Paige Leighton - Trauma Informed Somatic Coach

06/10/2025

How to feel the feelings: Part 6

Safe Spaces

The body and mind need to feel safe enough to allow emotions and sensations to come to the surface. Fear of judgement or reactions from other people (among many other reasons) can consciously or subconsciously block emotions and sensations from actualizing. Each person is different. It is worth paying attention to what happens when an emotion surfaces and what is around you. For example, are you worried someone will walk in and see you? Is there a fear of someone hearing you? Are you hesitant while talking to a person about your feelings.

Finding your safe space may help. Some people have found that being alone on the floor or lying on a yoga mat is the first place they felt safe and held. You may want to practice sensing into your body/emotions in a safe space over time. When a safe experience repeats, the body and mind learn to trust that it is safe enough to open-up and soften.

This may take some time and may require gentle, compassionate patience with yourself.

06/10/2025

How to feel the feelings: Part 5

The Emotions Wheel

Let’s expand our emotional vocabulary. There are nuances in emotions, dividing them further into different categories. Over time, as you begin to sense into each emotion more quickly, you’ll start to notice there are slightly different sensations and circumstances. Having a larger vocabulary helps you to identify the emotion you may be feeling. This may lead to understanding the circumstances behind them and what kind of response is needed, if any. The emotions wheel below splits larger emotions into more specific emotions.

30/09/2025

How to feel the feelings: Part 4

Emotion Body Map

We’ve made progress with sensing into the body, locating physical sensations, and adding descriptive words to them. Next let’s move forward to adding names to emotions. Remember, emotions are a collection of physical sensations present in the body.

In 2013, a paper was published outlining where in the body most people felt each emotion. This study is enormously helpful for those who struggle to name their emotions. In the diagram below, emotions in the body are shown as warm colors for increased activation and cool colors for decreased activation. If you can match the general location of the experienced sensations to the diagram, you might be experiencing that emotion.

Check in with yourself and ask if this emotion makes sense or does it feel true? One important thing to note is that these diagrams are not a one size fits all. For example, I feel more shame more in my stomach, which presents like nausea (disgust), more than is highlighted in the diagram. I experience embarrassment in a similar manner to the diagram for shame. Over time and practice, you’ll get to know yourself a little better and be able to express what you're going through.

17/09/2025

27/08/2025

How to feel the feelings: Part 3
Felt Sense Vocabulary

All emotions are sensations, but not all sensations are emotions. One of the key factors in “how to feel the feelings” is the ability to describe sensations in the body.

I’ve created a felt sense vocabulary to get you started on your way to finding what suits you best.

Maybe you’d like to practice with this? Pick an area in your body and use the list provided, or in your own words, and describe the sensations present… the location, the temperature, the color…

No judgement here, just observing what is present. Maybe notice how long you can stay with the sensation. Notice if it changes. Notice your thoughts that arise. There is no right or wrong answer. This is a practice of simply noticing.

You’re welcome to share how this was for you in the comments.

31/03/2025

Co-regulation is so important in this world. For your children, for your relationships, and the health and wellbeing of everyone in your community. Especially in today’s time that more disconnected than ever.

Come learn more from Dr. Porges about our biological imperative for human connection in our flagship educational experience, The Polyvagal Certificate Course: Safety, Connection, and the Human Experience. Your enrollment includes live discussions with Dr. Porges himself, and lifetime invitations to....

15/12/2024

Why did I switch careers from geology to somatic coaching?

It is the stories left behind that fascinate me.

Geology requires a curiosity about landforms and the conditions that formed them.

So many different environments shaped the Earth into what we see today, many were erosive, treacherous, and violent. But more than that, gentle and still environments also left their mark. Soft, bent, twisted, sharp, beautiful, rising into the heavens… Embedded in the rock are fascinating stories to discover.

In humans, traces of our histories remain present in the body. Not only in our mind and personalities, but also in how we carry ourselves, how our muscles hold those patterns.

In this way, the stories in the rocks are not so unlike the stories held in our bodies. Both are slow to change, but unlike the rock, we can learn from our stories, learn about ourselves, and use those stories to grow and change, becoming the best versions of ourselves.

Photo: Paige Leighton Photography
St. Mary's Lake, Glacier National Park 2012
University of Washington Summer Field Camp

06/07/2024

A very good talk about the supression of healthy anger. The science behind it is explained further in his book The Body Says No.

How do we create a healthier relationship with anger? Most of us either stuff our anger or we suddenly find ourselves erupting in rage. In this video Dr. Gab...

17/06/2024

I am happy to add somatic EMDR and bilateral stimulation to my tool box!

11/06/2024

Let’s change our relationship to our stress responses.

We’ve been hearing a lot about fight-flight-freeze lately, and while this is helpful to recognize, the truth is, your body is simply reacting to a stimulus, prepping for action.

It can be helpful to shift away from “I am in a fight response” to “my body is reacting to a stimulus.” This shift towards a neutral perspective can already begin to soften the response.

Give it a try and let me know what you notice?

03/06/2024

Getting in touch with your senses improves awareness of your internal environment and emotions. Feeling the feelings seems like a simple enough thing, yet many of us are disconnected from our bodies.

Reconnecting might take time and practice as we widen our capacity to allow for uncomfortable emotions. These simple (but not so simple) steps can help you get in touch with yourself.

23/01/2024

When you’re hard on yourself, your body reacts as if you are a threat. It triggers fight or flight, sending stress hormones throughout your body and it rarely motivates you to make the changes you want.

Self-compassion does the opposite. You become a resource of comfort, care, and understanding for yourself.

Learning to be compassionate towards yourself might feel strange at first, but with practice, it gets easier and “more believable.”

Here is a list of highly recommended books and courses from the author Kristen Neff that may help you on your journey.

Dr. Kristin Neff