How to Feel Safe in Your Body: Why Receiving Support Feels Hard (and How to Change It)

I recorded a short video this week about receiving support — why it can feel so hard, and how somatic coaching can gently shift that.

I used to have an incredibly strained relationship to support – both asking for it, and receiving it when it was offered.

And I know I’m not alone. In many Western, individualised cultures, this is incredibly common.

I’m yet to work with a somatic coaching client who hasn’t benefited from widening their capacity to receive support.

For some, the act of asking for and receiving support is deeply charged. We’ll work with this somatically over time for many sessions.

For others, receiving support is familiar -  but deepening into new kinds of support becomes nourishing and stabilising.

The truth is, we are biologically wired to receive support – from ourselves, from others, from our ancestors, and from the natural world.

When we try to go it alone, our capacity diminishes.

We end up in survival mode – getting by, but nowhere near thriving.

Needing support doesn’t make you needy.

It makes you human.

signs Receiving Support Feels Unsafe in your Body

- You hang up the phone after confiding in a friend and feel a wave of guilt for talking "too much"
- You struggle to ask for help, even when overwhelmed
- You say “I’m fine” when you’re far from it
- You’re the one everyone leans on, but it’s hard to let others show up for you

These experiences make total sense, they don’t come from nowhere. It’s something we can gently explore in somatic coaching.

How Somatic Coaching Helps You Listen to Yourself and Your Needs

Many of us carry somatic residue from past experiences and beliefs that taught us it wasn’t safe or OK to ask. For example, maybe as a child you were praised for being “low-maintenance” or “so independent,” so you learned that needing help made you a burden. Or perhaps when you did ask for support, it was dismissed or ignored, and your body quietly decided it was safer not to ask again.

Somatic coaching works gently with these patterns so your body can relearn how to feel safe receiving the support that nourishes you, bolsters you, and reminds you that you don’t have to do it all alone.

Having access to a felt sense of safety in your body makes it feel safe to try new things. Take risks. Be playful. Connect deeply with the people you care about.

If this speaks to you, I’d love to hear from you.

You can learn more about somatic coaching here or schedule your first session here.

You were born worthy of attuned, nourishing support that helps your body to feel safe to receive what you need.

Love,
Caroline