About the Center
The Somatic Center is a healing arts studio specializing in body-awareness approaches to life, healing and wholeness. The in-town location compliments a smaller studio nestled against the edge of the forest on the outskirts of Northampton, MA. In a culture that has become disconnected from what most nourishes us, we offer programs, trainings and sessions for individuals and groups wishing to bring more aliveness, love and balance into their lives.
Somatic Therapy
The Somatic Therapist: Our cultural models of healthcare don’t ask that practitioners be integrated within themselves. However, the embedded ethics in Somatic Therapy renders a practitioner ineffective unless, they’ve explored and healed their own wounding and developed exquisite self-awareness and mindfulness, alongside their professional training. In this way, the intellectual knowledge from formal training informs but doesn’t drive the work. It’s deeply integrated with heart and soul.
Somatic Therapy, bodywork or body-centered psychotherapy are different names used to describe a category of complimentary and alternative medicine (CAM) practices that involve working with the human mind-body-spirit connection to improve quality of life and promote healing. The “Soma” refers to the “mind-body-spirit” whole, which cannot be separated into its parts. Healing happens by being with what’s happening in present time in the “Soma,” within a non-judgmental atmosphere of deep abiding compassion and presence. Techniques vary greatly and may focus on:
- Improving chronic physical pain and stress related medical conditions
- Improving emotional symptoms that cause distress, including anxiety, depression and insomnia
- Assessing and improving posture
- Promoting body-awareness
- Improving body image
- Working with breath, movement and sound
- Tracking nervous system activation for working with trauma
- Addressing issues around love, intimacy and sexuality
Using the following techniques:
- Massage/Bodywork
- Mindfulness Meditation
- Yoga
- Somatic Experiencing
- Movement
- Expressive Arts
- Breathwork
That’s Integrative Care at its best and the promise of Somatic Therapy.
Kristen Chamberlin, MS, LMT, SEP, RSMT
Kristen’s a parent, dancer, yogi and lover of life. She works with people ready to build lives of passion, love and purpose. As a trauma trained, Somatic Therapist, she has over three decades of experience facilitating transformative healing processes for clients and students. Pain, trauma and stress, are often what bring people in the door, but that’s not where the journey ends. She known for her heart-centered, skillful and nuanced work around embodiment, intimacy and sexuality. Her work is deeply informed by Somatic Experiencing, Mindfulness Meditation, Yoga, Dance, Himalayan Tantra and a love of the natural world. She’s also an avid student of many other body-centered modalities of healing.
As director of the Somatic Center (SC), she coordinates an emerging team of holistic healthcare practitioners. She runs the Moving with Eros, Trauma Healing, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction and Tantric Studies programs at SC, where she works with individuals and groups in private practice, retreat settings and trainings throughout the northeast. She is core teaching faculty at ISEE, an Institute offering a model of holistic sex education for those wishing to become AASECT certified educators and therapists. And her work has been featured in Emily Nagoski’s ‘Come As You Are’ — a book detailing the ‘surprising new science that will transform your sex life’.
Rich Manning Enuol
Rich Manning Enuol, Reiki Practitioner – Rich finds Reiki to be a powerful force of healing for himself and others, and can feel its potential for spreading peace throughout the world. In a session, universal energy gets channeled to support the body’s innate healing processes and in so, helping to resolve difficulties of mind, body, emotion, and spirit..
Sylvia Maes
Sylvia Maes, Body-Mind Centering® Practitioner, has studied and practiced BMC® for over 30 years. An expert at identifying and realigning connective tissue (skin, fascia, muscles, ligaments and bones) she will help you reduce pain and move easier. Lymph work is an integral part of her practice where she works with a full spectrum of clients—from babies and children to older adults. She helps people find their own abilities to heal themselves. Sylvia looks for and expects everyday miracles from BMC® and is eager to share her love of healing to help you feel great and improve your somatic skills
Faith Enuol, LMT, (soon to be) CSE
Faith Enuol, is a Massage Therapist and Somatic Educator in the tradition of Tom Hanna, founder of Clinical Somatic Education. Her massage background includes advanced study in medical massage, deep tissue, trigger point therapy, Shiatsu, Reiki, prenatal and more. She is always learning and expanding her tool-kit for helping clients to restore balance and vitality. She works with individuals looking to experience relief from pain, restore freedom of movement, improve posture, and learn self-care practices they can use to maintain their own well-being.
She is especially excited to offer sessions of Clinical Somatics, a powerful form of bodywork based on the principles of neurophysiology. Her work is centered around using the body’s own mechanisms to create change in your central nervous system, leading to lasting changes in your body.
Dave Eyerman, LAc
