Nervous System Support
NeuroAffective Touch:
a Somatic (Body-Based) approach to resolving chronic stress & trauma, without making the Mind redundant - but rather; building & strengthening the relationship between the two…
NeuroAffective Touch® is a professional somatic training that introduces psychotherapists and bodyworkers to the use of touch as a vital bridge to body-mind integration. By highlighting the primary role of the body and emphasizing its equal importance to the mind, NeuroAffective Touch® (NATouch™) addresses emotional, relational, and developmental deficits that cannot be reached by verbal means alone.
A polyvagal-informed psychobiological approach, NeuroAffective Touch® integrates the key elements of somatic psychotherapy, attachment and developmental theory, psychodynamic psychotherapy, and affective and interpersonal neurobiology.
The training is designed to progressively build psychotherapists’ skill and confidence in integrating body-centered interventions into their psychological clinical practice. It also supports bodyworkers in developing the verbal and psychological skills necessary to assist their clients in connecting their neurobiological states to a conscious narrative.
All of the treatment and yoga/meditation offerings at Somewhere to Be are, on some level, informed and inspired by this Somatic body of work known as NeuroAffective Touch; a form of Somatic Experiencing pioneered by Dr. Aline La Pierre.
It looks at how our nervous systems store chronic stress and/or trauma (big or small) and in turn; how our bodies hold themselves (quite literally the shapes they assume), how our bodies hold tension (where we tend to brace or armour-up), and how our systems respond/react & play out particular patterns in our lives - often on repeat - keeping us stuck in past conditioning or unconscious old cycles.
Somatic Experiencing:
Something that touches into everything that Sarah does here at Somewhere to Be.
Our Founder, Sarah, naturally sought-out NeuroAffective training after having experienced the effects of burnout at its most extreme, back in 2019, realising that a compounded combination of chronic stress and childhood trauma led to nervous system symptoms that really were impacting all parts of her life.
Sarah has since taken her time to integrate everything she learnt from this body of work AND her Yoga Teacher Training over the course of the last 4 years. She, like many yoga teachers, is first & foremost a Yogi herself. She’ll forever be a student of Yoga (and therefore of life…) But the same goes for all this nervous system stuff. Somatics has transformed her own life in the most profound ways and yet it remains unfinished; spiralling back around time and again, a nervous system response or some more past-conditioning ready to be seen from a slightly new perspective - a newer edition of Self ready to be released.
It’s this embodiment and empowerment, that is so intertwined with everything she does now, that Sarah is so passionate about sharing with others. Whether it be seemingly surface-level skin support or journeying to the depths of the soul in meditation; Somatic Therapy touches into everything she does. It’s integrative, just like Yoga!
It informs the way in which she now moves through the world, everyday… including every treatment offering and yoga class at Somewhere to Be.
