The Art of Somatic Coaching

Embodying Skillful Action, Wisdom, and Compassion

By: Richard Strozzi-Heckler

Narrated by: Kirk Magoon

Length: 4 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

The Art of Somatic Coaching introduces the concepts and principles of coaching with practices that include body awareness, bodywork, and mindfulness for both the coach and the client. Author and expert coach Richard Strozzi-Heckler, PhD, explains that in order to achieve truly sustainable changes in individuals, teams, and organizations, it is necessary to implement body-oriented somatic practices in order to dissolve habits, behaviors, and interpretations of the world that are no longer relevant. He explains that these ways of being are integrated in the body - at the level of the musculature, organs, and nervous system. By implementing a somatic approach, these patterns can be shifted in order for transformation to occur.

Opening with a discussion of the roots of somatic coaching, the audiobook describes the emotional and physical cost of being distanced from our bodies. Originating from the rationalistic idea that the mind and body are separate, this sense of disconnection spurred the emergence of the field of somatics that views the body as not just a physiological entity, but as the center of our lived experience in the world. Out of this philosophy, somatic coaching was developed as a way to cultivate the self through the body.

Methods in this audiobook include:

• Somatic awareness - becoming aware of sensations
• Somatic opening - includes bodywork to release held patterns in the body
• Somatic practices - meditation, movement, and being present in everyday life

The social context in which one is raised, the supportive, healing force of the outdoors and nature as well as acknowledgment of the spirit are also woven into the practice. Through these practices, a rhythm of unfolding occurs in what Strozzi-Heckler describes as an arc of transformation - moving in stages from conditioned tendencies to a new satisfying and fulfilling way of being that is fully embodied.

Contents: "Introduction"; "Chapter One: A Short Distance but a Big Cost"; "Chapter Two: Coaching"; "Chapter Three: Somatics and Somatic Coaching"; "Chapter Four: The Methodology"; "Chapter Five: The Rhythm of Action"; "Chapter Six: The Somatic Arc of Transformation"

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2014 Richard Strozzi-Heckler (P)2020 North Atlantic Books

Critic reviews

"This book without question is truly a Magnum Opus. With what seems to be a plethora of coaches popping up on Linkedin in and Twitter every day, I think this book over time will be seen as the sourcebook for what does and does not define someone as a 'coach'." (Examiner.com)

"This book introduces coaching principles that incorporate body awareness, bodywork, and mindfulness for both the client and coach. Key concepts presented are somatic awareness and somatic opening, becoming aware of sensations, releasing patterns in the body, meditation, movement, and being present in everyday life." (Massage & Bodywork Magazine)

"The definitive book on somatic coaching. Strozzi-Heckler 's wisdom and somatic mastery capture the mindset, mood, and methods that are essential to all coaches today. I feel changed and liberated after reading this book - more awake and moved to align my life and my coaching with my core. This is a book that can change your life and might even save it!" (Richard Leider, international best-selling author of The Power of Purpose, Repacking Your Bags, and Life Reimagined)

Great Book

Well written with lots of valuable information that you can use to better understand your self. Excellent

Least favorite narrator

Like listening to a terrible professor droning on and on; as if the sentences ran into one another because there was so little inflection. I will probably buy the book to read it instead. Great topic, but it was nearly impossible to stay mentally engaged to listening for more than a couple minutes at a time.

A great place to start your somatic journey

Clarity. This book offers that and so much more. Well narrated and full of information.

comprehensive book

Easy tot listen to. Many examples make the theory easy to understatement. Ik don't like the summing op of charters/lists.

Stick with the tools

Overall I enjoyed the book. I could have done without the author’s opinion on religion. He seems to have had a poor sampling of Christianity and Sacred Scripture. Before making blanket statements about “dogma” and other religious beliefs and practices it would be good to research some authors and theologians with a solid view of both body/Spirit and how the two are one in humanity. One theologian would be Karol Wojtyla aka Pope John Paul II. His work “Love and Responsibility” and “The Theology of the Body”. Are worth the read even from a somatic perspective.
There is much in both bodies of work that are in line with one another.