What does the Word Somatic Mean?
"Somatic" originates from the Greek word "sōma," which evolved to mean 'the body living in its wholeness.’
Wholeness is not something we achieve by effort or force—it is a natural state we remember. A soft returning. An embodied homecoming where the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects of our being come into relationship—held in a gentle rhythm of integration and belonging.
In the language of somatics, we speak of soma—the body as experienced from within. Not the body as object, but as a living, sensing, moving presence. As Thomas Hanna described, the soma is not static—it is ever-unfolding, adapting, self-directing, and responsive. This view opens us to a deeper truth: that healing is not about fixing ourselves, but about listening, allowing, and attuning to the intelligence already alive within us.
We are not separate from our environment. The Earth, her cycles, her gravity, her tides—they shape us. When we reorient to this truth, we begin to feel ourselves as part of a larger organism, one that invites us to rest, to re-regulate, and to return to balance through relationship with the living world.
This is the ground of Somatic Movement Dance Therapy (SMDT)—a practice that invites us to move from within, to trust our internal rhythms, and to give expression to what words alone cannot carry. My work is rooted in this tradition. As a Registered Somatic Movement Dance Therapist I specialise in trauma recovery and embodied healing, I support individuals and groups in cultivating presence, safety, and fluidity through the body’s innate intelligence.
Through Somatic Movement Dance Therapy, we come into conversation with the deeper layers of ourselves—not through directed technique, but through presence, sensation, and the courage to feel. We reawaken the sensory-motor feedback loop, and with it, the capacity to self-regulate, restore, and reinhabit the body with trust.
In my sessions and teachings, I offer a space for you to listen—to your breath, your bones, your impulses and images—and to follow the thread of your body’s own wisdom. Together, we explore what it means to move from within, to yield, to ground, to express and to integrate.
This is not about striving. It is about softening.
It is not about performing. It is about becoming.
And ultimately, it is about remembering that wholeness is already here—waiting, quietly, in the body that you are.
If you would like to train in Somatic Movement Dance Therapy or would like to try a class click the links.
