There is a moment in every somatic session where something begins to gather inside. It is not a clear thought or an emotion we can easily name, but more like something in between. Something that lives deeper in the body and that asks for attention in a different way. American psychologist and philosopher Eugene Gendlin called this the Felt Sense (Gendlin, 1981).

This is the story of how a foot massage morphed into a somatic session that brought me powerful and unexpected emotional insights. So, first off, I really love having my feet rubbed. Not sure why - just has always felt great and, let’s face it, my feet do a lot of work. Whenever I worked with other massage therapists in the past I always noticed I felt sad that they didn’t work on my feet for longer but this time I decided that I would ask André to only work on my feet.

This is a post informed by PolyVagal theory (as developed by Dr. Stephen Porges) and based on Deb Dana’s concept of somatic glimmers. My journey into the world of noticing, collecting and cultivating glimmers is a fairly recent one. Glimmers, however, happen spontaneously for everyone, whether you notice them or not. A glimmer - as defined by Deb Dana - are:

As the month of June approached, I sent out my June newsletter in the last day of May. Two days later, I felt terribly guilty when my...

A perspective on the use of touch in therapeutic settings. When is it ok to touch?