The Power of Including the Body

Increasing your somatic intelligence, accessing truths, and deepening your development through coaching.

If you are working with a well-trained coach you will probably be asked to share what you’re experiencing in the present moment.

This might sound something like ‘What are you noticing as you talk about this?’ ‘What’s coming up or present for you now?’ and if your coach has training in embodiment practices or includes a somatic approach, you might be asked ‘What sensations are noticing as you explore this?’ ‘Where in your body do you notice this thought or feeling?’

(Although I approach body based questions gently, as they require trust and safety. I might just share observations about a client’s breath, posture, body movement or energy shift change).

These can be challenging questions to answer because most people are not used to describing or even checking-in with what we’re actually experiencing in the present moment - and if we do notice we tend to disregard it or keep it quiet, especially if we’re already in the flow of a conversation or a story or narrative that we’re particularly attached to.

I notice this often with clients, we’ll be exploring a topic, and I’ll see through their eyes or certain body gestures that a new thought, sensation or feeling has popped into their awareness, so I ask them. It almost always opens a doorway into a deeper truth.

This expanding awareness of the present moment is mostly experienced through the body, therefore support and practices that gently bring us back to the body are very powerful in not only our own transformational growth but also our relationship to others and the ‘big body’ that we all live on!

A beautiful piece by dancer and somatic practitioner, Kasia Witek in Unpsychology Magazine ‘I am nature’ inspired this reflection on the power of including the body in developmental coaching. Kasia talks about the experience of being in the body, why we have disregarded it, and the collective body and the climate emergency.