Ep 141 Somatic Experiencing with Breathwork & Movement with Kim Lovejoy

Conversation with Kim Lovejoy about the integration of somatic experiencing and breathwork.

Topics of Discussion:
-Transition from talk therapy to breathwork.
-The body's need to mobilize energy in order to regulate the nervous system.
-Intersection between somatic experiencing and breathwork

Kim Lovejoy has a passion for dancing with others in the healing spaces between the magical, spiritual and science through somatic experiencing, breathwork and energy healing. She has a respect for the innate healing wisdom held within the body & soul and she loves supporting others in reconnecting with their true self through compassion, humor and self love. 

As a somatic (body-based) therapist, Kim Lovejoy is interested in how to truly support the nervous system so that we can find a more regulated and grounded state of being. She has found breathwork to be a powerful tool to help move energy through the nervous system so it doesn't become overwhelming or stagnant. As we are able to move energy we create more capacity to experience the vast array of feelings and sensations that come with being fully alive.

In addition to her individual work, Kim has a passion for healing in community and holds monthly breathwork circles in the Twin Cities and facilitates breathwork at destination retreats throughout the year.

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Transcript

Ep 141 Somatic Experiencing with Breathwork & Movement with Kim Lovejoy 

[00:00:00] Cynthia: You are listening to the Well Connected Twin Cities podcast. I'm your host, Cynthia Shockley, and I'm here to learn alongside you through meaningful conversations with health and wellness practitioners. This is your time to experience some mindset shifts, learn practical tips, and get excited about what is possible.

[00:00:22] We want you to own the power of choice in your personal well being journey. Let's discover what's possible right here in our Twin Cities community.

[00:00:33] In today's episode, I speak with Kim Lovejoy about somatic experiencing and breath work. Kim has talked about a variety of other topics through our podcast, but today she shares specifically her journey from traditional talk therapy to a more spiritual and integrative approach to healing. She also talks about a new offering of hers that brings together.

[00:00:58] Both of that somatic experiencing and breath work for a really full and rich healing experience. Kim Lovejoy has a passion for dancing with others in the healing spaces between the magical, spiritual, and the science through somatic experiencing, breath work, and energy healing. She has a respect for the innate healing wisdom held within the body and soul, and she loves supporting others and reconnecting with their true self through compassion.

[00:01:27] humor, and self love. As a somatic body based therapist, Kim Lovejoy is interested in how to truly support the nervous system so that we can find more regulated and grounded states of being. She has found breathwork to be a powerful tool to help move energy through the nervous system so it doesn't become overwhelming or stagnant.

[00:01:48] As we're able to move energy, we create more capacity to experience the vast array of feelings and sensations that come with being. fully alive. In addition to her individual work, Kim has a passion for healing and community and holds monthly breathwork circles in the Twin Cities and facilitates breathwork at destination retreats throughout the year.

[00:02:09] And here we are with Kim Lovejoy, the one and only. Hello. 

[00:02:16] Kim: Hello, darling. 

[00:02:19] Cynthia: So lovely to see your face. 

[00:02:21] Kim: Oh, hey, any excuse to sit down and have a conversation with you? 

[00:02:25] Cynthia: We're so happy to have you on the podcast, and it's my first time interviewing you. So this is exciting. I know we were able to connect at one of the larger events.

[00:02:37] And I was able to just learn a little more about things that you're offering and just some evolution in your practice. So I'm really excited to dive in with you today and share a little more with the Well Connected audience. But first, I'm curious, with it being the new year and, I don't know, a time of reflection, I was wondering what's a value of yours that you've been prioritizing?

[00:03:05] Kim: I love that. I think something that's been sinking in for me a little bit deeper this season, even as we're in winter, things are quieter. We're talking in a little bit. But just for me, it's like, how do I honor? The seasons. How do I trust my own personal seasons of expansion and contraction?

[00:03:28] And I'm like reflecting back on times when I had to push through when it wasn't really feeling good to push through. And So really stepping back and trying to just honor the times where my body is needing more rest and my soul is just needing, to look inward and tend to myself.

[00:03:44] And then there's times where yeah, there's this expansiveness and it's time to connect and do these beautiful offerings and all, and so just like having grace with myself through those seasons. 

[00:03:58] Cynthia: Such a good reminder, I think, for anyone to be mindful of those seasons and to be okay with things being a lot and things being a little slower.

[00:04:09] I feel like I'm feeling you on the slower side of things, wanting to slow down a bit. Yeah, absolutely. Coming back into What even inspired me to be like let's get you on this podcast is that you started your professional career really focused on talk therapy, but over time you have started integrating somatic work.

[00:04:32] breathwork. First for those who might not be familiar, can you talk a little bit to the difference between mental health, traditional talk therapy versus nervous system health and somatic experiencing? 

[00:04:48] Kim: Yeah. Yeah. And I can take you a little bit on the journey of my career and how I shifted into more somatic.

[00:04:57] approach as well. Started out as you mentioned, traditional talk therapist, and that there can be so many beautiful things that happen in that space where we can figure out, how we're thinking about things and really process our emotions. And to me, it started feeling like this is a beautiful building block, right?

[00:05:19] Or but there was more that I felt like I was missing. So in my own life, in my own healing I was stretching beyond talk therapy and I was doing more energy healing, body based healing, right? Craniosacral energy work. Really bringing my body and my spirit into that process of what does it mean to heal for me, right?

[00:05:39] And when I would go into working with my clients, I felt like there was just this barrier around, we were only getting so far talking about things, right? We use the prefrontal cortex to talk therapy and language and there's just a certain part of ourselves and our brain that we're engaging in that.

[00:05:57] And so I just needed to take it a step further and I studied somatic experiencing. It was a three, three year dive with Peter Levine's faculty. And it was just this beautiful program where I started to learn about my own nervous system and Just for me, it became what it means to, to really heal in a deeper way, right?

[00:06:20] For example, if we are enduring something in our life that is overwhelming or traumatic it doesn't just happen in how we perceive it or in our brain. It's a whole entire nervous system body experience, right? It engages the fight, flight, freeze, submit, like all of that, starts to activate in our body and our nervous system.

[00:06:45] And so through somatic work, it's really this tool of how do we get in to the body story of what happened to us, or right, what we're witnessing in life, and how do we mobilize this energy That might get like stuck, trapped, suppressed, right? And so Peter Levine studied animals in the wild and he was like, How come they don't have PTSD?

[00:07:09] What's up with that? If they didn't pray animals they would go to the same watering hole and, be under threat. But what he started to understand was animals have a way of shaking things off that we like interrupt, right? I think of like my dog he's so cute.

[00:07:29] And I like to grab his face and kiss his little snout. And in his nervous system, he's kicking into the fight flight. He's like wanting to get away. He's what are you doing? Let go of me. And I'm pulling him in for these kisses. And then as soon as I let him go, what does he do?

[00:07:43] He shakes that off. Or when he gets really excited and he's got a lot of energy in his body, he does this cute little, like sneeze thing. And these are all ways that animals like regulate their nervous system. They discharge this energy out of their body so that they can come back into regulation, right?

[00:08:02] And so these are the pieces that I felt like I was really missing in traditional talk therapy. And wanted to dive really deeper into understanding how do I support people in moving this energy through mobilizing this energy so that we're not left with it kind of feeling like the gas and the breaker on at the same time in the body we can shut that energy down and it gets trapped.

[00:08:26] Cynthia: Yeah, I was actually oddly enough talking to my own therapist about this morning and how, when we are in that stress state or in that traumatic response, it's just energy gets stuck. We have that fear, that terror, that gosh, like life or death experience, and it gets stuck in that like amygdala and that fear center of our brain.

[00:08:51] And it doesn't really get the chance to migrate. into our prefrontal cortex to be logically thought about. Sure. Yeah, so something like somatic experiencing, something like breathwork can really help to move that. And I'm curious, Because, the old thing, people might say, if you're having an experience, you're triggered you're activated, someone might just say try to calm down, try to slow it down just breathe, just relax, versus doing something more active.

[00:09:22] Why would we want to move energy through our system proactively or actively versus just, oh, relax and calm down? 

[00:09:30] Kim: Yeah and that taps back into like I just said the gas and the brake can be on at the same time, so if we're just trying to calm down and pump the brakes, but there's so much energy underneath, it's like the gas is revving, it's not gonna really work, there's beautiful places in life for deep breathing, and for restorative yoga, believe me, I get, that's one of my favorite places to get down on my mat and just ground down and find that quiet.

[00:10:03] However, if there's just like too much energy rolling in the background. That might not feel like it scratches the itch, right? That might not really quote, unquote, like work in a lot of ways. And so really mobilizing the energy, giving voice to the overwhelm. It could be anger. It could be, like whatever these emotions are or these felt senses, bringing this energy to the surface and allowing it to move through, then we can come down and just some of those more restorative practices of calming then we can really feel that after we can express some of that energy. 

[00:10:45] Cynthia: Yeah. Versus almost like the image that comes to mind is like when a tea kettle is like whistling.

[00:10:50] Yes. It's like actually releasing the steam instead of just like trying to tighten it even more and be like, no shh. Exactly. 

[00:10:57] Kim: Exactly. I talk about that exact concept in my breathwork classes where we intentionally build energy over time, and then there's two points where we work towards these beautiful, just like big, raw primal screams.

[00:11:13] And that's the way I talk about it too. It's like hitting the release valve on the pressure cooker, right? And so you are, you're spot on exactly. 

[00:11:22] Cynthia: Yeah. And as someone who has been able to experience your breath work workshops, it's the primal scream just is so great. It's so good. 

[00:11:34] Kim: It is, I think about Just that raw instinct.

[00:11:37] And that's the thing too I love about somatic work is we're really normalizing these raw instincts that we have and this just like animal body that we often shut down as humans. I remember years ago there was this child at the park screaming and I was like, yeah, get it kid. Scream it out.

[00:11:55] And we just don't have spaces like that. Or enough spaces, I think, to, for us to, ah, just connect with that raw desire to scream sometimes, right? Life's overwhelming it's, it demands a lot of us. And it can be really beautiful to tap into our voice and to, Let ourselves roar, man. 

[00:12:19] Cynthia: Exactly. And, with that, there is, there's the term somatic experiencing and then the term breathwork. And is it that breathwork is under the umbrella? Or where is that intersection of the two concepts? Sure. 

[00:12:37] Kim: And I can only speak from My perception of all the things, right?

[00:12:43] Like other people might disagree, but just the way it came into my life was a, I was. Studying somatic work, and in about 2020, then I experienced breathwork for the first time in my life. And I had already had the somatic teachings.

[00:13:00] And so for me, the breathwork fit really beautifully underneath that, under that umbrella of here's a tool. Here's an ancient, powerful tool that, that we can use. And it's our own breath, right? That's the other thing I love about somatic work and breath work. I'm not looking to somebody else to give me an answer or show me the way.

[00:13:24] I see myself as a somatic experiencing and breathwork guide as like a mirror. And I'm just like showing you the tools that you already have within your nervous system. There is this innate wisdom that we hold in our bodies. And if we just slow down and really listen, that, those, these stories will unfold.

[00:13:45] Our body will show us where it might need to mobilize some of this energy, right? And yeah, but for me, breathwork, it was like, here it is. Here's this way that I can show people their own medicine, right? This is ancient wisdom. It's just me showing this breath pattern that we all have access to, right?

[00:14:09] And so that's the cool thing. People can take it home and use it on their own time. And there is something cool about healing and community and that huge primal scream together. Don't get me wrong. But just something that I absolutely love is just how accessible this work is.

[00:14:24] Cynthia: Yeah. Yeah. Once you learn the tool, it is something you can do on your own. It's just you and your breathing and knowledge of how to access that. But I will also say, yeah, doing that in community, hearing everyone else breathing and crying and screaming. It's just, there's something there that's just this like permission to be human, this permission to be.

[00:14:49] a living being on planet earth that feels and has these just Things, these somatic expressions that just are natural, 

[00:14:59] Kim: You're spot on, like you said, that permission just to let this stuff move through us in whatever way it needs to, right?

[00:15:08] Like in a class, you might hear somebody over here crying, somebody over here is laughing, there's just so many ways that this energy can mobilize and just be witnessed and. There's no right or wrong. And yeah. Permission to be human in the mess of all that it is. And beauty of it all. 

[00:15:28] Cynthia: Exactly. 

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[00:16:14] Cynthia: This ability to tap deeper into ourselves, into just mind, body, spirit. Can you speak a little more into, what Is going on in a breathwork experience in the mind, body and spirit. Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:16:36] Kim: Another piece that I just really love about it is how spiritual this practice can be too, right?

[00:16:42] I don't know how many times I've heard. One of my favorite things that somebody shared within the last couple of months. She said,

[00:16:50] She said, I am atheist. However, I just had a spiritual experience. And that just hit something really deep in me, and it can be really common for people to talk about through this breathwork, just really tapping into the ancestors, right? I feel like there's so many ways that this work can just help us dive deeper into ourselves, into our body, into our spirit, into our soul self, right? There's these different levels of healing that I feel like we can really access through this. As we're moving into this breath pattern and we're really over oxygenating the body we actually tap into the natural like DMT in our brain.

[00:17:33] And it can create like altered states of consciousness and to me, I think there's some really magical healing work that can happen in those spaces when we get our mind out of the way it's like we can connect, at least for me, I can connect to My higher self, like what feels like my higher self and that feels very spiritual to me.

[00:17:55] It's the space where things are quiet and I can see a little bit more clearly. And there's just so much there to access. Just such a richer place of healing. I, I've heard people give me some feedback to man, that one breathwork session felt like five years of therapy. And I just feel like that can be so real where we can have these sort of profound It's almost like we're taking a step back and we're getting out of ourself.

[00:18:25] We're getting, our brain out of the way and we can see things from a bigger picture. And something in that just feels so beautiful. It's hard even to, I'm like noticing that I'm like fumbling with my words in some ways too. Like it's hard to put it to words because it is like this somatic and spiritual experience that can be hard to describe.

[00:18:44] Cynthia: Yeah. And I know it's so unique to each individual as well. And I can speak from my own experience. The first time I did it with you was. Over the pandemic over zoom and I'm sitting in my office that I'm in currently and laying down and I warned my household. I'm like, I'm going to be screaming in a couple of minutes.

[00:19:07] Don't worry. I'm just doing I'm doing some healing. They're like, okay. And I remember I'm like, I'm going to be screaming in a couple of minutes. Don't worry. I'm just doing I'm doing some healing. They're like, okay. And I remember Because we are hyper oxygenating the body and there is this like response in the muscle which I didn't, I expected because you told me, but when it started happening it like confused me because literally my hands start cramping, my legs start cramping and everything, it almost felt like I was frozen and I had this like sense of fear come up in my body, but it's like I was able to observe the fear instead of Being consumed by the fear if that makes sense.

[00:19:48] I was like, oh look that's fear coming up and oh look My body's freezing up and it was this like deep sense of surrender to the process Where I just realized I didn't need to be in control And it's something that I could conceptualize and talk therapy and say, yeah I don't need to control things like I can let go of control, but when I'm in this physical mental situation where I'm literally not in control, it was this opportunity to put into practice and to physically embody.

[00:20:21] What I had been working on in talk therapy, and that was, so that was my experience with it, which was just amazing and unexpected. 

[00:20:30] Kim: Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. Yeah. And that's exactly it. It's now it becomes an embodied experience. Of something that you maybe know in your brain, but when we can enter that state of transient hyperfrontality, we get out of that brain and we become embodied.

[00:20:49] Yes there's a learning that happens in the body, not just in the brain. And that was a beautiful example of that. 

[00:20:57] Cynthia: Oh, And then of course, the second one I did with you was a different experience, right? So it's just amazing. It's amazing how it just could keep evolving as you dive in.

[00:21:08] Kim: Yeah. And Cynthia this new offering that I have, like why, when you initially reached out and you're like, tell me more, come on the podcast, let's talk about this. This really is this offering that I have now is this culmination of, right? Like my love for Se my love for breath work and healing and community.

[00:21:26] And wrapping it all together in this really neat way that just feels like so intuitive for me. And what's a little bit different about it than maybe another breath work that somebody who's trained in a similar way is, I really do bring in that spiritual component and that somatic component, right?

[00:21:46] And it, to me, it really feels like a sacred journey that I bring people on. And so even in the music, I'm choosing music very intentionally where we're held in the beginning in this sort of sweet way, and then the intensity of the music starts to build, and we work together raising that vibration up and that energy.

[00:22:09] And we work towards those primal screams together, right? And then there's this really important part at the end where we're just integrating and we're floating in this sweet space. And I intentionally don't use a lot, if any, lyrics while people are breathing because I want to keep people in that embodied place.

[00:22:27] Cause if we're listening to too many lyrics, then we're starting to pull back into that. part of that brain and right at that, where we're starting to engage with the lyrics and we're thinking. And so to me, there's just something that I've learned over time in my own journey with this, that where it's it just feels really important to allow people to go to whatever places they need to go to without me guiding that through lyric.

[00:22:51] And there's just these little pieces like that feel really intentional and thought out just with everything that, that I've learned through this process, right? And then really inviting in somatic movement, that's what's really unique to this too I don't expect people just to lie on their back on their mat and breathe it's really about using the breath as a tool to find the pattern, right?

[00:23:14] And it's the two inhales and the exhale.

[00:23:17] And then we just find that loop and we dance with the music and once we can just move into that flow, we can start to really feel how does my body want to move, right? And so I really encourage people to move like right to Move their hips around and to shake things out and right people aren't gonna be walking around the room and tripping on each other But within the space of your mat How does our body want to tell this story through the breath work too?

[00:23:49] And so that's been my new love because you know in my own practice I don't know how to sit still like i'm always moving and shaking and releasing and And so it's been really cool to bring that in these last couple of months and to see just the permission that it brings for people to really let their body become part of that whole story and just mobilizing this energy.

[00:24:10] It's been cool. 

[00:24:12] Cynthia: And I love that you it's like almost inspired by watching your dog and how he shakes things, shakes off your kisses and

[00:24:22] There's just some wisdom and intuition there that animals follow that we lose touch with. So I love that you're inviting in that reconnection to intuition, that trust in yourself and trust in your body. I think that's just beautiful and so let's say people are interested in trying this out.

[00:24:45] Is this something that they just sign up for? Do you have a series? What does this look like? 

[00:24:50] Kim: Yeah. So currently I'm offering monthly groups in Bloomington. They've been popular, so I might start adding more. Maybe twice a month in person Breathwork groups in Bloomington and so we'll drop some links in the notes for people to find and again, going back to like our opening question, I follow my seasons.

[00:25:14] There's times where, I might be traveling or, and so it's not as consistent but people can follow me on my newsletter, social media. To just see where I'm at and what's happening. And this 

[00:25:27] Cynthia: is at Sankalpa, correct? 

[00:25:29] Kim: Yeah. Yeah, 

[00:25:32] Cynthia: we just had Kristen Hutchison on the podcast earlier in this season, and we were just talking about how Sankalpa is just this beautiful little nest.

[00:25:44] It's just so cozy and perfect for, feeling held in a container. So I, and I got to experience your last, the last breath work I did with you in that space as well. So it's just really welcoming, warm, comfortable. And so it's I think just a beautiful space to be able to do this kind of work.

[00:26:03] It really is. Yeah. And we'll, have all of the links to Kim's website to sign up. newsletter, social media, all that good stuff. Please go check that out if you're curious. And I know Kim is just a great person to know and connect with if you have any questions or just want to be showered in her wisdom on social media.

[00:26:30] I think it's just highly recommended. Kim, before you go, we've been able to touch on somatic work, breath work, how it all ties together to bring mind, body, and soul into that healing space. If there was one takeaway that listeners left this conversation with, what would you hope it would be?

[00:26:53] Kim: Ooh that we are our own best healer. That we have the wisdom within. And we don't need to look outside of ourselves. Like we have these incredible tools. That just are so easily accessible and to me, that's just incredibly profound. 

[00:27:14] Cynthia: It is. And I'm just so grateful that you are expertly holding that space for so many people to do that 

[00:27:23] Kim: work.

[00:27:24] Yeah. Thank you. It's an honor. I know it's just sacred work and I really honor every time people trust me to hold that space. I don't take that lightly. 

[00:27:36] Cynthia: And I can tell you have just joy in practicing and doing what you do and just, yeah you're amazing at holding that space. So appreciate you and I'm so grateful you were able to share a little more about this new development, the somatic work that involves the movement, involves the breath work.

[00:27:56] It's really dreamy. Yeah. 

[00:27:58] Kim: Thanks. And thanks for poking me to come on here and share about it. I appreciate you.

[00:28:03] Cynthia: Thank you so much for listening to the Well Connected Twin Cities podcast. Did you learn something new? Did you feel that spark of hope and excitement for what is possible? Because so much is possible. Tell us about it in a review on Apple podcast. Not only would we absolutely love hearing from you, but these reviews help our ratings and help other curious minds like you find this resource.

[00:28:29] We are always better together. Thank you again, and see you next time.