38. Connecting the Body & Mind. Meet Self-Attunement and Somatic Coach Ilana Grostern

Dec 20

Ilana Grostern is a Montreal-based Self-Attunement and Somatic Coach. Her early career took her from graphic design to the launch of a sustainable business venture – a cloth diaper company that she ran for fifteen years. Her sensorial over-excitability attuned her to the needs of the body, leading her to pursue a certification as Canada’s first Whole30 coach.

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

People who don’t know about their own giftedness lack information about themselves.
Lack of self-understanding leads to frustration and being misunderstood. Therefore, it’s important to know who we are in order to have a better relationship with ourselves but also with others.
The giftedness theme is completely missing from the mainstream.
The giftedness angle gives a lot of clarity in the coaching realm.
Somatic coaching is about healing the somatic-mind (Cartesian) split. No more “I think, therefore I am!”
A lot of chronic illnesses in the gifted population due to the resonance between the body and mind.
Ilana shows you to value neutral experiences of the body (soma) and map out what’s in the physical realm.
The mind is a “meaning making machine”! The mind will jump to mental conclusion about the body from learned paste experiences without actually tuning in. We need to break this jumping to conclusion cycle.
You are encouraged to flip the right with the left side! Ilana gives you the space to try new things without making you feel stupid.
Coaching is about accepting where you are in this moment and learning a new way of doing something.
The parents need to feel and relate to what their children go through. We start with our own healing first before we can support anyone else.
People who are in chronic survival mode, are dis-regulated and might feel overwhelmed by this approach.
Learning to increase the tolerance in the uncomfortable somatic moments will allow you to learn what the body is trying to tell you.