This is the first session in a series of therapy demos with the same client. The full demo is streaming on Patreon.
In this live demo session, Harmony works with a volunteer who experiences chronic pain alongside a familiar pattern of catastrophizing–thinking about the body rather than listening to it, tracking symptoms vigilantly, and tensing in preparation for what might happen next. While these strategies are understandable attempts to create safety, over time they can actually amplify suffering and further distance us from embodied presence.
Rather than analyzing the pain or trying to change it, this session begins with attuned co-regulation and a slow return to present-moment awareness. Through gentle pacing, relational presence, and somatic inquiry, the focus shifts from managing pain to restoring contact with the body as it is. As awareness widens and the nervous system is given space–without force or agenda–organismic self-regulation begins to emerge naturally.
This episode offers a felt example of how somatic and Gestalt-oriented therapy supports clients in moving out of vigilance and back into embodied listening, where change arises not from effort, but from being deeply met in the present moment.
About Harmony:
Harmony Kwiker, MA, LPC, NCC, ACS, is a psychotherapist, educator, and author, and the founder of The Awakened Therapist Approach. With nearly two decades of clinical experience, her work integrates Gestalt therapy, somatic intelligence, transpersonal psychology, subtle-energy awareness, and nervous system–informed practice.
Harmony is the author of The Awakened Therapist, Holistic Co-Regulation, Reveal, and Align, and serves as Lead Gestalt Faculty in Naropa University’s Mindfulness-Based Transpersonal Counseling program. Her work centers client sovereignty, present-moment awareness, and the innate intelligence organizing beneath symptoms and stories.
Learn more and train with us:
If you’re a therapist or healer wanting to deepen your capacity to work with the nervous system, somatic process, and transpersonal dimensions of healing, you’re warmly invited to explore our trainings.
Our programs support clinicians in:
- working beyond insight alone
- honoring client sovereignty and innate wisdom
- supporting regulation through presence, attunement, and contact
- integrating somatic, Gestalt, and spiritual perspectives in an ethical, grounded way
Learn more about Awakened Therapist trainings, upcoming cohorts, books, and resources at awakenedtherapist.com, or continue exploring these themes through The Awakened Therapist Podcast.