How Coaches Can Get Better Outcomes and Retain Clients By Integrating Somatic Exercises In Sessions

Ani
Hi, and welcome to the Somatic Coaching Academy podcast. Hey, Brian.

Brian
Hello, Ani.

Ani
Hi there. We're on episode 77 today. We're talking about how coaches can get better outcomes and retain clients by incorporating somatic exercises into their sessions.

Brian
Into their sessions. Yeah, exactly.

Ani
Like exercises? One, two, one, two. One, two, one, two. We need to talk before we get rolling on this topic, actually, about somatic exercises.

Brian
Yeah. So somatic exercises, also known as somatic practices.

Ani
But not by everybody. Not by everybody. Because some people are just calling them somatic exercises.

Brian
And I think actually, we've done a past podcast about this, about the difference or the- 

Ani
Here's the difference. People don't know the difference. So they're either calling them somatic practices, somatic exercises, centering exercises, and all manner of other things. Yeah, exactly.

Brian
So somatic, meaning there's something body-focused about it.

Ani
I just think it's funny because we live in a culture that prides ourselves on the exercises.

Brian
Yeah, and that's very true.

Ani
We're going to call it exercise.

Brian
If you're searching, if you were to do a search for somatic exercises and somatic practices, there's probably more writing that would come up about somatic exercises.

Ani
Well, because I've done it, I can tell you, you're actually going to find exercises in those somatic exercises Google searching. Sometimes when you search somatic practices, you'll find things about breathwork and meditation that you may or may not find when you're looking up somatic exercises. Sometimes when you look up somatic exercises, you'll literally find exercises. And sometimes they are infused with breathwork and/or meditation. Sometimes they're literally exercises done slowly. It's a grab bag. Yeah.

Brian
So maybe we need to talk about what we're talking about when we talk about somatic exercises.

Ani
That sounds like a good idea. What are we talking about? What are we talking about?

Brian
Well, so we're really talking about, again, somatic exercises. Somatic practices for us are exercises or practices that have a body focus because they're somatic. So we're paying attention to what's going on inside of the nervous system. And how do we know what's going on inside of the nervous system? Well, we are sensing what's going on. We're using our senses and picking up sensations that are going inside of the body, or what's called our interoception. So our interoception are the sensations that come from our body into our brain for processing. Now, there's also, by the way, proprioception, which is information that comes from our musculoskeletal system that brings information into the brain. And so sometimes somatic exercises can also include proprioceptive input as well as interoceptive input. But on some level, we are paying attention, really bringing a level of mindfulness, if you will, to what we're experiencing sensation-wise in our bodies.

Ani
Yeah. I think if you're interested in somatic practices or somatic exercises, you do need to get clear about what it is that you're looking for, because you will notice nowadays, because somatic is a buzzword, people will slap it on like a sticker onto stuff. So you really want to be intentional about what it is that you're looking for and the outcomes that you're looking for. But Brian was saying, when we talk about it, we're talking about nervous system regulation and actually using the body to regulate the nervous system. So it is good to get more clarity on what we're talking about and what other people are talking about if you're looking at those things.

Brian
Yeah, totally. So just as an example of what you're talking about, Ani, from a well-marketed type perspective, both Tai chi and Pilates are both technically somatic exercises. But you're going to get different outcomes by practicing them. So what you're saying is you have to know what you're going after. But how can coaches in particular, so you're doing coaching, and how can it be beneficial for you to actually learn how to do somatic exercises, aka somatic practices, with your clients in order to get better outcomes and also help actually retain clients, which is going to help your business.

Ani
Yes. So what we're talking about is using the somatic practices and somatic exercises that we teach here at the Somatic Coaching Academy. We do certain things in a certain way here to get certain outcomes. I think that it's easy for coaches to learn with us and then integrate into their sessions because some people will think, 'Well, I want to include somatic exercises. I'm going to go get a Pilates certificate or something like that.' I have found that for some people, unless they're really wanting to shift their practice to pretty exclusively a body practice, like 'I'm going to be a body coach, like I'm going to be a yoga coach or a Pilates coach', it can be challenging to incorporate certain somatic practices or somatic exercises into coaching because not all of your clients are going to be up for it, want to do it. And you got to corral people or convince people. And the somatic practices and exercises that we teach here are not like that. They're very unassuming. Like, your clients are going to very easily be interested and get on board with you about doing them because of the nature of them, whereas it can be more challenging to integrate other things like yoga and Pilates or even Tai chi or qigong.

Ani
We do these things specifically because they're really easy to integrate into coaching sessions.

Brian
Yeah, exactly. When we talk about coaches, who are we actually talking about? We're talking about executive coaches. We're talking about career coaches. We're talking about life coaches, parenting coaches. Whatever coaching it is that you do, what really makes a coach a coach, if I'm on board with this, and you can let me know, is helping people get an outcome that they don't have right now.

Ani
Partnering with people to help them to improve their lives. There's going to be therapists who use coaching and leaders and managers who use coaching, and teachers who use coaching. The conversation we're having today is for all of you. Yeah.

Brian
And how can you leverage using somatic exercises to help get better outcomes and actually keep bringing clients back? Okay, so maybe we're on the map now?

Ani
I think so. And maybe one more thing. We come from a background of being more body-centered body people into people who are doing somatic coaching. I think that one of the reasons why I think that's important is it can be really different to try to, like I was saying, include certain body practices into any old conversation where you're having a conversation with people and improving their lives. The somatic practices can really supercharge your practice. It can help you grow your practice. It can help you in so many ways with your clients, but not necessarily just because they're somatic practices.

Brian
Yeah, exactly. Okay, so what are some of the top reasons? Let's dig into this. One of my top reasons is when to use or why to use somatic exercises with a client. One of my favorite places to do them is actually at the beginning of an initial, like an intensive session or a deep dive session. So when I do my practice, my private work with clients, I'll often start off a program with two or three hour session in order to really set the whole tone for the whole session and do a deep dive. I love using somatic practices or exercises as a preparation for that time together. Why is that? Well, because I think it basically helps to center a person to be able to be present with the work that we're doing together. It also helps to smooth out the nervous system a little bit. A lot of time working with people, there can be a lot of agitation in the nervous system. I don't mean that like a negative thing, like people are agitated, but their nervous system is agitated. Nervous systems feel oftentimes frayed a lot of times. Not afraid, but like F-R-A-Y-E-D.

Brian
They feel like they're frayed. It's very difficult then for people to be able to do deeper work and to be able to get into a sense of their purpose and their meaning, what's important to them, what they really want to have out of this program or out of their life and the work when their nervous system is frayed like that. So the somatic practices in the beginning and then during those deep dives really help to keep people centered, present, anchored, and open, and curious to the process.

Ani
Yeah. One of the things that I see people using somatic practices really well is in having it be a separate offering, Brian, where they run classes. And you can also run workshops and retreats where you either do basically a whole workshop or retreat on somatic practices. You can also incorporate the somatic practices into workshops and retreats. But just to go with the classes here for a second. I think over our years in working with people, it's been really helpful to diversify what we're offering. I'm not talking about diversifier services like we're going to offer coaching and we're going to offer making coffee. I'm not talking about offering different services. I'm talking about offering things in a different way, diversifying how you offer things. So I'm going to offer classes. I'm going to I'm going to offer workshops. I'm going to offer one-on-one. So people running those somatic practices classes, I think it's just brilliant. It helps people to practice their stuff. It's funny because people might say they want to learn how to practice at home or they want to practice at home, but people really want to practice with us. They want to practice together, and it gives people accountability and reasons to do it, and then they get good at it.

Ani
Running classes is just It's an awesome way to serve clients in so many ways.

Brian
Yeah, and to grow your business for sure.

Ani
It really helps to grow your business.

Brian
Because just to build on what you're saying, Ani, when we had our wellness center, our brick and mortar, and this is one of the primary ways that we actually built our business is that we were both seeing private clients, but we also ran classes. A weekly or a couple of time weekly somatic practices, core centering class or something of the like. People would come to the classes, and then oftentimes after the class, people come up and go, Hey, can I chat with you for a second? I've got this problem. Can you help me with it? I'd say, Sure. Let's go ahead and make an appointment. Right. Let's have some sessions. Now you've turned a class student into a private client. Then- And vice versa. And vice versa. When you're done working with a private client, you say, Hey, how about coming to these classes we do regularly? They're like, Great. So they come to the classes regularly. And then when they need you again, they say, Hey, I've got this thing I'm having trouble with. I wonder if we can make it a session to work together. Sure. In other words, the classes keep people in a container, keep them in a really healthy, supportive, nourishing container where they always know that you're available to them because they can just tap you on the shoulder and say, Hey, can we make an appointment to work.

Brian
Now, here's the other thing, is that the people in your classes will bring more people. They invite friends to come to the classes. They invite friends to come to your next workshop. Now, that becomes another avenue for the new person to come in and say, Oh, my gosh, I didn't realize you did that. I wonder if we can have a session. The private work and the classes, when you set it up really well, they feed each other. They do. That's a wonderful way to grow your practice.

Ani
To grow community. That's something that you're interested in, too, because your people are going to meet each other and they're going to be really interested in each other, which is great because that helps you to grow your business when you're building a community.

Brian
Yeah. That's a Ninja move in my experience. A 100%. If you're not doing that as a coach, that can really amplify your business.

Ani
It can be challenging as a coach, I think, to help people to build community and to keep people around you because if they're not on program, they're not on program. Maybe they're going to want to come to take a group program, but maybe they're not. So how do you keep people around you all the time? The classes are a brilliant way to do that.

Brian
Brilliant way to do that. Yeah, exactly. Okay, so another really top reason. We talk about this one a lot, but let's just talk about it again because here we are. Another top reason to know how to do somatic exercises and somatic practices as a coach is that in the event that you're working with your clients and they become dysregulated, their nervous system becomes dysregulated during a session, do you have the practical tools to help bring them back into a sense of regulation so that they don't leave your session dysregulated and just spun out and then ineffective or injured or retraumatized for a period of time afterwards.

Ani
I hate to say it because it's either not good for the client or it's not good for the client, and it's not good for you. We want to always do our due diligence with our clients. Absolutely. If somebody's leaving your session dysregulated and you don't know what to do about it, they could actually leave the session and think it's your problem. Correct. Or it's something with the program that's a problem. It's just such a relief. It's a really good idea to, I was going to say, bulletproof your practice, to trauma proof your practice.

Brian
Well, it's really the trauma. Yeah, it's really to trauma inform your practice.

Ani
Yeah. So that you're doing no harm, you're doing your due diligence with your clients. Also, when somebody has something that's really tough come up, or even it's mildly tough come up, and you can be with them with it, and you can handle it, and you have the skills, man, not only does that feel amazing. The client, they're so grateful. Sometimes you're the first person to really be able to sit with them during that difficult thing and not make it a problem.

Brian
And not feel like you have to make it better.

Ani
No, just be with them with it. It's so powerful.

Brian
Yeah. So that leads into another top reason is the idea of co-regulation. That when as a coach, when you do your own somatic practices and your own somatic, let's say, exercises regularly that are based in this holistic understanding. We're working on all levels of our nervous system, complete somatic intelligence. When you do those practices as a professional, just like what Ani is saying, when someone else starts to get a little unsettled or a little dysregulated outside of the window of tolerance during a session, oftentimes, it's not even a matter of what we say. It's just a matter of who we are, how we be with it. When we're really settled and stable within ourselves, that creates what we call a co-regulation opportunity, which we've done a past podcast on co-regulation, too, I believe somewhere back there. When we have this co-regulation opportunity, it actually invites the client into becoming more regulated just by being in relationship with you.

Ani
And this is a more masterful skill. So if you've only been a coach or you're a therapist or a teacher, whatever person that works with people, and you've only been doing it for a few years, and you haven't actually intentionally, tried to learn these skills, you probably just don't know how to do it. It's a skill to learn, and it's a skill to master. It's a mastery thing. And then when you do, you're going to be the person who people just want to be with and feel better when they're around you because of how you be. I think it's important to talk about because sometimes people think, Well, that's just how you are, Brian. It's just because of how you are. These are skills. They can be learned, and they can be mastered. So anybody can do it. Yeah.

Brian
Do you have another one? Another top reason why coaches would use or leverage somatic exercises, somatic practices?

Ani
Because clients like it and are asking for it. Okay. I have clients who their clients will be asking for meditations, be asking for guided visualizations. They will be asking for practices. You know one thing people ask for, we were just talking about last week is morning routines.

Brian
Yes.

Ani
So that's something that so many clients ask for. They ask for a plan, they ask for strategies, and It's a fantastic thing to be able to offer up to our clients because they're asking for it. It's just a great way to... Because we have these magical tools in our backpack, clients like it. So it helps us to increase our like factor as well with our clients. We're just really in service. Yeah.

Brian
And it's interesting, Ani, because we've both been doing, let's just say, meditation for a moment for several decades now. Not for several, a few decades now. And remember, a few decades ago, meditation was weird. No one was asking for meditation. Meditation was something that weird people did in ashrams somewhere. And so Don't talk about that you're doing meditation. And now people are asking for meditation. So obviously, there's been some type of transition in awareness. Yeah, into the culture factor. Well, because there's more research, like search meditation now. You're going to You have a million hits on it, maybe several million hits. So when it comes to coaching, what I really know is that the next frontier are somatic exercises and somatic practices.

Ani
Yeah, I think yoga really opened that up because yoga became really popular. And I don't necessarily I really think that yoga is the thing to do with all your clients. Not all your clients are going to want to do yoga with you. But when you incorporate somatic practices, they can still do the things that get the benefits that they're looking for sometimes in a really awesome way. It's just the right match because having the right match is really important.

Brian
I will say about yoga, too. I agree with you. Yoga opened up a lot. And yoga actually, in some ways, fell short a little bit, too, Because in the Western culture, we actually did something to yoga, but yoga wasn't meant to have happened to it. In the Western world, we made yoga about the cool clothing and the mats.

Ani
Yoga is like, You did me wrong.

Brian
I'm not saying that we don't go to yoga and we don't feel better afterwards, but I can't help a laugh. A few months ago, I saw an advertisement on one of my social media feeds for men's yoga, and it was like, Men's yoga, no spiritual BS. I thought- That's what yoga like. I think they missed the point. Somebody put in a comment below and said, Basically not yoga. What are we doing then? We're working out. Yeah, we're basically working out. We're basically holding poses and sweating and getting stronger, but we're not including basically yoga. Isn't that funny? The Western world, we did something to yoga. Yes, did it move along body awareness? Well, it does because by nature, if you're spending more time just stretching and moving, you're becoming more aware of your body for sure. It got us closer. But this is the cool thing I think when we talk about somatic practices and somatic exercises, yoga is a somatic practice. I think yoga in its purest form is amazing, by the way. Absolutely. We did something to it interesting here in the Western world, where it's not complete. It's not all three levels of body, mental, emotional, energetic, spiritual exercise and experience.

Ani
Or disdain for spiritual stuff or whatever is like, I don't know, whatever label you want to put around that was like, but not that part that's not okay.

Brian
We're not going to do that part.

Ani
I think that's really funny. It's one of the reasons why the somatic practices that we teach so much is people aren't going to think it's weird. Nobody would say to us, Well, can you take the spiritual aspect out because it's very unassuming. You don't even have to explain yourself or anything about it because it just feels good. It makes sense in the nervous system. But it is actually that integrated mind, body, spirit approach. That's what it is.

Brian
That's what it is.

Ani
Exactly. You don't have to talk about it like that either.

Brian
It turns people off. Yeah. So just going back to what you're saying is that as far as meditation has come and yoga helping it get that far, somatic practices are what is next. As a coach, if you don't know how to use somatic practices with your client sessions, you are going to be a dinosaur. You'll just be antiquated in terms of what you can actually do and searchability. As people are searching around, they'll be like, Well, they don't do somatic exercises. I guess I'm not going to work with them. Because right now, when we look for support from professionals, if they don't know how to do somatic work, I don't even consider them.

Ani
Well, I mean, me either. But also that's the same a lot of our clients. Yeah, totally.

Brian
They're looking for people and they're looking, do they have any somatic training? If they don't, then I don't want to do anything with them because- They're looking for people who can help them with meditation, with breathwork, with gentle movement.

Ani
Those are some of the words that they use. Somatic practices. Hey, I just want to say to one of the things you can do for due diligence, and so that you're really creating a practice that has just the best clients that you love to work with and love working with you is don't assume they want to do the somatic practices. Don't just assume it, but actually partner with them. And what you're going to find is when you give people choice and full permission to partner with you as a coach, then they're going to be on board for all the things. Do that rather than assume and lead. That's not really coaching anyway. But create a partnership, and that makes it just the best.

Brian
Can I share a little story of a client experience I just had this week with somebody? Sure. With somebody? Yeah. Based on how would this actually look to use somatic practices in your work. I was working with a client, and she is the CEO of her company, and she's working in collaboration with another company. She has a long-standing relationship with the leader of this other company. Something happened between them where there was some misunderstanding and some hurt feelings around moving a business prospect forward. Without getting all the details, there are some conflict between them. This conflict isn't the first time that this conflict has existed. The client that I'm working with has a pattern of having conflict with this particular person in her life. I was asking some questions around that, and we just started hitting a wall around, Well, we got to a place where we could decide, Well, are we just going to start to do some strategy around how to deal with this person? We got to that point. I was like, You know what? I asked her, I said, Is it okay if we just get some information from your nervous system about this?

Brian
I like that. She's like, well, sure. Then I actually took her through the cross mapping process. We went through cross mapping. At the end of that, which is a somatic exercise, somatic practice that we teach our students in our somatic transformation fundamentals program, took her through that process. By the end of that process, she had identified where that pattern, the pattern that she was in with this other leader was not the beginning this pattern. This pattern was a historical pattern in her system, and she was able to identify when that pattern started. Then we were able to identify the meaning she was making about that pattern. Then we were able to identify how she actually wanted to feel in relationship to this new CEO. Then we were able to identify actions she could take to actually enhance that experience of how she wanted to feel, which is more confident, more empowered, more present with this other CEO. Then we were actually be able to create actions that were an expression of how she was feeling so that she could engage with the CEO in a really powerful way so that she wasn't shrinking from it.

Brian
She was actually standing in her own power, but not in a combative type way. That all happened within the matter of about 15 minutes of coaching with her. We didn't have to do years and years of deconstruction. By the way, none of the strategies that we would have outlined in the beginning, when we got that strategizing, matched up with where she was empowered coming from. She did that all on her own by going through that somatic exercise, somatic practices. Every point in a coaching session, maybe not every point, every coaching session, but oftentimes in coaching sessions, after we get the story about what's going on, and then we get to the what are we going to do about it thing. And of course, we're referencing the intelligence from our clients because they have the answers inside themselves. But the questions we're asking at coaches lead to different places of information within the person. And so we could be asking those information from an intellectual strategizing point, or we can be asking their nervous system, what would be empowering for them. And when I went the nervous system route, this client came away with some really empowering actions she could take.

Brian
Then I just got a text from her a couple of days ago, really just so grateful, so grateful how much the session meant to her, how powerful and empowered she felt from it, and the actions that she's taking moving forward. That's what I mean by the somatic exercise to actually help us to get more deeper information from a person's nervous system to draw that forth from them so that they can really stand in their own power.

Ani
Yeah, I love how you asked what her nervous system had to say about it. That, to me, is true coaching. The answers live in you. And this is why I believe that at some point down the road, 10 years, 20 years, 100 years, I don't know how long, we're going to realize that somatic coaching is a part of coaching, and it can't be separated. I think it's going to, at some point, be the master's degree for every single coach. Because if you really do want to help a person to tap into the wisdom within themselves, you have to know how to talk to the nervous system.

Brian
Absolutely.

Ani
It's a great example.

Brian
If this is something, again, you're interested in bringing into your practice, reach out. We have the Level 1 Somatic Practice Essentials program. We're doing that at Kripalu, May 18th through 22nd here in 2025. We do virtual versions of that as well whenever you listen to this podcast. We have our Level 2 program, Somatic Transformation Fundamentals, and then, of course, our Level 3 Somatic Coach program. All of them are certified for ICF-CEs, so you get continuing education for all those programs.

Ani
If you're an ICF coach.

Brian
Yeah. We'd love to have you join us and kick this off with Somatic Practice Essentials and get some somatic practices under your professional wing.

Ani
You won't believe You can't even imagine all the things that can do for your professional life from a sense of enhancing how you're practicing with your clients to growing your business.

Brian
Yeah, absolutely. Thanks so much for joining us this week, and look forward to seeing you again soon. Bye-bye.