PROGRAM DATES: 4 Sundays in December & January

12/22

12/29

Skip 1 week

1/12

1/19

9am PST / 12pm EST

INTRODUCING:

Somatic Soulwork

A 4-week live group experience where you'll learn to process your emotions through somatic experiencing to heal chronic pain and anxiety. 

Somatic Soulwork is a program that will take you from living with chronic anxiety and pain TO feeling grounded and balanced and in less pain through the power of emotional processing and nervous system regulation.

Sign Up for 
$147

Did you know that the origin of your chronic pain and anxiety is the fight or flight state, and it’s often the unexpressed emotions that keep you stuck in it?

If you have chronic pain and anxiety but all the treatments, from different medical interventions to talk therapy have failed you, the problem might be that your nervous system is stuck in a chronic fight or flight state.

And a big part of why this happens is that you don’t express your emotions and don’t release them from your body.

HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT YOU ARE STUCK IN FIGHT OR FLIGHT?

See if you can relate to the following:

WHAT OFTEN HAPPENS IN YOUR BODY:

  • Rapid heart beat
  • Shallow or fast breathing
  • Tight chest
  • Tight muscles, often in the neck or back (but can also be anywhere else in the body)
  • Shaking even when it’s not cold 
  • Heightened alertness to noise, light, smells – your senses pick up things that others don’t
  • Jitters
  • Waves of heat or cold in the body
  • Constant need to move

HOW YOU OFTEN FEEL INTERNALLY:

  • Worried
  • Urgent, rushed
  • Anxious
  • Unable to calm down, unsettled
  • Annoyed
  • Irritable
  • Panicked
  • Out of control, chaotic
  • Disorganized
  • Indecisive
  • Uptight
  • Restless, jumpy

YOUR MIND REPEATEDLY SAYS:

  • “This has to be done NOW, it can’t wait”
  • “I can’t rest until I’ve done THIS last thing” (but there are always at least 10 more)
  • “I can’t afford to slow down”
  • “I wonder how badly it's going to go THIS time”
  • “I hope I didn’t offend that person!” 
  • “Are they mad at me?”
  • “Did I look / sound totally stupid?”
  • “I have to make this better and do it more perfectly next time!”
  • “Everyone is probably thinking that I’m a total failure”.

These are some of the signs that you have a lot of fight or flight energy in you. 

This chronic fight or flight is the reason why you have all these physical sensations, low mood and constant, unhelpful mind chatter.

If you have tried to think your way out of the chronic fight or flight (you have piles of self-help books!) or talk your way to a better feeling place (when something makes you worried or upset you talk about it with 25 people just stirring up MORE panic), you have likely not made much progress.

You are wondering, what else can I do to start to feel better?

You will begin to finally RESOLVE this stress and tension when you tune into your body and focus on changing your physiology.

You'll learn how to do through the exercises I teach you in this program. These somatic practices take your fight or flight energy down instantly! 

But not only that: When you get really consistent with this work, you’ll also see long-lasting effects: Your mood is better, you are more optimistic, there are way fewer things that trigger you, you have less pain, and you have an increased sense of self-worth and confidence. 

Sign Up for $147 

DO YOU REMEMBER HOW YOUR CHRONIC PAIN STARTED?

When you think back to your past and how your chronic symptom started, you likely realize that you were on edge, nervous, worried and overly stressed often, before your anxiety became a thing for 24/7 and your pain or tightness became chronic. 

During that time, you were also likely suppressing your emotions:

You Never Acknowledged Your Anger

You often felt like you wanted to say something to stand up for yourself but you just couldn't.

You were working super hard but you never said anything when your boss gave you more and more things to do. Internally, you were actually angry but never brought it up out of fear of being perceived as a complainer or as a lazy person. There was nothing worse than the possibility that someone might not like you!

You Were Always "Fine"

You always said that you are okay, even when your feelings were deeply hurt.

Your old boyfriend used to make fun of you in front of his friends and you acted like you were fine with it.

Of course you felt anger and shame but you didn’t want to bring it up because first of all, you wanted to be seen as easy-going and cool, and secondly, you just couldn’t handle conflicts.

You Ignored Your Sadness

You did so much but no one noticed, and that made you sad...

You were the one doing everything around the house. You would have loved to feel more seen and appreciated, but instead you felt like everyone takes you and what you do for granted.

All this made you really sad and at times even angry but you never expressed it to anyone and just told yourself to toughen up and keep going. 

You Had a Deep Sense of Shame

You avoided every situation where you could possibly disappoint others.

You pushed yourself extra hard, making sure to never make mistakes and always be perfect at everything. You did it all because you didn’t want to feel shame that would come with making a mistake; at the same time you didn’t realize that this same shame was actually driving these unhealthy habits of perfectionism and people pleasing which ended up making you sick.

These are examples of becoming emotionally dysregulated as you never expressed your feelings and just pushed on. You were blocking the natural flow of these very human emotions.

This state then continued for months and years, and the chronic anxiety and pain that you are experiencing now are actually completely logical and even expected results of it.

In order to heal from chronic anxiety and pain, you need to bring your nervous system out of the fight or flight state and back to a balanced and regulated state. 

Allowing and freely expressing our emotions is a major part of this regulation.

When you allow and express your emotions, you no longer send your nervous system a signal that emotions are dangerous. As a result, it can experience them and then relax and recover.

You’ll be learning how to do ALL of this inside of Somatic Soulwork!

Sign Up $147 

What You Will Get Out of Somatic Soulwork Program

  • Recognize the signals in your body when you are experiencing a strong emotion. That allows you to respond to it and express it quickly, rather than getting stuck in the emotional charge and fight or flight state, which will only cause more symptoms
  • Know exactly how to quickly return to a balanced and regulated nervous system state after feeling triggered, experiencing intense emotions or pain
  • Have learned a variety of simple and effective somatic tools for emotional regulation, that you can mix and match to create your own sequences and your personal somatic exercises toolkit!
  • Are significantly calmer overall as the baseline level of your nervous system will be much healthier and balanced than before starting. You find yourself smiling more and being more relaxed overall
  • Have a lot less anxiety and you are a lot less reactive than before – small things that used to get you anxious and overthinking just don’t trigger you as much as they did before
  • Sleep better during the night and have higher energy during the day
  • Feel a lot less rushed and are able to actually stay in the present moment, which significantly improves the quality of your life. For example, you are more productive at work and more patient in your relationships.
  • You will actually DO the practices when you come to the call and know that others are there too! Just thinking about this work won't do itl

Your Body Speaks The Language of Your Emotions

Learning to express your feelings safely is one of the most powerful things you can do to heal your body from anxiety and chronic sensations.

Most of us “live in our heads” all day long, trying to make sense of things, plan, organize, worry and think so much….

But emotions Don't Live In Our Heads

If you avoid emotions by telling yourself to “toughen up” when you’re sad, to “not show it” when you’re angry and “just ignore it” when you’re anxious, you’re trying to use our MIND to make the emotions go away.

But they don’t. You need to experience and allow these emotions.

Emotions Are Experienced In the Body

If you are disconnected from your body, you may not even realize that your emotions are there.  The body actually talks to you all the time and it also responds to your emotions every time you experience them, in very specific ways. You may just have learned to not listen to them and instead, push them down.

Learn to Understand Your Body's Language

When you learn to understand what your body is trying to communicate to you, you can use this information to address your emotions. You can process emotions out through the body and experience significant relief from the intensity of them, as well as the heavy mood that comes with heavy emotions.

What Exactly Is Somatic Soulwork?

Somatic Soulwork is a 4-week small group coaching program that helps you to recognize, express and process your emotions using mostly somatic practices.

You’re going to learn how to pay attention to messages that your body is sending you every time a strong emotion comes up and your fight and flight state gets activated.

The fight or flight state is where your nervous system is way too often and that’s the reason why you have pain or anxiety. It’s the opposite of a rest and digest state where healing can happen. 

The more often you are able to recognize the emotions in the body, express them and then move to a better feeling emotion, the less anxiety you have and the faster you recover from chronic sensations too!

Sign Up for $147 

Here's what you're going to learn:

LISTEN

Listen To The Signals Your Body Is Sending

Somatic Soulwork teaches you to listen carefully to the signals that your body is sending, understand when you are in fight or flight, and respond to your body's messages by using somatic exercises.

Through that, you will reach the rest and digest state that you need for healing.

ALLOW

Let the Emotions to Surface

Somatic Soulwork shows you how to stop blocking your emotions, and instead let them surface and then process them through a bodily experience.

Although there is a mindfulness component in the program, the exercises you’re going to do in the program are NOT silent mindfulness meditation.

REGULATE

Move Your Body to Release Trapped Energy

Somatic Soulwork incorporates movements like shaking, tapping, squeezing, stomping, hugging and also using your voice.

These techniques help create a sense of safety, calm and grounding in your nervous system.

What Do The Live Calls Look Like?

During the 4-week program, we have one LIVE meeting per week. Each week is dedicated to one specific emotion: Anxiety, anger, shame and sadness. 

  • Each session starts with an introduction and background of a specific emotion that we are working on that week, and then moves on to the practical part and somatic exercises
  • The practical part involves learning to understand in detail your body’s messages that it sends you when you are experiencing a certain emotion. This is important because it allows you to get in touch with your body and also respond quickly when you are noticing that something feels “off”. That way you can avoid getting emotionally “hijacked” and staying stuck in an emotional state that doesn’t feel good -- for example, anger.
  • We will be exploring many somatic tools and doing somatic exercises on the call. Get ready to move your body!
  • After somatic expression you will learn how to generate better feeling emotions and a healthier nervous system state, using visualization. Doing that helps you to get back to the rest and digest mode which is where healing happens.
  • There is always time for sharing with others and asking questions! We will stay on as long as we need to!

What’s So Awesome About Somatic Exercises?

Somatic exercises have so many amazing benefits!

The more frequently you do these exercises and release the intense emotions, the more often you take yourself out of the fight or flight response and into a calm and relaxed state.

You will go from feeling intense anxiety or anger, to grounded and present, but without SUPPRESSING the emotions but expressing them safely through the body.

You will go from feeling sadness that's making you numb and disconnected, to feeling comforted and open-hearted, by allowing the sadness to surface and then regulating yourself.

You will go from ruminating non-stop about that interaction that happened last week and made you feel a lot of shame, to coming back to your true SELF, feeling confident, settled and secure.

Note that doing somatic work does not mean that your chronic pain will go away instantly. But over time, as you spend more time in this calm, relaxed and regulated state, your symptoms start to fade away because regulation is the foundation of your healing!

Here's what's so amazing about somatic exercises:

You Don't Need to THINK

Doing somatic work doesn’t require almost any THINKING at all!

You don’t have to worry about what the right words are to say, you don’t need to go back to old memories and talk about them again.

You will be only tuning into your BODY to FEEL and MOVE.

You Get Relief Quickly

Somatic exercises provide a quick, positive change that you feel in your body and mind.

If you are feeling overwhelmed, stuck in anxiety, frustration or any other intense emotion, it can only take a few minutes of practice to regulate yourself.

You will come back to your calm and balanced state much quicker compared to, for example, trying to get there with positive self talk or affirmations.

You Feel Physically More Free & At Ease

Doing somatic work makes you feel very FREE!

If you’ve never tried shaking or tapping your body in response to anger or frustration for example, you’re going to learn exactly how and when to do it, in this program.

You will feel a sense of freedom that you never did when you were simply talking about your feelings. 

You Feel Comforted and Relaxed

Somatic work feels very comforting.

If you’ve never tried using gentle, soothing and comforting body movements to regulate your nervous system when you are feeling sad or stuck, you will learn exactly how and why to do that.

The effect is way more powerful compared to just saying to yourself that “I’m safe”, for example. 

Sign Up for $147 

Frequently Asked Questions

What exactly do you mean by somatic exercises?

Somatic means involving the body. Somatic exercises are different from talk therapy, for example. Talk therapy is not bad or wrong and can be very useful for many people, it’s just very different from somatic exercises where the feeling and expressing of emotions happens through the body.  

How can emotional expression through somatic exercises help me reduce anxiety and chronic pain?

If you are not used to expressing your emotions but instead tend to deny them or hide them, over time they start creating chronic stress in the body and mind. That in turn develops into anxiety and physical sensations like pain. Somatic exercises help you regulate your emotions and develop a stronger connection between your body, and as a result your stress decreases and symptoms with it.

When are the calls?

Here is the call schedule:  

Sunday, December 22nd at 9am PST / 12pm EST

Sunday, December 29th at 9am PST / 12pm EST

NOTE: We skip one week here!

Sunday, January 12th at 9am PST / 12pm EST

Sunday, January 19th at 9am PST / 12pm EST

You can convert these times to your time zone HERE.

What exactly happens on the Zoom calls?

Each week follows a similar structure:

- First I share a little bit about the background of the emotion that we're talking about that week;

- What you need to know about processing it;

- Somatic experiencing;

- Visualization practice;

- Closing circle where you are encouraged (but never forced!) to share your experience.

How long are the calls? 

The calls will take about one hour, give or take. There is always time for questions, answers and shares at the end, and we will go as long as we need to, to get all your questions answered.  

How much space do I need to do the exercises?

You need enough space to stand up and move a few feet in every direction, and you also need a place to sit and lay down. Your bedroom or living room will work great.  

Are the exercises physically exhausting?

Some of them will get your heart rate up a bit. But this is certainly not a workout! You can always choose your pace and go as fast or slow as you need. You do not have to be athletic to do this program. 

It’s also important to note that this program, even though using physical movements, is not a muscle building, strength training, stretching or corrective exercise program.  

Could I just look up somatic exercises on YouTube and do them?

Sure, you could!

However, there are two reasons why this is not ideal:

1) You need to know what exercises to do in certain situations.

For example, when you are filled with intense anger, you need something different than during the times of deep sadness where you may feel numb,

2) You may end up scrolling for hours, starting one video and then opening another, trying out different practices, trying a little bit of this and a little bit of that... Until you are confused, distracted and ready to give up.

This is similar to strength training: The exercises themselves may be good, but there is also a specific order in which these exercises should be done in order to have the best effect.

My goal with this program is to teach you the best tools for each emotional state, and show you how then to then put together your own personal toolkit based on practices that YOU found most helpful.

Will the calls be recorded if I can’t join live?

Yes, all calls will be recorded and sent to all participants after the live call is over.  

Can I do this course in combination with therapy or other mindset work? 

If you’re in doubt, check with your therapist or other health care provider but in most cases combining the body and mind tools is the best way to approach chronic pain recovery.  

How is this course different from Emotionally Fit, your emotional awareness course? 

Emotionally Fit is a completely self-paced course. There are no live calls, coaching or community. Emotionally Fit goes deep into personality traits, childhood experiences and coping mechanisms and most of the tools offered there are mindset based.

Somatic Soulwork (this course) is a LIVE program that includes 4 Zoom calls (1 per week), live coaching and community of other people taking this course.  

Somatic Soulwork focuses first and foremost on the BODY and expressing the emotions through the body. There is a bit of theoretical part included in each session, but our main focus is on the physical experiencing and expression of emotions. 

There will also be plenty of time for sharing your experiences and connecting with others on the call!  

Somatic Soulwork In a Nutshell

Live Coaching Calls
4 Zoom calls, one per week, where we go over the theoretical part of each emotion and then do somatic practices specific to this one emotion (Week 1: Anxiety; Week 2: Anger; Week 3: Shame; Week 4: Sadness)

Somatic Practices

Somatic practices are the central part of this program. Expect to really tune in to your body's needs and MOVE it in various ways, allowing you to process the emotional energy and feel better after

Community Support + Sharing

There will always be plenty of time at the end of each call to share your experience, ask questions and get support from others.

You'll never feel alone and like you have to do this just by yourself!

Sign Up for $147 

Zoom Call Recordings with All the Practices

All Zoom recordings will be sent to members after the call, whether you were there live or not, and they are yours forever. That way you can go back to your favorite exercises and demonstrations whenever you need a refresher.

Hi, I'm Kersten!

Here's a bit about my journey with chronic back pain, anxiety and insomnia – my main chronic health problems that I suffered from for years. 

There had been no clear findings in my X-rays, blood tests or other types of tests that would have justified the intensity of my back pain, insomnia and other problems. One thing that always showed up was chronically elevated cortisol, which I knew was related to stress, but there were no clear guidelines as to what to do about it. The advice to “just reduce stress” was very vague.

When I first learned about the idea that suppressed emotions can cause chronic health problems, I was intrigued and wanted to learn more about it.  

Years ago, I read Dr Sarno’s book “Mindbody Prescription”. The personality traits he described there, that were common in people with chronic pain, matched with my personality well.

He talked about how people who are go-getters, take on too much, tend to please people and put too much pressure on themselves in order to be seen, valued and appreciated, often actually feel internal anger, shame and resentment, all leading to chronic pain.

The main emotional word dr Sarno used to describe what this person is feeling internally, was rage...

But people like me and you – we often don’t show emotions, and we definitely don't show rage! Sometimes we don’t even know we have it. And that’s a problem!

I got curious and started to dive deeper into the world of emotions. As I learned more, I started to express more clearly what I was feeling. say out loud when something made me angry.

I started to allow myself to feel sadness and even cry – something that I had thought made me “look so silly” so I had avoided it before.

I started to STOP what I was doing when I felt anxious, instead of pushing through it. I worked a lot with the MIND and it really helped me. 

My back pain got so much better! I started having a few days here and there where pain was less, and then I was able to string together more and more days. 

One important thing that became crystal clear to me when exploring my emotions was that I started to feel them in my body. 

Anxiety and anger had a certain flavor to them; there were  specific ways how they showed up in my body. They felt like jitters and sudden flashes of rushed energy, sometimes even as small electric shocks all over my skin. 

Sadness had its own flavor – it felt heavy and stuck. 

Shame made me want to be invisible and hide. Get away from the world around me.

The more I paid attention to these physical sensations, the more I realized that my body was talking to me directly, in a very clear, physical language.

Emotions wanted to be expressed through my body. And this is how I dove further into the world of somatic experiencing. 

The effects of doing somatic exercises regularly for just one month made me a BIG difference for me.

I was more calm, my sleep improved, and my mood was more uplifted than before. 

I found myself smiling more without an apparent reason. 

I actually started craving for more social interactions – something that I’ve never been very comfortable with.

My workouts felt stronger and I was able to lift heavier weights at the gym, and my endurance was better in my kickboxing workouts.

I found more flow with my work.

I had no PMS symptoms and my period came without pain - which is rare for me!

I felt so much more ALIVE from just about a month of very regular practice. 

One thing that we know about mindbody conditions is that these chronic health problems vastly IMPROVE when our mindset and mood improve.

Through somatic exercises I was able to constantly regulate my nervous system during times of emotional stress, and I started to feel lighter and happier very quickly,

Even though I had made excellent progress in reducing my back pain and anxiety through mindset work, somatic work took it to the next level. I seriously look forward to my somatic exercises every day because how good they make me feel.

And this is why I want to share these wonderful tools with you as well, so that you can experience what I have experienced, too.

See you inside Somatic Soulwork!

Ready to begin your Somatic Soulwork?

I can't wait to meet you!

Sign Up for $147