Why Somatic Therapy Matters to Me: Grief, Menopause & Belonging

Where This Work Began

As a child, I had one question I never stopped asking. Whatever the adults around me told me, I'd ask "but why?" I wanted to go deeper. I wanted to understand what was underneath the thing they'd just said.

That question never left me. It's carried me through thirty years of bodywork, yoga, mindfulness, somatics and group work. It's still the question underneath everything I do.

I'm Tanya. I'm a trauma-informed somatic therapist and embodiment practitioner, and this is my first post here, so I want to tell you a little about why this work matters to me.

I've spent decades learning that the body holds what words can't always reach. Grief, change, identity, loss. These aren't things we think our way through. They live in us: in our shoulders, breath, sleep patterns, the clenched jaw, digestive issues, and many other places. I learned this first through my own life, long before I learned it as a Therapist.

I'm a mixed race woman who has spent much of my life moving between cultures, never quite landing in one place. That question of where I belong has shaped me. So has grief. My beloved grandmother died earlier this year, and grief has been teaching me its lessons again, this time from the inside rather than from the Therapist's chair. I'm in my fifties now too, having navigated an intense menopause journey of my own, one that required me to meet my body and my shifting sense of identity in unexpected ways. That experience has only deepened how I understand what I now offer the women I work with.

I say this because I don't hold this work at a distance. I bring lived experience alongside decades of training, and teachers who've shaped how I understand the body and grief, Francis Weller, Aimee Rai, Malidoma and Sobonfu Somé, Uma Dinsmore-Tuli among them.

Here's what I offer

Grief and bereavement. Whether you're grieving a death, a relationship, a version of yourself, or a future you thought you'd have, I don't believe grief is something to fix or rush through. It's not a problem to solve. In our sessions, we slow down and listen to what your body, your emotions and your nervous system are already telling you. We make space to honour what's been lost, gently soften the patterns that have protected you, and find your way back to yourself and to life beyond loss, at your own pace.

Menopause and midlife. This stage can touch far more than hormones. Exhaustion, anxiety, disrupted sleep, a sense of disconnection from your own body, shifts in identity and relationships. I won't promise to balance your hormones. What I can offer is support for your nervous system to move out of chronic stress and into greater regulation, so you can meet this transition with more energy, resilience and trust in yourself.

Identity, belonging and cultural healing. For anyone navigating mixed heritage, cultural expectations, or the quiet ache of not quite fitting anywhere, I offer a space that understands this from lived experience as well as professional training. Together we explore how identity and belonging live in the body, and gently build a deeper sense of home within yourself.

Across all of this, my approach stays the same. Healing begins by become more present, slowing down and giving time for the nervous system to be heard. By creating enough safety to actually be with what you're carrying, rather than pushing it away or powering through it. I hold space with warmth, presence and a lot of patience, because your body already knows the way. It just needs the conditions to remember.

I'm glad you're here. I hope some of what I share in this space finds you at the right moment.