SomaWell FAQ

Please wear clothes you are comfortable moving in and bring water to stay hydrated during sessions. SomaWell will provide all the gear and tools necessary for each session.

Occasionally a follow up email is provided with notes & resources from the session, but you are welcome to bring your own journal or notebook to take notes, if you prefer.

Yes, please check out our Community Offerings page for more details.

At this time, I do not teach in the community. Registered students at Salt Lake Community College, can register for the Lifelong Wellness & Yoga course that I teach for the Exercise Science Department.

“Somatics is the study of the self from the perspective of one’s lived experience, encompassing the dimensions of body, psyche, and spirit." - Thomas Hanna

From the Greek word 'soma', meaning 'body', a somatic practice involves tuning in to the inner world of the body, understanding body signals and messages, and becoming aware of the internal experience. Somatic practice also involves bringing conscious awareness to behavior, image, and meaning, as well as the external sensory experience.

At SomaWell, we specialize in embodied movement & coaching to help you become familiar with the soma as a source of information, intuition, inspiration, and truth.

We integrate Somatic Experiencing® techniques and other somatic practices such as breath biomechanics, mindful movement, and yoga to integrate the mind-body connection and create support within the autonomic nervous system.

Check out the SomaWell Sessions page to learn more about each modality.

Learn about what you can expect in a session here.

Somatic Experiencing® (SE) is a naturalistic approach used to enhance regulation in the nervous system and support the resolution of trauma developed by Dr. Peter Levine. The word trauma in this sense covers a wide range of physical and psychological symptoms that result from the effect of acute and/or accumulated stress on human physiology.

SE is partially based upon the observation that wild prey animals, though routinely threatened, are rarely traumatized. Animals in the wild utilize innate mechanisms to regulate and discharge the high levels of energy associated with self-protective survival behaviors. These mechanisms provide animals with built-in resilience that enables them to return to healthy functioning in the aftermath of highly charged, distressing, or life-threatening experiences.

These built-in responses are often inhibited in humans by other humans, social and cultural conditioning, and/or our inability to find safe enough conditions that we can fully move through them. SE supports individuals in completing fight, flight, and freeze response patterns that remain in the physiology after stressful or traumatic experiences or conditions.

The completion of these survival patterns can bring a greater capacity for self-regulation, as well as an increased sense of social engagement, well-being, and integration. Even though SE primarily targets issues of trauma, it is also seen as an effective way of supporting individuals interested in expanding their ability to authentically be in the world. People often report feelings of greater ease physically, psychologically, relationally, and spiritually.

• SE employs awareness of the body and the body’s “voice” to help people “renegotiate” rather than relive or re-enact traumatic experiences in their efforts to heal.

• SE approaches allow highly charged survival energies to be safely experienced and gradually discharged.

• SE “titrates” experience (breaks down into small, incremental steps), rather than evoking catharsis – which can overwhelm the regulatory mechanisms of the organism.

• SE may employ (with the client’s consent) coregulatory touch work (not massage) in support of the renegotiation process.

For more information about SE please see the following references:

• Levine, P. (1997). Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books.

• Levine, P. and. Kline, M. (2007). Trauma Through A Child’s Eyes: Awakening the Ordinary Miracle of Healing. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books.

For further references and information online about SE you can go to: traumahealing.org

Mindful Movement at SomaWell may include a blend mindful strength, functional mobility, yoga, and myofascial release techniques.

Through movement therapy, we can access the nervous system directly to create more flow between the body’s natural states of activation and ease.

Learn more about the International Somatic Movement Education & Therapy Association here.

Somatic Movement Focus Areas:

• Postural and movement repatterning for greater felt sense of strength, dignity, and ease

• Focus on the body both as an objective physical process and as a subjective process of lived consciousness

• Refine perceptual, kinesthetic, proprioceptive, and interoceptive sensitivity that supports homeostasis, co-regulation, and neuroplasticity

• Recognize habitual patterns of perceptual, postural and movement interaction with the environment

• Improve movement coordination

• Find joy in movement again

• Experience an embodied sense of vitality and create both meaning for and enjoyment of life

Movement sessions at SomaWell are focused on the process of the movement and the internal experience evoked by the therapy, rather than focusing on results or the outward appearance of the movement practice.

A lot of what we do in a session may include components of fitness training, including movement and postural repatterning, strength and mobility training, and developing inner core unit strength. We go at the pace of the individual, we may work hard or practice more restorative movement depending on the needs of the client that day.

Movement sessions also allows space for reflection on the social and emotional component of the movement which supports a process strengthening the mind body connection.