Workplace Wellness in London

Somatic Stress Management Programmes

Want to invest in helping your team reduce their stress, live more in a state of flow, and access more of their potential?

What is Somatic Stress Management?

There are lots of cognitive-behavioural approaches to stress management out there — techniques to shift mindsets and build new habits. These can be very effective for some people for whom issues arise at these levels, but they don’t delve into the levels of self that often dictate our lives in the background: our physiology, and our emotions.

Somatics is the study of the mind-body continuum, and the intelligence that lives in our bodies. Particular emphasis is given to the nervous system as the foundation for our ability to self-regulate, and the embodied experience of our emotions (think: the fluttering of anxiety in our guts or the warm buzz of love in our hearts).

When we understand stress as a mind-body event, it gives us the power to intervene at these various levels, and — over time — change the way we’re wired to manage stress.

What can we expect in Somatic Stress Management?

Key topics covered in Flux&Flow Somatic Stress Management include:

Basic physiology of stress
Breathing, movement, visualisation and meditation techniques to voluntarily shift your state
Somatic emotional processing to access root beliefs or unprocessed emotions that perpetuate stress cycles
Coaching around daily practices to help your system learn down-regulation, as well as building resilience

What are some of the outcomes of a Somatic Stress Management programme?

Over time, this process is about helping your team members build themselves a programme of daily habits that help them travel up and down the spectrum of their nervous system with ease; having a regular practice of moving into discomfort to build resilience, but also intentionally bringing in rest and recovery to help replenish energy resources. And, crucially, this process teaches which interventions are needed when you’re triggered, which will look different for different people in different scenarios.

Overall, this programme is about becoming attuned to yourself, your physiology, and the emotions and mental narratives that contribute to unbridled stress that holds back your potential. With strong communication between body and mind, you’re better able to regulate yourself, process your emotions, and spend more time in flow state. From this place, you have more access to your creativity, intuition and presence, which will help make your team members more productive, innovative and fulfilled.

Who can benefit?

Becoming the master of your nervous system

Especially if you’re a busy professional, chances are that you are physiologically stressed a lot of the time — even if you don’t ‘feel’ stressed. These practices and frameworks will help you attune to your physiology to work towards high performance, optimising your energy management with the ability to exert yourself when necessary, and to deeply rest and recover to give your system time to adapt to challenges.

A team effort

Even if you don’t ‘suffer’ with stress, understanding how stress works and how to intervene is invaluable when it comes to helping colleagues, friends and family find their way to self-regulation. These embodied practices will help you to understand what it means to be regulated versus dysregulated, thereby engendering more empathy and trust in your relationships. These are essential skills for leadership and team relationship dynamics.

Burnout

We’ve all heard for a long time that burnout in the workplace is rife. This somatic work will help prevent burnout by teaching stressed systems how to regulate, rather than pushing to the point of collapse. For team members that have already reached burnout or have experienced high stress and/or anxiety, the addition of 1-to-1 Somatic Coaching can be very valuable to help these vulnerable nervous systems find a state of safety, which is an individualised pathway that also involves emotional and mental processing.

How can we get started?

You can build your own programme depending on the needs of your team. Here are the services you can choose from.

This introductory workshop will teach your team the basic theory and practices of Somatic Stress Management. You’ll get the opportunity to experiment with different techniques and frameworks that introduce you to nervous system regulation and emotional processing.
This workshop can last between 2hrs and a half-day, depending on team size and specific requirements.
The foundational pillars of this approach are self-awareness and self-regulation. Somatic Yoga classes provide the opportunity to practise these skills, which, over time, rewire the nervous system to more easily down-regulate into a state of calm.
Somatic Yoga differs from other styles of yoga in that it is highly focused on embodied mindfulness and nervous system regulation. It also includes focus on anatomy and mechanics as a way of giving your mind a focal point for present-moment awareness, as well as optimising your breathing, ovement and posture for more daily ease and efficiency.
These classes can be booked on a weekly, fortnightly or monthly basis, or can be brought into off-sites and events. Somatic Yoga can also be taught as a workshop with a specific theme, depending on what your team might be going through.
1-to-1 or small group coaching provides the space to dive deeper into your team members’ individual and group processes. Ultimately, you could read an article about various somatic techniques, but true embodiment is a path of mastery. As such, true mastery requires self-reflection, receiving feedback, and being willing to get uncomfortable when you meet your developmental edge.
Coaching is really where the juice of this process lies. Without it, you may understand the theory and benefit in the short-term from the techniques, but long-term reprogramming requires deliberate practice and introspection.
I recommend 1-to-1 coaching particularly for team members struggling with stress, anxiety or overwhelm, but also for teams looking to optimise their nervous systems and emotional intelligence.
Coaching can be build into a group programme lasting 3, 6, or 12 months. 1-to-1 coaching can be included, or booked in blocks of 6 sessions when needed.

Let’s talk!

To discuss more about your team’s specific needs and how I might be able to help, we can set up a free consultation call. Prices will vary depending on travel, timings and specific requirements.

Book a consultation