FAQ – Somatic Healing

:: For the overview on somatic healing, please see here. ::

What happens during somatic healing?

Somatic healing is offered as a component of spiritual care sessions when appropriate for the need/client. During somatic healing, we engage the body in a series of questions around a specific focus. For example, an area where you’re feeling stuck in your life, an area of pain in your body, a limiting belief you hold, or a specific emotion or feeling.

We identify your specific focus/need and then I lead you, through a series of guided questions, to invite the wisdom held within your body into conversation with you. There is no effort or expertise required on your part; this practice is about receiving. All that is required is a willingness to enter into the work and explore what arises. You’ll listen to, be present with, and dialogue with, the knowing of your body, as I guide you and hold space. The experience and process is difficult to explain in words because it truly has a beautiful wisdom of its own.

We move through this gentle process of inquiry and then bring what we’ve uncovered before the presence of God as I offer healing prayer on your behalf, in and through Christ.

Where does this somatic healing process come from?

This specific somatic healing modality, called somatic inquiry, is the Body Deva practice taught by Mary Mueller Shutan, author of Body Deva: Working with the Spiritual Consciousness of the Body. I have been trained by her and I’m a certified Body Deva practitioner in the areas of inner child work, working with resistance, and somatic-emotional healing.

I have designed my specific somatic healing offering, which is offered as part of spiritual care sessions, within a container of the Christian faith. For example, inviting the presence of the Holy Spirit; offering the needs and root-cause issues we uncover to Jesus for healing, through prayer; and applying Scripture to the specific needs and issues.

What are the benefits of somatic healing?

Somatic healing connects us to our inner wisdom held in the body by re-establishing our mind-body-spirit connection. If you’ve lost that connection – which often happens as the result of trauma, for example – it will help restore it. If you’ve never experienced that connection, it will introduce you to it—gently, and at your own pace.

Results of this process include: greater emotional intelligence, deeper embodiment, less fear of intensity of feeling—greater ability to “ride the waves” of life. Also, a change you sense in yourself, in how you treat yourself and others, and changes in your life and in your body—these are all possible outcomes of this practice. Ultimately, embodiment leads to self-acceptance and self-compassion, and surrendering your needs to God through Jesus leads to peace, healing, and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.

How can I book a session?

To schedule a spiritual care session, please reach out to me here.


Image: “Sunset Sky” by John Frederick Kensett, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.