With just 10 days left in this 90-day practice, I’ve been noticing the ways that showing up every day, even for just 10 minutes, has shaped how I move through the world. This daily rhythm feels different from a longer home practice a few times a week — it’s steadying and reshaping how I relate to myself and my day.

Some mornings were easier than others. Waking at 5 a.m. to move at 5:30, feeling tired, or carrying the distractions of the day made it hard to pause and tune into my body. Some days were harder, when stress was high or my brain felt loud with plans, worries, or unfinished thoughts. There were times when my body felt heavy, my mind restless, or it was difficult to notice what was happening internally.

Knowing others might be watching on Facebook Live sometimes brought a sense of self-consciousness — noticing how I looked or moved, wondering how it appeared from the outside. Alongside that, I sometimes felt an internal pull to be a “good” practitioner, measuring myself against my own expectations. In the beginning, and even in the middle of the 90 days, tuning into my body while noticing these pressures required effort.

Over time, that effort shifted. Tuning into my body became easier. I could notice sensations more clearly, follow small movements as they arose, and allow judgment to be present without letting it take over.

What stands out most is not any single practice, but the accumulation of days. Returning again and again — even when tired, distracted, or unsure — has created familiarity and trust. Consistency has made presence more accessible, not because anything is forced, but because my body has learned this rhythm. Showing up regularly has changed what’s available to me, both in practice and throughout the rest of my day.

Even short daily moments of presence, repeated over time, have brought a sense of centeredness that carries into the rest of my day. I notice what’s happening around me more easily, and I can pause or reflect before responding. I’m less on autopilot.

This practice has helped me stay connected and responsive in the moments that demand my attention — in conversations, decisions, and transitions throughout the day. Rather than moving through these moments without awareness, I’m more able to sense what’s happening in my body and choose how I want to engage.

There’s a growing attunement — to myself and to others — where I can be fully in a space with someone, not just holding it.

My body has become a resource — a place to return to, a guide, a source of information I can rely on.

With 10 days remaining, I’m noticing anticipation for what’s still unfolding. Each day continues to offer something new, even in its simplicity. These final days feel like an opportunity to notice, appreciate, and carry forward what I’ve learned. By staying present, even in small moments, I can feel the ways this practice has shaped how I move, choose, and connect. Day 90 will be a chance to look back on the full journey, celebrate what’s emerged, and notice how these consistent moments of presence ripple into everyday life.

Each small moment of attention reminds me that consistent presence, no matter how brief, has the power to transform how we experience ourselves and the world around us.

Wishing you wellness,

Keri Sawyer

PS. You’re still invited to the journey of 90 days of presence even if you haven’t been following along until now – If you’re curious, here’s the FB live info

Self-regulation is a familiar term in therapeutic and somatic spaces. It often brings to mind strategies—breathing techniques, grounding exercises, ways to calm or organize the nervous system.

Embodied self-regulation points to something different.

It’s not about applying a tool.

It’s about letting your body participate in presence, instead of trying to control it from the mind.

Self-Regulation as Strategy vs. Embodied Self-Regulation

Self-regulation, as it’s commonly understood, is often effort-based. Something happens, and a response is applied. The system is managed, redirected, or steadied through technique.

Embodied self-regulation is less about doing and more about being organized from the inside.

It shows up as:

Staying connected to your own sensations while listening

Noticing shifts in sensation

Letting breath, posture, and tone adjust naturally

Remaining responsive without bracing or collapsing

Rather than regulating on top of experience, the body participates in the moment as it unfolds.

Presence Comes From the Body, Not the Mind

Clinical presence is often described as attunement, attention, or capacity. But these qualities are sustained by the body.

When the body is disconnected, presence becomes effortful. Therapists may notice:

Thinking while listening

Holding tension to stay focused

Tracking others while losing internal reference

Fatigue that isn’t cognitive but somatic

Embodied self-regulation supports presence by keeping the practitioner anchored in their own physical experience while in relationship. The body becomes a reference point, not something to override.

Why Embodiment Matters in Relational Work

Therapists and somatic practitioners don’t just listen—they co-experience. Nervous systems interact, rhythms align, and states are shared.

When self-regulation relies solely on strategies, there’s often a subtle split: part of the practitioner is doing regulation while another part is doing the work.

Embodied self-regulation reduces that split.

The practitioner doesn’t step away from experience to manage it. They remain inside it, with enough internal connection to stay oriented, responsive, and present.

This supports:

Greater tolerance for intensity without withdrawal

Less need to control or direct the process

A steadier sense of balance during complex moments

Presence that feels available rather than performed

Regulation as Relationship With Self

Embodied self-regulation is not about staying calm or neutral. It’s about staying in relationship with yourself while being in relationship with another.

This includes:

Noticing when you’re leaning forward or pulling back

Sensing when effort is increasing

Allowing micro-adjustments without commentary

Letting the body help you stay oriented to now

Over time, this kind of self-relationship supports presence that is durable—not because it’s controlled, but because it’s supported.

Why This Matters for Sustainability

Many therapists can regulate effectively for sessions at a time. The challenge is sustaining presence across days, weeks, and years.

Embodied self-regulation supports longevity by reducing internal strain. When the body is allowed to participate fully, presence costs less.

Less holding.

Less bracing.

Less silent override.

What remains is a kind of presence that feels grounded, responsive, and human.

A Practice of Staying With Yourself

Embodied self-regulation is not a skill to master. It’s an ongoing practice of staying connected to your own physical experience while doing work that asks for deep attention.

For therapists and somatic practitioners, this kind of regulation supports clinical presence not by adding something new—but by allowing the body to do what it already knows how to do when it’s included.

Wishing you wellness,

Keri Sawyer

PS. Interested in learning more? The Practitioners’ Arc

In many movement spaces, pace is decided for us. There is a rhythm to follow, a sequence to complete, an implied sense of how long something should take. Over time, this can subtly pull attention away from our own experience and toward an external measure of doing it “right.”

Trauma-sensitive yoga offers a different starting point. Instead of asking our bodies to match a pace, the practice invites pace to arise from within.

For many people, especially those with lived experiences of trauma, movement has often been shaped by adaptation—by pushing through, bracing, or disconnecting in order to get by. In these moments, attention may move away from present-moment experience and toward comparison, self-monitoring, or familiar patterns of self-judgment.

Choice-based pacing gently interrupts this dynamic.

When the pace of movement is self-selected, attention often has an easier time settling into present-moment experience. Sensation becomes more available: breath moving through the ribs, the feeling of contact with the floor, the subtle engagement and release of muscles. These experiences do not require remembering the past or planning for what comes next. They invite us into what is happening now.

As the practice continues, it can become clear that there is no single pace that is correct. Some days movement may feel slow and deliberate. Other days it may feel more continuous or energized. Trauma-sensitive yoga makes space for this variability, offering the understanding that a practice can still be supportive without being consistent, polished, or externally measured.

Pacing also supports felt sense—the internal experience of movement and sensation as it is perceived from within. When there is time to notice without urgency, the nervous system may begin to register that pausing, continuing, or changing direction are all available options. Safety is not imposed; it emerges through repeated experiences of choice.

Over time, this can change how we relate to movement itself. Rather than something to manage or improve, movement becomes a source of information. Our bodies become a place we can pay attention to, rather than something we try to override.

This shift can also soften long-held beliefs about what a yoga practice is supposed to look like. When there is no pressure to slow down or keep up, the familiar sense of not being good enough has less space to take hold. The practice meets us where we are, rather than asking us to adapt to it.

Pacing, then, becomes more than a physical consideration. It becomes a way of staying present, of reconnecting with how movement actually feels, and of practicing without judgment.

Bringing It Together

A movement that once felt rushed may naturally take more time. A pause that once felt uncomfortable may begin to feel informative. Attention lingers—not because it is forced, but because there is something here worth noticing.

By choosing our own pace, we may find ourselves staying with sensation a little longer. We notice how movement feels rather than how it looks. We sense when something is enough. In these moments, the practice becomes less about getting it right and more about listening.

This is where trauma-sensitive yoga does its quiet work. Not by asking us to change, but by offering repeated experiences of choice, presence, and respect. Pacing becomes a way to meet ourselves as we are—without needing to slow down, speed up, or prove anything.

In this way, the practice supports more than movement. It supports a different relationship with ourselves—one grounded in safety, curiosity, and the understanding that our bodies become a place we can pay attention to, rather than something we try to override.

From this place, the practice becomes not something we do to ourselves, but something we experience with ourselves.

Wishing you wellness,

Keri Sawyer

In many movement spaces, range is treated as something to increase, achieve, or push toward. How far can you stretch? How deep can you go? How much can your body do today?

When range is framed this way, our bodies often learn to adapt — either by pushing past their own signals or by pulling back and staying small. These patterns aren’t problems to fix; they are intelligent responses shaped over time to help us cope.

What often gets lost in that adaptation is choice.

When range becomes narrow — whether toward effort or restraint — our bodies have fewer options for responding to the present moment. Over time, it can feel harder to sense when to engage, when to pause, or when something is too much.

Range as Information, Not a Goal

Range is the spectrum of possibilities in our bodies — from stillness to movement, from small gestures to larger ones, and from minimal effort to fuller engagement. All of it can shift moment to moment, and each shift carries information.

Our bodies are constantly signaling what feels available. In trauma-sensitive yoga, we are invited to notice these cues and respond based on felt sense, not what we think we “should” do. Range becomes a way of listening rather than a place to achieve.

For example:

You might notice a sensation in your back and choose how far to move based on that sensation.

The key is choosing based on your body’s felt sense in this moment, not pushing for a goal.

Even small choices, guided by felt sense, are meaningful — each is a way of practicing presence and responsiveness in our bodies.

Choice as the Foundation of Agency

Agency grows when we notice our felt sense and make decisions from that awareness. Every choice — how far to move, whether to pause, whether to stretch more or stay still — is an act of listening to our bodies and respecting what we find.

Agency is the lived sense that we can notice what’s happening in our bodies, respond intentionally, and have those choices honored. Over time, these experiences build trust in ourselves, both on the mat and in daily life.

Each of these moments strengthens the connection between felt sense and decision-making — building agency in a way that honors your body.

The Role of the Facilitator

In trauma-sensitive yoga, the facilitator’s role is not to direct our bodies toward a particular outcome. Instead, they create a space where:

Movement is optional and adjustable

Attention to felt sense is respected

Language invites autonomy rather than compliance

Choice is consistently available

This relational container allows us to explore our own range safely. One participant might quietly notice their shoulders want a tiny lift; another might feel stillness is best. Both are honored, building trust in their felt sense over time.

Range as a Lifelong Skill

The ability to notice our range of movement or breath and respond from felt sense doesn’t stay on the mat. It shows up in daily life through continued choice making and responsive action.

Through trauma-sensitive yoga, noticing our range becomes a practice of befriending our bodies, listening more closely, and allowing agency to emerge — not by pushing or fixing, but by noticing, choosing, and honoring what is already present.

Bringing It Home

Every time we notice the range available in our bodies and respond from felt sense, we are practicing presence and trust. Each decision — how far to stretch, whether to pause, whether to move or rest — ripples outward, helping us approach life with curiosity and understanding.

You don’t need to “do it right” or push beyond what feels available. The invitation is simple: notice, respond to your felt sense, and honor what your body offers. Over time, these choices build confidence, awareness, and a lived sense of agency that carries into everything we do.

Wishing you wellness,

Keri Sawyer

For many trauma-informed practitioners — yoga teachers, therapists, bodyworkers, coaches, and healers — embodiment isn’t something we consciously choose to step away from.
It slips out of reach quietly.

And when it does, it affects everything: our presence, our clarity, our relational attunement, and our capacity to track what’s happening in the room.
This blog explores why embodiment becomes difficult for us — not from a place of blame, but from recognition and compassion.

Because when we understand how we lose ourselves, we can begin to find our way back.

---

1. We Were Trained to Prioritize Others Over Ourselves

Many of us entered this work with deep empathy and a natural ability to care.
Our training reinforced that focus:

“Be the stable one.”
“Hold the space.”
“Regulate your nervous system.”
“Stay attuned.”

But we were rarely taught how to stay connected to ourselves while doing all of that.

Over time, this creates an internal split: the more we track someone else’s experience, the easier it becomes to stop tracking our own.

This isn’t a personal failure.
It’s an occupational pattern shared by practitioners in every healing field.

---

2. The Work Asks Your Body to Hold More Than It Can Process

Every session and every class brings emotional nuance: micro-expressions, shifts in breath, trauma narratives, nervous system cues, grief, activation, and uncertainty.

You may hold this well. You may do it skillfully.
Your presence may be exactly what someone needs.

But your body is still absorbing the impact.

And when there’s not enough time or support to process what you’re holding, your system quietly begins pulling you out of yourself — not because you’re doing anything wrong, but because your body is helping you keep functioning.

This is often how disembodiment starts: not in a single moment, but in the slow accumulation of emotional load without room to release it.

---

3. We Learn to “Perform Presence” Instead of Living It

Most practitioners know how to look grounded — slow tone, steady breath, relaxed posture.

But internal reality doesn’t always match the external presentation.

Many of us learned to perform steadiness because the work required it.
And when appearance becomes more accessible than true internal connection, embodiment slowly slips away.

This isn’t deception.
It’s adaptation in a field that has rarely prioritized the practitioner’s inner experience.

---

4. The Pace of Care Leaves No Room for Our Own Bodies

The pressure of modern practice — tight schedules, stacked sessions, large classes, administrative load — pushes us into efficiency mode.

The nervous system shifts toward task-oriented functioning.
We become outwardly focused but internally absent.

Embodiment doesn’t require hours of time; it requires moments of noticing.
But those moments disappear when everything feels urgent.

This pace makes it easy to lose ourselves without ever realizing it’s happening.

---

5. Sometimes It Feels Safer Not to Feel

For many practitioners, our own history shapes our relationship with embodiment.
Coming into the body can sometimes mean encountering sensations or emotions that once felt overwhelming.

The system remembers.

So it narrows awareness.
It softens sensation.
It keeps things manageable.

This isn’t avoidance; it’s protection.
And it makes perfect sense within the context of trauma-sensitive work.

---

6. Burnout Is Not Only Exhaustion — It’s Disconnection

Burnout is often described as emotional exhaustion or overwhelm.
But underneath those experiences lies something deeper:

A loss of relationship with ourselves.

The body pulls back from sensation to conserve energy.
The mind disconnects to keep you functioning.
Your nervous system tucks inward as a way of surviving the pace and pressure.

Burnout isn’t a sign of failure.
It’s a sign that your system has been managing more than it was designed to carry alone.

---

A Way Back to Ourselves

Embodiment isn’t about perfection or constant awareness.
It’s about returning — again and again — to the internal relationship that sustains the work.

When practitioners reconnect with themselves, something foundational shifts:

You listen with more clarity.
You hold space without losing yourself inside it.
Your presence becomes less effortful and more authentic.
Your nervous system has room to breathe.

Embodiment makes the work sustainable — for you and for the people you serve.

And this reconnection is not something you must figure out alone.

It is a learnable, supportive practice that grows over time.

Wishing you wellness,

Keri Sawyer

If you would like to learn more, Check out the Practitioner’s Arc Training for Professionals

In trauma-informed work, we’re trained in countless modalities — grounding practices, somatic tracking, Brainspotting, EMDR, relational skills, and regulation strategies.

These tools matter.
They help us guide, support, and hold space. But there is one element that deeply influences how all of these tools land:

The practitioner’s embodied presence.

Embodiment isn’t a bonus skill or an advanced concept. It is the foundation that allows every method to work the way it’s meant to — and it’s what helps practitioners stay resourced, connected, and steady.

Yet most practitioners were never taught how to cultivate embodiment for themselves in a structured, supportive way.

This matters more than we realize.

---

1. The Body Registers Safety Faster Than Words

In trauma-sensitive work, safety is communicated through the nervous system before it ever reaches the mind.

When you’re embodied, your presence conveys:

• I’m here with you.
• My system is steady enough.
• You don’t need to take care of me.

People feel this in their bodies.
It’s not something you can perform — it’s something you embody.

Most training programs teach language around safety but not the internal connection that creates it.
That gap is where support becomes essential.

---

2. Embodiment Enhances Attunement — Without Losing Yourself

Attunement requires two channels of awareness:

tracking the other person
and
tracking yourself

Most practitioners learned only the first.

If you’re not aware of your own body, emotions, or activation, attunement becomes one-sided — and often draining.

Embodiment gives you the ability to:

• feel your internal cues
• sense your boundaries
• detect signs of overload
• stay relational without overreaching

This is a learnable professional skill, not an innate one.

---

3. Embodiment Makes Co-Regulation Sustainable

Many practitioners unknowingly over-offer steadiness.
It looks supportive from the outside, but internally it can quietly exhaust the system.

Embodied co-regulation is different.

Instead of “I regulate you,” it becomes, “We regulate together.”

Embodiment makes that possible by keeping the practitioner connected to their own body, capacity, and limits — even during difficult moments.

This protects both people in the room.

---

4. Clarity and Clinical/Teaching Precision Grow With Embodiment

When you’re connected to yourself, your perception sharpens:

• you catch subtle cues you’d otherwise miss
• you respond with more nuance
• pacing becomes more intuitive
• decisions feel clearer
• the “right next step” emerges with less effort

This is the invisible work that shapes trauma-sensitive care.
Embodiment strengthens our professional intuition in ways training alone cannot.

---

5. Sometimes Embodiment Is the Intervention

Some of the most impactful moments in healing work don’t come from techniques.
They come from presence.

When someone feels your groundedness, your breath, your steadiness, or your emotional availability, it can shift their own nervous system.

This is the heart of co-regulation and relational repair.
It’s not a script — it’s a way of being that people can sense.

This is why embodiment is not optional.
It is central.

---

6. Practitioners Need Spaces That Support Embodiment — Not Just Teach It

This is where many training programs fall short:

They teach about embodiment.
They do not cultivate it.

Learning embodiment requires:

• repetition
• guidance
• relational practice
• nervous system support
• a structure that honors capacity
• a community practicing the same skills

This is the exact reason The Practitioner’s Arc exists — to give practitioners the support, structure, and experiential learning needed to build embodiment in a way that’s sustainable, accessible, and professionally relevant.

---

A Closing Reflection

Your embodiment isn’t a personal side project.
It is part of your professional competency.

When you’re connected to yourself:

Your presence deepens.
Your attunement sharpens.
Your co-regulation becomes steadier.
Your boundaries hold.
Your work becomes more sustainable.
Your impact becomes more grounded and less effortful.

And most importantly — you don’t lose yourself inside the work.

Embodiment is not something practitioners should have to figure out alone.
It is something we deserve support in developing, strengthening, and returning to again and again.

Wishing you wellness,

Keri Sawyer

PS. If your interested in learning more about embodiment skills, check out the Practitioner’s Arc

---

60 days of presence, choice, and companionship

Even in ordinary moments, my body carries stories of intensity. Medical emergencies, unexpected challenges for my kids, and life’s constant demands have left impressions—some recent, some long-held. Living as a mom navigating heart issues for one of my children has shown me how quickly the body senses risk, how it braces and prepares.

Even now, my body remembers.

The beeping of machines as I feel like I can’t breathe.
The sterile smells with clenched fists.
The way time stretches while waiting for answers with a sick nervous stomach feeling.

And yet, what surprises me most isn’t how my body responds in emergencies—it’s how it reacts in everyday stress. Life has been full lately: deadlines, responsibilities, worry, unexpected challenges. The feeling of being out of control has been present more than I’d like. My heart races, my stomach tightens, my mind spins.

Before, I might have tried to override these sensations, telling myself to calm down, to push through, to “handle it.” And often, that just made things feel heavier.

What has shifted over these last few months of practice is that I no longer try to force the tension or fear out. Instead, I notice it. I listen. I breathe when I realize my breath is held. I move when my body needs it. I check in: What can I do right now? What can I change? And, most importantly, I allow connection with others—even in moments of stress.

Tonight, I took one of my kids into urgent care. I didn’t like the experience. I didn’t even really like the medical care. And yet, something shifted. I could breathe without feeling like the system was falling apart. I could show up fully—for him, and for myself.

Over time, I’ve begun to feel more of a sense of myself. More clarity about how to move through both big and small moments of fear or stress. I can’t control everything. I can’t change what happens. But I can choose how I meet it—through listening, responding, and staying present rather than pushing myself away from what’s real.

I am not my experiences. They have shaped me, taught me, and sometimes triggered fear—but they do not define who I am.

This isn’t about managing fear or minimizing stress. It’s about being fully here for my life. About staying awake inside the moment, even when it’s uncomfortable. About choosing presence, connection, and care as a way of living—not as a strategy, but as a relationship.

I’m learning that being present doesn’t mean the fear disappears.
It means I’m alive inside the moment.
Able to breathe.
Able to connect.
Able to move forward with awareness, choice, and full engagement in life.

Wishing you wellness,

Keri Sawyer

Day 50 of 90 Days of Presence

Day 50 feels like one of those less noisey milestones. Nothing flashy. No big revelation. And yet, something is happening.

Showing up daily can feel like nothing is shifting—especially when the practice is simple and short. Ten minutes of mindful movement. And yet, I’m realizing the shifts are subtle and significant at the same time.

The first change showed up as awareness. I started noticing my body more—not just during practice, but throughout the day. And that awareness has been quietly reshaping how I move through ordinary moments.

This morning was a small but meaningful example. I was lying in bed, and my feet were cold. Really cold. And yet, I wasn’t doing anything to change it. I was just… enduring.

The shift wasn’t that I immediately fixed it. The shift was that I noticed I was enduring.

At first, my mind offered familiar explanations: I’m tired. I’m lazy. I don’t want to move. But then another awareness landed—I don’t actually need to endure being cold. So I made a small change. I adjusted. I responded.

That might sound insignificant, but to me, it feels big.

Because this practice isn’t just helping me notice my body more—it’s helping me notice when I’m tolerating something unnecessarily. And I’m beginning to see how that same pattern shows up in other areas of my life, too. Where I’ve been enduring instead of responding. Where I’ve been bracing instead of choosing. This awareness is gently teaching me that I don’t have to endure everything. Care and kindness are starting to move in where tolerance used to live. And I’m noticing how this way of relating to myself shapes how I meet the rest of my life, too.

There’s also something deeply relational happening. Through this daily practice, I feel like I’m befriending myself—listening more closely, responding with curiosity instead of judgment, offering care instead of pushing through.

Teaching yoga regularly has certainly supported me, but what feels most significant is this personal, daily return—even when it’s brief. There’s something powerful about coming back to my own practice each day. It’s changing how I show up, starting with how I show up for myself.

The consistency has been the most surprising part. Ten minutes a day feels doable. Some mornings I feel tired at 5:30. Other mornings I feel more energized. But I’m there. Every day. And that regular showing up matters—not because I’m forcing myself, but because it builds trust. It tells my body, again and again, I’m here. I’m listening. You matter. Over time, that kind of steady presence changes how I move through the world.

This isn’t about motivation. It’s not about discipline or willpower. It’s about relationship. About returning, day after day, in ways that are kind and sustainable.

Day 50 feels like this: noticing, choosing, and remembering that I don’t have to endure my life to live it. I can meet it with care. I can befriend myself along the way. Small moments. Subtle shifts. Real change.

Wishing you wellness,

Keri Sawyer

Reclaiming Embodiment for Practitioners – Blog 2

If you’ve ever had a client settle simply because you took a deeper breath…
or watched a room shift when your shoulders softened…
you’ve already experienced the truth:

Your embodied presence impacts others more than any technique you use.

And yet, practicing professionals rarely name embodiment as a central part of their work—even though it shapes everything about trauma-informed care.

Let’s explore why it matters so deeply and how you may already be noticing it in your daily practice.

---

Embodied Practitioners Help Others Feel Safe Without Saying a Word

Think about sessions or classes where:

• you felt inwardly braced but maintained a calm tone
• your mind was with the person in front of you, but your body felt far away
• you offered grounding cues but couldn’t feel your own feet
• you caught yourself sounding soothing, while internally tightening

Trauma survivors sense this instantly. Not through language, but through the subtle signals of your nervous system—micro-tension, breath rhythm, posture, pacing, congruence.

Then remember the days when:

• you arrived more connected to yourself
• you could feel your own breath and boundaries
• you weren’t “holding the space,” you were simply in it

On those days, sessions often feel different: clearer, steadier, more honest. Not because you used a special technique—because you were embodied.

---

Why Embodiment Changes Outcomes: It Regulates the Relational Field

Trauma-informed work is never just one nervous system.
It’s two.

Each time you’re with a client, a student, or a group, you create a shared field—a relational nervous system shaped by both of you.

When you’re embodied, the field often becomes:

• steadier
• less reactive
• more spacious
• more tuned-in
• naturally slower and clearer

When you’re disembodied—even subtly—the field may become:

• tighter
• faster
• more cognitive
• more braced
• more about managing than sensing

Clients may not articulate it, but they feel the difference.
Your embodiment becomes a co-regulating force, shaping the conditions in which healing work can actually unfold.

---

Embodiment Supports Ethical Practice

Your clearest clinical and teaching decisions come when you are connected to yourself.

Embodiment helps you sense:

• “This pace is too fast.”
• “I’m reaching my limit; I need to slow down.”
• “My impulse here isn’t coming from presence.”
• “I’m losing myself; I need to reorient.”

It becomes an internal compass—one that protects both practitioner and client.

Without embodiment, practitioners often rely on:

• scripts
• cognitive strategies
• professionalism
• empathy alone

These are valuable, but they cannot replace felt presence.

---

Embodiment Is Essential for Sustainability

Most practitioners struggle not because they lack skill, but because they lack capacity—the internal bandwidth that comes from being able to feel oneself while supporting others.

Embodiment increases:

• clarity
• range
• steadiness
• emotional honesty
• access to intuition

It reduces:

• burnout
• dissociation during sessions
• over-giving
• compassion fatigue
• the sense of “carrying” clients’ stories

Embodiment isn’t an extra tool.
It’s what allows your tools to work.

---

This Is the Missing Link

Many practitioners quietly sense that something feels off—not because they’re doing anything wrong, but because parts of themselves have gone offline from the ongoing responsibility of holding others. Over time, that disconnection can become so familiar it goes unnoticed.

Embodiment offers a way back.
It restores presence in a way that feels supportive rather than demanding.

It reconnects practitioners with themselves, making the work clearer, steadier, and more sustainable for everyone involved.

Wishing you Wellness,

Keri Sawyer

Ps. If your curious, you’re welcome to check out The Practitioner’s Arc : Embodied Development

Miss the first blog in the Reclaiming Practitioner Embodiment Series? Here’s a link to What is Presence and Why it matters for practitioners.

---

Reclaiming Embodiment for Practitioners — Blog 1

For many practitioners—yoga teachers, therapists, bodyworkers, coaches—the word embodiment gets used often but defined rarely. It’s talked about as a goal, a competency, a presence, a skill… but what does it actually mean? And why does it matter so profoundly in trauma-informed work?

Before we can reclaim embodiment, we have to understand what it really is.

---

Embodiment Begins With One Simple Truth:

Your body is not separate from your work.

As a practitioner, your body is an active participant in everything you do:

• your tone
• your pacing
• your resonance
• your boundaries
• your intuition
• your presence
• your ability to attune
• your capacity to stay connected during hard moments

Embodiment is what allows all of this to happen with clarity rather than overwhelm, with steadiness rather than performance, and with authenticity rather than effort.

---

What Is Embodiment?

Embodiment is the ongoing practice of being connected to your internal experience — your sensations, emotions, breath, and impulses — while staying present with the person in front of you.

It is both:

• awareness (I can feel what’s happening in me),
  and
• access (I can use that information in my work).

Embodiment is not about perfection.
It is not about being calm.
It is not even about feeling good.

It is about being in relationship with your body—moment by moment.

A simple way to say it:

Embodiment is when your mind, body, and presence are aligned enough that you can meet another person without losing yourself.

---

Why Embodiment Matters for Trauma-Informed Practitioners

Trauma-informed work is relational work.
And relational work depends on the nervous system of the practitioner just as much as the client or student.

Here’s why embodiment is essential:

---

1. Your Nervous System Sets the Tone of the Space

Before you say a word, your body communicates:

• safety or tension
• rush or spaciousness
• overwhelm or steadiness
• attunement or disconnection

Clients and students feel you first — then hear you.

Embodiment helps your body speak in ways that support regulation rather than reactive patterns.

---

2. Embodiment Supports Clearer Attunement

When you’re connected to yourself, you’re more able to sense:

• when to slow down
• when to pause
• when to shift gears
• when someone is reaching capacity
• when you’re reaching capacity

Attunement is not a mental skill — it’s relational sensing.

---

3. Embodiment Creates Boundaries That Are Felt, Not Forced

Clear boundaries aren’t about saying the right words.
They come from sensing your inner limits and honoring them.

Embodied practitioners naturally:

• communicate more clearly
• stay within their own window
• avoid over-giving
• hold structure without harshness

This protects both practitioner and client.

---

4. Embodiment Helps You Stay Connected Instead of Getting Pulled Into the Client’s Story

When you’re not embodied, you may:

• merge with your client’s emotions
• lose your grounding
• over-function
• dissociate during sessions
• try to “fix” rather than stay present

Embodiment keeps you tethered to yourself so you can stay relational instead of reactive.

---

5. Embodiment Prevents Practitioner Burnout

Disembodiment forces your nervous system to:

• push past signs of fatigue
• override boundaries
• ignore internal signals
• stay in performance mode
• absorb too much emotional intensity

Embodiment returns you to your own body’s wisdom — which is the foundation of sustainable practice.

---

Embodiment Is Not an Achievement — It’s a Practice

Embodiment changes throughout the day.
It deepens with awareness and compassion.
It’s fluid, cyclical, and responsive.

And most importantly…

Embodiment is something all practitioners can reclaim — even if it’s been years since you last felt at home in your body.

You don’t have to get it perfect.
You only have to be willing to return.

---

Learning Presence Matters

So many practitioners were trained in:

• techniques
• protocols
• theories
• tools
• practices

…but not presence.

Embodiment is the missing skill most practitioners were never taught, even though it’s the foundation of trauma-informed work.

This blog series — and The Practitioner’s Arc — exists to change that.

Wishing you wellness,

Keri Sawyer

If you’re interested in exploring this topic further, you can find more information in The Practitioner’s Arc course that facilitates professional learning and experience with Embodiment.