Firefly Somatics

A powerful in-person session facilitated by Coach Amy with a client visiting from California.

During the session, they explored how early experiences of abandonment and neglect had shaped her nervous system and the way she moves through life today. Following significant childhood adversity, including growing up with a parent struggling with alcoholism and relocating from California to Sligo at the age of seven, her nervous system learned that safety meant becoming independent, staying quiet, and carrying everything alone.

They explored how these early survival patterns continue to influence her adult relationships, self-worth, and sense of identity. A childhood memory from school surfaced, where she remembered hiding at the back of the classroom. From this experience, a core belief had formed that she wasn’t intelligent enough, leading her to spend much of her adult life trying to prove her worth through achievement rather than simply believing she was enough.

They also explored how these attachment patterns now show up in motherhood. Feeling overwhelmed or demanded of can activate a freeze response, leaving her feeling shut down or irritable, often followed by guilt. These are not character flaws—they are nervous system adaptations developed through early life experiences.

As they moved into somatic work and body-based processing, she identified significant tension throughout her hips, upper glutes, and lower body. During the body scan and guided work around abandonment, she became aware of a deep tightness and constriction in her chest, illustrating how emotional experiences are often held physically within the body.

This is the essence of psychosomatic healing—understanding that our emotional experiences, beliefs, nervous system, and physical body are deeply interconnected. When we create safety within the nervous system, we begin to release the patterns that no longer serve us, allowing lasting change to occur from the inside out.

www.fireflysomatics.com