Author: Kim Cochrane

Attuning to Your Body – Feeling Grounded, Safe & Present.

Experiencing trauma is part of our human experience – caused by acts of nature or acts of man. The result can be a state of psychological overwhelm – trauma has been defined as “more than the mind can bear.

At the time of the actual event, there is an intense experience of helplessness, terror and loss of control as the person is faced with overwhelming fear. Trauma reactions can also develop as a result of the adaptation to a life of perpetual fear, such as those who have experienced chronic maltreatment in childhood or domestic violence.

The onset of trauma symptoms may occur immediately after the event or may occur weeks or even years later. The defining symptoms consist of intrusive thoughts about the event or what could have happened, anxiety, panic, sleep disturbances, irritability, feelings of uncontrollable rage and a sense of hypervigilance – the feeling that you can’t relax or slow down in your life. There may also be emotional numbing, depression, fatigue, a sense of detachment both from oneself and others and loss of motivation, joy and interest in one’s life.

One of the important aspects of my work is supporting people who are experiencing the effects of trauma, including feelings of chronic stress, overwhelm and sometimes, feelings of isolation, and disconnection from others, even from those they love the most.

It’s very hard for us to connect emotionally and physically with another person, when we are feeling overwhelmed to some degree. This could be happening due to traumatic events that have happened in the past, or simply when life, work, feelings or relationships feel like they are “too much”. The effects can show up as an inability to slow down, irritability, depression, anxiety, feelings of stuckness, panic attacks, substance abuse, eating disorders, and chronic stress in your relationships.

Most of us live in constant states of stress or fight, flight or freeze. This compromised state limits functions such as the immune system, sexuality, digestion, elimination. It also blocks our ability to think and feel beyond survival and crisis level problems. It keeps us feeling unstable – and it is difficult to impossible to shift out of this state through the mind and reasoning alone. We need effective body-mind tools to change to states that embody clarity, well being and a deeper understanding.
Previously traumatically stressful events that have not been fully resolved in the nervous system will disrupt a person’s self-regulation, biasing their response to present-day events. Specifically, unresolved trauma causes the person to respond with excessive fight, flight, and/or freeze response relative to the current situation.
 
I help people learn how to sense and feel into their bodies, understand and track sensation for nervous system regulation, and rewire their nervous systems, to feel more grounded, so they can ultimately experience the joy of being alive – and creating a new experience of being in your body.
You will learn about self-regulation in the nervous system – which means ‘control [of oneself] by oneself.’ It refers to a system taking the needed steps to keep itself in balance.” Specifically, somatic therapy helps people learn to self-regulate the balance of the fight/flight response in their nervous system. This balance can change moment by moment, depending on the current situation and environmental demands upon the person. It’s a dynamic balance.
 
Something powerful happens when we feel ease, grace, and surrender in our own bodies: we access basic trust again; we feel supported by the ground of being; and we remember who we really are. The nervous system is the vehicle for consciousness in the human body. We work to move energy in your body to help you regulate, increase embodiment, and expand your nervous system’s capacity for incarnated consciousness.

Moving through energy in your body can help you reduce nervous system activation and anxiety, come out of freeze, regulate your parasympathetic and sympathetic systems, and feel grounded and connected within yourself. This somatic work can also help you inhabit more of yourself, increase your capacity for integrating love, joy, anger, grief, and invite you to dwell in a direct relationship with a part of you that is inaccessible through the cognitive mind alone: your divine potential.
 

Stress, depression, feeling “off”, disconnected or fragmented keeps us stuck in feeling our lives through a distorted lens of an old sense of ourselves. This distorted state maintains our perceptions, fears and beliefs that are unreliable now – and have been created by past emotional injuries. When we are fragmented we are unable to access states of well being, presence and a grounded sense of embodied experience. This can make life feel miserable.

When you feel disoriented, stuck, and disconnected from yourself or your world, I help you move into the unknown, regulate your nervous system, and embody who you truly are.
 

Many of us have a tendency to get anxious, or to numb or freeze when faced with challenging and stressful events.

Somatic Inquiry Therapy can help you understand what’s happening physiologically and emotionally, unwind the overwhelm from your body, find your ground, and discover and embody your potential.

I want to understand your experience of your body and your life, and help you to engage with difficult feelings that might otherwise isolate or overwhelm you. This work can bring to light new possibilities, renew inner strength, and an emphasis on the importance of connection and emotional support in attaining emotional well-being.

Somatic Inquiry Therapy can support you to:

•    Be present and compassionate with yourself
•    Regain feelings of safety in your body
•    Release trauma from your nervous system and body
•    Shift from overwhelm to a grounded sense of trust
•    Develop and implement healthy boundaries
•    Experience relief from pain, anxiety, and other symptoms
•    Regain fluidity and access to your body’s natural intelligence
•    Develop a feeling of deeper connection in your relationships
•    Embody your life force, true pleasure, and joy
•    Become more vital, empowered, and free

I look forward to being with you – xoxo

www.s3p.d51.myftpupload.com / [email protected]
 
Come Back to Your Body, Mind & Heart with Somatic Inquiry Sessions, the Embodied Well-Being Program and Workshops. Rediscover your ALIVENESS.

Sessions and programs are for those who are: willing to commit, make time, and clear space for the deeply penetrating and likely life-changing process that a combination of inner work and embodied practice bring about.

Somatic Therapy draws on a diverse, integrated combination of In-Your-Body practices in the areas of embodiment (living from the truth held in your body), Integrative Body Psychotherapy, restorative movement, somatic psychology, embodied mindfulness, energy work, clarity breath work, Body-Mind Centering, and holistic self-inquiry.

Access an Embodied Awareness Practice to allow you to notice your present moment experience – the act of being present with your whole self – all sensation, emotion and physical experience, allows your energetic aliveness to flourish. The practice of being in your body and noticing what you find there can be calming and grounding.
 

sign up to download an embodied practice and learn more about sessions, workshops, programs and Body Presence classes here – www.s3p.d51.myftpupload.com

Let’s step into the flow of life together – [email protected]
 

wherever I bring my attention
there is movement
creating….connecting…..continuing….
part of a larger web
called life

out of this awareness I feel
quiet, nourished, revitalized
undefended, calm & connected with others
with all
around me

this is a kind of dance
this movement of life.

 
Author Kim CochranePosted on Categories Being Fully Alive - Tap into Your Vital, Flowing, Creative Energy, Embodiment/Your Body Knows, Living Embodied - Beyond Anxiety, Stress & Depression