A somatic coach works with what your body is doing: the breath, the tight jaw, the bracing that arrives before your mind has a word for it. Juliette Karaman, an intimacy and touch expert in the UK and a Somatic Experiencing practitioner, brings that somatic coaching to intimacy, touch and desire, in England, in person and online.
That is me. Intimacy and touch is what I do. Somatic is how I do a lot of it, because everything I teach comes back to the body.
What does a somatic coach actually do?
A somatic coach tracks what is happening in your body and helps it move what it has been holding. With me it looks like this.
- We track the sensation. Take a breath and scan: are you open or contracted? Tense, or loose?
- We find the edge of it. Where does the tightness start, and where does it stop?
- We stay with it. Long enough for your body to begin letting go of the charge it has been holding.
- We move it through. Breath, tremoring, movement. Your body comes down before you decide anything.
On my podcast I said it plainly: it’s never good to take a lot of action from that space. Your body needs to come down first.
Good news needs this too. Your nervous system is often quite okay holding on to the hard things. Receiving something good is when people can blow out, so even joy gets a little calibration.
What is somatic coaching for intimacy?
Somatic coaching for intimacy starts with your body feeling safe enough to receive touch. Insight alone rarely gets you there. Your body has to register safety first.
Before your mind labels it, a tightening in the throat is information. Learning to read that information is the whole foundation. Here is the order I work in, inside my method, The Touch Reset.
- Touch Base®, the somatic anchor. Thumb to forefinger, feel the ridges, say “I am safe right now”, and hold for two minutes.
- Your two things. Your Touch Pattern, where your attention goes when touch arrives, and your Pleasure Language, how you are wired to receive it.
- Touch Dates. Small, specific and timed, so your body knows when it stops.
- The Touch Map™. One body part at a time, each touch rated green, orange or red, done on your own first.
To me, being embodied means being so in tune with what is happening inside you that you can trust what your body is telling you, and lead your life that way.
Is a somatic coach the same as a somatic sex educator?
They are different titles with different trainings, so ask which one a person actually holds. If you are looking for somatic sex coaching, that question comes first.
Somatic sex educator is its own certification, and I do not hold it. Here is what I am trained in.
- Intimacy and touch expert
- Somatic Experiencing practitioner
- EMDR therapist
- Death doula, with my mother, my sister and my father as they died
I have been working with trauma and the body for the last 10 years and experience it deeply myself. Before that I was a SENCO, helping children on the autism spectrum feel safe in their own skin.
Is there a somatic coach in the UK for intimacy?
Yes. I live in England and work in person and online, so anywhere in the UK works, and further.
| Way in | Who it suits |
|---|---|
| The Touch Reset Quiz | Anyone who wants to know where their touch went, free, in five minutes. |
| One Touch | Women relearning what safe touch feels like, at their own pace. |
| A VIP day | Women, men or couples who want one full or half day of the work. |
| The 3 Month Intensive | Women who want the deepest one to one work. |
| The Beginning | Couples who want three months, completely private. |
Picture another year of overriding what your body is telling you. Then picture trusting it.