ABOUT
There is a specific kind of exhaustion and fatigue that comes from being a stranger in your own home and feeling unsafe in your own skin. For many people, particularly those who have weathered the storms of trauma and stress - the body stops being a sanctuary.
We learn to survive from the neck up and attempt to intellectualise our struggles - we talk, overanalyse, and can become trapped in reliving our past in an attempt to understand it. But none of this recognises the wisdom of our bodies, or is able to explain why even when we understand the why of our pain, our bodies often refuse to follow the script.
I know this because I have lived it. Despite fourteen years as a Social Worker and Mental Health Professional - following physical health issues and unresolved trauma, my own body eventually shut down and forced me to listen. I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, trapped in a cycle of chronic pain and a nervous system that was permanently "stuck" in a loop of fight, flight, or fawn. I could rationally explain every trigger due to my professional knowledge and the talking therapy I sought out (that had its place, and helped in many ways), yet I could not convince my cells that the danger had passed. I had lost my "soul skin."
.jpg)
The Science of the Stuck:
In clinical terms, trauma isn't just a memory; it is a physiological event held in the fascia, the muscles, and the autonomic nervous system. When a threat is too great to process, the energy becomes "structural." It manifests as unexplained chronic pain, digestive shut-down, or a pervasive sense of being numb or on "autopilot." Trauma is a disruption and overwhelm to our body-mind’s capacity to adapt, thrive, and flourish. Selkie Somatics is designed to help us reclaim safety within our own bodies - the vessels of our souls in this life, to not just survive, but to feel aliveness, vitality and sensation.
The Selkie Myth as Medicine:
In Celtic folklore, the Selkie is a creature who lives as a seal in the sea but sheds her skin to become human on land. If her skin is stolen, she loses her connection to her true home and lives a diminished life. Many of us have had our "soul skins" stolen by trauma, or the sheer weight of survival. Selkie Somatics is about the brave exploration of finding that skin again through answering the call of the wild, and the longing to return to our feeling, animal bodies.
