“You have no need to travel anywhere – journey within yourself. Enter a mine of rubies and bathe in the splendor of your own light.” ~Rumi
After enjoying a much slower, nurturing pace over the summer, I’m back to working with clients in-person in my office. I hope you have been able to find ways to slow down and find time to connect with yourself and your loved ones over the summer – and I hope you will join me for one of my in-person and/or online offerings this fall.
Healing isn’t about fixing or figuring out – it’s not about pushing for change.
Becoming regulated and steady, we can meet life whole-heartedly without all the noise. Healing is about coming into fresh relationship with ourselves, embracing all we’ve been through, where we’re headed and everything around us.
We’re able to respond instead of react.
Old school trauma healing pushes us past our edges when we’re already overwhelmed and carrying too much. We don’t have to go back into the past to heal the present and become activated by details of past stories.
We can’t talk trauma away. While words and stories are important and deeply matter – so does our physiology.
Our bodies carry the history of our lives. They carry the map for how we got here and they also have the wisdom for how to remember our wholeness.
I am deeply honored at the possibility of walking this path with you.
By working with your nervous system and welcoming all parts of who you are through various modalities and ways of connecting (1:1 & group monthly practice), we will support your body to process what it needs to process to come into a place of peace and expansiveness.
We will grow a somatic sense of safety which impacts how we feel, think, believe and connect to ourselves, others and something bigger.
This work is based on Somatic Healing & Attachment Wounding.
Wounding can happen in relationship. Healing can happen in relationship too.
Healing is a collaboration and a partnership in this work. We show up together to support what YOU would love to have happen in each moment and in your life. We meet all that arises with support, awareness, compassion and care. And when you have a hard time finding that in yourself, I’ve got plenty for both of us – there’s space here for you to lean in.
Healing in connection can be vulnerable yet profound. We create a sacred, confidential, supportive and clear space where you get to really lean in, be seen, held and celebrated.
This connecting, gentle and present work can include:
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you talking or being silent depending on what feels most alive for you each session.
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slowing down together to meet what’s present in your life.
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being welcome to bring all parts of yourself.
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being guided consistently for most or all of each session through the body-based and co-regulation protocol.
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trauma informed mindfulness and breathing practices.
Working with “intentional touch” in online sessions and “supportive touch” if we meet in person. Both equally powerful. Early developmental trauma begins in childhood when we are given more to experience than we can tolerate consciously. Our brains and nervous systems aren’t equipped to metabolize particular experiences – even those can appear on the outside, as quite small or insignificant. We become overwhelmed by emotions that feel unbearable to our young selves.
Our vital core feels threatened, and our unbearable emotions are given to another part of our psyche, removed from our conscious awareness. These divisions protect our innocence and save our souls by splitting or dissociating them them from our bodies.
Unwinding these deeply held unconscious emotions, found in our bodies, is what we do together – gently and slowly.
There is an effective, gentler, and less emotionally-taxing way to work with trauma called Somatic Experiencing®, Transforming Touch, Somatic Resilience & Regulation, and Inherited Family Trauma Healing Practice.
Somatic Experiencing® and Somatic Practices, work somatically, or with the body and brain together to gradually allow the activated charge, that has been trapped in the physical body since the event, dissipate or dissolve.
The significance of the body when working with trauma is key to releasing the grip of trauma, even when the physical symptoms of that traumatic event show up months or years later as chronic physical pain and physiological symptoms of stress and anxiety.
The SE® method is slow, gentle, and titrated (which means we work little by little, based on the capacity of the person’s nervous system). We bring the focus of the session into the person’s body, where the thwarted energy of the traumatic experience is stored and present.
Who benefits from Somatic Experiencing® & Somatic Healing Practice?
SE® is designed to be effective for people who have experienced the following types of traumatic events:
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Medical trauma including anesthesia
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Physical injuries, including sports injuries
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Relational injury (and attachment trauma)
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Emotional abuse, including narcissistic abuse
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Physical abuse
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Sexual abuse
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PTSD
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CPTSD (early developmental trauma – hidden trauma from childhood)
- Auto accidents
“Startle” and “Protect” physiological patterns
When someone has experienced a traumatic event, or ongoing relational events as in childhood, a person’s physiology can stay in a “startle” pattern which includes bracing throughout the system or a “protect” pattern which includes contractions throughout the system.
A person might be aware that they, for example, clench their teeth or hands, or hold their breath. Or they might round their shoulders forwards and they may feel constriction in their throat or chest and tightness in their belly. Sometimes they have chronic digestive issues—either constipation or extremely loose bowels. Or they have back, neck or shoulder pain. These muscular habits of hypervigilance show up throughout their entire physiology— but they may just feel it as “normal” for them. But all of this can be part of the same nervous system pattern.
Seemingly normal habits like nail biting or constant foot swinging or tapping is the nervous system’s attempt to self soothe and self regulate. Usually there is deeper physical “holding” on the musculoskeletal level throughout the person’s system.
This method works with people who experience musculoskeletal patterns of anxiety and hypervigilance, or bracing and contracting.
How we work with the body to release trauma
If someone has had an auto accident, they likely hold muscle tension patterns from the experience. In such an experience we often have powerful energy build up. Our nervous system naturally gathers all it’s power and looks for ways to flee or engage in fighting against impact. That powerful energy surge is thwarted and becomes stuck in the joints or muscles. This is a common cause for neck pain or things like frozen shoulder, on top of any physical injury that occurred.
In SE® we begin a slow process to revisit the experience from within the sensations of the physical body — beginning with resourcing each person until it’s clear they have the capacity to touch into the different pieces of the event. We work with nervous system regulation techniques so that they aren’t re-traumatized as we approach significant moments that make up the event.
The nervous system processes at a very…very… slow… pace. We go at a pace that the sensory part of the brain can accommodate, and so that the brain can re-experience small pieces of the event. And this time, re-experiencing it in resourced, manageable way, the body is successful in finally moving that stuck, thwarted energy, either through physical movement or doing something differently and in a more resourced conscious way in the imagination.
Because our brain doesn’t know the difference between what actually happened in the past and our imagination in the present, it can reprocess this information sensorily and muscles can finally relax and let go permanently.
Discharge of energy
Often clients will have the discharge that their body’s didn’t get the chance to have the first time around. Discharge can include crying for no apparent reason, shaking, shivering, trembling, yawning, or deep sighs. This discharge is what animals are able to experience naturally in the wild after a big chase. They move this powerful fight-flight energy through their bodies vs storing it as anxiety. You rarely hear about a stressed out tiger!
Do you feel your inner light has dimmed? Do you feel less vibrant than before? That you’ve lost some of your feminine power?
Perhaps you feel the weight of past traumas that never seem to release their hold over you.
If you are in search of powerful healing, and you want to restore your feminine power, Somatic Healing will show you how.
Therapeutic Co-Regulating Touch Bodywork for Trauma is a gentle, backed-by-science method that enables qualified practitioners to work safely and ethically with the emotions stored in the tissues and organs of the body. It works to unlock and release emotional pain buried in the body, sometimes since before we born, in-utero, our early childhood and all way up to present day adult experience.
Using touch, we reset complex physiological systems and help harmonize energy flow in a person’s body. Often, we restore what was missing in the early years. Touch can give you a greater awareness of your body’s sensations and the ability to get to know yourself better from the inside out.
Bringing a compassionate presence to the body is another essential part of healing. It helps address the neural numbing, muscular bracing, and autonomic disorganization that are physiological by-products of grief, shame, anger, and fear.
Therapeutic touch works to heal the nervous system by providing an avenue for the body to process deep-rooted trauma and facilitate self-actualization. Through gentle, attuned touch, we can help to rebuild an underdeveloped nervous system that has been negatively impacted by early trauma.
Sessions are done fully clothed. Each session is one-hour, unless we are doing an extended session – and is unique depending on what you are experiencing on that day and would like to focus on during a session – we want to tune in and understand what’s really going on in your body – beyond pathology and diagnoses – to allow your body to move into a flow state, rather than to remain stuck in a stress response state – during the session and in the hours and days afterwards.
This work is support for you to feel more ease through deep embodiment, the immense gifts of slowing way down, how to lovingly hold and transform your story and become a master of our nervous system.
As you heal, you begin to feel your core as goodness; to deeply know that you belong, to feel a oneness with life. You can feel an unshakeable love in your heart that becomes a stable background in your life. The greater empathy and compassion you feel for yourself extends to all beings and the earth itself.
I will hold you with kindness, deep respect and space to be with you as you are. This deep presence will shift our felt sense experience of whole body mental and physical health care. My approach is open, spacious and flexible. I look forward to inviting you in to my space.
There is a great longing in each of us to uncover the secrets and mysteries of our individual lives, to relate more deeply and to uncover what is unique and truthful within ourselves and related to others in our lives. I look forward to seeing you in the depths of soul nourishment, vulnerability and courage.
When we begin to unravel the layers of emotions and patterns and re-route neural pathways, we have to connect back to our physical selves. Trauma forces us out of our bodies. This is why the somatic approach works so well.
When we approach the human system in a holistic, regenerative, systemic way, we build a foundation that is solid and has more capacity to experience difficulty. Yes, we will experience stress, pain, and loss like all humans do, and we will bounce back.
Ready to take the next steps in your healing?
Who would you be if you felt nourished and loving towards yourself every day? Say ‘yes’ to what feels nourishing, joyful and expansive. Be ever so gentle with your heart.
Working together is a deeply nourishing, supportive and intensive collaboration between us. My intention is to allow you to bring your whole self, to explore all the areas that feel hidden or stuck and to celebrate all the deep pleasure that can come from living in our bodies. I am here to listen to the wisdom of your magical body together.
Together, we will work with body-based approaches, parts work, inner child healing, co-dependent patterns, shadow work and self compassion to support you in experiencing joyful aliveness – in your body, mind and heart.
Join US – NEW Monthly Drop-In Somatic Immersion for Women series this fall:
Monday, September 23rd – 6:15pm to 7:15pm ET.
Monday, October 21st – 6:15pm to 7:15pm ET
Monday, November 18th – 6:15pm to 7:15pm ET.
Share your voice and receive in community – how does the mother wound and patriarchy affect you? Let’s discuss and share together – healing the ancestral mother wound and the symptoms of patriarchy that keep us isolated and stuck – we need to share our experiences and voices together. A combination of sharing and discussion and somatic healing, sound, movement & stillness. ($57 CAD) – this class will NOT be recorded – so please join me live – I can’t wait to be with you – email me for payment information and I will send you a Zoom link to the session – [email protected]
Whole Body Mental Health & Well-Being from the Inside Out.
Deep healing at the level of the nervous system enables you to explore and expand your inner landscape where self – confidence and inner agency reside. When you heal your nervous system, you can more readily access deeper ways of knowing and being that include intuition, imagination, sensuality, and the subtle body of emotions.
The POLYVAGAL THEORY – SAFE & SOUND PROTOCOL OFFERING – The Safe & Sound Protocol (SSP) is an auditory listening intervention for adults and children – using headphones – that is intended to accelerate the effectiveness of other modalities by preparing each person’s emotional and physiological state. Dr. Stephen Porges (developer of The Safe & Sound Protocol & of The Polyvagal Theory) explains that we need a calm autonomic/physiological state for health, growth and restoration, and achieving this becomes the foundation of an effective therapy.
The SAFE & SOUND PROTOCOL is a way to support a change in your physiological state; opening the system to further neural change and improvement for other therapies that follow. The process is designed to reduce stress and auditory sensitivity while enhancing social engagement and resilience. The intervention uses prosodic vocal music that has been filtered to train the middle ear muscles to focus in on the frequency envelope of human speech. You’ll find you are better able to feel calm – less chronically stressed and/or anxious. Clients who have experienced long-held trauma and are healing from PTSD, troubling chronic health concerns, chronic pain and troubling chronic emotional responses, can experience an increased sense of safety in their physiological state. The Safe & Sound Protocol (SSP)+ Co-Regulating Touch Trauma Resolution Bodywork = Somatic Healing
FEMININE EMBODIMENT – get in touch with your feminine energetic dynamics, internal felt sense, your deepest heart, masculine and feminine energies, layers of dissociation, practice pleasure practices that can help you unravel pleasure and sensuality, heal the survival responses and defensive accommodations that keep us out of connection. Explore somatic blocks to expansion, heal chronic anxiety, illness and pain patterns, and have an open space to explore the deepest parts of yourself in relation to yourself, your work, your life and your relationships with others. This work happens on the table, in-person and online via Zoom.
HEALING FAMILY TRAUMA IMPRINT – 90-minute – in-person or online Zoom session – an opportunity to get to the roots of intergenerational trauma patterns & begin a path towards relational & relationship healing.
DISCOVER YOUR INNER MOTHER– Healing the Mother Wound – uncover your hidden family dynamics and trauma history – this is an opportunity to strengthen your internal relationship with your inner your self – as well as your mother, father and extended family – in ways that contribute to healing – get in touch to schedule an online or in-person session – www.kimcochrane.ca
HEART HEALING SOMATIC INTENSIVE SESSIONS – Heart Healing Somatic Intensive sessions are all about you, your path and healing. These can be monthly sessions or several sessions scheduled over a period of days to support you along your healing path.
My clients love this work, it is nourishing and gentle. It is wonderful for healing early developmental trauma, attachment repair and shifting to a more regulated place where the heart can freely open into abundance.
You may want to schedule these sessions as a focused time for letting go of all that you healing. Heart Healing sessions consist of combining several sessions over a short period of time. They are a great way to get out of your daily routine and be immersed in healing. We may meet for multiple sessions per day over a period of days. Since you will be out of your typical routine, this will give plenty of time for integration of the work and healing.
The Heart Healing Sessions are held in my office in Markham. You can schedule between several sessions over a period of days. Since this work is done away from your typical day to day life, integration of the work is deep and truly transformative.
I am sending softness, gentleness and love from my heart to yours. May you slow down and receive the wisdom your body is seeking to share with you breath by breath.
NERVOUS SYSTEM HEALING for COUPLES – (6 Session Package) Awaken in Relationship – Being Present to the Relational Wounding and the Pain We Carry – Ongoing Online Sessions for Couples – Learn to Process Deeply Held Emotion, check-in with each other regularly and learn to communicate from the heart and to connect deeply with one another again or for the first time.
Meet for a series of focused, online sessions to help uncover, understand and practice noticing ongoing nervous system triggers that keep you locked in a negative cycle of conflict / avoidance that is very difficult to resolve. Your early developmental trauma and co-dependent patterns are very much at play in your closest relationships and we can understand and work towards healing:
1) Your individual early developmental trauma patterns – what got missed or neglected and why.
2) Your individual nervous system patterns, responses and reactions – and how you can do your own healing work to soothe and ease your responses and pain.
3) How your family of origin plays a very significant role in your relationships now, how they do, and to work towards a healing program for your relationship, and for each person in the relationship.
4) Be with Relational Wounding & Defensive Accommodations when it shows up in your relationship – and how this effects emotional & physical intimacy.
5) Be with and Face Hot Button issues when they arise and cause conflict.
6) Take 100% responsibility for yourself in your relationship.
Our feelings, bodily sensations and relational patterns are clues to what is being held in the unconscious – so we must be present to them. Conflict can give us the opportunity to awaken out of the conditioning that we are a separate, disconnected self. Get in touch to learn more and work together – www.kimcochrane.ca
HEALING CODEPENDENT PATTERNS IN RELATIONSHIPS – healing through the body for codependent patterns in relationships – healing from resentment, blame, shame and addictive patterns – nurturing your inner child – learning your needs in relationships – and finding ease in the body, mind and heart for longstanding conditioned patterns.
Get in touch to learn more about The Safe & Sound Protocol (SSP), Embodied Recovery, Nurture Surround & Family Systems Imprint Sessions & Individual Body-Focused Therapy Sessions, and Co-Regulating Touch Bodywork for Trauma, NeuroAffective Touch – The Anxiety, Stress & Trauma Restorative Clinic – in-person and/or online – and to set up a time to work together: www.kimcochrane.ca
“This work has helped me see what a blessing it is to be a woman! I feel alive, powerful, and embodied in a way I never have before.”
“This work has helped me to accept myself layer by layer, become curious about myself and life, and learn to feel joy again.”
“i will stand by you.
but when your legs give out
beneath the weight
and you are face down
to the floor,
i won’t stand by you
anymore.
i will lay by you.
my body next to yours.
i will pound my fists and tears
into the ground.” ~ Ullie Kowcun
