Integrating Somatic Work into Perinatal Coaching
Birth support professionals have mastered somatic work, as they naturally attune to the body’s wisdom when supporting expectant individuals and new parents. Through hands-on comfort measures like massage and acupressure, breath awareness, guided movement, and voice activation, I’ve helped my doula clients navigate the physical and emotional sensations of the perinatal journey. Whether using positioning, grounding exercises, or mindful touch, birth professionals integrate somatic practices into their care, fostering safety, trust, and empowerment.
So, it’s no surprise that many hesitate when I encourage them to shift from long hours of hands-on support to perinatal coaching conversations. It can feel revolutionary—and even intimidating—to imagine stepping away from the familiar, deeply embodied skills they’ve honed. Yet, this shift doesn’t mean abandoning somatic wisdom; instead, it’s about transforming how we use it, allowing for a deeper impact while reducing professional fatigue and burnout.
Somatic work and perinatal coaching conversations
I ask my client to stand in a victory pose, a superwoman pose; the bodily sensation of victory and strength is compelling to the mind
Integrating transformational coaching into my birth support doesn’t mean I stopped using somatic wisdom and skills. On the contrary, Transformational Perinatal Coaches must rely on somatic work to achieve trust and intimacy, encourage authenticity, facilitate alignment between clients’ beliefs, wishes, and actions, and empower clients throughout a series of coaching conversations.
Integrating somatic work into perinatal coaching means incorporating body-based awareness, sensory attunement, and regulation techniques into the coaching conversation. The body holds experiences, emotions, and memories that shape a person’s responses and decision-making. By recognizing a client’s body language and physiological cues, perinatal coaches can more effectively address clients’ mindset and support meaningful behavioral shifts. Simple yet powerful techniques—such as inviting a client to place a gentle hand on their chest while speaking—can profoundly influence their emotional state and the way they express themselves. Similarly, asking a client to repeat a statement with a more assertive tone can shift their perspective and reinforce self-assurance. These embodied practices enhance the coaching process, creating deeper awareness and lasting transformation.
Establishing rapport and trust with somatic awareness
Somatic awareness helps me access discomfort, lack of alignment, and emotions such as shame or anger
Transformational coaches establish rapport through somatic awareness, which means attuning not just to the clients’ words but also to their body language, breath patterns, tonality, and more cues, as well as changes in those and other subtle tunes throughout the coaching conversation. This skill is called sensory acuity, and when perinatal coaches master it, they establish and maintain rapport with clients by mirroring and matching nonverbal aspects of communication. Matching a client’s rhythm—whether through mirroring their breath, offering a grounding touch (with consent), or adjusting one’s tone and pace to meet their state—fosters trust on a deep, nonverbal level.
When I notice shifts in posture, muscle tension, or changes in breathing, I respond with empathy to create an immediate sense of safety and connection. This awareness helps me access discomfort, lack of alignment, and emotions such as shame or anger that clients try to hide, thereby deepening the connection between my clients and me.
Encouraging embodied decision-making
As a transformational perinatal coach, one of my goals is to help clients overcome self-doubt, fears, and internal resistance. I facilitate confidence and help clients develop autonomy and agency. Using somatic awareness, I can help clients tune into bodily sensations to understand their fear, tension, or resistance.
Sitting with a client and matching their position, the conversation flows easily. Then, all of a sudden, I notice how they respond to me by changing their body position or breathing pattern. I know something struck a cord. I can guess that maybe something was out of tune and didn’t quite resonate. But I don’t need to think. I’m reflecting by saying, “What just happened right now?” I noticed some movement in your body that makes me curious about your feelings.
Navigating fears with somatic awareness
Have you noticed how expectant and new parents often fixate on their fears and challenges rather than envisioning their desires? This isn’t unique to the perinatal journey—it’s human nature. Our brains are wired with a negativity bias, instinctively focusing on potential dangers and obstacles. In the realm of birth support, cultural narratives and external circumstances further amplify fear, making it difficult for individuals to connect with their vision for birth and parenting confidently. Integrating somatic awareness, I help clients shift from fear-based thinking to an empowered, confident approach to their journey.
For example, I used to encourage a worried client who tends to focus on challenges and things that might go wrong to visualize her desired experience. Now, I ask my client to stand in a victory pose, a superwoman pose, maybe put her hands up in the air in a V shape, and tell me about her desired experience for just five minutes. This bodily sensation of victory and strength is compelling to the mind.
Integrating somatic work in perinatal coaching conversations is powerful. It is a perfect practice for parenting, which makes the coaching process more profound and transformative. To learn more about Transformative Birth Work, I invite you to join my upcoming workshop: Perinatal Coaching Essentials
Photo by Ashkan Forouzani on Unsplash
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doula profession, Perinatal Coach, transformative birth work
