Somatic coaching: What is it and how does it work?

Do you really know yourself, or is the inner you a stranger?

You’re the sum of many parts. And although you may be unaware of your physical, emotional, and mental habits, they come together to inform every single one of your decisions and interactions.

If you find yourself acting impulsively or constantly questioning your decisions, it may be a sign that you need to take back control. Consider somatic coaching, a specialized practice aimed at deepening your connection with your cognitive and physical responses and unraveling the intricacies of what drives you.

Whether you're navigating a stressful situation or simply seeking to grow your self-awareness, a skilled professional can guide you on a transformative journey to reshape your relationship with your thoughts and feelings. Let’s explore the ins and outs of coaching the inner you.

What’s somatic coaching?

Somatic coaching helps you integrate the mind and body to facilitate growth and development. The name originates from the Greek word “soma,” meaning “of the body.” 

This coaching niche promotes an understanding of how knowledge and experience combine to inform your capabilities. Somatic techniques help you build self-awareness around your physical, emotional, and mental patterns, creating a more integrative approach to transformative change. 

You can apply somatic approaches to professional and personal development goals. For instance, if you want to boost your leadership skills, a somatic coach can help you practice breathing and power poses to convey strength or improve your thought patterns to develop self-confidence. 

At BetterUp, we advocate for a Whole Person approach to human transformation through personal growth, social bonding, mental fitness, and professional development. Change isn’t easy. But if you’re determined to put in the necessary work, we can help you build the tools to build the best version of yourself.

7 benefits of somatic coaching

Somatic learning aims to show you how your experiences, emotions, and traumas manifest in everyday actions and decisions so you can embark on a healing journey. Let’s dig deeper into seven ways somatic coaching can improve your well-being: 

• Mental clarity: You likely don’t fully understand the mental hang-ups or habits that guide your actions and reactions. Somatic coaches employ visualization and mind-body techniques to help you be more present, such as mindful breathing, intention setting, and grounding exercises. 

  This new skill set can help you sharpen your mind and declutter your thoughts, stimulating stronger focus and intentional problem-solving.

• Mental wellness: Trauma-informed reactions can ignite your fight-or-flight response, which keeps your nervous system on overdrive. Somatic coaching is a body-oriented approach that builds deeper awareness of your physical and emotional responses to anxiety, allowing you to better identify and regulate stress.

  Studies show that the somatic approach can even contribute to improving negative mental health symptoms. 

• Sense of balance: It’s normal to feel out of sorts every once in a while. After all, you juggle many roles and responsibilities at work and at home. But when instability becomes a normal part of life, it can have destructive impacts on your professional and personal growth.

  Somatic coaching works to align your physical, emotional, and mental states so you can better allocate energy and focus, improving productivity and making you more adaptable to daily challenges. 

• Emotional resilience: Life is full of interruptions and challenges that can take a heavy toll on your emotional well-being. Somatic techniques can teach you how to stay centered in stressful situations, allowing you to build up your resilience and bounce back stronger from setbacks.

• Communication skills: It’s not what you say but how you say it. Much of your communication is non-verbal — your body cues your listener to the hidden meaning of your message.

  Somatic practices build stronger access to the physical body, allowing you to express your feelings and emotions more effectively and identify others’ more accurately. Deeper interactions can have a snowball effect in strengthening your relationships, whether you’re building your community or working on being a better leader. 

• Professional performance: Your technical skills help you perform your daily tasks, but your soft skills define the kind of team player you are. Adaptability, emotional regulation, and uncovering your motivations can all help you bring your best self to work. 

• Physical awareness: Our bodies are mysterious and nuanced. Your brain is constantly sending out signals about your emotional and physical well-being — learning to decode those messages takes care and practice. Breathing exercises, yoga, and meditation can help you develop a stronger relationship with your body, improving your health and overall well-being. 

Can somatic coaching benefit you in the workplace?

Absolutely. Somatic coaching digs deep into decision-making and behavioral patterns. By developing greater self-awareness, you can connect better to your work, deepen your relationships, and bolster productivity. 

Here are a few examples of people who might benefit from somatic methodology in the workplace:

• Managers and executives who want to improve leadership skills such as composure and decisiveness 
• Team members who’ve lost their focus and need to recover their motivation 
• Employees who need help develop trust in team members or themselves
• Staff who lack the communication and self-regulation tools to work collaboratively
• People who struggle to follow through on their commitments and responsibilities

What to expect in a somatic coaching session

Somatic coaching revolves around several exercises to bridge the gap between the mind and the body. Here are a few somatic coaching techniques you can expect to encounter: 

1. Grounding exercises 

When your mind feels overwhelmed by negative memories, emotions, or intrusive thoughts, grounding techniques can bring you back to the present moment.

The practice helps you redirect and regulate your feelings, perhaps by distracting yourself with visual stimuli or transforming energy into a clenched fist. Grounding allows you to acknowledge negative energy and understand difficult experiences without losing control over your emotions. 

2. Breathing techniques

You may lose control over your thoughts and emotions when you feel overwhelmed by negative feelings. Mindful breathing is a deep breathing exercise where you take big, controlled breaths.

Paying attention to air filling and leaving your body helps you clear your mind and relax. Breathing techniques calm you down in the moment, and regular practice can reduce your stress, squash negative self-talk, and improve sleep. 

3. Savoring 

Reflecting on positive experiences can help you regulate your emotions and find calm in stressful situations. Savoring requires you to recall a memory from start to finish, reflecting on the people, emotions, and situations that filled you with joy.

You can use this somatic method to reminisce on past experiences, focus on positive feelings in the moment, and imagine an exciting future. While the practice requires more research, it may contribute to a higher quality of life and better resilience. 

4. Addressing framework 

Somatic coaching requires serious self-reflection. Mind and bodywork exercises can empower you to think through the origins of your habits and understand the ideas that shape your decisions.

Finding the root cause of a thought process is the first step to rewriting your beliefs and building healthier frameworks. If you struggle to manage your time or stay engaged, moving backward can help you pinpoint the source of the problem and rebuild. 

5 examples of somatic exercises

As part of your coaching experience, you may be assigned take-home activities to develop your mind-body connection. Here are a few examples:

• Yoga: Meditation, breath control, and holding physical postures are all part of yoga, making it a natural fit for somatic learning. Likewise, many yoga practices incorporate similar goals and objectives, such as building self-awareness and reducing stress. 

• Dance: You may complement your somatic sessions with dance movement therapy, which uses movement to create emotional, social, cognitive, and physical integration. Dance therapy is a great resource for people working through traumatic situations or difficult decisions, as it teaches you to use your body to express and work through complex emotions. 

• Tai chi: Tai Chi is both a mindful and aerobic exercise. It’s frequently used as a meditative therapy to reduce stress and anxiety through deep breathing, deliberate physical movement, and concentration. 

• Body scanning: Body scanning is a technique in which you focus your attention on different body parts sequentially, moving from your toes to your head, before concentrating on your body as a whole. It’s a useful tool for recognizing how your emotions affect your physical body throughout the day.

• Somatic stretching: Somatic stretching encourages you to pay careful attention to how your muscles feel while stretching to develop a deeper awareness of the body. While you move, you pay close attention to the resulting sensations, noticing little things like the pull in your arm when you extend it over your head or the synchronized movement of your fingers when you wiggle them. 

Finding a somatic coach

The right coach makes you feel comfortable and understood. Don’t be afraid to reach out to multiple people and schedule multiple intake sessions until you find the one.

Pay close attention to these traits to determine if a coach is a match: 

1. Expertise: Somatic coach training teaches coaches many of the same skills and frameworks. However, many professionals operate within niches or specialties that closely align with your needs and goals. Look for a coach that works with people like you or shares a similar background. 
2. Communication style: If you don’t respond well to your coach’s communication style, you’ll likely struggle to be vulnerable, express your ideas, and connect with your whole self. Pay attention to your rapport in the first session. Feeling comfortable is a sign of a strong bond, but don’t be disappointed if you need to try out a few different coaches to get there.
3. Progress: Your coach’s job is to help you identify objectives, chart a plan for growth, and make positive changes. If, after several sessions, you don’t feel any progress, it may be time to reach out to someone new. 

Connect with the inner you

Learning about yourself is a life-long journey. But you don’t have to navigate it alone — a coach can offer you the guidance and support you need to connect with your innermost thoughts and desires.

The tools you pick up through somatic coaching will help you navigate changes in your personal and professional growth and stay in touch with yourself as you develop and change, even years later. Make time to take care of yourself, reframe your habits, and build the resilience you need to move through life with more intention.