Spiritual Somatics Coaching Techniques:
Establishing Heart-Centered Presence and Rapport with Our Clients
The delicate, sacred work of holding a secure healing container for our clients absolutely depends on cultivating Heart-Centered Presence and rapport. Without that, the client will not allow themselves to go very deep with you into these memories.
CreatingRapportwithClient,IntakeandContextualInformation:
The initial consult and intake form gives you a lot of information. This is an opportunity for you to learn about who the client is:
o their routines
o their belief systems
o their satisfaction with different parts of their lives
o their traumas (invite them to share what feels relevant, do not mandate)
o their spiritual belief systems and language that they use (*this is very important)
The first session is about:
o learning each other
o setting a tone
o establishing a rapport
o sensing into the client’s energy
o learning about how you will connect with them (it will be different for each client)
Allow the intake to take all the time it needs. When feels complete-ish (you’ll continue getting data from them throughout your sessions together!), begin to transition into a Dosha/Chakra lesson
The goal with the Dosha/Chakra introduction is not to “solve” the client, or inundate them with information, but to invite them to begin trying themselves on from a different perspective. It also allows you to begin piecing together what you are noticing (words, energy, body language) with what they wrote down. For instance, Pitta imbalanced clients will be impatient that the questions and answers on the dosha quiz aren’t immediately “clear.” Kapha imbalanced clients generally do not like to claim their Kapha, you have to gently guide them into it.
Remember, a first session is a meet and greet. It’s a soft opening and you can let clients know we’ll be working with the Doshas and Chakras in different ways throughout your work together, so they can come with any questions the following meeting.
SuggestedStructureofaSession:
Everyone will find their own “groove” and structure that works for them in a coaching session. Below is a general overview for a 90-minute session:
o 5 minutes settling in, niceties
o 15-20 minutes getting the material from the client about what is “up” for them
o 10 minutes guiding the client into their body
o 45-50 minutes of somatic fear chasing and/or feel and processing together (video off)
o 10 minutes before the end of the session to get them grounded back in 3D, tying up the sessions and holding them in Love.
During this time you are working to:
1) Meet your client at the human level to get updates, see what “material” they are working with, establishing resonance, allowing them to feel heard and witnessed
2) Create a sacred energetic container for the session, for yourself and the client
3) Connect clients with their body. Body scanning and grounding helps to get them out of rational mind and into a state of Presence
4) Establish a baseline vibration, asking where sensations are, and the qualities of these sensations so you can understand what is going on in their field vibrationally
5) Begin to have clients try on the situation you will be doing work around, having them transport themselves there. Asking for information so that you can help them to visualize and really be there with the situation.
6) Sit with them while they vibrationally re-experience this situation so you can get the data, ask what that younger self needs, what the self is feeling. Support them in giving their younger self what they need.
7) Bringing them gently back into human realm.
PresenceandInnocentPerception
In Spiritual Somatics, we feel with a client. We try on in the body what they might be experiencing around a situation. We do this by tapping into our highly sensitive ability to feel into energy as empaths we find a home for this superpower and put it to work!
To get ready for this sacred work with a client, we need to be able to be in our bodies and connected to our Heart. This is why it’s important to keep up with our practices and give ourselves time to transition out of 3D Ego roles/hats
Things that can help us do that include:
o Lighting incense/herbs to clear and create sacred space
o Doing a body scan to notice your energy
o Doing a Heart Cave practice to tap in and center your energy before hopping on with a client
Empathic Listening is at the core of what we do. Empathic Listening does not mean reinforcing or enabling limiting patterns and belief systems. It simply takes its starting point to find resonance with them to understand them, in order to them change a client’s relationship with them (different from therapy where therapist can “tell” or “diagnose”). Itisbasedinthebody,notthemind.
Empathic Listening looks like:
o Space
o Silence
o Awareness
Through Empathic Listening, we:
o Identify what lays beneath a client’s words
o Locate where a vibration lives in the body
o Feel emotions the client may have repressed (i.e., “I feel pressure on my heart, a closure in my throat”)
o Identify a client’s unexpressed thoughts and emotions (i.e., “When I try that on, I imagine that I might feel angry about the way they are not honoring boundaries or taking responsibilities”)
o Speak words for them that they may not have been able to think at the young age the feelings were felt, and normalize for them that it’s okay to think/say them (i.e., “I despise you! I think you’re terrible”). This allows the vibrations to be expressed and processed out of the field.
o Provide new perspectives on old, well-practiced perspectives on situations and relationships
o Bring a new level of consciousness to old pathways that live in their body (i.e., “Wow, I imagine that it must be really tiring carrying that story/belief system around with you. Is it?”)
o Be less afraid of their own bodies, by modeling that it’s okay to hang out with uncomfortable emotions, and sitting with them in that (i.e., “Let’s just really feel into that. It just wants to be witnessed”)
o Teach them that feeling is safe, that they are strong, and that they can trust themselves to feel their vibrations
Empathic listening is not:
o Jumping to what to do/say next
o Fixing
o Solving
o Assuming
o Projecting
There is a fine line between Empathic Listening and projection. Projection comes from Ego, Empathic Listening comes from the Soul. The more tune into our Hearts and a state of Presence we are, the more we are able to take on the role of Empathic Witness.
We are teaching our clients the language of energetics and vibration, and how to dial up this type of listening outside of words. When you are in doubt, just be with.
We can’t be in the body and the mind at the same time. Often clients will be stuck in their minds, replaying old Ego stories. Usually this is because a Client is not comfortable with feeling. This could be because of:
o Pitta Imbalance, “the need to know” to feel safe
o Vata Imbalance, disassociation, difficulty grounding
o Kapha Imbalance, a sense of congestion or dullness in the physical body
o Trauma
This is when we need to take a more analytical, yang, left-brained approach.
How to recognize when the Client is in an Ego Trap:
Listen for red flags to learn what type of Ego story a client is playing out:
o Limiting belief systems
o Rigid logics
o Projections
o Fears
o Future facting worry/anxiety
o Scarcity Mindset
Important things to remember when guiding a client out of an Ego story:
o The vibration they are expressing is real, but the stories they are creating about it are often illusion
o The Ego story they are telling is the effect of the wound/trauma/suffering. We are looking to identify the cause beneath the suffering.
o We are listening to get the data without indulging the story so we can bring them back into their Awareness Body (differs from talk therapy that stays at Mental Body)
o Our job is to listen with our hearts and sense into what feels true and what feels like story, while holding them in LOVE.
o Use firm, compassionate questioning to crack the code of their story
To interrupt a story:
We want to listen long enough to get the data that we need. Once we have the “gist,” we want to guide the client out of their Ego Trap. Different methods work more for different types of clients, and as coaches you’ll find your own individual style.
Here are some possible ways to break them out of the illusion of their Ego story so you can lovingly direct them back to their Heart:
o “Ok. Pause” and provide a pure observation, i.e., “I’m noticing, XYZ,” “We seem to be looping here”
o Carefully interrupt and summarize (“Okay, so work sucked today. How do you want to feel at work?”)
o Lovingly redirect from head to body: What are you noticing in your body? (Feel & Process)
o Guide them into a breath practice
o Name the patterns you are witnessing and invite them to spend time in their lives witnessing when they find themselves playing out these patterns and to collect data for themselves
o Forgiveness mantras/energy clearing if there’s a lot of emotional resentment or residue
o Guide into a destination vibration (i.e., “how do you want to feel right now?”)