Somatic Parts Work Practice
Become the Safe Adult You Always Needed
An 11 Minute Audio Practice to Bring Parts Work Into Your Everyday Life
Have you found yourself sitting in session with your therapist or coach, and saying out loud in frustration, “I just wish I knew how to/remembered to do this in my real life!”
Remembering to pause, to check in and see if a young part of you is running the show, to find a way to slow down, recentre, and move from choice rather than reactivity. That’s the goal. And yet most folks struggle to be to be able to do that whenever the need arises, not just in session.
This is exactly why I created this practice. Living from a steady internal Adult takes a consistency of practice that needs to happen regularly, not just once a week or every couple of weeks. More importantly, to be sustainable, this consistency of practice needs to be accessible and doable.
Really, truly doable.
Meet your new Practice
An 11 minute practice that you can learn in a matter of a couple of hours, and take into your everyday life.
Created both for daily practice and when you feel triggered and blended with a young part.
WHAT’S INCLUDED:
Two Instructional
Videos
A 15 min intro and a 45 min instructional video to help you learn the audio practice. Transcribed for ease of accessibility and learning style diversity.
3 Short Stabilization Audios
Three 5 min audio practices. Choose one to use repeatedly and utilize at the beginning of the parts work practice. Downloadable and transcribed.
1 Somatic Parts Work Audio Practice
An 11 min audio practice to return to again and again. Downloadable and transcribed.
WHO THIS PRACTICE IS FOR:
Clients and practitioners of somatics and various forms of parts work such as Internal Family Systems
Those who have “all the information”, but still find an everyday capacity to use the work out of reach
Anyone looking to deepen their work with a practitioner
You’re existentially exhausted from the crises we are living through and want to develop more internal stability to ride the waves of emotion that come with being alive right now
You want learn and use the tools of self-regulation more often, but find it hard to fit into your busy life
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN:
Step One: Stabilization
Somatic work takes us into the internal landscape, which can be overwhelming. Stabilization creates the possibility of connecting with or beginning to develop an internal adult.
Step Two:
Unblend & Listen
Most of the time, we are blended with a young part. Once we have some stabilization in our felt sense experience, the next step is to begin to differentiate and unblend from younger parts.
Step Three: Attunement
Feeling towards vs. about our parts creates the possibility for both your Adult self and younger part to exist at the same time, allowing the young part to feel less alone, and the adult to feel more stable and less flooded.
Step Four:
Finding Wisdom
Shifting from a Power Over to a Power With relational dynamic reframes our struggles into survival adaptations and connects us to the wisdom of our young parts and threat responses, which leads to greater compassion.
Step Five:
Meeting Needs
Here, our young parts get to practice asking a steady Adult to meet their needs, reducing the need for them to hijack the entire system and scramble for control as a path to safety/protection.
Step Six:
Closing the practice
A central part of secure attachment is knowing we can leave and come back, trusting that safety and connection will be there upon our return. We close the practice by doing a final check-in with the young one.
PRICING
Somatic Parts Work Practice is on sliding scale pricing, which offers financial accessibility to those who need it and a chance for those with financial stability to share from it. A great big thanks to Alexis J. Cunningfolk for their writing on sliding scale pricing .
Individual Price
$50-$150 USD upfront
For clients of somatic/parts work and practitioners
purchasing the practice for their own personal use only.
Practitioner Price
$250- $500 USD upfront
For somatic/parts work practitioners purchasing
to share freely with their clients in perpetuity.
*When selecting a price on the sliding scale, please keep in mind your access to generational wealth
and/or a steady income in order to support the financially sustainability of this offering.
FINANCIAL ACCESSIBILITY AND REDISTRIBUTION
If lowest amount of sliding scale pricing isn’t financially feasible for you, please be in touch with me at contact@bewith.org to request a payment plan or PWYC (pay what you can) access.
Got privilege that’s lead to financial stability? Here’s a chance to redistribute: contribute to the Parts Work Practice Scholarship Fund here!
As a way to practice redistribution, 10% of this project’s first year profits will go to this reliable, direct aid effort for Gaza. If you have disposable monthly income, I invite you to join me and my community by becoming a monthly donor.
THIS PRACTICE WILL HELP YOU: (*HTF CONTENT)
a more complex and nuanced understanding of your feelings, and their relationship to your thinking, embodiment, nervous system and behavioural patterns.
how to identify what you feel and what is happening underneath the feeling using awareness, physical sensation and deep listening.
how to actually feel your feelings by moving them through your body without getting stuck in thinking, avoidance, or harmful coping.
how to notice and re-direct when you find yourself projecting (aka blaming) your discomfort onto something or someone else.
embodied practices to help regulate your nervous system and feel grounded.
FEEDBACK
“Varia is incredibly skilled at honing in on the most important aspects of very complex ideas. Using this practice makes the power of somatic parts work very accessible and doable - what a gift!”
“Working with Varvara has been a game changer for me and has helped me grow so much. It has allowed me to feel more resourced and grounded and also have a language to share my knowledge with my partner(s) and loved ones. Varvara’s approach is one I’ve been missing in many spaces (intersectional, inclusive, open minded, loving) and it makes me feel extremely happy and lucky for this opportunity. I’m definitely going to repeat with the new classes she offers!”
“This class legit taught me how to feel. I learned more about how to be in my body with my emotions. I learned so much more about how to be with my emotions instead of seeing them as an enemy. This was one of the best investments I have made. Varvara is so delightful. You will have a great time and your perspective on emotions will change in the process. I can’t recommend this enough.”
“This class helped me grow through one of the most challenging experiences of my life. An old childhood wound was ripped open, on top of a pandemic, loss of a family member, systemic oppression of people of color coming to a head and so many other things. I can’t imagine how I could have managed to listen, get curious, and move into spaces of safety without this course. ”
“Varvara’s enthusiasm, authenticity, and mastery shine through when she talks about feelings — the messiness of them, the nuances of them, and how to treat ourselves kindly while feeling them. Her teachings have totally transformed my capacity for self-trust and a felt sense of personal liberation. What a treasure.”
ABOUT ME & MY TRAINING:
I’m a big feeler.
Having grown up in Moscow during the fall of the USSR, there wasn’t a lot of space for me to feel my feelings as a child. As a highly sensitive young person, I learned to ignore, control and hide how I felt no matter the cost.
Then came a traumatic immigration, fundamentalist christianity, chronic depression and multiple painful attempts at coming out as queer to conservative family and friends. The cost of not feeling, not being in my body and being there for everyone other than myself became too much to bear.
Cue thousands of dollars and over a decade of therapy later, I learned how to discern what I was actually feeling, developed the skills and capacity to stay with myself and get through to the other side of any emotion. This new capacity set me free and awoke me to the beauty of life, the wisdom of my feelings, and the gift of being embodied. It also helped me to see myself in the context of a complex world shaped by systems that created much of my suffering, including ableism, racism, patriarchy, classism, colonialism and more.
I’ve spent the last thirteen years offering embodied emotional support through one on one and group coaching, teaching, spiritual care, facilitation, storytelling and community building. My work is shaped by a cross-disciplinary approach to healing that combines my background in somatic trauma resolution, Gestalt psychotherapy, co-active coaching, creative arts and spiritual care. My approach is politicized, non-hierarchical, and process (rather than outcome) oriented. Queerness, immigration, class struggle, and lived experience of trauma orient my work towards justice for all and a practice of accessibility as love. My magic is in being with people. So is my joy.
My formal training includes:
Alchemical Alignment: Bodywork for Trauma Resolution and Embodiment of Spirit
Levels 1-4 , 2021 (100 hours)
Brigit Viksnins MAT, SEP, RCST®, BCTMB, LMTCoaches Training Institute
Co-Active Coaching Fundamentals, 2015 (17.75 hours)
ICF Accredited Coach TrainingCertificate in Gestalt Psychotherapy Theory and Methodology
One-Year Traning Program for Professionals, 2012 (170 hours)
Year Two - Introduction to Field Dynamics , 2013(170 hours)
Gestalt Institute of TorontoFoundations in the Psychology of Counselling
As part of a Master’s of Divinity, 2013 (45 hours)
Dr. Marsha Hewitt, Trinity College, University of TorontoStudies towards a Master’s of Divinity
with a focus on Queer Theology, 2011 - 2013
Queen’s University, University of TorontoBachelor of Arts with Honours in Philosophy
York University, 2005 - 2009
Toronto, Ontario
Lineages of Practice:
My deepest gratitude is extended to my own lineage of practice, built first and foremost on the foundation of my own well-being. This foundation was and is made possible by the long-term support and encouragement of my community, as well as the pivotal guides in my own life - Katarina Maatta-Hebdon and Marika Heinrichs. I extend my deepest thanks to my teachers in healing, Brigit Viksnins and the faculty of The Gestalt Institute of Toronto, as well as Tele Darden and Steph Jagger who offer me private practice supervision and mentorship, respectively. My approach is shaped by the public teaching work of adrienne maree brown, Lindsay Mack, Brené Brown, Janina Fisher, Kathy Kain, Janina Fisher and Rob Bell. My deepest bow goes to each of them, as well as to the ancient traditions that shape the lineages my work flows from, including the teachings of the Buddha, Indigenous teachings, Christian mystics, and earth based worship, ritual and magic.
At this point, I feel my life’s calling is to support myself and others to live in right relationship with self, others & the more than human world.
I am a white queer femme, a Russian immigrant, a cat mom and a wife to Tanya Neumeyer. I live in what is colonially known as Toronto in Canada, but has always been and will be Indigenous land. As both a settler and an immigrant in my lifetime, I hold the privilege, complexity and harm by which I get to call this place home seriously. The land I live on is part of the Dish with One Spoon Territory - a treaty between the Anishinaabe, Mississaugas and Haudenosaunee that bound them to share the territory and protect the land. Subsequent Indigenous Nations and peoples, Europeans and all newcomers have been invited into this treaty in the spirit of peace, friendship and respect. I look to this treaty as a guiding principle for how to live on the land, working towards decolonization through solidarity, education and when called for direct action.
MORE FEEDBACK:
““Varvara’s How To Feel class is a game changer! It was more helpful than any book, therapy or course I have taken over the years, combined! I highly recommend this course if you want to understand your feelings more, be able to learn how to process them and become more grounded and feel better in your life.” ”
“Varvara is a compassionate, thoughtful, and knowledgeable guide through the difficult terrain of human feelings. She is very skilled at both conveying theory and facilitating embodied practice, in a way that is accessible and tangibly useful in day-to-day life. This course has helped me to become way more attuned to my feelings, and more equipped to feel them all the way through rather than repress or project. The skills I’ve learned here will support me in strengthening my relationships with myself, my partner, my friends and family, and my broader community.”
“I feel like every human alive needs to take this class. The world would be so much better for it. When we heal ourselves, we heal the world. Varvara provides us with so many tools to heal ourselves.”
““Varvara is so gentle and kind. I’ve learned about somatics before from another teacher, but Varvara teaches it in a more digestible way that I was able to use immediately after practicing once with her recorded audios. The practices have built my capacity to stay in my body during difficult moments. I also really appreciate her social justice and equity lens that she brings into her classes; her commitment and continued growth here are clear.””
““How to Feel was a safe, compassionate, and trauma informed journey of self discovery lead by Varvara, a remarkable facilitator, who guided me and the other group members through the journey with kindness and respect for each of our bodies’ inherent wisdom. How to Feel allowed me to understand my nervous system without judgement, while making space for new skills to support increased regulation in a way that works with, instead of against, my body.””
