Somatic Training and Mentorship

Skills and support for helping professionals at risk of burning out and losing heart.

 

Create space so work and life can feel more… 

Sustainable.

Satisfying.

Meaningful.

 
 

Private mentorship groups for teams of helping professionals.

This includes—but is not limited to—physicians, mental health professionals, teachers, social workers, manual therapists, activists and healing practitioners.

Small group training is usually 6 weeks long but can be customized to the needs of your professional team.

Are you currently swamped in the responsibilities of your professional practice and the rest of your life?

Exhaustion is an entirely reasonable response to the incredibly painful things we are witnessing and experiencing in the world.

So is frustration, concern, distraction or withdrawal.

We are giving our all. Living through uncertainty with legitimate concerns for our safety and wellbeing.

Capitalist wellness culture tells us that if we would just optimize our habits, we’d be able to do it all with grace and joy.

The truth is, a new 6 am jogging ritual, weight-loss plan or file organizing system can’t address the entirety of what we need.

What if, instead of falling into that trap, we decide we’re already worth tending to, just as we are?

Helping professionals consistently pour into others. Our culture perpetuates the myth that we are selfless servants, willing to set aside our humanity to help others.

This dynamic leads to ongoing currents of exploitation, burnout and isolation.

Our roles require so much hope. And, with the current state of the world we have countless real reasons to feel hopeless, anxious and unsafe. 

If we’re going to find our way through these times, I believe our embodied connections—with self, nature and each other provide us with a path we can follow.

I’m Annie Bray (she/her). 

I’m a Trauma-Informed Somatic Practitioner and Registered Massage Therapist.

I support caregivers to show up for the people and the work you love, without burning out or losing heart.

My approach is informed by 20 years of hands on bodywork and concurrent studies in trauma recovery, applied polyvagal theory, meditation, yoga and somatic coaching. I work through a lens of intersectional feminism and anti-oppression and consider myself a politicized practitioner of somatics.

I live in Ottawa, Canada, where I maintain a practice as a trauma-informed Registered Massage Therapist, as well as a somatic mentorship practice for clinicians who want reliable access to the skills and support they need, in order to navigate personal and professional challenge and change.

I believe embodiment skills can help us navigate the difficult passages of life more smoothly and the joyful passages more vividly.

That’s why I offer a trauma-informed, non-dogmatic course of practice to help us reclaim our innate embodiment skills. 

Let’s land in our bodies. 

Tend the neglected places. 

And nurture our resilience.

So we can thrive.

Professionally and as humans.

 

Embodied resilience is a state that allows us to connect more easily to connection, sensation and creativity.

It often shows up as an openness to play with the magic of the everyday. It also increases our capacity to respond to and bounce back from the very real challenges of our life.

That bounce can be hard to come by when we’re shut down, drained and isolated. It’s easier to find when we are nourished, supported and held. 

Our work together in this program is to land in our bodies and plug into a deeper source of capacity.

To lessen the imprints of systemic exhaustion and trauma.

And to nourish our nervous systems with exactly what we need to connect deeply, to flourish and to give from a place of overflow rather than depletion.

Let’s co-create a somatic mentorship and support group for your team 

These groups combine theory with lots of time to practice the tools we’re learning together while noticing how it all affects our bodies, minds and relationships.

You will learn how to access much-needed resources for your role as a helping professional…

Plus everything else on your plate.

 

WHAT’S INCLUDED:

These 90-minute live calls are a mix of teaching, somatic practice, breakout groups (or personal reflection) and mentorship. Expect to land in your body, tend to neglected places and walk away feeling more grounded and clear. You’ll have the chance to ask questions and learn from me and your peers who share similar concerns.

We will also make time to celebrate the small and big wins that happen throughout our time together.

For confidentiality reasons not all parts of the live calls will be recorded.

 

These groups are more experiential than academically rigorous but it is based on my own lifetime of rigorous study and practice. 

Drawing from a combination of material including yoga, mindfulness, somatics, The Work that Reconnects, polyvagal theory and more, I bring my clinical experience as a Registered Massage Therapist as well as my training as a somatic practitioner to this personalized, small-group program.

Read more about my training here.

I know you’ve got brains to spare, but I also know that many of us are dangerously close to burnout if not already there. That’s why this program is designed to nourish and support instead of feeling like another self-improvement project.

Embodiment skills don’t necessarily make life easier, but practicing them can make life richer. More of a joy to inhabit. More of a place where it’s possible to show up and flow.

I believe these skills are best integrated through repetition, ritual and relational practice. And that’s what we’re doing over the course of our time together.

Read more about my values & commitments.

Pricing

Pricing is based on the length of the program we agree on.

Reach out below to request more information on content and pricing.

Testimonials

  • I work as a massage therapist and I’m a highly sensitive person that struggles with anxiety. Like many other medical professionals, I found that practicing during the thick of the pandemic started to take its toll on me.

    I began coaching with Annie when I decided that burning out from compassion fatigue wasn’t good for my health anymore. Our coaching sessions have guided me back to taking care of myself by learning how to resource within my life and own body through somatic movement practices and breath work.

    Annie’s ability to hold space with radical consent and trauma informed care is SO nourishing. Her unique method of co-creating a map of our healing journey together allowed for tracking the small and mighty changes through what sometimes seems like the chaos of life. Her attention to detail and the building of a therapeutic relationship created the right amount of alchemy to allow the limiting stories living in my body to be expressed, witnessed and released at the pace they needed.

    I found the combination of Annie's vast experience as an RMT with somatic coaching practices made me feel less alone by being seen first as a person then as a practitioner.

    I highly recommend Annie to any massage therapist or medical professional who is ready to relearn how to nourish themselves, to take steps towards an embodied life and to receive the support that we sometimes forget we need. We have to fill our own cup before we can help others. Annie is the safe space that you’ve been looking for.

    Jennifer Hau, RMT

  • I’m a hospitalist physician and creative nonfiction writer and I’ve worked with Annie for about nine months now. Our time together, for me, has been absolutely transformative. Annie has a very special ability to meet me right where I am in our sessions - and this has been especially helpful for me both as a frontline healthcare worker during this pandemic and also as a person who is relatively early in discovering and nurturing her creative writing voice. In our time together, even over Zoom (!), Annie truly and authentically holds space - creating a container that feels like such a safe realm for real honesty, vulnerability, and deep communication.

    I come away from our sessions feeling not only a renewed sense of calm and clarity, but also a bit of excitement knowing I have new tools in my toolkit to help navigate some of the challenges of being in this world - whether it is the heaviness of processing old traumas or the burgeoning delight of delving into the creative realm.

    Our work together, in a very real and practical way, carries into my day-to-day life, whether I am seeing patients in the hospital or grappling with a writing project, and provides me with both a groundedness and a kind of inspired curiosity that have been tremendously beneficial for me. I cannot recommend Annie enough - as a guide, coach, and all-around beautiful soul to work with!

    Sarah Carter, MD

  • Held was a grounding, soothing and comforting hour and a half every week. It can be challenging to create a safe and engaging online class, but Annie is such a skilled facilitator and teacher, and really models the concepts she teaches. Each class I felt seen and heard, learned practical tools, and had lots of tiny a-ha moments.

    Partipant in HELD- Summer Somatics Immersion 2021

A note about Trauma-Informed Somatics:

This work can support your journey towards trauma recovery and post-traumatic growth. 

However, I am not a clinical therapist.

I offer my work through a trauma-informed lens, because trauma is a normal yet often untended part of life.

This work can be excellent support for anyone on a post-traumatic growth journey. 

Please note that if you are currently in a state of activated trauma without a lot of other support, or you have a history of unresolved trauma that you haven’t received therapy for, I would suggest bringing in dedicated support for that, alongside or in preparation for our work together.


If you’re not sure if this is the right fit I’m here to help figure that out. I will always prioritize your wellbeing and refer you to alternate professionals when I believe that’s needed.

Reach out here.