How to Use Somatic Coaching in 9 Different Niches
Somatic coaching is a powerful tool that can be used in SO many different ways. It can help coaches and therapists better understand their client’s inner world and see what’s happening below the surface, and it’s applicable to so many different niches.
In this article, I’ll share with you nine different coaching niches to which you can add somatic coaching (some of which might surprise you!). I’ll also provide examples of how somatic coaching has been used successfully in each coaching niche. Whether you are a life coach, relationship coach, business coach, or therapist, somatic coaching can absolutely be an effective tool for you and your clients.
So let’s see how somatic coaching can work for YOU and your unique business!
But first, what exactly is somatic coaching?
I’m so glad you asked… somatic coaching is a type of coaching that uses somatic (body-based) techniques to help clients access their inner world and body wisdom. Somatic coaching can help clients tune into their bodies and physical sensations in order to better understand their emotions, thoughts, and needs. It can also help them release stuck energy, heal past trauma, and connect with their authentic selves. It’s considered a “bottom up approach” to healing and transformation.
Some examples of somatic coaching techniques are:
- Breathwork
- Movement
- Sounding
- Energy work
These are just a few examples of techniques we teach here at Pause Breathwork, but they are super adaptable depending on your client’s needs.
In a nutshell, somatic coaching is a way to help clients connect with their bodies, release what’s holding them back, and access their inner wisdom in order to create lasting change in their lives.
Now that we’ve got a better understanding of somatic coaching let’s dive into all the different ways that you can use somatic coaching in your unique niche…
1. How to Use Somatic Coaching as a Life Coach
Life coaches work with clients on ALL aspects of their life, from goal setting and achieving to managing stress and finding clarity. Somatic coaching can be a helpful tool for life coaches in so many ways. For example, somatic coaching can help clients become more aware of their body and how it responds to stressors in their environment. This awareness can then be used to help clients manage their stress in more effective ways.
Also, somatic coaching can help life coaches support their clients to release stuck emotions and limiting beliefs that are blocking them from mental clarity. When we can clear out these emotional blocks and quiet the mental chatter, it’s much easier to move forward in our lives and achieve our goals because we KNOW exactly what we want and are connected to our highest selves.
2. How to Use Somatic Coaching as a Relationship Coach
Relationship coaching is about helping clients improve their relationships with others, whether their romantic partner, family members, or friends. Somatic coaching can be a helpful tool for relationship coaches in several ways.
First, somatic coaching can help relationship coaches clearly see the energetic dynamics of their client’s relationships and see what patterns are at play. This understanding can then be used to help clients shift these patterns in more productive ways.
Additionally, somatic coaching can help relationship coaches explore the emotions or past traumas that are driving their client’s behavior in current relationships. This exploration can help clients understand their own needs and feelings better, as well as the needs and feelings of others. It can also help them communicate in more effective ways and set boundaries in relationships.
Plus, somatic coaching is a powerful tool to activate self-love. And when we have a strong foundation of self-love, we are much more likely to attract healthy and loving relationships into our lives.
3. How to Use Somatic Coaching as a Business Coach
Business coaches help their clients with all aspects of running a successful business, from marketing and sales to finance and operations. Using somatic coaching with business clients can help in a few different ways. For example, somatic coaching can help business coaches understand the underlying emotions that are driving their client’s business decisions. This understanding can then be used to help clients make more effective decisions that are aligned with their true desires and company values.
Also, somatic coaching can help business coaches support their clients to release any fears or doubts that are holding them back from success. When we can clear out these emotional blocks, it’s much easier to take aligned action in our businesses and see the results we want.
And finally, somatic coaching can help business owners and entrepreneurs heal stress, anxiety, and burnout. This is so important because when we have clients that run their own businesses, it’s easy for them to get caught up in the hustle and neglect their own well-being. But when they take care of themselves first, they are much more likely to be successful in business and sustain long-term growth.
4. How to Use Somatic Coaching as a Therapist
Therapists work with clients on all sorts of mental health issues, from anxiety and depression to trauma and addiction. Somatic coaching can be a helpful tool for therapists, especially if they are only trained on top-down approaches to therapy.
A top-down approach to therapy means that the focus is on changing the client’s thoughts and beliefs in order to change their emotions and behavior. However, somatic coaching takes a bottom-up approach, which means we work with the body first to change the mind.
Our emotions are often stored in the body as tension or trauma. And most traumatic events occur while we’re young and before we even have the language to understand what is happening to us. So by working with the body first, we can access emotions and memories that are stored in the body but may not be accessible through cognitive approaches to therapy. Especially for clients who get triggered into a flight, flight, freeze, or fawn trauma response, where their brain goes into survival mode and shuts down the higher cognitive functions — in this case, top-down approaches basically become useless.
Additionally, somatic coaching can help therapists support their clients to release any emotions or patterns that are no longer serving them. When we can clear out these emotional blocks, it’s much easier to make progress in therapy and see the results we want.
5. How to Use Somatic Coaching as a Health or Wellness Coach
Health and wellness coaches help their clients with all aspects of their health and well-being, from nutrition and exercise to sleep and stress management. Somatic coaching can be a helpful tool for health and wellness coaches in several ways. For example, somatic coaching can help wellness coaches understand the emotions and traumas that are driving their client’s health issues, eating habits, or exercise patterns. Once clients release these emotions and traumas using a somatic approach, they are naturally more drawn to making healthier choices for themselves.
Additionally, somatic coaching can help health and wellness coaches support their clients in releasing any stress or tension that is held in their bodies. This is important because when our bodies go into stressed survival mode, they can store fat. But when we can release stress and create a sense of safety within, our bodies are more likely to let go of the weight naturally and find an ideal weight.
And finally, somatic coaching can help your health and wellness clients connect more deeply to their bodies and hunger cues. We often eat when we’re not hungry because we’re trying to satisfy an emotional need. But when we can connect to our bodies and listen to what they’re really asking for, we’re more likely to make healthy choices that nourish our bodies rather than using food as a coping mechanism.
6. How to Use Somatic Coaching as a Marketing Coach
Marketing coaches help their clients with all aspects of their marketing, from branding and design to copywriting and sales. Somatic coaching can be a helpful tool for marketing coaches in several ways.
One way is that somatic coaching can help marketing coaches understand the energetics playing out in their clients’ businesses. For example, if a client is trying to attract more clients but has a lot of self-doubt or self-criticism around their work, somatic coaching can help them clear out those emotions so they can show up more confidently in their marketing and creative expression (which often leads to attracting more aligned clients!).
Also, if your clients struggle to show, be consistent, and be seen, it could be because they have a self-expression wound or past trauma holding them back. Somatic coaching can help resolve that trauma so they can show up more fully in their business and be the leader they’re meant to be.
Another way somatic coaching can help your marketing clients is by helping them get clear on their ideal client and putting their message into words. How? Because somatic coaching can help them connect to their intuition and inner guidance, and from there, they can create messaging that feels good, aligns with their soul, and is backed by passion and purpose.
Let’s not forget the overwhelm and confusion that can arise for clients struggling with marketing. Somatic coaching can help these clients get out of their heads and into their bodies so they can get clear on what they really want to say and how they want to show up. It can help them release all the advice and “shoulds” that they have been told to do and instead choose a marketing strategy and business model that feels good to them.
Finally, somatic coaching can help your marketing clients understand and clear out any blocks they have around money. This is important because our relationship with money often reflects our relationship with our own self-value and worthiness. If we have blocks around money, it will be difficult to charge what our work is worth or make the income we desire. But when we clear out those blocks, it’s much easier to stop undercharging and ask for the sale.
7. How to Use Somatic Coaching as a Money Coach
As a money coach, you help your clients release unhealthy money habits, clear debt, and accumulate wealth. Somatic coaching can be a helpful tool for money coaches in several ways.
First, somatic coaching can help your clients understand and clear out any blocks around money. This is important because we often learn our money habits and beliefs in childhood from our caregivers. And as we know, children are highly impressionable. So if our caregivers had a lot of money stress or money issues, we might have picked up on those energetics and imprinted them in the deepest parts of our minds, bodies, and nervous systems.
Somatic coaching goes deeper than just mindset work around money. It helps clear out energetic blocks at a somatic level so your clients can release the old patterns and create new, healthy ones. It gets to the root of their abundance blocks so they can create lasting change.
Secondly, somatic coaching can help clients become more aware of their relationship with money and the emotions that drive their decisions. This is important because so much of our relationship with money is emotional. We may not even be aware of the emotions that are driving our money decisions.
Somatic coaching can help your clients get in touch with their emotions around money so they can become more aware of their triggers and make different choices. It can help them understand why they spend money when they’re stressed or save money when they’re scared. It can help them become more conscious of their money decisions and create a healthier relationship with money.
Lastly, somatic coaching can help your clients feel safe receiving and having more money. This is important because so many of us have unconscious, primal fears about being wealthy. We believe there’s not enough to go around, that we don’t deserve to have more, or that something bad will happen to us if we become rich. But when we clear out those blocks and open up to receiving, we can allow more money to flow into our lives. Somatic coaching has the power to heal these fears at the deepest level so your clients can receive money with open arms, spend it in alignment, and always have more than enough so they can live from overflow.
8. How to Use Somatic Coaching as a Mindset & Manifestation Coach
Manifestation coaches help their clients manifest their deepest desires using the law of attraction. Somatic coaching can be a helpful tool for manifestation coaches in several ways, primarily because the law of attraction is so much more than just “change your thinking” — it’s about changing your vibration.
With somatic coaching, you’re able to work on shifting your client’s vibration on ALL levels — the mind, emotions, and energy. But most manifestation coaches only work on the level of mindset and thinking. But somatic coaching can help you go deeper by addressing the emotional and energetic blocks that may keep your client from manifesting their desires.
For example, if your client is trying to manifest a new relationship but has many fears and past wounds around intimacy, somatic coaching can help them heal those wounds and clear out those fears. This will help them raise their vibration around relationships, making it much easier to attract a healthy, loving partner into their life.
Somatic coaching can also help your clients become more aware of their energy and how it’s affecting their manifestation work. For example, if your client is trying to manifest a new job, but they’re constantly anxious and stressed about money, somatic coaching can help them shift their energy and focus on feeling more calm and more confident. This will help them raise their vibration around money and work, making it much easier to attract a new job into their life.
Plus, somatic coaching is amazing for helping your clients connect to their authentic selves and TRUE soul desires, making it easier for them to know what opportunities or people are in alignment. Somatic coaching also activates and strengthens their intuition, which is important in manifestation because it guides your clients into inspired action.
9. How to Use Somatic Coaching as a Sexuality Coach
Sexuality coaches help their clients explore their sexuality, heal from sexual trauma, and understand their sexual desires. Somatic coaching can be a helpful tool for sexuality coaches in several ways. For example, if your clients have experienced sexual trauma, somatic coaching can help them release the emotions and energy that are still held in their bodies from the trauma. This is important because oftentimes, sexual trauma can be stored in our bodies and impact our sexual expression without us even realizing it. But when we clear out the trauma, we can show up more fully in our sexuality and have healthier, more satisfying sexual relationships.
Somatic coaching can also help your clients understand their sexual desires and how to express them. Oftentimes, we are taught to suppress our sexual desires or view them as shameful. But when we can connect to our bodies and listen to what they’re telling us, we can learn to express our desires in a healthy, consensual way. It also helps us choose more aligned sexual partners and create better boundaries because we’re more attuned to our own energy, needs, desires, and empowerment.
Plus, somatic coaching can help your clients heal their relationship with their bodies. This is important because so often, we can view our bodies as objects or something to be ashamed of. But when we have a healthy relationship with our bodies, we can express ourselves more fully, feel more sexy, and enjoy our bodies and sexuality way more.
Finally, somatic coaching can help your clients learn to be more present during sex. This is important because oftentimes, we can get caught up in our heads during sex and miss out on the pleasure and connection that is available to us in the present moment. But when we learn to be more present, we can connect more deeply with our partners and experience more pleasure.
To wrap it up…
As you can see, somatic coaching can be used in SO many ways, no matter what type of coach or therapist you are — this post was just scratching the surface! There are infinite ways to use this healing technique, no matter what coaching niche you’ve chosen.
If you’re not already using somatic coaching in your practice, I hope this has inspired you to give it a try. It truly is an amazing tool that can transform your clients’ lives.
If you want to learn more about somatic coaching, I encourage you to check out the Pause Somatic Coaching Certification program and book a breakthrough Call. In the program, you’ll learn somatic coaching techniques that you can use with your clients and how to integrate somatic coaching into your new or existing coaching practice.
