Somatic healing and transformation
Do you feel like your past traumas and hardships prevent you from moving forward and enjoying your present life? Are you facing a transition or new life phase that is asking you to grow and heal from your past? Are you grieving the loss of a loved one, a relationship, or a previous phase of life? Are you a mother struggling with the challenges of motherhood?
It is hard to go through these challenging experiences alone, as healing and transformation require a holding space where you can be seen, heard, supported and guided. I facilitate a compassionate and confidential space for healing and transformation to unfold. I combine talk therapy with embodied (somatic) approaches to healing.
My peaceful home-based practice is located in Tokai, Cape Town. I offer individual counselling in person in the Southern Suburbs or online across South Africa.
My Approach to Somatic Healing
My approach starts from the belief that we all hold an inner blueprint of who we are meant to be - our most authentic, fully expressed self. This is like the acorn that holds the image of the future oak tree within.
When we experience trauma or hardship, it creates an imbalance in our system. To survive, we learn to suppress certain parts of ourselves and overdevelop other parts. Perhaps a harsh environment taught us to fear our soft, sensitive self and become a self-sufficient survivor. Perhaps we were shamed for being assertive, causing us to suppress our anger and become people-pleasers. These parts of us remain hidden and underdeveloped. Our systems become unbalanced and we suffer with anxiety, depression, burnout or addiction as a result.
But the blueprint for a healthy self remains. The body knows how to release the trauma that caused the imbalance and re-member the lost parts of the self.
We all have access to this powerful healing wisdom. It is our innate "inner healer", the same part of us that knows how to heal from a cut.
In somatic therapy, the "inner healer" is accessed through feeling into the emotional/physical pain and tension held in the body and allowing it to express and move freely without conscious interference. As we surrender and allow the body to heal these energetic blockages caused by trauma, we also begin to reconnect with the parts of ourselves that "went underground" as a result of the trauma. As these parts become more integrated into the self, balance and wholeness are restored.
Through this somatic process it becomes possible to access deeper layers of awareness, reconnect with our innate wisdom, and discover new possibilities for growth and transformation.
Meet Dr Kim Wale
I am a mother, a matrescence researcher and a Specialist Wellness Counsellor. My work focuses on somatic healing and motherhood growth. I am based in Tokai.
My pre-motherhood research work focussed on trauma and healing. I continue to hold counselling space for clients who want to do the deep healing work of self-transformation.
When I became a mother I shifted my research focus to matrescence - the profound developmental process of becoming a mother. You can read more about my work on Empowering Matrescence here. I have a passion for supporting mothers through this challenging and powerful rite of passage.
If you are ready to heal from old traumas to become a more authentic expression of yourself, or you are a mother who is struggling with the challenges of motherhood, it would be my pleasure to walk beside you through your journey of healing and transformation.
Professional Roles & Qualifications
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Specialist Wellness Counsellor (ASCHP)
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PhD, University of London
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MPhil in Diversity Studies, University of Cape Town
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Research Fellow, Centre for the Study of Violence and the Reparative Quest, Stellenbosch University
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Biodanza Facilitator
ASCHP Registration No. SWC24/13021 (NQF 8)
How We Can Work Together
Somatic Counselling
As a somative counsellor I hold a compassionate and confidential space for people to reflect, feel, grow and transform. While talk counselling is very useful to unpack and work through challenging situations and emotions, I combine this with a somatic approach to healing. Bringing clients into their embodied experience helps them release long held emotional burdens (trauma) and connect with a deeper wisdom and capacity for healing. I offer one-on-one counselling in my peaceful home practice in Tokai or online across South Africa.
Mothermorphosis - Motherhood Growth Journey
The Mothermorphosis Journey is inspired by the extraordinary biological process of metamorphosis, in which a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. Matrescence, the process of becoming a mother that can last a lifetime, is similar to metamorphosis. This journey combines solution-focused, imaginative, embodied and creative exercises to guide and support mothers through a process of transformation. It was developed and tested through my academic research on how best to support mothers to grow through the challenges of matrescence.
Matrescence Psychoeducation Talks
Recent research highlights the profound changes that occur to a women's brain, identity, values, relationships and spirituality when she becomes a mother. This potent developmental window is called matrescence and it can last a lifetime. As a mother, matrescence researcher, and motherhood counsellor, I share what I have learnt (and am still learning) through psycho-education talks about matrescence and motherhood transformation. My recent paper, Empowering Matrescence, was published in Women & Therapy and can be found here.