Nora Mertens - Holistic Massage & Somatic Bodywork

05/08/2025

Nora Mertens - Somatic Process Work and Holistic Massage in Berlin

www.noramertens.com

31/07/2025

05/07/2025

Grateful for this recent somatic/intuitive bodywork Google review. Thank you Charlie!

26/05/2025

TWO MASSAGE SLOTS opened up tomorrow (Tue 27.) at 10.00 and 12.00. Get in touch if interested!

07/05/2025

MEDITATION

03/05/2025

Since I was young I thought that there are confusing codes to being human.
How to chat with peers, how to dress, how to play with boys and make them like you.

There’s an old wound in me of not belonging.
Father had left for good, poverty, the brother with disabilities, a hurting mother, who left us alone at night when we were still in kindergarten, and who couldn’t handle my emotionality.

The community I didn’t have.
Being alive meant feeling alone and working on appeasing mother.

Things got much easier once she married a rich man.
A new big house, a new room, a new school, new friends, a new dog. Gifts, restaurant visits. Belonging.

All brought into my life by a man.
Patriarchal lessons learned and soon crushing desperately and hopelessly on boys.

Falling in love, my first real relationship and the terror that came with it, the fear of losing it as if that meant dying, and thus slowly but surely corrupting it.

I pretended that I knew the codes. Played games of communication and friendship, getting my driver’s license, school and university degrees, or whatever.

And have since been on a quest for truth. Over and over falling into traps of my conditioning. Wanting men to save me. Disappointing women and being deeply disappointed by them, as we still carry so much fu***ng patriarchal conditioning in us.

What I have long understood was bodies. Eros. Touch. Presence. Depth. That point of dropping into a current where another force was carrying me altogether. I call it Life.

There, opinions disappear, judgments disappear, agendas disappear, identities disappear. Socio-cultural codes don’t matter. At all.

This is where I feel safe. This is the space I like to move within and hold for others. There is safety and healing in being embraced by Life.

All is welcome here.

It takes courage to surrender into it, or sometimes to collapse into after all the holding, pushing, faking, and surviving.

It’s a coming home that indigenous peoples and ancient temple culture knew about and that we lost.

No need to culturally appropriate stuff from other cultures for this.

Breathe.
Drop.
Feel.

Let me know if I can support you in this.

Pic by

02/05/2025

SOMATIC BODYWORK TESTIMONIAL

By a client who has come to see me over many months. I‘m proud of the beautiful work we did. Thank you, P.

www.noramertens.com

09/04/2025

On Being an Ally

After my somatic coaching sessions today—the last before my vacation—I’m supposed to be packing, and instead I sit here with gratitude.

My clients often come to me at the perfect time, just as I’ve come to integrate some of the very same parts they bring into the space.

Their trust in me grows me.

I don’t meet them from my small, well-adjusted persona. Not from the fawny, silent part that tries to not be ‘too much’ to preserve connection.

I don’t just meet my clients—I also meet myself through my work.

(I suppose that’s what purpose is.)

I am a fierce ally. I bring presence. Fire. Care. Intuition. I challenge. Disrupt when needed. I am real.

I’m not objective. I’m not above.

And I don’t play the ‘radical self-responsibility’ card.

I stay.
And I stay.
I meet them where they are.
I let myself be moved.
I validate.

Their boundaries.
Their pain.
Their grief.
Their longings.
And together, we explore what is needed.

The fiercer I meet them, the more they trust me.

And when we do arrive at radical self-responsibility, it’s not through victim-blaming or gaslighting. Not by absolving others—but by reconnecting to truth, power, and agency.

Through being seen.
Through returning to the body.
Through touch and containment.
Through grief.
Through unshaming longings.
Through validating boundaries.
Through connecting to that inner tigress or tiger who fu***ng knows.
Through anchoring in our essence.
Through exploring systems and finding clarity.
Through practical solutions.
Through nutrition & care.
Through remembering our choices.

And in this space, there is often laughter. Tears. Relief.

This is the work I’ve devoted myself to for 20+ years—the study of being human.

And I’m paid for it. I deeply consent to that exchange. It allows me to take my kids on vacation. It’s a privilege.

And I can’t wait to return.

Sessions resume April 30th in Berlin.

If you need an ally on your human quest, reach out.

www.noramertens.com

31/03/2025

Ich habe noch freie Termine diese Woche in meiner Kreuzberger Praxis!

Call oder WhatsApp.

***“Nora’s Holistic Massages are the most professional, enjoyable, and effective massages I have ever experienced. Nora does a fantastic job of listening to you and your body, knowing exactly how to help you and your body relax. Nora has helped me tremendously when I have visited time after time!”

***“Nora’s sessions feel like you’ve been blessed, both moving and centring, a true artist at what she does. Mind and body feel completely rebalanced and energised.”

***“Nora is a phenomenal practitioner. She is able to blend a perfect mixture of psychological safety with deep understanding of how the body works. I’ve visited a couple of times and come away feeling rejuvenated, calm and centred. Highly recommend.”

https://noramertens.com
0176-37795940

25/03/2025

Healing Isn’t Just About Feeling Better—It’s About Feeling More.

More love. More presence. More safety. More YOU.

When we numb pain, we also numb joy. Somatic bodywork helps you gently reconnect with all parts of yourself—without fear, without shame, without judgment.

Because your feelings aren’t problems to be solved. They’re guides leading you home.

18/03/2025

SOMATIC BODYWORK TESTIMONIAL

By a client who has come to see me over many months. I‘m proud of the work we did together. Thank you, P.

14/03/2025

How could I teach boundaries without embodying them as a practitioner?

Who do I invite into my practice, and who do I turn away?

I’m not (just) talking about you, “conscious” man with hidden agendas just because you read “tantra” somewhere in my bio.

For a while, I accepted nearly every bodywork request just because I needed the money after separating from the father of my children and rebuilding my life while parenting two.

But lately, I’ve been questioning: What kind of practice am I building? Do I thrive when I fulfill the expectation of offering a surface-level service—fixing people in a way that doesn’t align with my truth?

The answer is obviously no. My hands began to resist. I started to feel bored.

I’m old enough and experienced enough to stop making decisions out of scarcity. So here’s the kind of client I want to work with:

I want to work with honest people. Vulnerable people. People who are messy, imperfect, and willing to drop deeply into body and soul. Real people. Humble people. People who show up with openness.

I’m done treating clients who come to me with a stiff shoulder, expecting me to simply “fix” them, but unwilling to engage—who won’t breathe with me, drop into themselves, or meet their maybe contractions or limited patterns.

What I offer is a soulful space to receive you. To truly see you. To feel you. A space of safety, regulation, integration, and expansion—not for my benefit, but for yours.

And I am just as real as you are. I’m not above anything you’re going through. I only got here because I’ve faced, worked through and integrated so much of my own stuff.

I am a constantly evolving human, just like you. And I have the gift of presence—the ability to hold space. I have a fearlessness when it comes to real s**t. I bring compassion for our shared human experience. I bring hands that have felt so many bodies.

And above all, I bring curiosity. Every person who steps into my practice reawakens my inner anthropologist. I love to study or sense the intricacies of your unique human experience.

www.noramertens.com