The Somatic Approach to Befriending Ourselves with Devorah KaplanThe Somatic Approach to Befriending Ourselves with Devorah Kaplan
Katherine Arati Maas
Host Catherine Moss talks with life coach Devorah Kaplan about a somatic, body‑centred way of befriending ourselves in recovery. Their conversation focuses on how early experiences shape the nervous system and how mindful, supported work with the body can open up healing and new choices.
0:00•31 May 2016
Befriending the Body: Somatic Healing and Self‑Compassion in Recovery
Episode Overview
- Including the body in healing helps re‑establish wholeness in ways that thinking and talking alone cannot.
- Early experiences and repeated "soft trauma" shape how feelings are stored in the body and can lead to dissociation from important parts of ourselves.
- Pain and suffering can be seen as signals of unmet needs and a longing for resolution, rather than personal failure.
- New, nourishing experiences – especially in safe relationship – are needed to create new neurological pathways and real behavioural change.
- Support from another person can regulate the nervous system and make it safer to revisit vulnerable places than trying to manage everything alone.
“Pain is actually the doorway into regaining our wholeness.”
How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? This conversation between host Catherine Moss and life coach Devorah Kaplan zooms in on one powerful route: coming back to the body.
Aimed at women in recovery who are tired of white‑knuckling change with willpower alone, the episode looks at somatic, body‑centred work as "the pulse of regaining your wholeness." Devorah explains that most of us are used to a top‑down approach – thinking, analysing, affirmations – but "it doesn't change our actual experience" if the nervous system is still holding old fear, shame, or hurt.
Drawing on her 30 years of personal and professional experience, she explains how early caregiving and repeated "soft trauma" shape the body and brain. As children, when our feelings aren’t welcomed, we often learn to dissociate; those exiled parts then quietly drive anxiety, addiction, and self‑protection. Devorah’s key message is surprisingly reassuring: "Pain is actually the doorway into regaining our wholeness." It shows up because some part of us is still seeking resolution.
You’ll hear how somatic practices use mindfulness and the body’s sensations to create **new** experiences, not just new ideas. With steady support, people can revisit hurt places, release chronic tension, and literally lay "new neurological pathways" linked with safety, creativity and choice. Devorah stresses that, as mammals, we’re wired to regulate through connection; healing often lands deepest in relationship, not in isolation.
For anyone in recovery who feels stuck repeating the same patterns despite their best intentions, this gentle, practical conversation offers a different way: befriending yourself, starting with the body you live in every day. The question it leaves hanging is simple and powerful: what if the parts you’ve been hiding are actually the key to the life you want?
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