Over the past four years, I have become increasingly interested in somatic ideas and principles and have gradually begun integrating them into my work with clients. I have found this to be a profoundly meaningful addition to my practice, one that has enhanced therapeutic work and supported a deeper sense of embodied healing and change.

One unexpected outcome has been how much this work has also changed me.

My own relationship with my body, emotions, and internal experience has shifted in a slow but steady way. As a lifelong learner, I initially approached somatic work in the way I had approached many other areas of training – something to study, master, and apply. I found myself considering whether I should train in Somatic Experiencing, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, or another established modality. I also had a vague sense that I might need to return to yoga in a more structured and disciplined way in order to have credibility in this space.

Over time, I began to realise something quite different.

Somatic work is not primarily about learning a new set of techniques or applying a step-by-step protocol of “what to do.” It is, instead, about developing a different kind of relationship with experience, one that is grounded in listening to, and gradually trusting, the wisdom of the body.

And perhaps more importantly, I began to understand that in order to support this process with clients, I needed to engage with it myself.

This meant turning toward my own internal experience with more curiosity and less agenda. I initially assumed this would require major changes such as doing more yoga, more structured practices and having more discipline. But as I slowed down and began to pay attention, I realised there were already entry points available to me.

I returned to meditation, but in a different way. Less as a practice of doing it “correctly,” and more as a way of noticing what was present and learning to stay with it. I became more aware of how I naturally move my body in ways that are regulating. I started to notice which sensations supported a sense of grounding or ease and which did not. Over time, I began to understand that somatic practice is not a checklist of skills, but an ongoing process of attunement, tuning into where my system is at and responding with curiosity rather than prescription.

One of the more confronting realisations in this process was my relationship with self-compassion. I had understood it intellectually for many years and could talk about it fluently in clinical work. And yet I did not have a strong embodied or felt sense of it in my own experience.

Learning about embodied self-compassion and beginning to practice it in a more grounded, experiential way, was simple, and at the same time very challenging. At times, it also brought up a sense of discomfort and humility, including moments where I felt, quite honestly, like a fraud.

And yet, over time, these experiences have profoundly shaped the way I work.

They have supported me to integrate somatic ideas in a way that feels more authentic, relational, and grounded. It has also made it easier to stay present with clients’ pain without immediately moving into fixing, problem-solving, or intervention. Rather than something I “add in,” somatic awareness has become more of a way of being in the room, something that can be woven into approaches such as schema therapy, rather than sitting apart from them.

This brings me to a question I often hold for myself, and now also for other clinicians:

If we are supporting clients to return to their bodies in therapy, have we also begun to develop that capacity in ourselves?

Can we notice what arises in us, and make space for it, without immediately moving away or fixing it? And if not, that is not a problem, it simply becomes an invitation to reflect on what small steps might support our own reconnection.

Sometimes, it is this very process that becomes one of the most meaningful gifts we can offer our clients.

(And yes—I did eventually find a yoga studio that actually suits my nervous system.)

If you would like to explore these ideas further, you are welcome to contact me at psych@natashahepworth.com.au or visit the trainings and workshops page on my website.