Somatic Therapy
Stress, Anxiety and Burnout Relief
Where body and mind meet.
Your body remembers the way to balance. Somatic therapy helps you listen.
What is Somatic Therapy?
Somatic therapy is a way of working with the psyche through the body. The word “soma” comes from Greek and means living body.
A somatic session is like visiting a psychological osteopath—someone who listens not only to your thoughts and feelings but also to your body. This work happens through awareness, movement, and touch.
… Many people are familiar with the term psychosomatics, which explains physical conditions through psychological causes. It’s easy to assume somatics is the same. But it’s not.
Somatic therapy is something else entirely. At its core is somatic repatterning—the practice of changing unconscious movement patterns to help shift how we think, feel, and act. It’s not about diagnosing or fixing. It’s about cultivating deep awareness and presence within your body. Somatic practice helps your body, mind, and emotions reconnect. It encourages you to listen to your sensations, enjoy movement, and find rest and renewal through embodied presence.
Why Somatics?
Somatic practice helps you feel more alive. It integrates your intellect, emotions, and physical self into a unified whole. It brings depth and richness to how you experience life, while offering deep rest, emotional regulation, and access to your inner vitality.
… Somatic work is built on three core pillars—foundational principles for reconnecting with your body and resetting your life’s rhythms:
Developmental Patterns
These are innate movement patterns we all know at a cellular level—from our time in the womb and early evolution. They shape how we move and relate to the world. In somatic practice, we consciously revisit these origins with simple movements—like stretching like a starfish or crawling like a baby.
It’s a way of learning to live again, from the ground up. By re-patterning how we move, we naturally begin to support ourselves where change is needed. We move through life more comfortably, more naturally, and more authentically.
Living Anatomy
Here, we explore basic anatomy and link that knowledge to direct bodily sensations. The goal isn’t to memorize facts, but to deeply feel ourselves.
When you know and understand your body from within, you can better manage activity and rest, feel stronger and more grounded, and take empowered responsibility for your life and health.
Somatic Psychology
In somatics, we don’t separate body and mind. Instead, we speak of the body-mind—an integrated system where thoughts, emotions, and physical states constantly influence each other.
We work to reconnect the thinking mind with the feeling body. Each part of you—your organs, tissues, even your bones—holds its own kind of awareness. Consciousness is not limited to the brain; it’s distributed throughout the body.
By inviting all aspects of ourselves into awareness, we begin to feel more stable, whole, and at home in our lives.
How does it work?
In a somatic session, you might talk, move, or receive gentle, non-invasive touch. Clients often say, “It feels like both massage and psychotherapy.”
… Each session is a living, dynamic encounter between two people. We affect each other biologically—through how we look, listen, speak, move, and simply be. The focus is on turning inward, noticing your internal responses—your thoughts, feelings, sensations.
Three core tools are used, each tailored to your unique needs:
Bodywork
Gentle, respectful touch applied to various body systems—supporting regulation on a deep, cellular level. This awakens areas that feel frozen or disconnected and helps you feel grounded in your body.
Touch is always offered with your full consent, and you remain fully clothed. In online sessions, you may be guided in self-touch to achieve similar effects.
Authentic Movement
A practice of spontaneous, inner-directed movement. There’s no choreography or music—only your body’s impulse to move. You are witnessed by a supportive, nonjudgmental presence who simply holds space, without interpreting or advising.
This witness offers a powerful message: “I see you. I hear you. You exist. You have a right to be as you are.”
Body Dialogue
This practice invites you to connect with different parts of your body—your organs, muscles, nervous system—and ask: What do you want to say? You listen for answers through movement, drawing, writing, or voice. It’s a creative, intuitive process that reclaims the body’s voice and wisdom.
Who is it for?
Anyone who has a body.
Somatic therapy can support you if you’re:
- Going through a difficult period
- Feeling anxious, overwhelmed, or exhausted
- Seeking nervous system regulation
- Longing to reconnect with joy, vitality, or self-awareness
Somatics can help with:
- Depression, anxiety, and burnout
- Insomnia and migraines
- Panic attacks and obsessive thinking
- Sexuality and intimacy
- Recovery from trauma
- Enhancing athletic performance
It’s for anyone, regardless of age, gender, neurotype, or physical condition. Somatics embraces neurodiversity and all forms of individual difference. If you have a body, you can use it to regulate and restore yourself—and a somatic therapist can accompany you through that process with compassion and presence.
Who leads the sessions?
Maria Podolskaia
Certified practitioner of Integrative Bodywork and Movement Therapy
(Dip. IBMT, UK) …
I’ve been immersed in somatic practice for 15 years, and trained professionally for 5 years at the British Institute for Integrative Bodywork and Movement Therapy.
My journey into somatics began with personal struggle. I felt disconnected from my body—and when I did feel, it was painful. My emotions were overwhelming. My mind was racing with anxious thoughts. Years of traditional psychotherapy touched only the surface. They didn’t address what was happening in my body—frozen tension, deep fear, and anxiety that couldn’t be talked away.
Through movement and touch, I discovered something powerful and hard to put into words—something that calms, balances, and restores hope. Somatics helped transform that feeling of cellular dread and isolation into a sense of connection, safety, and joy.
For me, somatics continues to offer answers to life’s big questions:
* How to be in relationship
* How to eat and move with self-respect
* How to experience pleasure
* How to rest deeply
* How to feel pain without being overwhelmed
* How to stay healthy and present through hard times
I’ve lived through depression, panic states, and codependency. Somatics gave me tools that work—tools that are not only effective, but also deeply enjoyable. Tools that help me build resilience and even enjoy life.
Your body is with you from the beginning to the end of life. It is your most precious resource. You can learn not just to use or fix it—but to be with it. To be it. For me, that’s a lifelong journey.
Where do sessions take place?
Sessions are held in the center of Riga and in Jelgava, in a cozy, spacious room where you can move freely, rest on something warm and soft, or simply sit and talk.
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Online sessions are also available—and they work surprisingly well. Your body is always with you, even when you’re sitting at a computer or feeling distant. Through movement, self-touch, and attention, we can create real connection across distance.
For sensitive people, online work can even feel safer and more intimate. It offers a gentle kind of closeness, bridging emotional and geographic space in a way that supports healing and presence.
How much does it cost?
Duration: 1 hour
Price: 50,-EUR per session …
You can schedule sessions as often as feels right for you. Some people come weekly, others less frequently. Everyone’s journey is different. Often, it takes 10–15 sessions to explore a specific issue. Over 20–30 sessions, many people experience profound shifts in how they live and relate to themselves. But even a single session can matter—sometimes, it becomes a turning point..
People come to somatics simply for support. Sometimes the only request is: “To be myself in the presence of another.”And from there, subtle but lasting changes begin—whether in relationships, work, or physical wellbeing. Somatics is a space for renewal, strength, and freedom. A place to explore, recover, and grow. You can arrive as you are—curious, tired, joyful, or lost. Your body is always welcome here.
