Impactful Integration (Part Six): AI-Generated Visual Metaphors for Sustainable Change in Coaching - Case Study Four
Using digital images to support clients in their integration after a somatic coaching session.
For the past few months I have been working on a project using digital images, generated by an AI tool, to support clients in their integration after a somatic coaching session.
Catch up on Part 1 and Part 2 where I cover the background of the project, the symbolic resonance of visuals and why integration is such a key part of the coaching process.
Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5 are the first three case studies.
This is Part 6. Our fourth case study. Introducing Pam, at her Crossroads.
Case Study Four: At a Crossroads
I wanted to include Pam’s session because it shows the sometimes strangely organic nature of Somatic Coaching. What I would call an emergent unfolding.
Typically in coaching a client comes to the session with a Block of sorts. Something they are stuck on, a discrete topic they want to work on. For example, a challenge at work, or wanting to leave a relationship but not knowing how to, or feeling uneasy about an upcoming trip.
Pam instead came to the coaching space with an openness to whatever might unfold. She didn’t have a specific topic to explore, and so instead we dived into some Open Focussing. This is a body-oriented coaching tool where Pam focusses on her internal sensations (using her body’s interoception). We simply follow whatever sensations are present in her body. Pam calls out what’s there (it started with some weightiness for example and a bluey black ball of energy of which she was playing with the mass and shape of with her hands). I repeat her words and enquire on the sensations and any imagery that pops up.
Open Focussing isn’t something I would do with a client who had never done body-oriented work before, but as Pam was well versed in the field (being trained as a somatic coach herself) we confidently strode into the unknown. It can be an alarmingly insightful process if you have the courage to just let the body speak!
“The woman is me, but also not me.”
Pam shared, a few minutes into her Open Focussing. A woman in the middle of a crossroads, near to where she lives in London. “There’s a feeling of possibility, but also of observing and receiving information on a multisensory level.” This woman was listening to the pavement, the windows, the trees. Everything in this environment was giving her new data.
Beneath her the ground was rippling like when you put a toe in a puddle. Autumnal leaves started to travel up her body, framing her like fire or ivy growing up a wall. It was enlivening. Nature seemed to be hosting her body.
The women now wore a cape of these autumnal leaves which danced along behind her as she confidently walked in a chosen direction. A masculine energy, with a sense of purpose.
Rain was coming and something was shifting. There was light from above and a sense of, “ascension. Take them. Something in need of sending.” The face of the sun was taking over the sky and it was beautiful. In light of what happens after this session, this was eerily powerful.
As covered in Part One, Pam is demonstrating here the power of following our internal secret mapping of insight using visuals. Suspending disbelief to simply let whatever is there come to the surface. The images might not make much sense at first but once acknowledged and explored with detached curiosity they serve as a useful gateway.
A secret door to a new perspective.
Some resonance and understanding was emerging for Pam, she said, “I’m supported by what’s around me. There’s something about not rushing…”
We will see how this image became a strong Resource for her, to find strength in tackling the difficult challenges in life.
Pam’s Integration
Tragically, Pam unexpectedly lost her brother on the night of our session. In the midst of grief, I re-met with Pam and she confirmed that she still wanted to work with this image.
She shared that she had in fact drawn the image for herself (copied below), but not revisited it since. She was curious to see if it still resonated.
I brought the image up on the screen for her and let her sink into the receiving of it.
A wave of sadness came and the start of tears behind her eyes. Pam had a strong ‘turning’ sensation in her stomach and felt a bit nauseous. The image had somatic resonance.
“She looks so able. A real sense of power.”
There was an intuitive sense of knowing what Pam was moving towards. “It makes me feel calm and helps me feel reassured.”
She remembers she’d left the session full of energy and trust in the environment and resources available to her, how they were going to move her forward. Little did she know that she would be utilising resources in the way that panned out. In the wake of her brother’s death, she drew on this power to be able to forge forward, “to send him home.” Pam could see this represented in the woman in the image. “She’s got everything she needs so she can move forward.”
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Pam noted the celestial light in the image, and she re-found the word ‘ascension’ as she’d spoken in our first session. She said it felt like something was being downloaded, something strong and powerful.
The woman at the crossroads gave Pam a sense of life as a game, we can make decisions, move forward, move diagonally, take a chance. A chilling realisation in the wake of death.
She also saw how this could look intimidating, a woman alone in a road. Unsupported, even lonely. But it didn’t feel like that to Pam, it felt like she was in her element. A guard of honour, guiding towards the light.
Remarkably, Pam shared the image she had drawn after the session. Although only a sketch in colouring pencils, the similarities were there.
Pam’s internal landscape had provided her with a Resource. Her new Resource was a guiding power symbolised in this woman at a crossroads. The ‘felt sense’ (what she could feel in her body) of this imagery stayed with her during an incredibly difficult and dark time in her life.
Finding Resources are invaluable in the process of improving your embodied self-awareness. Resources can be things like going to nature, speaking with a good friend, dancing, breathing, carving alone time, journaling. Resources can also be internal felt senses that are resourceful for you (we can gather these when we do more somatic activities and healing).
These images can also become Resources. As was happening for Pam.
Pam later went on to create a number of creative responses and experiments from the stimulus. Poetry, a chanting mantra, journaling prompts. It was supporting her further integration of whatever had come up for her. She noted that each time she re-explored the image it produced a somatic response for her to learn from. In other words, the resonance continued in her body, as the body was familiarising with this new understanding.
Like for Molly (Case Study Two), Pam saw the usefulness in this Somatic Integration Visual as a bookmark, or a ‘summary’ as Pam called it, of the session. Something tangible to keep returning to. This helped anchor (in her mind and body) the changes that were happening for Pam.
Ultimately, it gave her strength in her grief.
Stay tuned for the final case study in this series.
Part 7: Case study 5 — The Artist’s Store Room
Just itching to try this out?? You can book a somatic coaching session with me via this link: So you want to get somatic?
Lastly but by no means leastly… I have been invited to showcase the Somatic Integration Visuals, and their related case studies, at the upcoming DAR Fest exhibition in Brussels from 1–25 Feb 2024 at the Octopus Heart Center.
Happen to be in Belgium? Come check it out! Event details are here. You can catch me doing a live Q&A on 17 Feb at 5.30pm.
Somatic Integration Visuals - Glossary
Block: Refers to the ‘issue’ (or area of the client’s life or specific problem) that the client is stuck on. Something the client can’t seem to move past, no matter what they try.
Bodymind: We are integrated neuro-psycho-biological beings! in somatic modalities we don’t treat the conceptual thinky mind as separate from the embodied experience of life. We invite our clients to show up as an integrated whole.
Embodied Self-awareness: The holistic understanding of yourself through physical sensations and experiences of the body. Being conscious of your body's movements, feelings, and presence in space, and recognising how these physical sensations relate to your emotions, thoughts, and overall sense of self.
Focussing: A body-oriented coaching tool the client is invited to focus on any internal sensations that arise. The client names these ‘felt senses’, without meaning making. The aim is to understand how these sensations are connected to their emotional state or life situation. We dig to find the story behind the story which can be told by these subtle clues in sensations in the body. By naming the sensations this helps the client ‘disidentify’ with them. The client listens to the data held in their body and this can lead to insights in how they view their situation, or even resolutions to problems.
Integration: intentional incorporation of new insights into your lived experience. It isn’t necessarily an action-based process. It’s more about incorporating, merging with, activating, embedding, unifying and even empowering something you are newly learning about yourself. In a holistic and intentional way. It’s ‘being with’ this new understanding and letting it, on an embodied level, sink into your being.
Resource: These are invaluable in the process of improving your embodied self-awareness. Resources can be things like going to nature, speaking with a good friend, dancing, breathing, carving alone time, journaling. Resources can also be internal felt senses that are resourceful for you (we can gather these when we do more somatic activities and healing).