Firefly Somatics

Firefly Somatics Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Firefly Somatics, Medical and health, 7 Fitzwilliam Street Upper, Dublin.

Specialising in Psychosomatic Therapy, Vagus Nerve Healing ,Nervous Systen Regulation, Trauma Release and PTSD Resolution, Neuroplasticity, Bodyworks and Somatics, Energy Healing.

11/08/2025

Clients often hide their most painful parts — even from themselves.

But the shadow side doesn’t stay buried for long.

How to Help Your Client Integrate and Heal Their Shadow Parts will show you how to help clients face what they fear most.

Sign up today for 50% off! ➡️ https://www.nicabm.com/program/shadow-side-5/?del=8.11.2025FBPost

10/08/2025

Healing happens not just in the mind, but deeply through the body.

The Firefly Method® is built on this truth, that our soma and nervous system carries the echoes of our past, especially deep seated fears and attachment wounds. When we get stuck in stress or trauma, our bodies hold onto those experiences in our muscles, organs, and even in how our immune, lymphatic, and respiratory systems function. These imprints keep us locked in survival mode, where fight, flight, or freeze responses take over, making it hard to find calm or safety.

At the heart of,The Firefly Method® is Polyvagal Theory, which reveals how our nervous system moves between states of regulation (where we feel grounded, connected, and safe) and states of survival, (where we’re reactive or shut down). By guiding you to sense and gently discharge trapped energy in the body, we help you shift out of these survival patterns. We refer to this as somatic realignment: reconnecting you with your body’s natural rhythms and releasing what no longer serves, so your system can relax and flow naturally again.

Harnessing Neuroplasticity, we use a mind-body-based approach to help rewire neural pathways. This rewiring fosters resilience, emotional regulation, and a renewed capacity for connection. Especially with attachment wounds, which are stored in the nervous system and shape how we relate to ourselves and others. This work restores the sense of safety and trust that’s essential for healthy relationships and self-compassion.

The ripple effects of this nervous system healing extend to your whole body, calming inflammation, supporting immune health, and improving organ and lymphatic function. When your nervous system is in balance, your entire system can thrive rathe than survive.

The Firefly Method® offers a portal back to regulation, safety, and embodied healing, where you are invited to move beyond survival and into a life of true presence and vitality.

www.fireflysomatics.com

Projection: The Mind’s Mirror, The Nervous System’s Echo 🧠Projection is a force shaping our sense of self, how we experi...
05/08/2025

Projection: The Mind’s Mirror, The Nervous System’s Echo 🧠

Projection is a force shaping our sense of self, how we experience the world, especially in relationships & environments

Projection happens when our subconscious mind takes unresolved feelings, beliefs, or wounds from the past & casts them onto people, places, or situations in the present.

Our brain is wired to make sense of the present through a lens of past experience - a survival mechanism. When old patterns, traumas, or emotional wounds remain unhealed, the nervous system stays on alert & the mind projects these old templates onto new stimuli. This means what we see, hear & feel is often filtered through a subconscious projection shaped by old pain rather than today’s reality.

Psychologist Carl Jung called projection “the shadow in action,” highlighting how parts of ourselves we don’t fully own or accept can unconsciously influence our perception of others. Family systems theorist Murray Bowen expanded this, explaining how projection in families can perpetuate emotional patterns across generations. Attachment theory, pioneered by John Bowlby & expanded by Mary Ainsworth & others, also sheds light on how early relational wounds shape projections through attachment styles — anxious, avoidant, or secure. When attachment needs are unmet, the nervous system tends to react with hypervigilance or shutdown, reinforcing projections of fear, abandonment, or mistrust.

Modern neuroscience confirms this interplay between projection & the nervous system. The body holds implicit memories & the brain’s predictive coding can perpetuate projections unless re-patterned through new physical experience. This is why rewiring projections isn’t just a cognitive process but a somatic one. Healing requires time, patience & a felt sense of safety & attunement to truly shift neural pathways.

When you find yourself triggered, or seeing something “old” in someone or somewhere new, pause. Recognise the projection. It’s your nervous system signaling there’s an unhealed story to explore. The journey to rewrite these patterns is deeply embodied, not just thinking differently, but feeling, moving & relating differently.

It’s a slow unraveling of the past, so the present can finally be seen for what it truly is. Not what you’ve projected onto from the past.

References:
• Carl Jung – On Projection and the Shadow
• Murray Bowen – Family Systems Theory
• John Bowlby & Mary Ainsworth – Attachment Theory
• Bessel van der Kolk – The Body Keeps the Score (on trauma and somatic healing)
• Stephen Porges – Polyvagal Theory (on nervous system regulation and safety)

www.fireflysomatics.com

Attachment Wounding is Somatic, Neurological + RelationalYour attachment style isn’t just emotional. It’s wired into you...
30/07/2025

Attachment Wounding is Somatic, Neurological + Relational

Your attachment style isn’t just emotional. It’s wired into your nervous system in your earliest years.

From birth, your body learns safety or threat through your primary caregivers. These early experiences shape your limbic brain, right hemisphere, and autonomic nervous system,embedding attachment responses through neuroplasticity.

If love felt safe and consistent, your ventral vagal system (social engagement) developed in regulation. But if it was inconsistent, rejecting, or chaotic, your system adapted to survive, by activating sympathetic (fight/flight) or dorsal vagal (freeze/shutdown) states.

Attachment styles:
• Secure: Regulated, safe in closeness + space.
• Anxious: Hyper-aroused. Clings, over-functions, fears abandonment and rejection
• Avoidant: Shuts down. Detaches, self-sabotages, fears intimacy, rejection and abandonment
• Disorganised: Push-pull. Craves love but feels unsafe in it. Fears intimacy rejection and abandonment

These aren’t just “relationship issues.” They shape how you:
• Manage stress
• Set boundaries
• Speak to yourself
• Show up as an adult (at work, in day-to-day engagements with life + people)
• Regulate emotions
• Procrastinate or over-perform

Your body remembers and repeats the familiar past until it is taught safety.

The path to embodied healing requires somatic repatterning, vagus nerve toning, co-regulation, and inner neuroplastic rewiring through trauma-informed, consistent connection

Healing will not happen through willpower alone, embodied safety has to be taught neurologically. When the body finally learns it’s safe … your whole life changes.

www.fireflysomatics.com

PRE-BLEED SLOWING DOWN🩸The days leading up to a woman’s period, the body undergoes a natural hormonal shift that affects...
25/07/2025

PRE-BLEED SLOWING DOWN🩸

The days leading up to a woman’s period, the body undergoes a natural hormonal shift that affects energy levels, mood, and physical state. This time is known as the late luteal phase of the menstrual cycle, and it’s often marked by fatigue, irritability, low motivation, and a need to withdraw or rest.

After ovulation, progesterone becomes the dominant hormone. It has a naturally calming, sedative effect on the body… inviting rest, slowing the pace, and enhancing sensitivity. But in the days before bleeding, both progesterone and estrogen drop sharply. This sudden hormonal withdrawal can cause a dip in energy, mood, and resilience. You may feel emotionally vulnerable, foggy, tired, or even anxious.

At the same time, the nervous system becomes more reactive. The vagus nerve may have a harder time regulating your internal state, and stress can feel amplified. Blood glucose regulation becomes less stable, meaning that carb cravings, emotional eating, or energy crashes are more likely to appear. It’s not a lack of willpower. It’s biology.

Inflammation can also increase during this window, contributing to bloating, joint pain, headaches, or sleep disturbances. The body is preparing to shed the uterine lining. This is metabolically demanding and energetically sensitive.

So if you feel slower, more tired, or like you want to cancel everything, you’re not “lazy” or unproductive. You’re syncing with an intelligent, cyclical, innate internal design.

This is why slowing down matters. The body is turning inward. Pushing through with high-output exercise, productivity pressure, or overstimulation can increase sympathetic dominance, raise cortisol, and worsen symptoms like PMS, fatigue, or anxiety.

Instead, this is a time to:
• Rest
• If exercising turn to “slow” movements, reduce weight loads if lifting too
• Nourish with warm, grounding foods
• Support blood sugars with protein, fats & slow releasing carbs
• Reduce stimulation
• Honour your need for emotional soothing

The more you honour this window, the more resilient and regulated you become across your entire cycle.

www.fireflysomatics.com

22/07/2025

Change, even when positive, can activate the nervous system in ways that mirror threat responses, especially for individuals with a history of trauma. From a trauma-informed lens, it’s essential to recognize that the body and mind may not distinguish between “good” and “bad” change, rather they respond to unpredictability and loss of control.

Physiologically, the autonomic nervous system (ANS) plays a key role. The sympathetic branch—responsible for the fight-or-flight response may become activated when change is perceived as a disruption to safety or familiarity. This can lead to increased heart rate, shallow breathing, muscle tension, and a surge of stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. For trauma survivors, whose systems may already be sensitized or dysregulated, these responses can be more intense or prolonged.

Psychologically, change can trigger feelings of uncertainty, fear, and hypervigilance. Past trauma may be reactivated, especially if the change echoes earlier experiences of instability or helplessness. This can result in anxiety, irritability, emotional numbing, or even dissociation. In some cases, individuals may regress into survival strategies such as withdrawal, people-pleasing, or control-seeking behaviors.

A somatic approach to navigating change emphasizes safety, choice, predictability, and empowerment. Supporting the nervous system through grounding practices, co-regulation, and compassionate self-awareness can help individuals respond rather than react, restoring a sense of agency and calm amidst uncertainty. Change in life is inevitable and necessary for growth, but it doesn’t have to be a huge threat to the system.

The Firefly Method®️ implements psycho-somatic techniques to assist the nervous system through periods of change, we help to build awareness around behavioural patterns and create a sense of safety within the body to support you moving forward into new chapters of life 🦋

www.fireflysomatics.com

CLIENT SPOTLIGHT ⭐ Meet Sarah, a current participant in our 12 Month Guided Psychosomatic Healing Programme, “A Journey ...
17/07/2025

CLIENT SPOTLIGHT ⭐

Meet Sarah, a current participant in our 12 Month Guided Psychosomatic Healing Programme, “A Journey of Higher Conscious Awakening”. She began her journey with us in July of last year with an online session and made the courageous decision to fully commit to her healing path.

For over a decade, Sarah struggled with chronic health challenges. From 2014 to 2024, her symptoms persisted and progressively worsened. Despite extensive testing - including comprehensive bloodwork and multiple MRIs - no clear diagnosis was given. As you can imagine, after ten years of unexplained illness, she felt defeated and hopeless.

What Sarah didn’t realise at the time, but has since come to understand, is that her nervous system and immune responses were in a state of dysregulation. Her symptoms were the psychosomatic result of accumulated stress and unresolved trauma. Her body had been crying out, expressing pain that had never been given space to heal.

Now, 9 months into her journey, her transformation is undeniable. As Sarah herself shared, “The freedom in this photo compared to how I was this time last year 😭❤️”

www.fireflysomatics.com

Subconscious beliefs are deeply help concepts that we believe to be true about ourselves, others and the world around us...
16/07/2025

Subconscious beliefs are deeply help concepts that we believe to be true about ourselves, others and the world around us. We are often unaware that we hold these beliefs meaning they play out unconsciously on repeat, affecting the way we think act and behave in our daily lives.

Uncovering subconscious beliefs is much like going down to the basement of the mind, into the unknown and shedding light on the unseen.

The first step of working with subconscious beliefs is identifying what the belief is and then making the connection of where it was learned (usually in childhood, school system, or through the socialisation process)

Understanding the link between beliefs and the nervous system:

▪️Subconscious beliefs have a role in how our autonomic nervous system functions. The brain sends signals to the nervous system via the vagus nerve as it’s a bidirectional highway meaning it communicates both ways. There are constant signals being sent from brain to body and vice versa, therefore if your brain believes that something is unsafe it will send a signal to the nervous system and your body will respond accordingly.

▪️Often those who have experienced trauma and adverse early childhood experiences have faulty and untrue beliefs about themselves and the world, limiting the way they think act and behave in an attempt from the brain and body to keep them safe from experiencing further harm

At Firefly Somatics™️ we work slowly and consciously to uncover these limiting core beliefs, help to make connections and find the root of the beliefs. We then process on a somatic level and aim to change and integrate new beliefs into the system via the process of neuroplasticity.

www.fireflysomatics.com

Dissociation 🗣️Dissociation is a dorsal vagal response, a profound state of shutdown governed by the dorsal branch of th...
15/07/2025

Dissociation 🗣️

Dissociation is a dorsal vagal response, a profound state of shutdown governed by the dorsal branch of the vagus nerve. This branch signals the body to conserve energy in the face of perceived overwhelm or inescapable threat. It’s an ultimate “time out” process.

From a polyvagal theory perspective, this is the lowest rung of the PVT ladder. After sympathetic mobilisation (fight/flight) fails to resolve the threat, the system drops into dorsal vagal immobilisation. Here, we see hallmark physiological signatures including reduced heart rate variability, decreased body temperature (cold hands & feet), altered glucose metabolism leading to unstable blood sugars & insulin levels, increased fat storage, chronic low energy & prioritisation of fuel preservation over expenditure.

This is why dissociation often coexists with weight gain, stubborn fat retention & digestive dysregulation. The body is literally preparing to survive long periods without resources. Meanwhile, neurochemical shifts including blunted dopamine & serotonin activity contribute to feelings of hopelessness, numbness & depression.

Psychologically, we feel cut off, floating above ourselves, disembodied. Many describe it as living behind a glass wall, observing life rather than participating in it.

At Firefly Somatics™, we guide clients through these neurobiological terrains using The Firefly Method® - a psychosomatic approach informed by polyvagal theory, neuroscience & embodied healing. We work with the ladders of the autonomic system to help individuals climb step by step from dorsal shutdown through sympathetic charge (the “red zone”) into the safety & connection of ventral vagal regulation.

This is not about bypassing fight/flight. In fact, to come out of dissociation, we often first have to allow mobilisation energy to complete. This means discharging stored survival responses in safe, titrated ways so they no longer trap us in freeze. Only then can we access the social engagement system, restore vagal tone & cultivate sustained neuroplastic shifts that rewire the nervous system for safety.

We see this journey typically taking 12–18 months of consistent, supported work. Through vagus nerve rehabilitation, we invite the body to form new neural pathways. Over time, these pathways become well-trodden trails that naturally lead us out of chronic shutdown & into embodied presence.

If you recognise yourself here, know that dissociation is not a flaw. It is your biology protecting you the only way it knows how. Healing means honoring this adaptive intelligence while gently guiding the system toward more conscious choices so you can live fully alive, connected & safe in your own skin.

www.fireflysomatics.com

Address

7 Fitzwilliam Street Upper
Dublin
D02WP92

Opening Hours

Tuesday 9am - 8pm
Wednesday 9am - 8pm
Thursday 9am - 8pm
Friday 9am - 8pm

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