A New Way of Working: Expanding my Holistic Somatic Bodywork
Back from Berlin where I attended a training in hands-on somatic bodywork for the effects of trauma and chronic stress on the body.
Up until the training I had been using guided (hands-off) somatic techniques in my practice - body scanning, movements, breathwork - to support people experience relief from anxiety, stress and find groundedness, calm and clarity. However, as someone who deeply believes in the power of attuned, caring touch for healing, I wanted to incorporate hands-on techniques to add to the Somatic Bodywork sessions I offer, which is why I chose that training. And I am so glad I did. What I learned in Berlin has changed how I think about bodywork - and what I believe is possible through touch.
What struck me most was how slow, gentle, and minimal this work was - and yet how deeply it could reach the places where we hold tension, overwhelm, and patterns from the past.
In this post I will share a bit about my training experience and how somatic work can be utilised to support wellbeing, as well as multidimensional healing and self exploration.
The body holds what words can't always reach
You've probably heard the phrase "the body keeps the score." In somatic bodywork, we take that literally—it is our foundation.
Before I go further, let me define "somatic" for those unfamiliar with the term. Somatics is an umbrella term for therapeutic disciplines that focus on the body as experienced subjectively from within.
Traditional talk therapy works top-down - through the mind/intellect to understand and change our patterns- be it cognitive, emotional, behavioural etc. Somatic bodywork is bottom-up - we start with the body itself, understood as the vessel where we those patterns emerge, are stored and played out and we work with it directly to effect change in our whole system.
How stress can get stuck in the body
When we face a threat, our autonomic nervous system automatically activates survival responses - fight, flight, or freeze. These are protective mechanisms designed to keep us safe. In an ideal world, once the threat passes, our nervous system completes the cycle and returns to a state of rest and regulation.
But when we can't complete those responses - when we couldn't fight back or leave, or got stuck in freeze and couldn't discharge the energy that got produced by the nervous system, the activation can remain stuck in our body. We are essentially still braced for a threat that's no longer present. This incomplete cycle can create chronic tension, the sense of being on edge, difficulty relaxing, or feeling shut down and numb, unable to express oneself in life.
The nervous system is doing its job - it's trying to protect you. But it's working with outdated information, still responding to past experiences as if they're happening now.
This is where somatic bodywork comes in. We're not trying to override your nervous system or force it to relax. Instead, we're creating the conditions for it to feel safe and process what it couldn't complete then. Through gentle, attuned touch and body awareness, we help your system recognise: "I'm safe now. I can let go." We work with your body's natural capacity to regulate itself when allowed to, supporting it to move out of survival states and into a place where healing and evolution become possible. In that way you can begin to create new patterns of being that serve you better on our life journey of fulfilment.
Training & reflections
The course I attended focused on using supportive, nurturing touch to work with places in the body where stress and difficult experiences get held. We learned to work with joints (which can act as brakes, and also doorways for stuck energy to be released), nerves, organs, and more.
During it I learned that we start developing touch sensors at just 6 weeks of gestation! This work recognises that we're wired to respond to caring, attuned contact in profound ways - from the physical to the emotional, energetic and beyond.
Despite the gentleness, I watched this work reach places that conscious thought can't easily access.
During our early life particularly we need to be held, supported, regulated by others. Our earliest experiences of safety - or lack of it - shape how we organise ourselves in the world. When that early holding fails, when there are ruptures in care or overwhelming experiences before we even have language for them, it makes an imprint.
Somatic bodywork has the potential to reach those preverbal, foundational layers - the deep animal body where our most basic sense of safety and (dis)regulation live. This work creates the conditions where repair becomes possible. Where the body can experience what it needed then, now.
Beyond those early experiences, there's also what we might carry from those who came before us. Research suggests that traumatic experiences may create epigenetic changes - marks on our DNA that affect how genes are expressed - which can potentially be passed to future generations. We might be carrying not just our ancestors' genetic material, but also biological signatures of their experiences and how these shaped them, playing them out in our own lives - from how we move, to our pre-disposition to anxiousness, say. This is something we can of course tell a story about, but how do we actually work with these unconscious patterns? I think somatic work is one way.
And then there's the visionary dimension. During the training, several of us had experiences that opened something beyond the purely personal. When a colleague worked on my kidneys, I suddenly saw them vividly and found myself in conversation with them, asking for guidance. I remember thinking it felt shamanic - approaching and communicating with the body's organs and systems as conscious beings with their own intelligence.
This fits perfectly with how I already see the world: everything has consciousness, everything is alive and communicating. By entering in a relationship with it we can expand our awareness and receive deep wisdom to guide us.
What I mean when I say somatic bodywork addresses "all of you": we're not just working with physical tension or one emotion. We're working with your soma - which include all the different dimensions of being embodied: physicality, imagination, intellect, emotions, intuition, spirit(uality)...and so on.
What holistic somatic sessions look like
This is why the work is interactive, open-ended, and slow. We're not following a formula. We're following what arises. This work is a conversation, a journey. We track what's happening in your body moment to moment. Where there's tension, anxiety, and numbness, yes, but also where there's ease, vitality and flow.
We're creating a map together of your landscape - which is vast and complex, even when parts of it feel challenging to navigate.
Sessions combine hands-on and hands-off practices: holds, movement, visualisation, enhancing your felt sense (your awareness of what's happening inside you), conversation, role-playing, as well as grounding, sensory and meditative practices - all in service of:
Identifying your patterns, both those that limit your wellbeing and vitality and those that support it
Releasing stuck energy and tension to find relief from stress, pain and disconnection
Building a positive connection with yourself
Cultivating a sense of safety, clarity and strength from within
The pace is dictated by what feels manageable for you. Because your sense of safety and agency always come first.
Through this work you'll become more attuned to yourself, grow your inner strength and alignment, and be more able to recognise your triggers, boundaries, as well as what genuinely nourishes and enlivens you.
Who this work is for
This work is for you if you've experienced stressful situations that have left you feeling stuck, anxious, or disconnected, and you want to reconnect with yourself in supportive, positive ways. This, like any other therapy or tool, is not a miracle cure; it’s work that benefits from investment in regular sessions, willingness to show up with openness to honest exploration, communicatiob and presence, and active practice in between sessions.
I'm also excited to work with people who want to explore this work as a pathway to greater self-awareness, creativity and self-expression. The way this work can open visionary spaces, the way it helps us move stuck energy and access deeper parts of ourselves - I believe it's powerful for anyone who wants to explore somatic bodywork for personal evolution, creativity, inspiration and the exploration of their body-mind consciousness.
This is work for seekers. For people who are inclined, or have been led by circumstance, to ask big questions - who understand that healing isn't a destination, but an active, participatory, lifelong journey. Having someone as your partner in that who prioritises your safety and thriving, who is compassionate, and learns and evolves with you rather than following rigid formulas - that's key.
Closing thoughts
We are movement. Life is movement. When we get stuck, the life force gets impeded. But this work doesn't only focus on what's stuck or painful. We also seek out the places that are healthy, alive, flowing. We celebrate what's already working. We acknowledge that you're here, full of life and possibilities, already, right now.
Release isn't always dramatic. Sometimes it's a deep involuntary breath. Warmth spreading through your chest. The ability to laugh, to experience moments of joy and ease when before you might have braced, or take a step towards greater self expression without fear. Small shifts that add up to reclaiming yourself and your power.
If you're curious about working together, I offer free consultations where we can talk with no obligation and see if we're the right fit. And if you just want to talk about what came up for you reading this, my messages are always open too.
Warmly,
Eleni