Somatic practitioner

My name is Nazbah Tom. I am Diné and grew up in my ancestral homelands in Dinétah in so-called Arizona, USA. My training is in drama therapy (2004-2007) and somatics (various training spanning the years 2006-2019) (generative somatic lineage developed in Oakland, CA). 

I have worked with a variety of populations including:

• an Indigenous community health centre setting in Oakland/San Francisco Bay Area for 10 years, 

• inpatient recovery program with focus on Indigenous clientele and healing/recovery methods (also in Oakland/San Francisco Bay Area), 

• leading somatic healing groups in person and online, 

• speaking on panels, 

• training to supervise other somatic practitioners,

• offering somatic skills building workshops for universities and agencies, and 

• offering 1 on 1 sessions for Indigenous movement leaders and workers in areas of social and environmental justice. 

My thinking and sense of healing is that our bodies/minds/hearts are the first lands we are invited to tend to and take care of. We have been taught how to have a relationship with ourselves that is informed by colonial standards that disconnect us from the wisdom below our necks. This disconnection has a costly impact on our beliefs and relationship to ourselves, with each other, it shapes our work, and reveals how we treat the land. 

Usually we operate from a place where what we value and care about is not in alignment with how we are showing up in the world. I guide each person towards a different relationship with themselves to be more aligned and connected to their values and what they care about. Through creating a sense of safety and stability, building somatic awareness, we can create a space that allows us to process and integrate trauma, and incorporate skills we missed out on because we were busy surviving. 

My hope is to support each person to become more powerful, have more choice, and move in the world from their values and what they care about.

Nazbah Tom MA (they them)