Somatic

Starter
Guide
BY CHRISTINE COEN
RD-LDN,CPT
 all emotions..
ESPECIALLY THOSE THAT ARE
UNEXPRESSED, HAVE PHYSICAL
EFFECTS,
yet they come out as small ticking time
bombs looking like anxiety attacks, fear,
depression, irritability and feeling stuck.

Once expressed, the body can find calm &

stillness.

SOMATIC FREE GUIDE CHRISTINE COEN

 SOMATIC THERAPY

Somatic Therapy is a method backed by scientific research that proves

we store our memories, experiences, and emotions not just as thoughts,
but on a cellular level. It’s not “all in your head”, but rather, our bodies
store these as well.

Have you ever felt anxiety in your body - like your heart racing or muscle
tension, but didn’t have anxious thoughts or a “reason” for it?

Have you ever just not felt ‘safe’ in a moment or in your own skin in
certain situations, time of the year, certain environments or
surroundings - even if you couldn’t pin-point an exact trigger’?

Do you ever feel you are ‘doing all the right things,’ but you’re still not
feeling relief or making progress in those certain areas?

I’ve realized through my own practices and struggles with anxiety,

depression, binge eating, & imposter syndrome…each of these had
impacted my self-worth and what I believed I was capable of in my
career, relationships, finances, passions, and really every area of my life
as some point.

SOMATIC FREE GUIDE CHRISTINE COEN

 Most therapy in the Western world
emphasizes healing has to do with our
thoughts, brain-based issues, and focusing
on the mind while using words & analysis by
talking out rational strategies & and solutions
to our distress.

But like you’ve probably experienced as

much as I have, sometimes this isn’t
providing the relief or progress in those
areas of our life like we hope.

Because of this, Dr. Peter Levine (founder of

Somatic Experience) and Dr. Pat Ogden
(founder of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy)
have researched & and created an
integrative whole-body approach to
psychotherapy, to help clients access the
body-based beliefs and release experiences
that have been held on the body.

Somatically trained therapists use

interventions to help calm their clients’
nervous systems and create more ease in the
healing process.

Scientific evidence shows that memories,

experiences, and emotions are all stored on a
cellular level, meaning, it’s not “all in your
head”.

Our bodies hold data as well. This explains

why many people express feelings of “body
anxiety” (ie. chronic back pain during or after
stressful experiences) even when they don’t
have anxious “thoughts”.

SOMATIC FREE GUIDE CHRISTINE COEN

It’s also why someone might feel uncomfortable in their own skin or not feel safe in
certain situations, with certain types of people, times of year, or in certain environments,
even if there is no apparent “rational” reason. Our self-limiting beliefs that lie under the
surface in our subconscious awareness are also a big part of this.

When the body holds the memory of something upsetting, or a trauma, it is common to
get stuck in chronic fight, flight, or freeze responses, causing a variety of physical,
emotional, and relational issues. Many times, a person may not even be aware of the
beliefs or trauma they carry until confronted with a struggle related to it in adulthood.

Every day, subconsciously, your body is reminded of something even if your mind
doesn’t have a memory of it, and through our nervous system, we are sent alerts,
intuitions, gut sensations, or even a danger signal.

Initially, somatic therapies were created to help trauma survivors find relief from their
symptoms such as flashbacks, difficulty sleeping, dysregulated eating patterns, and
chaotic relationships and lifestyles. But in the last few years, somatic therapy is being
recognized for how impactful it is in helping any of us through the every day
experiences of living a life that includes trials, stressors, wars, illness, grief, loss, hurt,
sadness, and other felt sensations that we may not have learned how to feel, process,
release & move on from.

And not only are somatic therapies for bringing

those who are struggling back to a place of peace,
but they can also be intentionally used for tapping
deeper into levels of spirituality, love, growth, up-
leveling, intuition, and manifestation.

My clients find tremendous empowerment, healing,

and an elevated capacity to feel joy in their lives in
many areas including: relationships, intimacy, those
seeking a feeling of security, wanting to feel trust,
over/under achievers, parenting skills, managing
anxiety, working though depression and other
emotional difficulties.

SOMATIC FREE GUIDE CHRISTINE COEN

THE BODY HAS ITS OWN LANGUAGE THAT
IS OLDER AND MORE PRIMAL THAN
WORDS OR CONSCIOUS THOUGHT.

our job is to learn how to listen, to "tune-in"

and develop a trusting relationship with our
bodies.

What are your thoughts on this?

SOMATIC FREE GUIDE CHRISTINE COEN

 Here are some
key practices
used in Somatic
Therapy.

Developing Somatic (Body) Awareness

1.
If you were to pause right now and check in with your body, the
external & internal sensations you are experiencing in this
moment - what do you notice?

This is only the surface level of what is possible to connect to

within yourself. We were taught growing up that we have 5
senses - sight, hearing, smell, taste, & touch. But we have many
more including proprioception - the ability to sense our body in
the space around us & interoception- the ability to attune to the
sensations within us from heart rate, arousal, tension, anxiety,
intuition and more.

Interpreting what all of these mean and the message they are
carrying is the next level, but just being aware of these
sensations when they occur is the first step.

We begin by identifying areas of tension & expansion, as well as

thoughts, feelings and behaviors that promote a feeling of calm
and safety, and bring these to conscious awareness. We may
practice something small such as softening hunched shoulders to
relaxing the shoulders, straightening the posture, and releasing
jaw tension to start to aligne ourselves.

By focusing on, and amplifying the sensations in your body, you

begin to deepen your healing experience and allow for change
that you can “feel” internally.

SOMATIC FREE GUIDE CHRISTINE COEN

 Resourcing
2.
Resourcing allows us to strengthen our sense of stability and
safety in the world by connecting to resources in our environment
that create a desired or calm feeling within us. Resources can be
people, objects, nature, smells, and memories that we
intentionally bring to mind. Sometimes, this is a practice of
coming up with a “safe space” - which can be real or imaginary,
that helps us mirror that sensation within us and feel a feeling of
peace, ease and calm, empowerment, strength, and trust.

Recording these sensations by being aware of them and

recognizing the pattern of them within our sensations, thoughts,
& feelings is a way to build a pathway (a neuropathway) so our
mental & and somatic experience can come back to the resourced
state at a later time - whenever we desire to feel it.

In other words, it’s the practice of feeling the way you want to
feel at the time you want to feel it. The resource provides as an
anchor to replenish energies.

Grounding in the Here-And-Now

3.
Alexander Lowen, developer of bioenergetics, introduced
grounding as a concept in which we can live life, fully
experiencing ourselves- connected to the world around us. We
use grounding tools to help calm and regulate our nervous
systems when we are feeling overly activated or triggered, as
grounding helps soothe and settle.

The most powerful grounding tools we have access to are those

that are already in balance - that’s why putting your bare feet in
the water or in the grass or even touching a natural element can
feel like you are rooted deeply into something. Even just lying on
a hard floor can mirror this sensation within us.

The sensation of identifying where we are in relation to

something stable beneath us helps connect us to the sensations
of stability, safety, and a strong foundation supporting us.

SOMATIC FREE GUIDE CHRISTINE COEN

 Using Descriptive Language
4.
Tension, anxiety and trauma memories get processed as long as
you can track, contact, describe and allow the experience to move
through you.

Sometimes we confuse using language to interpret & analyze

what we’re feeling - and it comes out as what we think about
what we’re feeling.

What this practice challenges you to do is use words to describe

the sensorial experience using adjectives, analogy or metaphor.

For example, you’re angry at something that’s happened, but you

don’t want to stay angry and irritated. You can get descriptive to
meet your body’s experience, to help yourself move through it.

You may begin by describing it as, “It feels like a raging hot fire
burning up in my gut….”. As you stay with the sensations, and
follow what happens next, you’ll notice the anger moves, and
how it slowly shifts as you focus on the descriptive body
sensation instead of the details of the upsetting event.

You can use descriptive language as a method to deepen

whatever you’re experiencing. Some descriptive words are:
warmth, cold, ache, tingly, sharp sensation, numb, dull pressure,
ease, spinning, lifting, swirling, or calming.

SOMATIC FREE GUIDE CHRISTINE COEN

 MOVEMENT IS MEDICINE

the simple act of moving the body can

create a major sense of
accomplishment or relief for people
whose bodies have been stuck in a
fight, flight or freeze state.

SOMATIC FREE GUIDE CHRISTINE COEN

 Movement
5.
Movement is a natural way for the body to move through
emotion, joyful to difficult experiences, insecurities, past
traumas, and intense emotions.

When we are attuned, our body primally leads us to this like

when we literally are jumping for joy, fighting, fleeing, and
freezing when we are frightened.

Movement is a natural way to help strengthen your abilities

to connect to yourself and engage with the world around
you. Movement helps us tap into our innate ability to heal
the stories that our bodies hold.

If you take some time, you’ll notice how your gestures,

postures, voice volume, and presence in the room
communicate what we believe about ourselves, what we
expect, or what we’ve experienced in the past.

We can use movement to help us move through something

that is coming up. For example, if you have an urge to hide
behind other people, or to speak really quietly, we would
notice that urge, and stay with it, allowing you to take on a
physical movement to represent “the need to hide”. You
might crouch down or look away. As you do that, you may
have a thought such that is related to this urge, such as “it's
not safe to talk, or I won’t be heard” or “I actually have
something important to say”. You may also have an image
come up that is matched with when you learned you needed
to “hide”.

All of this deeper data aka subconscious beliefs are easier to

access, process, and release when combined with
movement.
We also use movement to connect to how we WANT to
feel and relearn how to feel that sensation or emotion.
Reflect on a time when you were dancing, or walking
somewhere in nature, stretched in a yoga flow, or did a
workout that left you feeling exhilarated, satisfied, or even
just calmer.

We can use movement as a code that helps us unlock parts

of ourselves that we desire to manifest aka bring into the
moment.

SOMATIC FREE GUIDE CHRISTINE COEN

 Co-Regulation & Self Regulation
6.
Co-regulation refers to the way we align ourselves to a
feeling or way of being when we are connecting to someone
else. As humans, we have something called ‘mirror neurons’
which are an evolutionary development that allows us to
connect to another’s nervous system to regulate the state
that other person is in. When that other person is in stress
or fight/flight, we can FEEL that increase of chaos and stress
within us, not always realizing we’re picking up on another’s
sensation of NOT feeling safe. When that other person is in
safety, grounded, and regulated, your nervous system may
attune to theirs and start to mirror that felt sense that the
other person is emanating. Think of a therapist when a
calming voice or presence, a friend that you just feel ‘good’
around, a yoga instructor who always makes you feel cozy
and hugged in an energetic way, or someone who massively
inspires you even if you’re just watching them on Social
Media.

In somatic therapy, a practitioner uses her/himself to use

mirror neurons to help the stressed or disconnected client
calm down. When we are connected to another person’s
sense of warmth, care, and stability, we are able to better
regulate our emotions.

Self-regulation is when we develop our own tools to calm

ourselves down and change our state to that which we
WANT to experience in the moment- on our own -
regardless of what is occurring in the circumstances around
us. We all need a combination of both; the soothing we get
from others as well as our own abilities to self-regulate
when needed.

Self-emotional regulation is also a vital ingredient in

parenting because our children learn how to regulate
themselves through their primary caregivers. Children pick
up how to self-regulate based on the co-regulation they got
from the parent-child bond. If they grow up in an
environment and nervous system states that are primarily
dysregulated in stress, fight, flight, or freeze - that is what
the child will also learn.

SOMATIC FREE GUIDE CHRISTINE COEN

 emotional flashbacks
ARE WHEN YOU RETURN
to a previously overwhelmed "feeling-state"
THAT YOU EXPEREINCED
in earlier life.
SOMATIC THERAPY HELPS the mind + body
feel, process & release it

SOMATIC FREE GUIDE CHRISTINE COEN

 Titration & Pendulation
7.
Trauma, panic, fear, terror, anger, frustration, and
depression are all expressed through sensations in the body
aka somatic sensations.
The sensation of anger is described as ‘hot, heated, seeing
red’, as ‘feeling a drop in the stomach, nervous stomach,
heart racing, chaotic vibration, restless & can’t sit still,
feeling uncomfortable in your skin.

The sensations of panic are described as a ‘frozen with fear’,

body experience.

When you dive headfirst into these emotions and

connecting experiences, you might notice you find yourself
overwhelmed with an urge to avoid, defend, or run away -
as you run the risk of flooding yourself and re-traumatizing
your mind and body.

Instead, we can use Somatic Experience Practices like

Titration & Pendulation to create appropriate amounts &
and pacing of the emotion and sensation so that the body
can tolerate the discomfort in smaller amounts and properly
release the emotions needing to be released.

Titration is a process in which we experience small levels of

distress at a time, with the focus being to release, and
“discharge” the tension from the body. Titration refers to the
scientific term of slowly dripping out one thing into another,
but we can simply use the analogy of titrating the amount of
milk you want in your coffee by slowly pouring in a little at a
time until the desired blend is reached!

Pendulation is when you move your focus between

stressful content and something completely non-stress
related {calming/soothing content}. You may do this by
focusing on an uncomfortable sensation that comes up
when you begin processing something important. You then
slowly oscillate to a resource such as the trust you have in a
relationship in your life, a pleasant sensation somewhere
else in your body, or a belief that is reassuring to you.
Oscillating through the two helps the body slowly tap into
and then release, at a balanced pace.

SOMATIC FREE GUIDE CHRISTINE COEN

8. Act of Triumph

An act of triumph is a term Pierre Janet coined, and later, referred to by

Peter Levine and Pat Ogden in Somatic Experience work. This term is
used to reference a trauma or event where the body needed to engage in
an act of defense or a way of protecting itself….but couldn’t.

Somatic work helps the body re-negotiate events on a body-based level

so you can experience relief.

For example, if you were stuck in a situation and needed to get away, but
couldn’t, in somatic therapy you would practice slowing dropping into
the sensation of that event without talking ABOUT it or retelling the
details- but letting the body go back to what it experienced. You can use
visualization, smells, environment, and a photo image to help you, and
it’s also recommended to do this with a trusted practitioner who can be
that safe co-regulation grounding you can return to at any time.

In practice, you try an experiment where your body (in real-time) does
what it needed to do back in that past event. Maybe you march or job in
place, maybe you reach out to someone who could have helped you out
of that situation. Maybe you start punching as if to fight your way out of
it.
Another act of triumph may be to push against a wall, shadow box, or
throw an object in a safe way, feeling the strength in your arms, setting a
physical boundary, or say “no” OUTLOUD at the moment to whatever it
is that you needed to stop in that past event, but couldn’t because you
didn’t have the strength, it would have been dangerous or you didn’t
know how.

Even though you are no longer in the situation, the cells in your body are
still connected to that event, and when you engage in an act of triumph,
the body often experiences a deep sense of calm and relief on a cellular
level that it had not experienced by simply talking about the event.

You can also do this with non-dangerous past situations that have stayed
stuck in your cells, and created limiting beliefs or ways you don’t feel
safe. For example, if you ever betrayed yourself, violated one of your
boundaries by saying ‘yes’ to something you wanted to say ‘no’ to,
abandoning your own needs in a past situation, or not standing up for
yourself when you wish you did, or if you have ever wanted to forgive
yourself for something….this exercise is extraordinarily healing.

SOMATIC FREE GUIDE CHRISTINE COEN

 "Traumatic symptoms are not caused
by the "triggering"event itself. They
stem from the frozen residue of
energy that had not been resolved or
discharged; this residue remains
trapped in the nervous system where
it can wreck havoc on our bodies and
spirits."

{Peter Levine}

SOMATIC FREE GUIDE CHRISTINE COEN

 Sequencing
9.
Sequencing is the process by which the body-based tension
begins to release.

This often happens with a ‘beginning movement’, noticing a

sensation that moves up or down a part of the body, or an
emotion that intensifies and then slowly starts to lessen. It’s
like a linking experience, where the first few dominoes
connect, and once the process starts, the rest of the body
continues to sequence and connect.

For example, tension in the belly may begin moving upward

to your upper body, feel like tightness in your chest, and
then feel like your arms are heavy.

As you stay with it, you may notice a pulsing feeling in your
throat or a tightness in your head/ or around your forehead.
At some point, there is often trembling, where the hands
and/or legs tremble, and where the tension begins leaving
the body.

There are many ways the body moves through sequencing,

tension can leave through the top of your head, bottom of
your feet, tips of your hands or arms, through laughter,
tears, burping, farting, sighing, yawning, a release of
pressure, pain that you have had for a long time disappears,
your back or neck cracks in a relieving way, involuntary
shaking, growing, etc.

This can last for a few seconds or even minutes.

Clients often express a lighter feeling after their body has
properly sequenced through an event or emotional
experience.

SOMATIC FREE GUIDE CHRISTINE COEN

 Boundary Setting
10.
Setting & and holding boundaries are foundational pieces of
work when it comes to healing. When you lean into boundaries
from a somatic standpoint, you will notice through sensation
and feelings what kind of boundaries you are naturally setting;
verbally and nonverbally.

Using your voice to practice saying out loud words such as

“YES” or “NO” or “ stop” or “okay”, and sensing what it FEELS
like to express that in your body is one way you can do this.

Another is using physical movement or holding certain

positions and body language to express the boundary in a non-
verbal way while you observe how EMBODYING the physical
expression of a word or action feels for you.

Practicing both of these to reteach yourself what imprint & and

energetic patterning within you is to set and hold your own
boundary is vital. It will help you recognize when this boundary
is being crossed out in the wild (aka life outside the therapy
bubble), and feel safe to put into practice the new pattern of
holding the boundary which might feel scary the first few times.
I think this also helps us differentiate between a boundary and
a wall.

Boundaries teach others where the door is and how to enter

into our space…walls just keep people out altogether.

Setting boundaries is one of the surest ways to feel protected

and steady in your skin and in your day-to-day interactions.

SOMATIC FREE GUIDE CHRISTINE COEN

Reflect on each of these 10 Somatic Practices and what areas of your life you can see
yourself incorporating them to help you regulate your nervous system and break
through limiting beliefs.

Pick 1 small situation, thought, belief, or habit you would like to change and practice
1 of these tools each day this week. Reflect below on how you felt before and after,
any places you got stuck, any realizations or connections you made, and if you would
use it again.

SOMATIC FREE GUIDE CHRISTINE COEN

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Christine Coen RD-LDN,CPT