166: Integrating Embodied Intelligence with Somatic Coaching
Nov 27, 2023
auto_awesome
Rachel Blackman discusses somatic coaching and the power of embodied intelligence. They explore the value of physical sensations, good contracting, and re-contracting in coaching. Discover how somatic coaching offers new perspectives and insights for clients, and how incorporating embodied intelligence can benefit both the coach and the client.
Somatic coaching integrates the body and mind, allowing clients to access embodied intelligence and find deeper levels of self-awareness and growth.
Embodied intelligence recognizes the crucial role of the body in our thinking and emphasizes its value as a source of information and wisdom.
Deep dives
Somatic Coaching: Exploring the Whole Self
Somatic coaching is an approach that invites the coach and client to engage with the whole self, incorporating feeling, sensing, and perceiving. It goes beyond traditional coaching by exploring the body's wisdom and the relational field. In somatic coaching, cognition is seen as an aspect of being in an embodied experience, and attention is expanded to include not just thoughts, but also the client's felt sense and their interaction with the environment. The integration of the body and mind is seen as essential for deepening the coaching process and supporting transformational change. Somatic coaching offers practical tools like working with small objects or using metaphors in the physical environment to help clients access and explore their embodied intelligence.
The Value of Somatic Coaching
Somatic coaching is valuable because it acknowledges the importance of the body in coaching and recognizes that our thoughts and experience are interconnected. Integrating the body in coaching helps clients come into presence with their material and supports them in finding different ways of approaching their challenges. By bringing awareness to the sensations and physical responses in the body, clients can better understand their emotions, gain new perspectives, and make conscious choices. Somatic coaching offers a holistic approach that goes beyond just verbal exploration and storytelling, allowing clients to tap into their embodied intelligence and find deeper levels of self-awareness and growth.
Embodied Intelligence: The Power of the Body-Mind Connection
Embodied intelligence is the recognition that our bodies play a crucial role in our thinking and overall intelligence. The body and mind are intricately linked through the nervous system, and without the body, the brain lacks its full potential. Embodied intelligence invites us to pay attention not just to cognition, but to the ways we can perceive, feel, and sense the world. It emphasizes that our bodies are not mere vessels for our brains, but rather a source of valuable information and wisdom. By engaging with our embodied intelligence, we can deepen our understanding, access new insights, and make more informed choices in coaching and in life.
Integration and Transformation through Somatic Coaching
Integration in somatic coaching involves metabolizing and digesting the changes and insights that arise during the coaching process. It is about allowing the whole being to process and assimilate new experiences, perspectives, and neural patterns. Integration can take many forms, ranging from practical actions and planning to rest and emotional release. Each individual may have their own unique ways of integrating, so it is important to follow their curiosity and honor their preferred methods. Integration supports the transformational process by helping clients embody their learnings, make conscious choices, and sustain deep and lasting changes.
Rachel Blackman joins our host, Felicity Dwyer in an enlightening conversation to discuss somatic coaching. They explore how this approach can lead to a deeper sense of presence and a new understanding of the body’s intelligence. Rachel guides Felicity through three short somatic exercises to demonstrate the value of physical sensations and how to use the information provided in a coaching session. Discover the importance of agency, good contracting, and re-contracting in coaching – letting the client’s resonant sense guide the process.
You will learn:
· The power of embodied intelligence and integration in coaching
· How to use movement, body language and metaphor as a tool
· How somatic coaching offers new perspectives, insights and ways of being for clients
“This idea of relating to the embodied experience as a sort of neck down experience and a kind of function rather than a territory of intelligence feels to me like a coming home and a deepening."
For the episode resources and guest bio, please visit: