Kim Eabry, MPH
Somatic Health Coaching
Rooted and Rising
What Is Somatic Coaching?
Somatic coaching is about learning to hear what your body is telling you through sensation, breath, posture, impulses, emotion, and images — and responding with kindness. When you live with chronic illness, it can feel like your body is working against you. But often, those signals are your body’s way of asking for rest, safety, or support.
Why it matters
Our nervous system is always scanning for safety. When it doesn’t feel safe, the body may speed up (tension, anxiety, racing thoughts) or shut down (fatigue, brain fog, disconnect, numb). These are protective responses - your body's way of keeping you safe. But when they linger, they can take a real toll on our well-being.​
Listening to your body with curiosity and care
Working with our "parts"
These responses sometimes show up as "parts" of us — inner voices or roles that try to help, but can end up pulling us in different directions. These parts often trace back to early stress or trauma — ways our younger selves learned to cope and stay safe, valued, or loved.
For example, you might notice a part that:
Somatic coaching gets at the root of what may be holding you back so that what you are wanting to create can fall more easily into place.
Pushes you to keep achieving — to avoid the inner critic — instead of resting
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Tries to control or fix in order to avoid helplessness — sometimes through endless
research, hypervigilance, or rigidity
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Feels safe or lovable only when caring for others first
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Distracts or numbs — snacking, scrolling, or zoning out — to avoid discomfort.
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Holds back from starting — to avoid failure, overwhelm, or the discomfort of what might come next.
These parts leave an imprint in the body — in muscle tension, posture, breath, or attitude towards the world — often below conscious awareness. We can override them for a while with logic or willpower, but stress often reactivates them, making it hard to stick with new habits or stay in a healing state.
How somatic coaching helps
Somatic coaching gives you tools to notice and “map” how your protective parts show up in the body — as tight shoulders, a racing heart, a heavy chest, shallow breath, or shifts in posture and outlook.
By turning towards these parts with curiosity and compassion, acknowledging that they developed with positive intention — and can even be allies when balanced — you can loosen their hold and create healthier, more sustainable habits. With practice, new patterns begin to take root, lasting even under stress, and opening more space for healing.
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Somatic coaching also works directly with the nervous system. Through gentle practices — awareness, breath work, self-touch, and easeful movement — you can learn to settle your system and restore balance. These practices support the vagus nerve — the main nerve that tells your body when it’s safe to rest, digest, and repair.
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When your body feels safe, it frees up energy for:​​​​​​
The Big Picture - TL;DR
By bringing curiosity and care to both your nervous system and your inner parts, somatic coaching helps you shift from constant coping to more steadiness, resilience, and self-trust - even while living with chronic conditions.
By addressing the root of what may be holding you back, the habits you are wanting to create fall more easily into place.
Repair and recovery
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Digestion and immunity
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Rest, connection, and creativity
"Kim's presence and reflections gave me entirely new perspectives, and I felt deeply held and supported in who I am. My own intuition and knowing is always invited to the table when we talk.
"Working with Kim has helped me keep away from negative self-talk and have more compassion for myself."
Elyse
