In a typical Coaching session, you can expect a few key things to happen every time.

We begin by identifying a desired living reality (for example, “I want to feel more present with my kids after they get home from school”) or by identifying a specific concern that you feel is blocking you (like, “I have writer’s block” or “my neck won’t stop cramping in this strange spot”).

Then, I invite you to close your eyes (or lower the gaze, if closing eyes is uncomfortable), and verbally guide you through sensitizing to the body. This is usually called the “Drop in.”

After dropping in, I invite you to bring words to the sensations, memories, or other insights that came up. I offer questions or reflections, as you describe these sensations to assist you in clarifying or understanding the body’s wisdom, and we will set an embodied goal as to how the new information from your body changes or clarifies your initial desire. (Just a head’s up: this goal often sounds very different from the initial desire, but in my experience, they are always deeply related.)

In most cases, once we have set an embodied goal, a second meditative Drop in is helpful in exploring the layers of or scope of what has come up.

Towards the end of the session, you have time to synthesize what you have learned and give your body additional gratitude or nurturance, as desired. 

Can You be Embodied Now?

“Can’t I just do this on my own?” was a question I asked myself repeatedly before hiring my first coach. I knew how to journal, how to meditate, how to do shadow-work and more. But, for the weight and variety of things I was facing, I discovered that, no, I couldn’t direct the process and receive it well at the same time. My growth expanded and deepened in every direction, when I hired a coach as an ally.

But–here’s the caveat–everyone is different! Maybe you can do it alone. Maybe you are one of the blessed souls whose creative blocks, painful memories, or unresolved emotions are light or nonexistent and you can sort through them yourself. Maybe one session of embodiment would be enough for you to learn all you need to know to maintain embodiment for your whole life. If you are such a person, I congratulate you and wish you continued good luck.

For most people, though, (and I assume you’re part of that group if you’ve made it this far in reading about embodiment) our inner landscape is riddled with heartbreaks, misunderstandings, real and perceived abandonments, emotional overwhelm, rejections, imposter syndrome, institutionalized devaluing, and many many other things that have taught our bodies to feel unsafe in this world. We have developed coping mechanisms and physical habits that allow us to numb or DIS-embody ourselves, just to protect us from feeling the immensity of those experiences. There is nothing “wrong” with this. It’s just how our bodies learned to survive. In the process of resisting a full integration of those experiences, however, we also lost some of our abilities to fully sense and enjoy our lives. 

That is where embodiment becomes important. When we have reached a point in life where we recognize that juicy, sensual, zest for living has diminished (or disappeared), and we yearn to come home to the natural optimism and delight that we remember as children (or have heard about elsewhere), then we’re ready to unravel those protective coping mechanisms and allow ourselves to sink into a full embodied experience. It’s not always easy or comfortable to do this–grief, pain, and anger might need to be expressed, too. Embodiment resensitizes the numbness, it dismantles our triggers, and allows us to reconcile with the memories that are keeping us stuck. Embodiment Coaching is the art of holding containers for this to happen in a way that keeps you safe and supported as that resensitizing happens.

Is this the right approach for you?

The labor of coming home to ourselves in exquisitely unique for everyone and for this reason, an Embodiment Coach can be an invaluable resource along the way. I am trained to hold containers of safety, and confidentiality for you as you traverse those messy, inner obstacles. I am also trained to pace you, so that the process healing or transformation doesn’t consume your daily life. Through training and personal experience, I offer trauma-sensitive sessions that make space for large or distressing emotions to be handled with gentleness and support.

If you do pursue Embodiment with me, you can expect: 

• More confidence and assurance in making decisions
• Clarity about your gifts and how you can serve your community
• Clarity about what you want to receive moving forward
• Healthier boundaries
• Deeper connection to the natural world
• Greater sensual aliveness
• Expanded capacity for pleasure 
• Deeper compassion and awareness towards those you love
• Better memory of the distant and immediate past
• More ease in facing unexpected challenges

One of the most radical and transformative disciplines we can undertake is integrating all the fractured forgotten parts of ourselves into one brilliant whole. Sacred Play Embodiment Coaching is about helping you find and nurture those forgotten parts, so that your energy can be used to create your dreams, not just manage your blocks.

My hope for you, is that you will find the help you desire. I trust that your inner compass will direct you to a coach that fits your needs the best and that might not be me. If this is the case, but you still think Embodiment coaching is up your alley, I also keep a list of esteemed peers who do excellent work with their own niches.