My journey to Somatic Experiencing

When I started teaching yoga I knew that there was a missing piece to my yoga teaching practice. My sessions have typically been small groups or individual sessions which invite more conversation than a public class. In a public class, everyone gets on their mat voluntarily and focuses in silence.

At Charym Yoga Studio

During my work with teens, it isn’t their choice to be in class and their allyship in choosing asana is important for their participation.

For my one-on-one sessions, there's much to know about someone’s history and how they perceive themselves. And within all sessions, there are emotions arising and meaning being made on some level.

When I started 15 years ago, I knew the real skill I needed more than anything was more experience holding space for massively uncomfortable feelings.

I had heard of Peter Levine’s work while completing my first trauma-informed training in 2012. Somatic Experiencing as a trauma-resolution modality came onto my horizon and soon there were Somatic Experiencing Practitioners around me. The quality of listening the SEPs brought to me was stunning. And I realized that what I was to return to was the ability to listen beyond hearing. Listening as emptying and sensing someone as they are.

And in practicing Somatic Experiencing skills with yoga, I found a deeper resonance with being human, being human with the person in front of me now, and being the loving and attentive practitioner I am meant to be. I stopped feeling like I needed to know everything, that I could heal people or that I was able to make one thing work for everybody.

I started truly understanding bio individuality as it had been suggested to me at the Institute of Integrative Nutrition. I integrated what Susun Weed said about wholeness, beauty and pleasure.

I started sensing the seasons of my life, the choice I have in my struggles and more that is realized in reclaiming the whole message from my Self each day.