Somatic Maps
Maps for healing trauma and reclaiming wholeness.
Somatic Psychotherapy | Clinical Supervision | Training & Consultancy
"SOMATIC" from the Greek word "SOMA" meaning body
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Advances in neuroscience reveal that healing doesn’t happen in the mind alone.
Healing, in this work, is not about fixing what’s broken.
It’s about supporting the systems natural capacity to reorganise and restore coherence - so what was shaped by survival can begin to soften and integrate.
Healing comes alive in the body, unfolding through the tissues, the bones, the breath - reshaping the patterns of protection in the nervous system, and allowing newfound (yet ancient) rhythms to guide our relationships and lived experience.
It’s a living process - one that reconnects us with that which was always there, the Essential Self - the part of us that remains whole beyond the looping patterns of trauma.
(Complex) trauma is not a disorder, but a survival adaptation, woven into the architecture of the nervous system and replayed through the body’s implicit memory.
It can fragment our inner experience, distort our sense of safety, and leave us bracing against Life, caught in a vortex of mistrust, disconnection, or collapse.
Yet our personal patterns rarely arise in isolation.
The field of epigenetics has illuminated how familial, cultural, and environmental systems imprint on our physiology, rippling across generations.
The stories of our ancestors echo within us - in nervous system patterns, in attachment strategies, in what we fear and how we love.
Recovery is not a linear process. It is the slow and steady unfurling of these embedded patterns. A reorganisation. A process of gently reconciling mind and body, rebuilding trust in ourselves, and re-connecting to the deeper flows of life.
The parts of us that worked so hard to survive, deserve and need our love and compassion - however, the driver’s seat belongs to the Essential Self.
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SomaticMaps™ offers body-based therapeutic support that honours your lived experience and helps restore trust in your body and yourself - making space for new possibilities and post-traumatic growth.
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“Our bodies tell the story of our struggles to love and be loved”
- Dr Aline LaPierre
We might know we’re worthy of love…
Yet still feel emotional doubt deep in our bodies.
We might tell ourselves we’re safe…
Yet carry a persistent sense of unease or tension.
We may have meditated, journaled, or talked for years…
And still find ourselves caught in cycles of hypervigilance and disconnection.
Our nervous systems are wired for love - for co-regulation and connection.
Healing begins when the body “re-members” that.
Our nervous systems begin forming long before we’re born.
Our human template is imprinted by the relational field from conception, through gestation, into birth, and beyond.
These earliest imprints, of how we were received, carried, and welcomed, shape how safety, connection, and belonging live in our bodies. This is how attachment styles are formed.
In an ideal world, we would all be held, soothed, and mirrored in ways that embed safety, love, and connection deep into our biology.
When those early needs for attunement and safety aren’t fully met, we adapt.
We develop management strategies to protect ourselves: bracing, pleasing, withdrawing, overachieving, disconnecting. Patterns of rage or collapse can exhaust us.
These patterns aren’t flaws. They are intelligent survival responses, shaped by a nervous system organising to stay safe in a world that didn’t always feel safe.
Healing these attachment patterns builds real trust in ourselves.
It grounds us. It centers us.
It makes us feel safe.
It allows us to lean into on the goodness of Life.
From there, trauma bonds begin to release, relationships become more secure, anxiety and depression lessen, setting boundaries feels easier and more natural, resilience grows, and overall well-being improves.
At its heart, SomaticMaps™ is a body of work, informed by cutting-edge interpersonal neurobiology and somatic-based models, that supports reflection and reconnection — in therapy, supervision, and organisational professional practice.
Explore how SomaticMaps™ can support your unique journey and professional needs on the Services page, and please don’t hesitate to reach out if you’d like to connect or ask any questions.
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I honour my ancestors from the North East of Scotland (Ear-thuath na h-Alba) the Highlands and Islands (Gàidhealtachd agus eileanan) whose lineages, languages and landscapes, and ways of knowing, continue to live through me.
I live and work on the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation, custodians of the Birrarung (Yarra) Valley, its tributaries, and the area now known as Melbourne (Naarm). I honour their ancestors too.
May our collective Ancestors be at peace, bless us and watch over us on these sacred lands.
May we honour them by walking together in peace as well.
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"The Greater Soul moves in only one direction, and that is to bring into union that which has been made separate" - Bert Hellinger