Where the body leads

Somatic bodywork uses uses intentional touch to access stored tension and survival patterns. Ideal if talking feels overwhelming or if you’re stuck in patterns that insight alone hasn’t shifted.

It's a hands-on, sensory-based process that invites connection, felt experience and release without needing to explain. Helps the body feel safe enough to soften, regulate, and reset at a deep level.

Primarily engages the primitive, sensory, and autonomic centres of the brain.

Deepening my understanding within the somatic bodywork & somatic energy space continues to be something I’m devoted to. I’ve studied, and continue to study directly under internationally renown teachers I deeply respect.

For me, it’s about attuning to the conversation between body, mind, and spirit. That, along with years of working with people from all walks of life, has taught me how to meet each person right where they are.

Spinal Flow

Taught by:
Dr. Carli Axford

Taught by:
Dr. Sarah Jane

(Summer 2025) being taught by:
Dr. John Amaral

Taught by:
Eve King

My experience

Spinal Energetics

Intuitive Bodywork

Somatic Energy Healing

How the body communicates

In Somatic Bodywork, we tune into the the language of the body, which is often subtle, layered, and ancient. It doesn’t speak in words. but in sensation, movement, breath, energy, posture, tension, and stillness.

It tells us what feels safe, what feels too much, and what has been left unspoken.

The body communicates through:

Sensations: tightness, heat, numbness, tingling, or spaciousness
Movements: shaking, stretching, curling in, expanding out
Breath patterns: shallow, held, deep, or trembling
Energetic cues: pulling back, softening, opening
Instinctive sounds: sighs, cries, hums, or even silence

This language often speaks the truth before the mind can make sense of it.
It reveals where we are holding, where we’re protecting, and where we might be ready to release.

To listen to the body is to come into relationship with your whole self—not just intellectually, but somatically and energetically.

It’s not always comfortable. But it is always honest.

The Body Unwinds Through Safety: A Neurobiological Perspective

One thing I’ve seen again and again in my work is that the body doesn’t release or heal just because we tell it to. It does so when it feels safe.

This idea is backed by science, particularly through the work of neuroscientist Dr. Stephen Porges, who developed what’s known as Polyvagal Theory. This theory explains how our autonomic nervous system (the part of the nervous system that controls automatic functions like heartbeat, digestion, and breathing) is constantly working behind the scenes to keep us safe.

Through something called neuroception, the body picks up on cues from our environment and from inside ourselves. It scans for danger or safety without needing our conscious awareness. When it detects threat, it activates survival responses like fight, flight, freeze or fawn.

But when it senses safety, something different happens. The body shifts into what's known as the ventral vagal state, a branch of the parasympathetic nervous system that supports regulation, rest, and social engagement. This is when the body starts to let go of protective patterns.

In this state:

Muscle tension decreases,

Breathing slows and deepens

Heart rate variability (HRV) improves, which is a sign that your nervous system can adapt and respond flexibly

Higher brain functions, like self-reflection, emotional regulation, and creativity, become more available

This is what allows the body to unwind. The nervous system is no longer stuck in defense. Instead, it can begin to process, integrate, and reorganise. Clinical and neurobiological research supports that sustainable healing happens when the autonomic nervous system feels safe enough to release protective tension, soften old survival responses, and integrate new, safer patterns; making practices that emphasize gentleness, presence, and body awareness highly effective for trauma resolution and nervous system health.

Healing doesn’t happen by pushing through discomfort or overriding the body’s signals. It happens when we create the right internal and external environment. That’s why approaches that focus on presence, attunement, and body awareness are so powerful — they help the system feel safe enough to soften.

References:

• Porges, S. W. (1995). Orienting in a defensive world: Mammalian modifications of our evolutionary heritage. A Polyvagal Theory. Psychophysiology, 32(4), 301–318.

• Porges, S. W. (2001). The Polyvagal Theory: Phylogenetic substrates of a social nervous system. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 42(2), 123–146.

• Porges, S. W. (2007). The Polyvagal Perspective. Biological Psychology, 74(2), 116–143.

• Dana, D. (2018). The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy: Engaging the Rhythm of Regulation. Norton Professional Books.