Eco-Somatics 101: Listening to the Body, Listening to the Earth

What is Eco-Somatic?

Eco = earth related

Somatic = exploring bodily sensations to heal the body's reactivity, widen the narrative, or transform the inner relationship

Eco-somatics = healing through focusing on bodily sensations and new experiences in connection to the earth

Eco-somatics is less common in the western field of therapeutics, but healing through embodied spiritual connection with the earth is probably one of the most ancient ways people healed. Indigenous healers with strong connections to the land healed people in connection with the earth, through sacred ceremonies and shamanic medicine rituals. It just seems new for those of us who were raised in the mind-body divide, where western medicine started treating mental health and embodied sensations as two different systems, by assigning talk therapy and medications. These aren't bad, just lacking integration.

Those of us without deep place-based integration and relationship can develop our bodily sense of connection with the land over time. We can explore ways that the earth supports us, and how we want to live in reciprocity and mutuality with that support. The eco-somatic methods I use combine elements of shinrin-yoku (Japanese for "forest bathing"), and other trainings in embodiment, including classic yoga Vedanta, the Sufi practice of Dances of Universal Peace, and more. These practices have been scientifically researched to reduce stress and shift from the sympathetic (fight/flight) to the parasympathetic (rest, digest, heal) nervous system.

And, the work is partly intuitive, through deep attention and caring awareness in the present moment.

What is a Typical Process Like?

While every person has a unique challenge and unique process, there can be similar flows. We start by talking to understand what we might be exploring today. Then, when I sense what embodied exploration might help, I explain what it could be like.

I ask if you want to:

1. try it?

2. modify it?

3. do something else, such as talk more or do a different exploration?

   
   

   You can end the exploration at any time. You are in control, I trust your inner guidance. My role is to offer and support, not to push. I don't judge. I welcome your truth and wait for the mutual "yes" of consent.

Example:

When Strong Emotions Block Inner Peace

Sometimes we go through (most of) the steps below in a single session.

Then, people altnerate intensive work sessions like the example below, with a reflective, talk-based sesssion.

For people new to somatics or with very deep trauma, we may go slower, starting with just the first few steps. We will talk about and determine together what may work best. See more about this in my Blog: Healing Trauma.

Steps

1. Talk about the issue, block, or question.

If somone isn't sure which issue to pick, we might spend time listening to several issues and then deciding which feels strongest, or finding an underlying common thread, or using a guided meditation to discern which issue is best to support today.

2. Express the feelings associated with it and felt-sense in the body.

3. Consider if the feelings are intensified by childhood (or other adulthood)

wounding.

4. Respect resistence.

If the emotion is big or intense, or part of you doesn't want to feel, we will first seek to understand how the resistance is protecting you, and what pace and control it needs to feel safe. Then we might ask: what additional resources might you need to allow yourself to access the emotion and sensations?

a. Better rest, sleep, food, exercise, or physical needs

b. Friends, support groups, someone to talk honestly with outside of sessions

c. Healthier distraction options for when it’s overwhelming: (positive songs,

funny movies, etc.)

d. Calling in help from  Great Spirit, Gaia (earth), God/dess, Ancestors, or a

group of spiritual humans.

5. Befriending.

We get to know the feeling or felt-sense by befriending it:

a. How does it act in the body (where is it most, what movements or energy

does it have)?

b. How can you approach it kindly? Or talk with it respectfully?

c. Might you ask what purpose it has, what it needs or wants?

d. How does it change as we bring loving attention to it?

6. Options to shift, improve, and heal

Indoors:

a. Brainstorming supportive interventions (ex. we imagine the negative energy draining back into the earth to be recycled)

b. Symbolic object modeling or drawing what we wish could happen (ex. placing stones and feathers in an order that tells a new story)

c. Role play different responses (ex. we stand up in the room and express a new dialogue, with the window and plants reframing our capacity)

d. Consider outrageous choices, ideal choices, and all possible choices

Outdoors:

a.)  Stress-reducing relaxation allows new insights to naturally emerge. 

When we place meditative attention on nature’s gifts, it activates our parasympathetic nervous system (rest, digest, and heal mode). By becoming calmly present and grounded, our tightly wound thoughts (habitual stress thinking) can loosen up, which allows new solutions to problematic patterns arise.

b.) By talking directly to plants or animals, or listening to the sounds of birds or wind, we sense messages. 

We might ask a tree for tips and listen to what ideas arise. Whether we believe a tree has sentience or not, when an ah-ha thought arises, we notice it. Another example: someone in mourning is drawn to a half-dead tree, and they feel less alone because of the inter-species experience of living while feeling half-dead inside. Another example is when someone is debating what to do in their relationship, listing off the considerations, and a crow flies overhead- cawing loudly after a specific sentence. The person realizes what they need to focus on.

c.)  Engaging plants as metaphors or representatives of our human experiences, we learn more about what’s under the surface for us. 

For example, I asked a man who was stressed out by his work- but scared to change careers- to choose 2 trees, one to represent his current job and one to represent his possible new career. We stood by each tree while he shared how the tree’s shape, color, and life stage represented aspects of the job, and he realized what was really at the crux for him. Then we walked between the trees s-l-o-w-l-y so he could identify the fears and grief holding him back from making the transition. 

See an example of outdoor somatic work in my Blog: Somatic Sense Rooms.

To learn more about various types of nature therapy and practitioners who address stress exacerbated by climate change, you can explore Climate Psychology Alliance of North America: Practitioner Directory.

To learn about what a felt-sense is, check out BioSpiritual Focusing.

Moving Forward

As we conclude the session, sometimes it's enough just to feel what shifted. People need time to let the newness integrate and settle.

Other times, we may talk about how will you implement your choice in daily life. How might you practice this new relating to your thoughts or to someone else?

a. Do you need a phone alarm, or a calendar reminder?

b. Do you need to practice each morning for 3-5 minutes?

c. Do you need a linking word to help you remember?

When you come back after a week or two, we reflect: How has it been feeling? How did practices go? Any challenges in implementing your choice?

Conclusion

Each person is unique, and so this flow isn't strictly linear or universal, but varies person to person and issue to issue. I hope these examples illuminate the contours of eco-somatic work, and lay a foundation to imagine what is possible. Because, when we can imagine healing, we can allow our hearts to navigate toward the sanctuary of its love.

🌷

© Shannon Gorres, 2026. Written by a human, not AI or chatGPT. Please contact me to request permission before sharing. I will give you permission to share sections of it when you include "by Shannon Gorres, www.DivineNatureTherapy.com"

See more about Shannon: Bio.