts doesn’t just occur in our tissues.

It also occurs on every scale, including in relational dynamics.

I find this pattern beautifully unfolds as a pleasant surprise to clients who finally speak up from a place of loving empowered presence to a friend, fam, or colleague who would previously judge or criticize them.

In response, the friend would come into a more loving (right-size) relationship with them, apologize, and humble themselves.

The tension would ease up.

The person would lessen their harshness and come into a softer, more gentle, more compassionate way of being.

I see it again and again.

This happens in relation to vision, goals, and desire too.

When folks who are inclined to push down their desires and place their dreams last are actually willing to nourish their dreams, what we find is that support seems to flow out the woodwork, critiquers fade out, and our world becomes a lot more impacted by the values you and I share.

So this is the paradox I see us living in.

The foreground of tension, rigidity, power-over behavior is NOT our leverage point -- though it gets all the hype ;)

The background of disappearing, hiding, shrinking, over accommodating IS our leverage point.

YOU are a linchpin.

That’s why I see our collective liberation hinges on the quiet ones, the gentle souls, the deep divers, the slow pacers, the soft steppers.

We embody the medicine our world needs.

And as we provide resource to the parts in us that want to hide, want to collapse, want to shrink, or disappear, we develop the humble loving power that fuels our collective freedom.

We expand ourselves into a taller, wider, and deeper dimension and in so doing we build an alternative system where the tension is transformed.

Our liberation is freed together

Sometimes, I wonder what the history books will call us.

Maybe they will call us the sacred activists.

Perhaps we will be called the humble warriors.

What I do know for certain is that we will be called.

We already have been.

I imagine you’ve felt it.

Are you ready?

This is where we’re at.

I want you to know you’re a part of it whether we ever even meet.

I trust you’re on path and whatever reason you came here, it will be revealed.

Fly on, humble warrior.

Deliver the gift of your unique way of being to the world.

See you when the time is right.

Written by Jacey Eve: http://www.jaceyeve.com