Somatic Coaching in Berlin

Connecting the physical with the emotional

Body Work
We are more than our thoughts and feelings—we are also our bodies. When we experience trauma or stress, our bodies may hold onto the memories of it in ways that are difficult to articulate or understand.

Somatic (body-centered) coaching helps people explore these challenging memories through touch and movement, identifying the psychosomatic patterns of one’s body and releasing these in a healthy way.

Samar Linn is an integrative coach based in Berlin. Samar’s work covers a range of somatic and transpersonal approaches, helping people connect the emotional to the physical.

What is somatic coaching?

Somatic coaching is a holistic approach to mental health and well-being that uses the body as a way to access the mind. It’s based on the well-documented knowledge that our minds and bodies are intrinsically linked.

Our minds, brains, bodily systems (including the peripheral nervous system, endocrine, and immune), and all our organs constantly communicate and share the same chemical language.

When we feel anxious or depressed about something, it may show up in our bodies as a physical symptom. In a similar vein, traumatic experiences and stress can cause lasting changes to our brains, both in physical structure and function.

Somatic coaching helps us discover what our physical symptoms mean, how they relate to our emotional lives, and how exploring these can help us move forward in life.

Through a range of touch and movement practices, somatic coaching fosters the connection between mind and body. It also teaches people how to find ways to release tension, heal from past traumas, and build resilience. Although somatic therapies are often viewed through a lens of spirituality, there is significant support for somatic approaches in biomedicine.

As Stanford University integrative psychiatrist James Lake notes: “Extensive research has confirmed the medical and mental benefits of meditation, mindfulness training, yoga, and other mind-body practices.”

Our bodies are forever present and therefore hold all our stories and experiences; it is through the body that the deepest healing, transformation, and growth can occur.

- Samar Linn

Working with Samar through the body has been amazing for me and I am very surprised how powerfully the work resonates with me.

- Samar Linn

Merging the body, mind, and spirit through somatic coaching

While our minds might remember the facts differently, or not remember them at all, our bodies hold and store a wealth of information.

In somatic coaching sessions, we discover ways to listen to the physical sensations of the body and express our feelings, and then bring cognitive understanding and sustainable behavioral change.

The body is our ally. When we learn to listen to it and apply the tools and techniques of somatic coaching, we can learn how to short-circuit negative thoughts, behaviors, and feeling patterns, merging the body, mind, and spirit.

Somatic coaching approaches and techniques

The practices or techniques of somatic coaching are designed to foster the mind-body connection and help us become attuned to it. Here are just a few examples of the techniques Samar uses:
Samar Linn Coaching
Somatic body awareness
Developing the ability to feel what is happening in our bodies and learning to listen to our internal cues and understand what they mean, so we can respond in appropriate ways. When we’re somatically aware, we can recognize the difference between the physical sensations that tell us we’re stressed or anxious, for example, and those that tell us we’re hungry or thirsty.
Titration and pendulation
Titration is a process in which we experience small amounts of distress at a time, and the focus is on releasing that tension from the body. Pendulation is what enables titration, as it involves pendulating your focus between stressors and something calming or soothing.
Boundary setting
Learning how to set and maintain personal boundaries is an essential part of the healing process. By paying attention to our boundaries and practicing how to express our limits both physically and verbally, we can become empowered and feel safe and comfortable within ourselves and in how we interact with others.
Orienting
Developing the ability to be present and experience ourselves fully in the environment around us. We learn to identify how we are breathing, and what that might signify to us. We learn where the openness and tension are in our bodies.
Samar has prepared a brief orienting exercise, which you can try here.
Nervous system regulation
Discovering the mind-body techniques that enable us to regulate our emotional state, and therefore our nervous system, and return to a state of balance when we’re triggered or in full fight or flight mode. We learn how to co-regulate, with assistance from another person, and how to self-regulate, soothe and calm ourselves.
Tracking

Studies have shown that many of the pain signals we receive (and experience physically) are not biomechanical or structural in origin, but rather the result of psychophysiological processes that we can control or even reverse.

Somatic tracking is a way to check in with our bodies and see if they’re telling us anything. It’s also a way to deactivate or rewire our brains’ conditioned responses by focusing on the here and now of the body.

Is somatic coaching right for me?

If you’re interested in exploring the deeper, more emotional aspects of your life and developing a better understanding of how they affect your physical and mental state, then somatic coaching is a good fit.

Somatic coaching isn’t just about being emotionally healthy, it’s about recognizing that our emotions have physical manifestations in our bodies. The goal is not simply to fix what’s wrong or make us feel good about ourselves; the goal is to help us live in a way that makes us feel alive, healthy, and whole.

Because somatic coaching can involve a range of approaches—depending on what people are comfortable with and the specific topic or challenge being addressed—there are options for most people. These options may be spirituality focused or rooted in the core tenets of psychology and include inner-child work, art therapy, creative response therapy, emotional bodywork, reiki, or movement inquiry.

Somatic coaching can help with:

  • Addiction
  • Anxiety
  • Conflict 
  • Chronic pain
  • Depression
  • Grief
  • Nervous system regulation
  • Stress

About Samar Linn, your somatic coach

Samar is a Berlin-based integrative coach. Her work fuses a range of somatic approaches. She guides people in navigating inner and outer complexities, essentially penetrating words and stories to arrive at new life experiences with more freedom and joy.

Samar’s somatic approach brings a lens of curiosity to meeting the body. Through a variety of tools, she offers perspective on how the body’s gestures, movements, and even postures might be both clues and healing aids to support clients’ goals.

Somatic coaching FAQs

Find the answers to your questions about somatic coaching in Berlin here.

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What is a somatic coach?

A coach who uses the body and its movements to help patients deal with emotional pain. They are trained in many different modalities of somatics, including dance, movement therapy, art therapy, and more.

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Is trauma stored in the body?

Yes. It’s not just that trauma is stored in the mind, or even that it affects the mind—it’s that trauma manifests physically in our cells.

When we experience trauma, our bodies react to protect us by releasing hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. These hormones help us fight or flee from danger, or even freeze or go numb as a way to protect vital organs, but they also change our body chemistry and fundamentally alter how we function.

Trauma can lead to shifts in brain structure and function, changes in hormone levels, shifts in immune system activity and inflammation levels, and more.

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What is a somatic method?

A way of approaching counseling and healing that helps people connect to and understand their bodies in a new way. The word ‘somatic’ comes from the Greek word for ‘body’ and is often used to describe treatments that focus on physical or emotional healing through the use of touch, movement, breathing, dance, and other forms of physical awareness.

Somatic methods are often used to help patients cope with chronic pain, stress disorders, addiction and recovery, and more.

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Can we heal the nervous system?

Yes, the nervous system can be healed through neuroplasticity, which is the ability of neural pathways to reorganize and restructure themselves according to need.

Common wisdom once held that our brains were hardwired at birth, however, we now know that our brains and nervous systems change over the course of our lives.

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What is the difference between cognitive coaching and somatic coaching?

​​Cognitive coaching is the practice of helping people to identify and understand their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Cognitive coaches work with clients to help them gain insight into their own minds, thoughts, and feelings in order to achieve lasting change.

Somatic coaching is a holistic approach to mental health that focuses on the body as a whole. It helps people to identify physical symptoms they may not have been aware of before, such as tension in the jaw or neck, or changes in appetite or sleep patterns, and how these are linked to emotional states.

Somatic coaches also help clients learn how to manage stress through breathing exercises, meditation, or other relaxation or even activation techniques.

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What is emotional bodywork?

An approach to healing that uses the body as a kind of map to understand and release trauma or other stored-up emotions, and stories from the past.

Emotional bodywork helps people identify areas of tension, release them, and then turn any uncomfortable sensations into something positive—like a release of tears or laughter, or even just a feeling of relief.

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How many sessions of somatic coaching are needed?

It varies, but most clients will benefit from between three and eight sessions. The more sessions you have, the more likely you are to see significant changes.

Some clients only need one or two sessions before they feel like their lives have changed for the better. Others need many more sessions over a longer period of time to feel like they’ve made progress.

If you’re unsure whether or not you need more sessions, consult with your coach and discuss your goals and progress.

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How frequent are somatic coaching sessions?

It depends. Some clients prefer a regular weekly or fortnightly session while others prefer ad hoc sessions on an as-needed basis.

It’s really up to you how often you’d like to schedule your somatic coaching sessions, just remember that a certain degree of regularity, at least in the beginning, can help expedite the healing process.

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Can somatic coaching help couples?

Yes, somatic coaching helps couples in a variety of ways. Since our bodies are innately connected to our emotions, somatic coaches look at how past experiences and present stressors are affecting the body, helping us recognize when the body experiencing stress and how to calm it down.

This can be especially helpful for couples who have trouble communicating or dealing with conflict. By helping each person understand what’s going on in their body and how they can use that information to better communicate with their partner, somatic coaching can help couples grasp each other’s needs and feelings on a much deeper level.