Somatic Alchemy – Practicing the Pause – Healing at the Depths – Emptying Your Heart of Stored Emotion & Nervous System Survival Energy – Soften Your Defensive Accommodations and Allow Space for Emotion, Sensation & Connection.

March 22, 2024

“It’s ok that you don’t know how it will happen quite yet. The momentum is in place. The river is moving. The charge is alive. The constant unfolding. Stay with it. Stay in it.” ~ Victoria Erickson

Things are changing. Spring is here.

For many of us, things may change around us, and yet, nothing changes from the inside.
Sometimes, this is a good thing.

Sometimes though, we want something different is our lives. Any kind of change can bring about nervous system dysregulation – and this makes sense when we understand our bodies’ reaction to perceived fear(s) and our threat response.

Our habits and repetitive patterns are our survival strategies, the often hidden ways that we try to keep ourselves safe. If we want to make changes, we are going to have to come face-to-face with these deeply ingrained patterns, that act as self-protective responses.

I’m excited that the days are getting lighter and longer, and that more warmth is coming. What I’ve noticed lately is the number of women who truly want to know why they do the things they do – and want to know themselves more deeply, so they can make the decisions to have the lives and relationships that they really want.

I invite you into a signature process of Somatic Alchemy – an ongoing healing process relating to the body – a transformative process of softening, tenderness and re-creation.

Together, we will focus on the emotional and spiritual aspects of mental and physical health and healing – tend and befriend your younger part, allow space for self-compassion and care for our deepest heart, become intimate with our nervous system responses and triggers, heal the energy of our mother and father wound, allow space for the feminine, use movement and sound, and transform early developmental and intergenerational trauma imprints – moving towards trauma resolution and the release of stored survival energy.

Somatics is a field within bodywork and movement studies which emphasizes internal physical perception and experience.

The work of Somatic Alchemy involves individual, one-on-one healing work, as well as a community drop-in healing sessions – once a month, on a Monday evening.

Join us for the next group healing session on Monday, April 8th at 6:15pm to 7:15pm. $57.00 CAD per person.

We need each other.

How do you know yourself? How do you heal?

The only way I know is to be willing to stay with what you notice when you go within your body, and to stay with yourself when things feel difficult – then begin to trust what comes to the surface.

This helps you uncover what is true for you, so you can begin to stay close to what you really want.

Our early attachment patterns are the most influential aspect of our physical, emotional, mental, social and spiritual lives.

Our attachment patterns or (survival strategies) are imprinted and encoded in our body- based memories. By becoming aware of what did and often what did NOT happen is the beginning of the repatterning process.

We react quickly rather than slowing down so we can be aware and thoughtful. We’re lost and disconnected rather than present and alive.

​​​Our habits take over before we realize it.

And what is the effect? Repetitive arguments, addictive behaviors, endless anxious thinking, and an underlying sense that something important is missing.

In childhood, if we learned that it was not safe to respond to situations with our natural impulses, survival energy gets stored in our physiology, in our bodies. Over time, more and more survival energy gets stored within us. Somatic Healing can begin to access these early developmental states and begin a healing process for your emotions and symptoms.

Early developmental trauma, that happens in childhood, is stored in the body, the physiology. When we get the chance to gently and safely complete these original responses, that have been unsafe to feel earlier in our lives. we begin to create a story to explain to ourselves how we feel – I’m not lovable, I’m not enough, I’m broken, I always mess up.

This effects our health and wellbeing – with unexplained physical and emotional symptoms. To get angry, to run, to collapse, to freeze – to feel all the things we couldn’t feel, because it didn’t feel safe, earlier in our lives. Our bodies begin to learn that they don’t have to work so hard to protect us now – that we are safe and can allow space for our bodies to express and to be exactly as they are in each moment. We may see doctors and try all the cognitive tools to shift our chronic symptoms and emotions, and then realize that nothing really changes.

We can learn to stay close to what we really want.
 
Go inside and contemplate what you really want, then stay very close to it. And as much as possible, make choices that reflect this deep desire.

Someone I know often feels angry and frustrated, and she’s aware that it is negatively effecting her relationships. She has lots of opinions about how things are supposed to be and gets angry when others’ actions don’t conform to her beliefs.

What she really wants is friendship, peace, and intimacy, but it doesn’t seem that way if you saw how she reacts. So there’s a disconnection—a gap between what she wants and how she expresses herself with her loved ones.
 
I asked her what would change if she stayed close to what she really wants, and she said that she would:

  • Ask for space when she felt herself getting more and more angry;
  • Take deep conscious breaths when she’s triggered as well as several times throughout the day;
  • Start doing more movement and more things she enjoys;
  • Practice presence when she takes her daily walks in nature.

She was surprised when she noticed how far away she was from her deepest desire.
 
Now it’s your turn to stop and reflect: what do you really want? What would change if you stayed close to this desire?

Living your life according to what you really want is not selfish—it’s actually the opposite.
 
When you’re in harmony with your truth, you’re open to life. You’re less interested in the mental noise playing in your mind, so you’re present with people and situations.

You’re not doubtful and confused because you always have a touchstone—what you really want.
 
This conscious way of being makes you more available to joy, ease, and heartful connection. Live here—in the simplicity of what you really want—and the effects ripple out everywhere.

As a somatic relational trauma-trained specialist, I have spent many years unwinding my own trauma patterning, so that I can offer a unique blend of somatic and attachment-based healing work that help you find a deeper sense of true connection with yourself and the world around you.

Whether you are struggling in relationships, feelings stuck moving towards your purpose(s), struggling with health challenges, overwhelmed by your own inner critic or perfectionist, stressed by seemingly small things or feeling lost and unable to settle into all that you would love to have happen in your life, I’m here to support you.

In our one-on-one sessions, we welcome all parts of you. In this kind of trauma healing, we embrace all that’s here and come into empowered and grounded relationship with all that you’ve been through and all the places you are headed. In these one-on-one nervous system healing sessions, we dive into Transforming Touch (Intentional Touch, Co-Regulating Touch and Transforming Presence), and various other somatic healing modalities to help you get some space to feel more connected in your mind/body/heart and soul, and to cultivate a deeper sense of peace, clarity, inspiration and aliveness.

Working together is supportive to:

– regulate your nervous system and help you manage stress and anxiety
– embrace trauma patterns that may be holding you back
– develop a greater sense of self-compassion and self-love
– build healthier relationships and stronger connections with others
– tap into your intuition and inner wisdom to make decisions that align with your values and goals
– create a vision for your future that inspires and energizes you and pulls you towards it
– And much more

What supports you to feel alive?

How can you begin to connect more deeply with yourself and therefore others?

Today, we have many habits or defensive accommodations – that keep us out of feeling. Many people didn’t get the opportunity to feel or sense their bodies and experience themselves in a healthy way – life circumstances interrupted that – so it can feel scary and very difficult to do.

We will be together to build capacity within your nervous system for feeling into your body for the first time and creating a new relationship with yourself. This takes some time.

I love supporting and guiding people in a deep, contemplative way through their inner waters and awareness to their origins – a remembering and expanding into awareness nature and the earth.

This is an invitation to go deeper into the expanded landscape within our bodies and cells. Somatic healing offers us a process that involves touch, softness, simple vocal sound streams, breath, subtle gentle movements and awareness to access our fluid consciousness. Supporting nervous system healing and creating the space and context to move in new ways and to feel more present and alive in our bodies. We explore the inner realms of our bodies where we learn from our own cells and rhythms within.

New life begins to emerge in what may have become held, withered and alienated within your body. As we become attuned to our fluid body and how this watery mystery guides us into the experience of direct connection with all life, we notice an amplifying and refining of communication networks within ourselves and with others.

We will explore connecting with the deep joy and mystery of life.

Emotions are messengers, not facts. We are not our emotions.

When emotions drive our behaviour, we can go into self-protection mode.

When we learn how to witness our emotions, we see ourselves as separate from them. We become the witness experiencing emotions.

Then, we have choice and can act in alignment with our values.

Somatic healing invites in those who have become prisoners to a life lived in survival mode. It offers a reprieve so you can better understand the wisdom and inner workings of your nervous system.

Once your body begins to feel better, you’ll quickly accept that there is, in fact, nothing wrong with you. The way you feel, think, and behave, although perhaps seemingly self-destructive, has merely been an armoring of self-protection—a necessary response to a traumatic environment or experience.

Instead of self-criticism or defeat, you’ll begin to see that depression or anger or fear are natural, instinctual responses to an overwhelmed nervous system, merely trying to protect you. You are not broken and you do not need to be fixed. You just need to get back in the driver’s seat of your life and body. Let somatic healing free you from a settled life of survival.

What to Expect During a Whole Body Health Somatic Practice –
Co-Regulating Touch Bodywork for Trauma Session

For true emotional and physical healing, we can’t leave our body and how it feels and responds, out of the process. Each person needs something very specific in their healing journey, which is why it is so important to have a customized approach with sessions that are specifically tailored for you – a combination of emotionally-focused psychotherapy and body-focused Transforming Touch, Co-Regulating Touch Bodywork for Trauma.

Your body doesn’t have energy – it is energy. When we allow traumatic stress that is contained in our nervous system to begin to move through our system – flow begins to happen in our body and we feel more energetic, grounded, healthy and alive.

We explore our fluid bodies through the language of sensation, co-regulating touch,and  subtle movement. We have the opportunity of allowing time to slow down, to notice, let go and shed that which needs to shed, and to come through anew and refreshed.

For those who would like to focus on a body-focused, somatic approach, we begin by talking about your background, symptoms and history. We do this online and or in-person by sitting in chairs across from each other or you lie on your back on a table. When you are sitting in a chair, we can do some talk therapy, and you may also be asked if you are open to closing your eyes and noticing your feelings, emotions and body sensations that are happening for you in each moment.

For those who would like to do Co-Regulating Touch Bodywork for Trauma Session – sessions consist of lying on a table with eyes closed – and I offer touch on several areas of the body: the head, stress organs, the belly, and joints in the body.

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 a client greater awareness of their body’s sensations and the ability to get to know themselves 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.

Our early developmental and attachment wounding is a wound with life itself. To an infant, our attachment with our mother is everything – our very experience of ourselves and of the world was filtered through the body and psyche of our mother.

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?

I am honoured to walk alongside you on this path toward greater well-being, happiness, and fulfillment.

If you’re curious about how this work could be supportive for you, get in touch to schedule a free introduction call to share more about what you are hoping for.

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, inner child healing, and self compassion to support you in experiencing joyful aliveness.

I warmly welcome you to connect with me.

love ~ Kim xoxoxo
[email protected] / www.kimcochrane.ca

*Let’s gather together – join me for a monthly drop-in nervous system / somatic healing / co-regulation / healing class beginning in 2024 – just show up – create space on your couch or your bed – slow down, unwind into a series of practices for healing – body noticing, breath, sound and somatic healing practices – April 8th, May 6th, June 3rd 2024 at 6:15pm ET – 7:15pm ET. ($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. Let’s explore together – [email protected] 

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[email protected] / www.kimcochrane.ca

HEART HEALING INTENSIVE SESSIONS – Heart healing 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.

Let’s plan your sessions in advance – if you are interested in scheduling or have questions, please get in touch and we will make a plan for your visit – [email protected] / www.kimcochrane.ca

THE COUPLES SESSIONS- Awaken in Relationship – Being Present to the Relational Wounding and the Pain We Carry – Ongoing Bi-Weekly or Monthly Sessions for Couples (online or in-person) – 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.

1) Be with Relational Wounding when it shows up in your relationship
2) Be with and face Hot Button issues when they arise and cause conflict
3) 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 – [email protected] / 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.

SESSIONS FOR INDIVIDUALS & COUPLES – Relational Neurobiological Somatic Healing -an Embodied invitation for you – to slow down and feel the strength of a supportive resource, move beyond blame and notice how our nervous system states inform our interactions with our partner, feel present in your body, to unwind patterns of anxiety, depression, anger, hopelessness, chronic stress & pain, trauma, regulate your nervous system, to cultivate trust in your moment-to-moment experience, your naturally wise heart, and your capacity to connect to yourself, those you love and the love that surrounds us.

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:   [email protected]

Using mind-body skills to stabilize your nervous system – befriending, grounding, slowing down, tracking and resourcing. We will listen to your body’s narrative while utilizing body-mind emotion dialogue. We will explore biological survival strategies and process historical trauma by creating moment-to-moment interpersonal experiences of safe connection. We will utilize non-cognitive senses of relational connection – auditory, visual, movement, and touch – co-creating manageable ways to defuse internal feelings of pressure, anxiety and stress.

The Anxiety, Stress & Trauma Restorative Clinic:
Creating Well-Being Through Nervous System Regulation.
Heal Relational Trauma – Break the Cycle of Inherited Family Trauma.
Nurturing Connection, Restoration & Building Resilience.

Easing the Body ~ Calming the Mind ~ Opening the Heart.
Somatic Experiencing ~ Somatic Practices ~ Co-Regulating Touch Bodywork for Trauma ~ Movement Practices ~ Whole Body Systems Approach for Healing Inflammation.
Move Energy Through the Body – Movement & Breathwork – discover energetic awareness and simplicity.
Somatic Reclaiming – integrating your body, mind and heart.
Pre and Perinatal Therapies – consciousness begins before birth.
Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy – restore integrity in our living, fluid body.

Somatic Healing work can be done effectively online, as well as in person – online sessions are available for those who would prefer not to come in to the office at this time, for those who live far away from the office, or prefer to work from your own home – [email protected]

Working together enables everyone who is willing to do the work an opportunity to decrease feelings of anxiety, pain, depression, chronic stress, pain or illness – as well decrease the chatter in the mind, and ground your mind and body with the depth of the intelligence found in the body. Experience lasting somatic transformation and feelings of calm, peace and wholeness – within your own body and within your relationships.

You will learn to feel and by doing so, you will move towards whole body health and well-being that you can feel within you.

Get in touch to learn more about working with me – [email protected] / www.kimcochrane.ca

Feedback from a recent client:
I haven’t worked with these parts of my body in the past – I am feeling less anxious and more grounded. Thank you.

“I’m so tired of watching every single woman I know tying herself into knots so that people will like us.”~ America Ferrara – Barbie movie

“Women are powerful, and I see them stifle this every. single. day. Stop looking to be saved and hiding your magic. Stop tossing aside your voice and valid emotions. Stop wasting your time with fake friends and chasing men like they’re cures. Material things, better jobs, and other people- they won’t fill your gap. Only you can do that. Life is short. Rise up and step back into your awesome, innate power. You are compassion and creative force and divine life itself. You are a Goddess.”  ~ Victoria Erickson

Search the Blog

Testimonial 1

When I came to you I felt confused, disconnected and broken. Now, I'm on my way to feeling whole. Thank you.
Kim Cochrane
2016-10-06T10:59:12-04:00
When I came to you I felt confused, disconnected and broken. Now, I'm on my way to feeling whole. Thank you.

Testimonial 2

I’m so glad I’m giving myself space to explore what’s happening in my life and to understand my feelings.
Kim Cochrane
2016-10-06T10:59:51-04:00
I’m so glad I’m giving myself space to explore what’s happening in my life and to understand my feelings.

Testimonial 3

I've wanted to do this for a while and I'm so glad I did - I trust myself more now, I feel more calm and open - working together has changed the course of my life.

Kim Cochrane
2016-10-06T11:00:16-04:00
I've wanted to do this for a while and I'm so glad I did - I trust myself more now, I feel more calm and open - working together has changed the course of my life.
0
Kim Cochrane