Welcome to The Wise Body.
My name is Vaishali and I’m a nervous system- and trauma-informed somatic practitioner and therapist based in India.
I work with the body and the nervous system to help people recover from stress and trauma, heal and process wounding, and expand into greater ease and authenticity.
what is somatics?
Somatics comes from the Greek and Latin root word ‘soma’, which means body. Somatics is an umbrella term for a variety of practices, methods and techniques, all of which are oriented to and rooted in bodily experience. In somatic practice, we tune into and work with the felt experience of the body: sensations, movement, breath, emotions, senses, instincts, intuition, desires…
These aspects of our experience are usually overlooked and underappreciated. But when we know how to receive and incorporate them into your life, everything becomes richer, fuller, more satisfying—and the body remembers how to heal, recover and adapt to life.
Somatic work creates a safe space for the body’s wisdom and energy to be witnessed and integrated into conscious awareness. In doing so, we rediscover and strengthen the innate connection between mind and body, which is crucial for wellness, self-regulation, growth and authenticity.
current offerings
the way I work
Somatic work comes in many forms and takes many approaches. Over the past decade of body-oriented training, I’ve come to recognize and commit to living and working by the following principles:
safety and attunement
Working somatically requires that above all, your body and nervous system are able to find safety and settle
in a state of safety, our nervous system becomes receptive to neuroplastic change
when we feel safe in ourselves, in the world and with each other, we are able to:
- explore new possibilities with curiosity rather than judgement
- think and process freely and creatively, without pressure or constraint
- let go of whatever may be holding us back (shame, guilt, fear, limiting beliefs)
- recognize our innate worth
- expand towards our desired goals and visions with ease
titrating and pacing
Somatic work by its nature goes deep and uncovers a lot. In order to be effective in this process, we practice a principle called titration or dosing.
This means working in small, step-by-step ways, slowly, over time. We follow the pace that your body and nervous system feel safe with and can sustain.
Working in this way ensures that your nervous system can process and integrate the change that happens, without getting flooded or shutting down in the face of intense sensations and emotions.
working from the bottom-up
In the work that we do, we will always be following the lead of the body and the nervous system.
This is the only way that the body will feel safe and trusted enough to take us where we need to go.
We do our best not to override, manage, control or otherwise interfere with the way that the body wants to process. This is how we re-establish a healthy, two-way relationship of mutual trust between mind and body.
Bottom-up somatics respects the intrinsic wisdom of the nervous system, and lets the body lead the way.
a little hello from me
what people say
Vaishali is a well-informed, highly-trained, and approachable practitioner. Usually, one happens at the expense of the other, but she has the gift of breaking down complex constructs into practical, everyday strategies.
What is notable about Vaishali’s sessions is that one can apply the takeaways almost immediately. For a beginner who is seeking an inroad into mindfulness work, mainstream practices such as meditation, with their obdurate demands, can sometimes seem complex and unrelenting. Vaishali’s work reinforces that more simple practices can integrate into the life that you already lead, without being alienating.
Most importantly, these sessions were a window into myself – a “permission” almost, to say no to things that I was “supposed” to do, and discover more joyful ways of finding peace and contentment. These strategies and approaches are also rooted in science, neurobiology and evolutionary biology. Evidentiary substantiation is very important to me, and these sessions are chock-full of evidence, in addition to making you feel good 🙂
—Aruna
I have done both group and individual work with Vaishali, and my respect for her grows with every session. We have covered several practices, including nervous system regulation, menstrual cycle awareness, and somatic meditation.
Working with Vaishali feels like going on an important exploration with a knowledgeable and trusted guide. She will stay the course with you, feed your curiosity, and make the difficult stretches seem undaunting. Vaishali is highly intuitive and naturally thoughtful. At the end of most sessions, I generally go, “How did you know I needed that?”
—Manjari
When I first started working with Vaishali, I was going through a period of intense suffering in my life and it felt like the very ground beneath my feet had disappeared. I was trying my best to fight back and recover but a huge problem I faced was living in my head and overthinking. Working with Vaishali helped me immensely, as through our sessions she helped me make the shift from head to heart and connect with myself in a much deeper and authentic way, as we engaged in some beautifully crafted, restorative practices. I will be forever grateful for her support and genuine care during my healing process!
—Ben
more about my work
Nervous System Regulation
The nervous system is the conductor of the orchestra of your body. Under chronic or traumatic stress, the nervous system can get stuck in an unhealthy or imbalanced state of activation, shutdown or some combination of the two. In these states, we experience a range of physical, mental and emotional issues including:
- poor sleep and digestion
- increased pain sensitivity, reduced coordination and inhibited recovery
- fatigue or unpredictable energy levels
- an inability to focus, communicate or even access innate skills and abilities
- unhelpful or spiralling thought patterns of anxiety, shame or doom
These sessions are designed to get you to identify and transform the state of your nervous system, so that you can experience greater ease, pleasure, and mastery in your life.
Somatic Coaching & Therapy
Somatic therapy is a form of therapeutic support that is concerned with bodily experience. We take the body’s internal, subjective experience as the starting point to explore any issue or pattern in your life.
The body holds information that we don’t yet have access to. It also holds the key to becoming unstuck; the deeper knowledge and understanding that makes sense beyond logic, the path towards integration.
This kind of work goes deeper than talking, analysing, interpreting or strategising, and takes us into the root of our experience: sensations, emotions, felt sense, motion, intuition, imagination. All that is in the subconscious manifests in the body.
my writing
I have a substack publication, also called The Wise Body. There I write on my work, reflect on teaching and practice, and share about my life. All you need is an email address, and you’ll get a message in your inbox from me every once in a while. Here are some of my most popular posts for you to get a taste (click on the image to read the full post):
The Wise Body 