Somatic Therapy in Connecticut and New York: How to Navigate Life Transitions and Seasonal Change
As summer fades into fall here in Connecticut, many of my clients feel that transition. The experience of being in transition — whether seasonal, relational, or life changes — can stir up anxiety, stress, or even a sense of being unmoored. Somatic therapy can offer tools to reconnect with your body and navigate these shifts with more grounding and ease.
The Sensitivity of Transitions
As I write this, we are in between summer and fall — not quite hot, not quite cold. The morning air feels fresh and cool, a reprieve from the muggy, humid summer weather of the past few months. Afternoons serve up the perfect dose of warming sunlight, with a soft breeze brushing across your skin that gives you the goosebumps. We are in the in between. The liminal space.
Sensitive, ambitious, and spiritually connected people are often sensitive to transitions. And seasonal shifts are a transition. We can feel change of all kinds deeply as sensitive creatures — all while living in a society that doesn’t hold the value of slowing down and acknowledging these seasonal shifts. So, we have to claim these for ourselves.
Sometimes, the simple acts of becoming aware of and naming these transitions as they happen can ease that kind of bristly, restless feeling that can accompany being in the in-between, and can help you to feel more grounded amidst the transition energy.
Your Nervous System’s Response to Change
Being able to access nervous system regulation practices during transitions can be incredibly helpful. One of the core values of somatic practice is integration, which is an intentional state of rest you give yourself to allow your body to process and digest experiences. Integration allows your brain and your body to “catch up” to a new more regulated and grounded way of being.
When you’re in a season of change, it can be helpful to incorporate simple somatic practices during the everyday moments of transition so that you can integrate the changes that are afoot.
For example, in between working and taking a walk break outside, you are transitioning from work mode to rest mode. To shift between these states, you can ground your body by saying to yourself, “I am now transitioning out of work mode and into rest mode.” Sometimes, the simple act of naming can be enough to help you acclimate to transition and ease the sometimes-jarring feeling of moving from an active state to a resting state.
How Somatic Therapy and Somatic Exercises Can Help
Something I often teach on my Insight Timer live classes is a practice called orienting. Orienting is the somatic practice of locating yourself in the present moment and in physical space. You do this by naming and noticing and feeling where your body is in the moment. When you’re in somatic therapy for anxiety and life transitions, orienting may be a practice that a somatic therapist teaches you and practice with you at the beginning of a session to help you to feel more grounded, safe, and regulated in your body.
A Simple Orienting Practice
Here is an orienting practice you can do anytime, anywhere:
Close your eyes and begin to connect with your breath. Let your breath be natural.
Gently name out loud to yourself how your body is positioned, what your body is resting on, and where you are located (i.e. “I am seated in a chair in my dining room.”)
Notice the parts of your body that are touching any surfaces beneath you (i.e. Your feet touching the floor, your sits bones resting on the chair, the backs of your thighs sinking into the chair, your back resting on the back of the chair).
Feel the feel on the floor. Let your sits bones rest on the chair. Feel the backs of your thighs sink into the chair. Feel your back resting on the chair.
Check in: Do you feel more grounded? Does your body feel heavier in the chair? Do you feel more present?
Invitation to Work Together
If you’re navigating a life or seasonal transition and want to feel more grounded, I incorporate somatic exercises into my therapy practice in Connecticut and New York, and I offer private coaching worldwide. Let’s connect.
👉 Schedule a therapy consultation (if you live in Connecticut or New York) or a coaching consultation (if you live anywhere else).
With care,
Heather
