October 3rd, 2023

Two months after I was diagnosed with SIBO, I dove headfirst into somatic therapy, energy work, and mentorship. I knew there had to be a deeper message behind the physical symptoms — something my body was trying to communicate that my mind hadn’t yet understood.

During this time, I reconnected with my doula, Kyndal, who introduced me to a somatic modality called Feldenkrais. We scheduled a session to exchange services, and that experience changed everything.

What Feldenkrais Is

The Feldenkrais Method is a gentle, movement-based practice that helps retrain the nervous system. Instead of stretching or forcing, it uses slow, mindful movements to create new neural pathways — allowing the body to release old patterns and return to ease.

Our nervous system is constantly mapping how we move, breathe, and hold ourselves. Stress, trauma, and years of survival mode can hard-wire certain postures, tension, and protective responses. Feldenkrais works by slowing everything down, reintroducing subtle variations, and offering the brain new options. When the body feels safe, it can soften. When it softens, it can heal.

My Experience

During my session, Kyndal guided me to notice how my body met the table — the lines of contact and the breath in my ribs. She felt a stagnation around my kidneys. After a sequence of gentle movements, she asked me to lie on my back. Immediately, I felt the left side of my body heavy and grounded, while the right felt like it was floating off the edge. A perfect dividing line — masculine and feminine, survival and softness.

Then the trembling started.

It rose from my chest and moved through my limbs like a storm of electricity. Tears came fast. I felt anger, grief, and something ancient that didn’t have words. My whole system wanted to scream, but the vulnerability of it made me hold back.

The more I fought it, the stronger the tremors grew. Eventually, I surrendered. I let my body shake. I let the tears fall. I let the intensity move through me instead of trying to control it.

At one point, I felt a deep instinct to hide in the dark corner of the room — the scared animal inside me wanting safety. Kyndal supported me as I moved there, standing on my tiptoes, shaking uncontrollably each time my heels touched the floor. She handed me rattles and guided my breath until the intensity began to settle.

When I returned to the table, I laid on my belly. She placed her hand on my kidney — the place that always aches — and we spoke about the balance of the masculine and feminine. How my right side (the doing, pushing, surviving side) had been overdeveloped for years. And how my left side (the receiving, softening, intuitive side) was finally asking to be heard.

On the drive home, I sobbed. For three days I was exhausted, emotional, and even came down with a cold. My body had released something deep — something that talk therapy could never have accessed.

Why Somatic Therapy Matters

This experience reminded me that the body is the keeper of everything we’ve lived through. Trauma doesn’t live in the mind — it lives in our breath, in our muscles, in our posture, in the places we disconnect from.

Feldenkrais and other somatic therapies help:

• release stored trauma safely
• unwind survival patterns
• restore balance between the masculine and feminine
• teach the nervous system how to soften again
• reconnect us with the parts we abandoned to stay alive

Healing isn’t just about understanding your story. Healing asks us to come home to our bodies — to the wisdom, the memories, the emotions, and the energy living beneath the surface. It’s about feeling what the body has been carrying, and allowing it to move. Somatic therapy offers a safe pathway back to that inner truth. If your body has been whispering (or shouting) for support, I would love to walk with you in this next chapter of your healing.

Much love,

Beth