Making a cognitive shift or gaining new insight is only part of the picture when trying to change habits, attitudes, beliefs or work styles. After all, our actions are produced in our physical structure. Just as we cannot learn tennis by reading a good book about tennis, neither can we become effective leaders and individuals by simply gaining insights about our habits and goals. Thus to make lasting and sustainable changes, the physical body must incorporate the cognitive learning. Sarah has developed a unique approach that is systematic and innovative, uniting Integral Coaching with the wisdom of Somatic body practices.
Somatics — What’s this?
“Somatics is a Greek word that literally means “the living body in its wholeness” –which includes the emotional, physical, linguistic and ontological aspects of each individual. Somatic theorists, such as Moshe Feldenkrais, examined how learning occurs through the mind, physical structure, language, emotions etc. Thus, in order to learn new behaviors, the body, and not just the mind must be “rewired.” By incorporating more than just the mind, people can achieve a depth of learning that academic or cognitive learning alone cannot achieve.
Why Incorporate the Body?
In the technological age of increasing efficiency, we have lost connection to ourselves as embodied beings. We have become increasingly disconnected from the wisdom or our bodies and the physiological reality of our emotions. Our bodies have become the mechanism to haul our brains from meeting to meeting. As people become alienated from their physical experience and emotions, life becomes abstract, theoretical, and one-dimensional. It becomes more difficult to evaluate decision-making factors because they are lost in an endless list of pros and cons without a felt sense of the right course of action. Often times, people lose their passion, as life becomes mechanistic and automatic. There are increasing concerns around work/life balance, burnout, and productivity.
The body, in the somatic sense, expresses our commitments, disappointments, triumphs, integrity, identity, roles, moral strength, moods, and aspirations. Because we experience and express life through our physical body, if we want to change who we are, how we are perceived, and the impact we make in the world, we need to change how we physically move through the world. We are all familiar with how body language impacts our actions and impressions. For example, when we stand with our arms crossed and our shoulders hunched we are giving a message to ourselves and others that we are intimidated, scared, and/or closed off to possibilities.
Somatic coaching reconnects us to our bodies so life becomes rich with emotions, desires and physical, as well as, intellectual experiences. As we develop awareness of our physical body, physical qualities of leadership, clarity, balance, stability and strength can develop. Our beliefs and perceptions start to shift in accordance with the physical body and we become great leaders and effective individuals. Trustworthiness, which is predicated not only on what we say, but also portrayed through subtle mannerisms and body language, begins to grow as the physical structure and body language shifts.
What Skills Can I Develop?
When the Body or Soma is incorporated back into life, you can:
· Become centered so that you can be present with others while staying firmly grounded in what matters most to you
· Improve your management style by developing the ability to remain responsive and receptive to negative feedback and challenging situations.
· Reconnect to your ability to naturally “re-source” yourself so that you remain resilient during stress and maintain a healthy work/life balance.
· Take actions from deep within that are aligned with your beliefs and goals
· Increase relationship building and communication skills by being authentic and present with clients, team members, employees etc.
· Deliver presentations with presence and clarity
· Increase your intuition and decision-making skills
· Develop more clarity
· Increase your trustworthiness.
Specific Somatic Modalities: Feldenkrais and Qigong
A somatic approach allows people to make more than a cognitive shifts; it invites people to “embody” new schemas to produce sustainable results. Thus, Sarah incorporates somatic practices, when appropriate, through the principles and theories of the Feldenkrais Method and various types of Qigong practice.
The Feldenkrais Method is a somatic method with a rich philosophy addressing how individuals learn. It is designed to develop physical awareness so that one can make choices about how to be physically present in this world. It uses the body to develop a laboratory in which you can explore how you approach life. For example, how do you respond when you do not know the answer or feel frustrated? How does excessive and unnecessary physical or mental effort hinder the desired result?
Qigong is a Chinese self-healing method that also provides a laboratory to study your reactions and ways of approaching difficulties. It builds awareness, mental clarity and physical stability while deeply exploring the mind/body connection. It is concerned with how we connect to others and how to harmonize with the environment to find a smooth direction rather than constantly resisting and struggling.
Using principles and practices from the Feldenkrais Method and Qigong, Sarah helps her clients make lasting changes by addressing underlying habits, attitudes and beliefs that are evidenced by ones outward posture/body image and internal body image. Her clients not only intellectually grasp what it means to be a leader, they come to feel like a leader as they develop the physical attributes, body language, posture, and behavior of confidence, balance, presence, strength and stability.
