Somatic Healing and SMRT
Practitioner Training

Somatic therapy is a body-based approach to healing that works with the physical sensations, tension patterns and nervous system responses held in the body, rather than focusing primarily on thought, narrative or cognitive reframing. Talk therapy works at the level of conscious understanding. Somatic therapy works at the level of the nervous system, addressing the physiological memory of experience that remains in the body even after a person intellectually understands what happened and why. The distinction matters because many patterns, particularly those rooted in early experience or trauma, are stored at a level that cognitive approaches cannot fully reach.

SMRT stands for Somatic Memory Repatterning Technique. It is a proprietary somatic healing method developed by Soul Awakening Academy founder Anne-Marie Mayers. It draws on principles from neuroscience, polyvagal theory and somatic therapy to work directly with the nervous system response and memory encoding behind a pattern. It has been used to address phobias, anxiety, limiting beliefs, emotional eating, chronic physical tension and trauma responses. Practitioners report that shifts that take months in conventional coaching can occur in a single SMRT session when the pattern is addressed at the somatic level.

Polyvagal theory, developed by neuroscientist Stephen Porges, describes how the autonomic nervous system regulates safety, connection and threat response through three distinct states: social engagement (safe, connected, present), sympathetic activation (fight or flight), and dorsal vagal shutdown (freeze, collapse, disconnection). Understanding which state a client is in at any given moment changes how a coach works with them. Trying to do goal-setting or cognitive reframing with someone in a threat state is largely ineffective. Somatic tools that support nervous system regulation create the conditions in which real coaching work becomes possible.

Yes. SMRT practitioner training at Soul Awakening Academy is IPHM accredited. On completion practitioners can obtain professional indemnity insurance through Westminster Global to use SMRT with clients commercially.

SMRT training is delivered in small cohorts with limited places. You can join the waitlist at soulawakeningacademy.co.uk/smrt-waitlist/ to be notified when the next cohort opens for enrolment.