SOMATIC
COACHING
accessing your physical intelligence to build clarity & self-knowledge
What is somatic coaching?
My style of somatic coaching is a glorious mash-up: Chinese Medicine and martial arts meets embodied coaching practice, wrapped in curiosity and playful self-exploration.
Here's what we do together. I bring deep questioning, traditional coaching frameworks, and an experimental mindset to help you:
Clarify what you're actually after and the challenges you’re facing
Unravel the knots in your thinking and narratives that hold you stuck
Test new ways of moving and responding to build momentum and change
Trust what your body already knows
But we don't stay in your head. We also use breath, posture, and qigong ‘three centre’ work - training your awareness to move between your head (thinking), your heart (emotion), and your body (instinct and felt sense). This is not an esoteric practice, it’s deeply practical and sensory. When you can sense and shift where your attention lives in your body, you start to build more capacity for feeling centred and calm with a sense of cognitive, emotional and physical alignment.
How somatic coaching can help
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Learning to shift awareness between your body’s three centres offers a practical way to anchor a spinning mind, helping to soften rumination by directing attention toward a quieter place connected more to things like your breath moving your belly.
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We can normally tell when we’re stressed, but we don't always know what it's telling us. That feeling of tension in your stomach? In a somatic session, we explore what the sensation might represent to you - it could be an invitation to slow down, adjust your boundaries or give space to an unaddressed emotion. The more you can read your body's language, the better you can become at responding in a positive way.
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We live in a strongly head-oriented society. Learning to create a conversation between your head, heart and body and checking in with your body's signals - the ones we all too often ignore - brings you back to yourself: more peace, more clarity, more aligned action.
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Boundaries and confidence aren’t just intellectual. They typically have a strong physical, felt sense component. Is it a threshold around your chest or back? A pushing-away or an expanded feeling? A strong feeling of rootedness in your legs and abdomen? We work with posture and embodied sensing so you can feel grounded and protected, not just think about it.
(Read my article on how expansive postures and ‘power posing’ can shift emotional states and confidence here.)
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When you have a million things on your plate, your brain frantically tries to solve everything at once - feeling scattered and fragmented. Physically, this can show up as things like a feeling of ‘carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders’, tightness in your chest, or pressure around your head. Through breathing, centring and enquiry, we tune into bodily sensations, offering valuable sensory (interoceptive) information that pure logical thinking can bypass.
How somatic coaching & acupuncture work together
My practice is deeply collaborative. We pay close attention to your body's intelligence.
We map what's happening in your body. Where does stress live? What does it feel like? Is your tension a knot, your fatigue a weight, your sense of being overwhelmed a lack of boundary? This isn't analysis - it's listening and learning.
We honour your body's boundaries. When we select acupuncture points, you bring your body's innate wisdom, I bring 20 years of clinical experience. Together, we ensure you feel comfortable and truly heard - by me, and more crucially, by yourself.
We restore your sense of authority. Most clients leave not just with physical and emotional relief, but with a renewed trust in their own body's signals. Laying the foundation of self-efficacy (self-belief) needed to support sustainable, positive wellbeing shifts.
We use the findings of what we explore - somatically and otherwise - to shape the creation your own toolkit and the acupuncture and qigong techniques I use. The goal is a hugely practical, achievable, clear and replicable framework you can return to throughout life’s ups and downs.
How it works - the neuroscience (for my fellow geeks)
One of the core practices of Somatic Coaching is building our interoception.
Interoception is your brain's ability to perceive and interpret internal bodily signals - heart rate, muscle tension, breath depth, gut sensation. It's your body's internal sensor.
What the research shows. Neuroscience(1) shows that people with higher interoceptive awareness is strongly associated with improved emotional regulation and stress resilience. Developing research also shows that they also tend toward more intuitive, gut-led decision-making.
Why it matters in our work together. When you say you feel "stuck" or "overwhelmed," what's often happening is that you're flooded with interoceptive signals you don't fully know how to interpret. Somatic coaching trains you to notice and decode these signals before they become burnout. You build the skill of listening to your own body.
Is Somatic Coaching the right fit for you?
Somatic Coaching is great for…
Navigating burnout, stress & overwhelm: Shifting out of "wired-but-tired" cycles and learning how your body signals pressure.
Breaking circular overthinking: Moving beyond pure logical analysis into embodied, sensory self-awareness.
Exploring boundaries & self-efficacy: Developing a physical, felt sense of confidence, rootedness, and personal authority in daily life.
Reconnecting with body wisdom: Learning to listen to interoceptive signals (gut feelings, chest tightness, posture) to guide decision-making.
Building a practical self-regulation toolkit: Combining breath work, posture, and Qigong techniques you can use in high-pressure moments.
What Somatic Coaching is not for (better suited to therapy / medical care)
Mental health crises, processing psychological trauma or childhood wounds: Depression, anxiety or trauma require a registered psychotherapist or Somatic Experiencing® trauma therapist. While past patterns may arise, our primary focus in coaching is present-moment awareness and future action.
A quick "fix": Somatic coaching is a collaborative process that relies on your active curiosity, experimentation and practice between sessions.
References & Clinical Evidence:
Interoception & Emotional Regulation: Critchley, H. D., & Garfinkel, S. N. (2017). Interoception and emotion. Current Opinion in Psychology, 17, 7–14.
Interoception, Neural Signals & Self-Awareness: Craig, A. D. (2003). Interoception: the sense of the physiological condition of the body. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 13(4), 500–505.
Expansive Posture & Feelings of Power: Cuddy, A. J., Schultz, S. J., & Fosse, N. E. (2018). P-Curving Action-Inward Postures: Do Postures Affect Feelings of Power? Psychological Science, 29(4), 656–666.
Posture, Stress Resilience & Mood: Nair, S., Sagar, M., Sollers, J., Consedine, N., & Broadbent, E. (2015). Do posture and body language affect stress responses? Health Psychology, 34(6), 632–641.
Structured Respiration & Autonomic Down-Regulation: Balban, M. Y., Neri, E., Kaelberer, M. M., et al. (2023). Brief structured respiration practices enhance mood and reduce physiological arousal. Cell Reports Medicine, 4(1), 100895.
Vagal Nerve Engagement & HRV Biofeedback: Lehrer, P. M., & Gevirtz, R. (2014). Heart rate variability biofeedback: how and why does it work? Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 756.