But here is what we missed in those early days: humans aren’t machines that can be optimized through better programming. We are infinitely more complex, embodied, culturally embedded beings living in a more-than-human world. The cracks in the purely cognitive coaching model became impossible to ignore when clients would achieve all their goals yet still feel empty, when brilliant strategies would collapse under the weight of unprocessed emotions, when the most successful leaders were also the most disconnected from themselves and others.
The Somatic Revolution: Coaches Are Discovering That Leaders Actually Have Bodies
The integration of somatic coaching into the field represents nothing less than a revolution, though perhaps “reunion” would be more accurate. After all, we are simply remembering what every indigenous and ancient culture has always known: the body holds wisdom that the mind alone cannot access.
Somatic Coaching emerged from a beautiful collision of neuroscience, trauma therapy, mindfulness practices, a variety of movement modalities, and the revolutionary idea that maybe, just maybe, that tension in your shoulders during board meetings is trying to tell you something important. This approach recognizes that our bodies are not just an organic vehicle carrying our precious brains around (though I have met leaders who seemed to operate on this assumption). Rather, our bodies are integral to how we perceive, decide, and lead.
I remember working with a CEO who intellectually understood that she needed to delegate more but couldn’t seem to actually do it. We had talked it through from every angle – the business case, the team development benefits, the time management advantages. Nothing shifted until we explored how her body literally contracted when she considered letting go of control. Her shoulders would rise, her jaw would clench, and her breathing would become shallow. These weren’t just reactions to the idea of delegation; they were embodied memories of childhood experiences where letting go meant chaos and danger.
Working somatically, we didn’t just talk about trust; she learned to experience trust in her body. She practiced breathing into expansion, softening her grip (literally and figuratively), and noticing the difference between vigilance and awareness. The shift was profound, and not only because she gained new information, but because she developed a new way of being in her body that made delegation possible.
The neuroscience behind this is fascinating and vindicates what practitioners have observed for years. Our vagus nerve, that wandering messenger between body and brain, carries about 80% of its signals upward from body to brain, not the other way around. Our gut literally has its own neural network – the enteric nervous system – often called our “second brain” (though given its evolutionary precedence, perhaps our gut should file a complaint about being labeled “second”). When we ignore these embodied sources of information, we are essentially trying to lead with 20% of our available data. And then, of course, there is also the heart.
Download Article
