Being "embodied"—engaging with the world through our felt sensations, thoughts, and emotions—is a fundamental human experience. If we go back far enough, all of our peoples had practices to support and celebrate the integrated, embodied self. Today, dominant culture treats the mind and body as separate. Most of us have few, if any, practices that keep us connected to our whole, embodied selves.

Somatics is a path of practice back to the body in a world that is continually trying to separate us from our body’s wisdom. 

In this work, we begin by developing somatic awareness: the ability to tune into our felt sensations, moods, thought patterns, and habitual responses. By paying attention to our physical experiences, we gain insights into our automatic reactions and how they may be preventing us from living into our values and fulfilling our longings.

But awareness alone is not enough. Change occurs through conscious, repeated engagement. A key premise of somatics is that we become what we practice. When we engage in practice, we are not just gaining insight into how we want to show up differently in our lives, we try on these new ways of being in a literal, physical sense. Somatic practices embrace a wide range of intentional actions, including identifying and communicating our boundaries, making and declining requests, offering and seeking support, returning to our “center” after intense moments, and staying present with complex, competing realities. Through repetition, something starts to shift, and what we have been practicing becomes available to us even under pressure. 

Somatic coaching, somatic bodywork, and group practice are all ways we support this process of change—both personal and collective. The ultimate goal is to develop a more integrated, aware, and responsive way of being—one that allows us to navigate our present conditions with greater presence, choice, and the understanding that our individual healing is intimately connected to broader social transformation.