Why is Somatic Coaching such a powerful approach for transformation?
Starting in April 2023, we’re bringing together some of the world’s most esteemed teachers on Mind-Body and Somatic Coaching for our unique, 120-hr Mind-Body Coaching Certificate. We recently caught up with some of our faculty to discuss why Mind-Body Coaching is such a powerful tool for transformation.
Staci Haines
Staci K. Haines is a national leader in the field of Somatics, specializing in intersecting personal and social change. Staci is the co-founder of Generative Somatics (GS), a multiracial social justice organization bringing somatics to social and climate justice leaders and organizations. She leads programs in somatics, trauma and resilience, and embodied leadership for healers, social change leaders, and innovators. She is also a senior teacher at Strozzi Institute and a Certified Master Somatic Coach.
In this video, Staci shares that somatic approaches to coaching are powerful for transformation because they get beyond new ideas or new insights. They take us beyond the why and into the how. Into the “how do I be and become who I want to be”.
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Richard Strozzi-Heckler
Richard Strozzi-Heckler has a Ph.D. in Psychology and is a seventh-degree black belt Shihan in aikido. He is a cofounder of the Lomi School and Tamalpais Aikido, and founder of Two Rock Aikido and Strozzi Somatics and Somatic Coaching. Richard was featured on the front page of the Wall Street Journal for developing the groundbreaking leadership program for the United States Marine Corps and was named one of the top fifty executive coaches in The Art and Practice of Leadership Coaching and in Profiles in Coaching.
When asked why somatic coaching is so powerful for transformation he tells a story of meeting a student from New Guinea who shared a proverb from his country that says “knowledge is only a rumor until it's in the muscle”. Richard says, “it just hit me. It was like, wow. I mean, that was worth 15 years of reflection, is that what somatic coaching does, it allows the insights and awareness to transform into action so people can be different actors in the world, all the way from moods and emotions to new skills”.
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“Knowledge is only a rumor until it’s in the muscle.”
Kai Cheng Thom
Kai Cheng Thom, MSW, MSc, is a certified Somatic Sex Educator, Qualified Mediator, Clinical Hypnotherapist and Certified Professional Coach based in tkaronto/Toronto. She is also the author of five award-winning books in various genres. Kai Cheng's work focuses on the intersection of social justice, pleasure activism, and transformative approaches to healing conflict. A noted speaker and practitioner of somatic wellness, healing, and group process facilitation, Kai Cheng supports individuals and groups who are seeking to repair relationships and make transformative change.
Kai explains that through somatic approaches to coaching we are able to ask ourselves the question, “who do we want to be next on a body level”? And this is really different from, say, a cognitive approach to coaching which is more focused on thinking differently in order to solve our problems. Kai says that somatic coaching really dives deep into the realm of human experience. It allows us to process whatever is holding us back and whatever we're dreaming about, so that we can translate that into embodied action.
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Dr Rae Johnson
Rae Johnson, PhD, RSW, RSMT, BCC (they/them) is a social worker, somatic movement therapist, and board-certified coach working at the intersections of embodiment and social justice. The author of several books, including Embodied Social Justice and Embodied Activism, Rae currently teaches in the Somatic Psychology doctoral program at the California Institute of Integral Studies.
Rae discusses that embodied coaching is powerful for the same reason that any kind of embodied modality is powerful - because most of us are raised and socialized to ignore what's happening on a body level. Taking an embodied approach to coaching allows us to tap into the body, access what's happening on a sensory and emotional and gives us access to parts of ourselves that we're not maybe necessarily used to accessing and working with.
Rae explains that its those parts of ourselves, those dimensions of our experience that are crucial to understanding what's happening for us how we're feeling, what we should do, and what our relationships are like. Rae says that for them, somatics are a necessary element. It's not an add-on. It's the thing that we need to be paying attention to in the first pace place to achieve any transformation or change.
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Learn more about how you can become a certified Mind-Body Coach and harness the power of somatics to help others transform their lives, actualize their goals, and live a life of authenticity, freedom and wellbeing with our 120-hr Mind-Body Coaching Certificate.
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THIS UNIQUE AND TRANSFORMATIVE PROGRAM AT OUR FREE INFORMATION SESSIONS - MARCH 12TH AND APRIL 2ND
Join us live and online. Meet our faculty, have your questions answered and discover if this program is right for you! The sessions will be recorded so if you can’t make the live event, register anyway and we’ll send you the recording.
