What is Somatic Leadership Coaching?

Many people have heard the word Somatics, but few know what it means. It is woven under the surface of many popular practices, therapies, and innovative business methods. The practice of somatics creates people that are settled, have access to their bodies resources, stay calm under pressure, and can think outside the box. It is a powerful practice with a long history becoming popular for what it gives us: satisfying connection to our self, others, and the world. It provides a sustainable path to living in harmony with our bodies and all life.

Somatics is the study and practice of the mind and body working together to optimize a human’s experience in and of life. The foundational premise in somatics is that the mind and body are interwoven, and change does not happen by simply working with the mind or body exclusively. It is through the interweaving of both that we produce sustainable change.

Origin and History

Soma is a Greek word meaning whole body. Not simply the inside of us — organs and fluids, including the mind, but the actions our body takes, and the impact our actions have on others and the world. This broad definition of wholeness reminds us that we are all connected. Being aware of our interdependence is essential to fully experience the richness of life and grow into the best version of our self.

The term Somatics was coined by Thomas Hanna in his book of that title in the 1970’s. In Western thought, the idea of considering the body as a window into a person’s mind took intellectual hold in the early 1900’s with Wilhelm Reich a colleague of Sigmund Freud. He discovered patients could be cured faster and more simply by observing the body, bringing attention to areas that seemed held and constricted, and from there generating a new narrative. People were able to feel a new experience of themselves and learn to embody this possibility.

Somatic Modalities

Since then, Somatics has been an alternative field of study in the West. Though the implicit premise is grounded in early history when our ancestors did not distinguish themselves as being separate from all things around them. Many disciplines carried over from ancient times also have this foundation of connection.

Yoga and meditation are disciplines of the body and mind that suggest in their purest form that we are connected to everything. They are methods for bringing ourselves fully present. Practicing ways to experience the truth of the self in the moment.

Martial arts practices like Qi Gong, Aikido, and others also have this aim. Though not all teachers of these disciplines consciously weave together body and mind in their narratives. Most people who practice these arts feel and see the impact of repetitive actions through the body and the shift this has on the thoughts of the mind. We begin to get good at the things we practice. This rewires our neurological dispositions for not only the activity we practice frequently, but in all other areas of life.

The use of somatics in healing professions is becoming more common. Therapeutic psychology is a discipline that uses somatics to help clients find safety in themselves and/or move through trauma– such as AEDP (Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy) and Somatic Experiencing.

Somatics and the accompanying practices are also used in communities to promote connection and safety — like in Philadelphia at the Institute for Somatics and Social Justice, and at Generative Somatics in Oakland.

In movement modalities like Feldenkrais, the Alexander Technique, Hellerwork, and many others, people learn how the body impacts how we feel, what we think, and the action we can take. People often say they have never felt so expansive and flexible in their body, which has a corresponding and remarkable impact on their behavior.

Somatics is also used in businesses to build strong teams and reduce stress, connecting people back to their body and helping them calm themselves to achieve innovative results — the Strozzi Institute and Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction.

The field of neuroscience is wildly popular among business leaders. Neuroscience is proof for analytical types that the brain and body are interwoven — one cannot change without the other. This science gives a prescription for how to shift peoples base line capacity for action through practice. Business leaders find that conscious practice has a positive impact on producing satisfying and innovative corporate cultures — Dr. Dan Seigel, Dr. Daniel Kahneman, and many others.

Somatic Leadership Coaching

Though many mind and body modalities fall into the category of somatics, using somatic practices to build strong and flexible leaders is significant and essential to the challenges we face today as a society.

Somatic coaching, a modern field of study and practice, uses the foundations of psychology — knowing the workings of the mind, its functions, and its impact on behavior — and body-based practices to increase our awareness of self as we engage with the world. We observe what happens in and to the body as we move through our days. This provides us with information that builds an understanding of how we interact with the world.

Coaching begins by asking the question “what is the future you desire?” and then helps shape thoughts, mood, and behavior toward that goal. This work is different than therapy which is treatment intended to relieve or heal a disorder.

Somatic coaching is possibility based. The discipline helps our entire body learn to listen to the truth of our self. We become congruent. When this happens, we work less on managing our image and impact on others. We settle, instead of churn. This creates space to turn inside and feel. Through practice we expand our emotional range of what we can handle. This is neurobiological rewiring happening through commitment and practice.

Through conscious practice, we become capable of being disrupted and not turning our disruption on others. We become accountable for our actions, feeling the great joy or pain they cause. Somatics is the discipline of living fully in our humanness.

Somatics brings us back to a felt sense of connection with all things. Making it impossible to live in the world and not acknowledge the cost of our progress. The practices of somatics brings hope that through this connection we can shift our behavior and live more sustainably with all other life on the planet.

Tracy is a Master Somatic Coach. She thrives on guiding people to reconnect to their aliveness. She is the co-founder of the global leadership and organizational development firm McCarthy Rekart. Contact her or sign up for a course at www.mccarthyrekart.com.