Somatic Coaching

When our world is overwhelming, our mothering, parenting, or relationships feel fraught and exhausting, our career isn’t where we want it to be, and we crave a life that is rooted in embodiment, but don’t feel we have the time or energy to make the change…

Who or what do we turn to?

Our culture of disembodiment may offer binge watching TV, overconsumption of xyz, doom scrolling social media, living for the weekend, working until we crash, and surviving rather than thriving.

But if you are here, it’s because you desire to live a life rooted in connection, embodiment, balance, and joy.

You are here because you seek support in learning about your life, past-present-future, through the somatic lens, through understanding your nervous system and how it is uniquely attenuated. You want support in exploring your identity, the inner journey you are on in this lifetime. You want actionable steps to make changes in your life, and someone to champion you along the way.

You may have recently experienced a big shift in your life, such as childbirth/parenting, a new relationship, a career change (or desire for such), a traumatic event; or you may be aware that past experiences in your life are deeply impacting your present, and you wish to unburden yourself and your nervous system from the imprint of those experiences.

You may be here because you want to break generational patterns, address toxic relationships or situations, heal wounds, or create a space that is safe to explore the multifaceted nature of your personhood.

You want to transform.

Let’s begin the journey together–

My journey to somatic coaching has been as surprising as it has been fulfilling. I did not set out in my career to call myself a coach, but the role found me with ease, long before I had the word for it. As a doula, I was always finding myself invested in the emotional support piece of the work so much deeper than any training had explained. I found I was sitting for hours with my clients, pouring over their life experience with tenderness, empathy, and a desire to affirm and support their transformative journey.

I found these conversations with clients naturally–emerging in the wee morning hours in a dimly lit nursery, sitting at the feet of the new mother, breasts engorged, tears and milk leaking, as she allowed me entrance into the psychic parts of herself that so few people had witnessed, let alone someone so new to her life. I never feared these talks, never worried about exploring spiritual, political, cultural, or personal beliefs. Always felt comfortable holding space for grief, for darkness, for the parts of the motherhood journey that weren’t “pretty,” and also celebrating this woman in the strides she made in her mothering, in her relationships, in her journey back to herself.

Back then, I had fewer trainings, fewer tools, just my intuition and my love for the new mother. But now, over a decade later, I have taken my own postpartum journey, my own ascent from the depths, as well as dedicated the past two+ years to somatic education. When I began to understand my nervous system, my world changed: my relationship to myself, my daughter, my partner, my family, my clients, the world, transformed. Suddenly I felt like the things I didn’t understand about my life had an explanation: one rooted in the body, in the evolution of our species, our mammalian nature, spiritual and psychic identity, childhood, epigenetics, and so on.

Through life experience, training, mentorship, seeking out a coach for myself, and developing somatic, embodied practices, I embrace my role in life as a coach, mentor, guide, confidant, friend, and ally to those who seek their own embodied transformation. I am especially fulfilled by coaching mothers, and happily work with all who wish to know themselves more deeply.

A mother wishing to prioritize herself

A parent seeking support in conscious parenting practices

A partner of someone already in my care

A person or couple preparing to start a family, but who are not yet pregnant

A couple wanting to address relational issues from a somatic lens

A woman wishing to connect more to her fertility and menstrual cycle

A doula or birth professional wanting personalized business and life coaching

Someone who wants to understand their nervous system and how it informs their life

Someone seeking tools, support, and guidance in living a life that feels whole

Because of my decade long doula career, I have extensive experience supporting women and mothers. I comfortably navigate a myriad of topics that mothers are often experiencing or grappling with in some way: identity, sexuality, birth trauma, grief, relational changes or challenges, depletion, postpartum physical changes, perinatal mood disorders, and more.

I am equally comfortable supporting: parents wishing to change their approach and heal from their own wounds made within their family of origin, those who wish to explore the deeper lineages of generational trauma and epigenetic imprinting, couples who are experiencing relational issues and want to connect on a deeper level, women who want to explore their relationship to their menstrual cycle and how it impacts their life, doulas and other care-centered entrepreneurs looking to operate a business from a place of integrity, people who want to repair their relationship with their body, nervous system, and personhood.

Where appropriate and desired, coaching clients may be recommended and welcomed into my care as a scar tissue remediation centered bodyworker. Coaching may involve some touch-based practices to orient the nervous system, such as those created by Beth Dennison, bone holding, and other coaching techniques developed by other somatic coaches and practitioners I have studied under. Remember, this is coaching rooted in the body.

Process

Ready to step into this new journey? Please schedule a discovery call. In this call, we will learn more about one another, identify the aspects of your life for which you are seeking support, and create a coaching plan to initiate your transformation.

Logistics

For most clients, coaching will take place virtually via Zoom or Facetime, unless located near me in Memphis, TN, in which case clients are welcome to come in person to my office in Midtown.

Coaching packages are created in a customized manner per the individual or couple. Generally clients are encouraged to begin with a 3 or 6 month coaching container.

Are you ready to start your transformation journey? Let’s schedule a time to chat about your goals, or what has led you to realize you want support. Please contact me here, email me at zoe.etkin@gmail.com, or call me at (901)336.4168 to schedule a discovery call.