When someone experiences both emotional and physical trauma simultaneously, particularly in a situation where they are unable to respond with typical defense mechanisms like fight, flight, freeze, fawn, or collapse, it can have profound and complex effects on their psychological and physical well-being. This can present in these ways: The Good News! The availability and…
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“In every culture and in every medical tradition before ours, healing was accomplished by moving energy.” – Alberto Villoldo. Modern therapy approaches often sidelines the body’s role in our health and wellbeing. Emphasizing mind over matter, relegating the body’s role in our inner ecology as secondary, even inconsequential. For the last 25 years, emerging evidence…
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In its ebb and flow, life unfurls a myriad of emotions – joy, sorrow, love, grief, and everything in between. These emotions are etched deep within our bodies and stored in our cellular memory. It’s not just our experiences that reside within us but also the emotional legacies of our lineages. One of the things…
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As the creator of the somatic self-love approach, I’ve drawn heavily from established theories such as Antonio Damasio’s Somatic Marker Hypothesis and the seminal work of Dr. Bessel van der Kolk. Somatic Marker theory hypothesizes that our emotional experiences leave physiological imprints or ‘markers’ on the body, which influence our future decision-making and emotional responses.…
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As I continue to write and talk about Somatic Self-Love, many people have asked the question, “why is it so hard to love myself?” They go onto say, “you talk about the felt-sense of self-love… feeling love for myself as a sensation in my body… I don’t even know what that means. I’m pretty sure…
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Patriarchal structures refer to systems of social organization and cultural practices that privilege men and reinforce male dominance over women and other genders. These structures have been prevalent in many societies throughout history and continue to shape social, political, and economic dynamics today. Patriarchal structures manifest in various ways, including: Gender roles and stereotypes: Patriarchal…
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The term “sites of shaping” refers to the various aspects of an individual’s experience that influence and shape their beliefs, behaviors, and identities. For women in the patriarchy, these sites of shaping encompass the societal, cultural, and historical forces that influence how women perceive and experience themselves within the confines of patriarchal systems. These sites…
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Body memory refers to the phenomenon where the body retains or “remembers” past experiences or traumas at a physiological level, even if the individual cannot consciously recall those experiences. It suggests that our bodies have the capacity to store and encode memories beyond the realm of explicit or conscious memory. Unlike explicit memory, which involves…
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Last weekend, I had the profound opportunity to assist a breathwork healer training. Little did I know that this experience would unearth a deep-seated body memory, causing me to confront the weight of ancestral trauma carried in my body. “They burned us – they burned us all.” It was a realization that unlocked the hidden…
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Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disease (C-PTSD) can make our bodies feel like unfamiliar, even hostile, territories. Amidst the waves of anxiety, memories, and disconnection, it’s essential to cultivate a sense of safety and sanctuary within our own skin. Somatic self-love, the practice of deepening our connection to our bodies through mindful movement and awareness, can be…
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