The word somatic appears on a therapist’s website in Shadyside, a chiropractor’s in the South Hills, a yoga studio’s in Lawrenceville, and on mine, and it means something different on each one. So before anyone books time with me, I want to be exact about what a somatic coach is, what I do in a session, and where my work stops and a therapist’s begins.
What does “somatic” mean?
Somatic means of the body. A somatic practitioner of any kind works with physical experience, sensation, posture, breath, and movement, rather than with words and ideas alone. In my case the method is Hakomi, a mindfulness-based, body-centered approach developed by Ron Kurtz, and a session involves slowing down, noticing what is happening in your body right now, and trying small experiments to learn what those sensations are connected to. You can read how that works at /coaching/.
What is the difference between a somatic coach and a therapist?
A therapist is a licensed mental health professional and I am not, and the rest of the difference fits in a table.
| Somatic coach (me) | Therapist | |
|---|---|---|
| License | Coaching is not a licensed profession. I am not a licensed mental health provider. | Licensed by the state as a counselor, social worker, psychologist, or similar |
| Works with | Present-moment experience, body awareness, patterns you want to change | Mental health conditions and the full range of psychological concerns |
| Can tell you whether you meet the definition of a condition | No | Yes |
| Insurance | Does not bill insurance | Often does |
| Crisis support | No. If you are in crisis, call or text 988. | Within limits they will explain to you |
| Typical focus | Awareness, choice, and what the body is doing in the moment | Assessment, a course of care, and change over time |
The right column describes a profession I respect and did not train for, and the left column describes the one I practice.
What does a somatic coach do in a session?
A session with me starts with a conversation and then slows down. You tell me what you want to be different, and at some point I ask whether you are willing to pause and notice what is happening in your body while we talk about it. Someone who says yes to every request at work, for example, might notice that her breath stops for a half second before the word “sure” comes out. We stay with that half second. I might offer a little experiment, a sentence like “you are allowed to think about it,” and we both watch what her body does with the sentence. The work is about awareness first and choice second, and it stays with what you can observe in the room rather than with a story about your childhood.
I hold that work with what Hakomi calls loving presence, which in plain terms means I pay attention to you with warmth and without an agenda, report what I see, and let you decide what it means.
What does a somatic coach not do?
I do not work with mental health conditions, which means I will not tell you whether what you are experiencing meets the definition of depression, PTSD, an eating disorder, or anything else, and nothing I write goes into a record that a doctor or an insurer would read. Crisis support and trauma work are outside coaching as well.
If what comes up in a session is grief that has not moved in years, panic, a history of harm, or anything that is making it hard to get through a week, that belongs with a therapist, and I will say so plainly and help you find one. I am a coach, not a therapist, and the line is not a formality. A therapist carries legal and ethical responsibilities for your care that I do not carry and cannot pretend to.
Can you see a coach and a therapist at the same time?
Yes, and plenty of people do. The arrangement works best when both of us know about the other. Tell your therapist what we are working on, and tell me if a session with me stirs something that you take back to therapy, so that I can stay inside my lane and your therapist can hold the larger picture.
How do you decide which one you need?
A few questions sort most cases. Are you getting through your days, even if they are hard? Is anyone, including you, in danger? Do you need a condition named on record for insurance, school, or work? Is the thing you want to change something you can already see yourself doing, like the yes before the pause, or something that feels larger and older than that?
If you are in danger or not getting through the days, you need a therapist, and possibly a doctor, before you need anyone else. If you need something on record, you need a therapist. If what you want is to understand a pattern you can already describe and change what your body does when it shows up, coaching may be the right fit, and a discovery call is where we find out.
The four websites with the word somatic on them are all telling the truth about themselves, and none of them is describing the other three. If the discovery call shows that what you need is a therapist, I would rather send you to one than book you for work I do not do.