Somatic Savvy

Next Series: Online

Thursday’s 5-7pm MT

October 9, 16, 23, 30

An Internal Family Systems Informed and Somatically-Experiential Series…to come home to your body’s intelligence.

Your body holds unfinished business, lessons learned, and is collecting energy throughout the day. Energy from your interactions, your thoughts, how you move or don’t move, and for many of us, the energy we take on from others. This can manifest as a chronically busy mind, anxiety, depression, an accumulation of tension in the body, struggle with sleep, poor digestion, various autoimmune issues, and potentially cycles of interpersonal conflict or habitual patterns that cause more distress.

Whether you notice this “stuck-ness” in your own body, or are simply curious to learn or expand your knowledge regarding how to lean in and align with your rhythmic nature, how to release your grip on one way of knowing, or how to befriend and be with the present moment so you can access more peace and choice, Somatic Savvy is a series for you.

Somatic Savvy is a 4-part online experiential series that takes you on a journey to meet the key areas of your body that hold survival energy and various ways to release it. In two hour sessions, one week a part, we will:

• introduce and deepen your nervous system literacy for skillful self and co-regulation,

• broaden your understanding of somatic tools and techniques to release and restore throughout the day,

• focus on one of the Four P’s of the stress response - areas of the body where survival energy tends to surge and get stuck,

• utilize the Internal Family Systems model to conceptualize the relational field in our inner systems and how self-compassion and a practice of being-with what we notice can have multiple health benefits,

• encouragement to develop a morning and evening routine to align your system with it’s ideal cortisol rhythm,

• and, engage in playful experiments to increase your curiosity around natural rhythms to improve sleep, focus, rest, relationships and self-compassion.

Please join me for this unique four part series to journey into the vast intelligence of internal and external rhythms with your breath and heart as your teacher.

• It can be hard to understand how to cultivate the ability to pause, and equally challenging to know what to do in that pause. If we are to step off the path of habitual reaction and create space for a new story, a new choice, and a new habit, we need to slow down with intentional interventions so we can re-appraise, reframe, release and restore. It is in that space that we can retrain our body's relationship to stress and step off the familiar path, and fast-acting negative feedback loop of sensation -> perception -> emotion -> thought -> action (which then reinforces sensation).

• Rather than simply trying to cognitively repeat new thoughts, tell yourself what you need to hear or just rely on acting your way into a new way of thinking, we can interrupt this cycle at the level of sensation to create space for a new story and the possibility for healing. This encourages intense emotions to be energy in motion that we can feel and breathe-with until they release their grip (generally happens within 90 seconds) and a new perspective and plethora of possibilities will follow.

The numerous benefits of somatic exploration include:

• Development of your right-brain hemispheric mode of processing (rather than western culture’s over-emphasis on left-brain ways of being and doing)

• An ability to zoom in on detail and zoom out for a broader perspective (aka choice and wisdom)

• Insight, presence, and spiritual growth

• Release of stuck energy and access deep rest

• Recognition of patterns that do not serve you and access to cultivating the change you desire

• A flexible and adaptive nervous system

• Empowerment, confidence, and increased window of tolerance

• Improved health and well-being, and increase pro-social behavior

• Protective factor against anxiety, depression, and various other forms of mental and physical distress

Included:

• Somatic Savvy workbook

• Recorded Somatic relaxation and release videos to align with our weekly practice and progression

Commonly Asked Questions?

What should I wear for this class?

• Wear comfy clothes that allow you move your body without restriction. Have pillows and blankets nearby for added warmth and comfort at your leisure.

Is this like yoga?

• Not like a Western yoga class at all. When we are moving our bodies it will be minimal movement with cues that support you to move slower and less than you might move if you are “stretching” or engaging in a yoga sequence. We move with the intention of being-with our movement or whatever arises from the movement. Less is more. And, there will be approximately 15-20 minutes of lying in savasana at the end

Can I participate from my phone or hook up my laptop to my tv for a larger screen?

• Ideally a laptop or hook up to a larger screen. It is important that you log in from a private and quiet space, where you have room to lay on the floor and room to move your body around with as much space as your environment allows. A large screen is nice so that you can see the others participating.

Do I have to keep my screen on so others can see me?

• A key aspect of this series is learning to track your own nervous system states and how that shows up as a leaning in for connection or a pulling away from connection. This might look like a moment in time when you feel safe and open to the group and you have your screen on and allow yourself to be seen, and other times you feel yourself withdrawing and a desire to move away from the screen or turn it off entirely. I will invite you throughout the experience to notice and honor these impulses as we practice being-with our nervous system and learn tools and techniques that help us soothe ourselves when we feel disconnected and then open and lean in for connection as a natural rhythm.

What does one of these sessions actually look like? What would I be asked to do?

• Everything I offer and invite you to practice and experiment with is 100% your choice. One of the beautiful things about meeting online is that you are joining from the safety and sanctity of your own space, and you could just lay on your back and listen without engaging at all, if that is what your bodymind needs in that moment. You could also have your screen on, make eye contact with me and others, respond to the occasional check-in in the group chat, or let your voice be heard by asking a question for clarification or express an insight that is moving through you.

• In general, the majority of our time together will be an opportunity for you to be with you, while being held and a part of a group experience. For example, session 1 will be focused on concepts, tools and techniques that help us elevate safety signals in our body. This will be using our senses, breath, imagination and movement to find the internal and external resources that help you feel okay to be present and calm here and now (including how to start being relational with what might not feel so good in your body).

• Specifically, we will begin with a guided grounding and centering practice as we welcome ourselves (and whatever energy is present) into the space. I will invite everyone to check-in with themselves and offer one word into the chat that captures what they are feeling/noticing in their own system as we begin and settle into this experience. We will move through a short slideshow presentation to visually connect with the theme of the session and general concepts and tools we will practice. We will move into experientially exploring the techniques. We will finish with a 15-20 minute guided meditation to come to completion. At the end I will remind everyone of various practices and resources they can use before we meet again, and invite everyone to offer one word into the chat as they come to completion.

If you have any further questions please reach out and I will happily respond.

When: 5-7pm MT, Thursday October 9, 16, 23, 30

Where: On Zoom

Investment: $220 CDN (*If you have insurance coverage for mental health counselling, please let me know and I will send you a receipt for this experience)

How to Register:

• email me with questions (marinmccue@gmail.com)

• when ready to register, ensure I have your email for communication related to the series

• send e-transfer to marinmccue@gmail.com

• For US citizens using paypal, an additional $10 CDN will be added to your registration fee to counteract the paypal service charge

Past ParticipantS:

“Marin’s Somatic Savvy course was such a gift. As someone who often lives in my head, I found it incredibly grounding to reconnect with my breath and truly feel my whole body. Marin creates such a kind, open, and welcoming space that made it feel safe to explore and be present. I really appreciated the gentle invitation back into embodiment. Highly recommend!” - Laura

“I really enjoyed the content. I always left feeling grateful, calm and at peace, with things to ponder on and work on for myself.” - Naznin

“The Somatic Savvy series was the absolute perfect addition to all the transformational, albeit mostly intellectual, work I have done. I had no idea how profound it would be and how much would shift for me. It was the perfect puzzle piEce I didn’t know I was missing. In the space where complete safety, nonjudgemnt and so much grace is created, miracles can happen. With Marin’s guidance, I was able to access the most subtle whispers my body was sharing and unlock healing of those parts of me that I have not been paying attention to and abandoned. Thanks to this work, I am more in love with myself and by extension, with the world around me. I am eternally grateful” - Ola

“Marin puts her entire being into her work and it shows! Yes, she's book educated, but she has life experience with the practice she preaches, and a constant curiosity and openness for new ideas. I'd highly recommend absolutely anyone to take part in one of Marin's many offerings!” - Jess

What to Expect in Each Session:

• Guided grounding and attuning to self, each other and the relational space

• Experiential Learning: While some content, structure and framework is helpful, at least 80% of each session is devoted to practicing skills, techniques and embodied explorations

• Meditation for rest, integration and harvesting insights

*Tap the link below for the introduction booklet all registrants receive*

Not sure if this is for you? 

*Watch this 30 minute introduction to Internal Family Systems and Somatics

Our symptoms of pain, stress, unrest, anxiety, depression, instability and disconnection from self and others are multifaceted and are often not the result of one thing we are doing or not doing. Culturally, systemically, historically, and globally, there is a lot to be stressed, anxious, angry, overwhelmed or defeated about. Somatic practices are not meant to be an avenue of taking personal responsibility for all the pain, heartache or struggle you experience in life - it is however, an opportunity to embody your power and heart-centeredness more fully so you have more space to process and be with what you are feeling.

When we feel incongruence inside or are struggling with chronic or recurring symptoms, we certainly do not have the energy, space and time needed to collaborate and problem solve the way we need to in order to guide our world in a more harmonious direction. Somatic practices guide us back to our inherent flexible and resilient state where healing and growth occur as our human nature. The question becomes, once you feel stable and connected in your being, what will you do?  

What else might you want to know?

• Nervous system regulation: not that there is a “regular” or “normal” that we are striving for. Rather, the ideal is a flexible nervous system that can move through the various nuanced expressions of the nervous system and continually come back to the state of harmony, inclusion, and high heart rate variability, where rest and play are accessible, and the body heals and grows as its innate intelligence guides it to do so. The goal is to notice as ruptures happen and skillfully support and guide our system back to its optimal baseline.

I look forward to sharing this experience with you. Please reach out if you have any questions.

xo

Marin

marinmccue@gmail.com