The Somatic Architecture of Space: Cultivating Personal Resilience from the Inside Out

​ I walk through native brush on the sandy banks of the Swan river in Perth, I often reflect on a fundamental truth of the natural world: Growth requires room. In my personal practice as a somatic therapist, I frequently look to the ecosystems around me to understand and connect to the landscapes the internal, and the space that goes beyond the body. Imagine a fish in a small creek - if it remains confined to a small rock pool, its physical growth is biologically capped by its environment. Similarly, a sapling crowded by invasive weeds will struggle to reach its full potential.

​As humans, we are no different. Our environment isn't just our physical grid or even the nature—it is the very relationship between our physical body and the space we inhabit. When we experience stress, restricted by postural habits, or overwhelmed by invasive thoughts, our potential for resilience and personal growth is being limited.

​Claiming Your Internal-External Landscapes

​To grow, we must first learn to embody space. In somatic work, we look at Shape—the way we hold ourselves in response to the world and the experiences that were embedded in the archive of our body over time, throughout childhood and our adult life, through experiences, relationships and personal beliefs. When we are in a state of contraction, our internal space is restricted, making it difficult to process complex emotions or traumatic memory.

​I invite you to try a simple mindful practice I use myself to reset my nervous system and bring awareness to space in my body as well as expanding awareness towards the space around me - the extension of my body. It’s a simple 10-minute somatic walk. So the first thing you ought to do is choose a walking track. It can be as simple as a nearby nature strip, the park or the seaside. The location is entirely up to you, and choosing it is the first step of claiming your 'space'.

1. ​Observe the Breath (1–2 min'): Walk at your natural pace. No need to change anything. Simply and gently shift your awareness to your breath. Is it shallow? Where does it go in the body? Notice your feet and the contact with the ground.
   

2. ​Expanding the Physical Body (3-4 min'): Begin to engage with your breath curiously. Use the inhale to gently create physical space from the inside out. Feel your ribcage expand laterally. Feel your belly soften. imagine your spine and neck elongating toward the sky.
   

3. ​Synchronising Body and Environment: Inten to match the rhythm of your breath to your steps. Notice how this expansion changes your "Shape." You are no longer just moving through the environment - you are claiming the space around you as part of your support system.
   

​As I practice this, I feel my chest open and my shoulders drop. I am intentionally increasing my internal-external space.

​Space as a Container for Process

​Why does this physical expansion matter for our mental health? Because space is the foundation of containment.

​In somatic therapy, we work with the 'felt sense'—that internal, physical awareness of an emotion or a pattern, or even a belief about our identity. When we are physically and mentally constricted, a challenging emotion like grief or anger can feel like it’s going to fracture even break us. There isn't substantial volume to hold it.

​However, when we cultivate space through breath and postural awareness, we create a larger 'pool' - just as the little fish grows when moved to a wider section in the river system, our capacity to process difficult experiences expands when we inhabit an expanded version of ourselves. By creating space in the body, we create space to breathe through anxiety. By elongating the spine, we create the uprightness needed to face a difficult memory without collapsing.

​Resilience is a Vast Meadow

​When we remove the 'invasive species' of physical restriction, a natural process begins to unfold. Self-growth and personal resilience isn't something we have to force - it is something that happens spontaneously when the conditions are right.

​By taking the time to embody space, you are telling your nervous system that it is safe to expand, to feel, and to be. You are moving from a state of survival (contraction) to a state of potential (expansion).

​In the space we create, we find our resilience and our resourcefulness. We begin to discover that we are not the emotion itself, but the vast, open space in which the emotion can safely move and safely shift and transform. Reach Out To Me Today at Elijah Forest Therapy If you are curious about embodying personal space for healing, for resilience and self-growth, if you are also considering body-mind counselling and want to experience wholesome integrated somatic therapy, or if you are just feeling that a little bit of space just for yourself, within a supportive, trauma-informed therapeutic container is just what you might be needing right now, contact me today! www.somaticforest.com My clinic is nestled at 38 George Street, East Fremantle, within Nourish Me Wholefoods health hub and cafe - in a private counselling room where somatic therapy and bodywork modalities are woven, offering clients authentic space to explore, embody and be held.