Somatic therapy

The somatic approach supports awareness and connections between one’s mind and body through touch and movement. Somatic sessions take many forms, ranging from quiet stillness to vigorous activity.  Goals for a session vary based on your own needs; such as relief from physical pain, finding calm from emotional distress, improving alignment, or support for development.

How will somatic therapy serve?

Somatic therapies bridge internal connections with movement, resonant touch, breath, and mindfulness. Somatic therapy and education intrinsically trusts the wisdom of your body-mind with its multitude of healing functions. At any age, from infancy through adulthood, our body-mind has great capacities for healthy adaptation when we give mindful attention to activity. In this way you can trust the unfolding of your own – and your child’s – healing process and development.

Your session, your connections

You take the lead on where a session will go for yourself or for your child for more ease in being and in activity. Given your concerns, somatic therapy yields benefits in many arenas.

  • Relieve discomfort and pain
  • Reduce tension in specific muscles & fascia
  • Develop body awareness and alignment
  • Increased suppleness and strength
  • Release restriction on nerves
  • Quiet inner exploration & awareness
  • Deep relaxation
  • Process difficult emotions
  • Activate neurological networks for easier function
  • Light play in developmental movement therapy

Chart your course

In somatic therapy you can connect with your own innate resources to chart your own course. Here you experience primary connections between your body and mind for an authentic sense of self. Compassionate inner awareness is a place of discovery, healing, and development.

Pathways in – Somatic modalities

Movement is a natural mode of learning. With kinesthetic awareness, you can develop core strength, suppleness and alignment. With mindfulness in motion you can awaken to renewed vitality. With reflective mindfulness practices, you can find inner direction.

The somatic modalities that best fit your intentions and needs will vary. Often these are woven together in session for you or your child. 

  • Craniosacral therapy
  • Myofascial therapy
  • Kinesthetic awareness in alignment
  • Mindfulness practices 
  • Developmental movement therapy

Mindfulness practices

Awareness of one’s experiences in our body and our mind are integral to somatic therapy. Mindfulness practices offer many pathways inward, and expressions of each of our individual being.

Developmental movement play

Children benefit from doing specific movements that develop their brains and bodies. Your child’s natural early movements shape their emerging mind and growing body. These developmental movements create clear organization in body-mind integration. Your child can form a healthy sense of self through these joyful activities. 

Movement play is a lifelong resource for all of us from childhood through the continuous changes of adulthood. Developmental movement underlies every arena of one’s ever-changing and emerging being; physical, emotional/social, attention/cognition and emerging sense of self. Engaging in developmental movement at any age, we can revisit and renew ourselves with simple, engaging activities.

Developmental movement therapy helps babies awaken profound connections within the body and mind for lifelong benefit.

Finding sensation and internal connection with myofascial therapy, new mothers come home to their own body and being after giving birth .

Recovering from the intensity of birth, newborns relax and find ease in breastfeeding with craniosacral therapy.

If we want to see the mind, we can waken to the inner movements of the body.

Each whisper and gesture of movement gives voice to the inner experience of mind & body.

In gratitude to Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen.

What Catherine brings