Contact & FAQ

We use Somatic Experiencing ® (SE) as a shared foundation, and we combine it with other somatic trauma healing methods depending on the practitioner’s background and our clients’ needs.

Other somatic approaches we use include somatic parts work based on Internal Family Systems (IFS), elements of NeuroAffective Touch, Integral Somatic Psychology (ISP) and applied Polyvagal Theory, as well as Bodynamics and NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM).

Please check our somatic practitioner page for more details.

Somatic therapy is often described as a “bottom-up” approach, where the body is the main vehicle for change and insight, whereas talk therapy is typically a “top-down” approach, where change happens primarily from reflection and understanding, i.e. from the mind.

For example, instead of describing or analysing a scary experience, in somatic therapy you may be invited to notice where the fear lives in your body, observe the sensation or an impulse that comes with it, get curious about what this fear reminds you of and what it means to you. This leads to an embodied exploration of the experience, a possible resolution or an emergence of a new insight.

Both somatic and talk therapies use dialogue. In somatic therapy, however, it is often intended to direct your focus and deepen your experience. Cognitive understanding is still important in our somatic work, especially in the integration phase, but, normally, it doesn’t lead the entire process.

Somatic therapy is sometimes associated with movement practices or bodywork, but our approach is different.

Movement and touch can be included in a session, but they would serve a specific purpose.

Voluntary movement exercises can be used to increase proprioceptive awareness, to downregulate or upregulate your nervous system, or to prepare your body for the exploration of defensive responses or developmental movement.

Involuntary movement may arise as we work with the autonomic nervous system and the spontaneous impulses, reactions and reflexes that emerge in response to your experience. We may follow an impulse to move toward, away, push, pull or grasp, and explore ‘what wanted to happen that didn’t get to happen’.

Touch is also an important aspect of our somatic therapy work. In an online format, a practitioner may invite you to place your own hands on certain areas of your body. The intention is to support coherence in the body and nervous system, or to facilitate a release of defensive bracing.

Somatic therapy with us is not a movement class, a massage or tissue manipulation, and it doesn’t involve energy work.

No. You won’t spend the whole session describing what happened to you or revisiting your past trauma. You may wish to tell your story or part of it, but you don’t have to.

Somatic therapy is based on the understanding that your body holds the memory of what happened to you, and in our sessions, we work with this implicit bodily memory very gradually without making you relive the past.

In fact, in cases of high arousal and dysregulation, talking about traumatic experiences in detail or revisiting traumatic memories is avoided. Stabilisation comes first.

Prior experience with somatic practices helps, but it’s not a requirement. What is more important is your openness to body-based exploration with support and guidance, and some ability to notice and stay with your experience in the body.

Assessing for the right fit involves many factors, including what you are seeking therapy for, the therapeutic approach, the practitioner’s expertise, and whether you feel safe, seen and understood by the practitioner you work with.

This website and our intake process are designed to help establish whether we’re a good fit, step by step.

Firstly, on these pages, you can find a lot of information on how we work and what we work with. We encourage you to learn more about us as somatic practitioners to get to know our backgrounds, specialities and unique approaches.

Additionally, the new client application form below helps us to understand whether our expertise matches your needs and advise accordingly.

And finally, the first session gives a taste of what it may look (and feel) like if we start working together.