BODY OF EARTH SOMATICS

Where movement, creativity, and ecology meet.

Sophia Wright Emigh is a somatic movement and expressive arts practitioner who helps people reconnect with their body’s innate intelligence, creativity, and belonging. Her work weaves movement, art, and earth-based practice to restore relationship between the human body and the living world.

ENTERING THE DANCE OF
BODY AND EARTH

‘Body of Earth’ is a somatic education and therapy offering held by Sophia Wright Emigh.

This work is guided by possibilities that root body, art, and ecology in shared practice,
to support people in feeling more

at home in their own skin,

connected to creative expression,

resourced in times of change,

attuned to the places they inhabit.

THROUGH INDIVIDUAL SESSIONS, GROUP CIRCLES AND WORKSHOPS,
THIS PRACTICE SUPPORTS:

  • Restoring a sense of belonging with body, land, and community

  • Integration of grief, transition, and vision

  • Creative tools for navigating life’s thresholds

  • Nervous system attunement and regulation

  • Embodied imagination and cultural repair

VIEW OFFERINGS

“The earth is not just the environment we live in.
We are the earth and we are always carrying her within us.”
— Thich Nhat Hanh

OFFERINGS

At the heart of this practice is the understanding that our bodies are not separate from the land.

We work with movement, voice, drawing, writing, and ritual
to enter an embodied dialogue between inner and outer landscapes.

As a form of somatic education and therapy, this work harnesses the Tamalpa Life/Art Process—
using expressive arts tools such as movement, drawing, and writing
to access the body’s innate wisdom and to support personal and collective transformation.

No experience is needed; your curiosity and presence are enough.

  • Movement — improvisational and somatic movement that roots the body in awareness and creative expression

    Drawing & mark-making — visual routes to embodied insight and inner landscapes

    Creative writing — free-writing, poetic prompts, gestural responses that reveal nonverbal knowing

    Voice & sound — improvisational song, toning, and vocal storytelling for resonance and relational attunement

    Mindful touch — grounding and relational contact practices that support somatic awareness and regulation

    Ritual & ceremony — practice and embodiment of thresholds, transitions, grief, and renewal

    Nature & place-based attunement — somatic ecology, sensory immersion, and dialog with land and cycles

    Expressive arts tools — harnessing movement, visual art, and creative writing as transformative anchors of somatic education and therapy

  • Tamalpa Life/Art Process —
    a foundation for somatic education and expressive arts therapy that blends movement, drawing, and writing into transformative experience

    Somatic movement education —
    embodied practices for presence, regulation, and relational resonance

    Expressive arts practice —
    multi-modal artistic engagement for personal and cultural repair

    Nature-based somatic ecology practice —
    integrating body, land, and ritual for grounded reconnection

    Group-based movement & ritual practices —
    drawing from ensemble-based processes, ecstatic dance, and trance practices in community settings

  • Our sessions may explore any of the following, and more:

    • Recovering a sense of belonging
      to body, community, and ecosystem

    • Moving, drawing, voicing, and writing
      as pathways of creative expression and insight

    • Listening to the body’s signals
      as doorways into awareness, regulation, and resilience

    • Opening space for emotion
      to be felt, expressed, and integrated

    • Exploring relational attunement
      and cultivating embodied trust with self and others

    • Tending the lived body—
      including chronic pain and illness, disability, and change —
      centering access, agency, and creative adaptation in the body

    • Soothing stress and overwhelm
      through grounding, regulation, and embodied ritual

    • Integrating expanded states—
      including life passages and psychedelic journeys —
      into daily life through body-based practice and art-making

    • Honoring thresholds of grief, transition, and vision
      with ritual and embodied practice

    • Remembering ourselves
      as part of the greater earth body

  • Q: How do I know if this work is right for me?

    You might find yourself here because something in you is longing to feel again — to move through numbness, heartbreak, confusion, or exhaustion and return to a sense of aliveness and connection to yourself, and to something greater.

    This work meets you where you are, whether you’re navigating:

    • Disconnection or numbness

    • Despair, hopelessness, or loss

    • Heartbreak or stress

    • Life transitions or identity shifts

    • Confusion or a search for clarity

    • Disassociation from the body

    • Disconnection from creativity, life force, or sense of purpose

    • Feeling creatively blocked or uninspired

    • Burnout or depletion from caring or creating

    • A longing for ritual, renewal, or deeper meaning

    • Grief for the earth or the state of the world

    • A sense of isolation from community, belonging, or place

    • The weight of ecological or collective grief

      It’s for anyone ready to listen more deeply to themselves and rediscover their own vitality and connection to life.

    Q: How is this different from therapy?

    While traditional therapy often focuses on understanding and healing the past using the analytical mind, this work invites you into direct embodied experience — using movement, creativity, and awareness — to access insight and integration right here and now.

    Rather than analyzing the past, we follow the body’s wisdom toward what’s alive, true, and resourcing in this moment.

    Q: What if I feel disconnected from my body?

    This is very common! These practices gently meet disconnection and help you rebuild a relationship with the living intelligence of your own body, at your own pace.

    Q: Do I need experience with movement or art?

    Not at all. This is about curiosity and relationship, not experience or technique. Your body already knows how to speak; we simply create the space to listen.

  • While this work can beautifully complement psychotherapy or other healing modalities, it might not be the best fit if you’re currently:

    • Needing services that can be covered by insurance

    • In an acute mental health crisis or requiring more extensive clinical support

    • Seeking diagnosis or treatment for a mental health condition

    • Wanting a primarily cognitive or medical approach to healing

    • Not interested in movement, creative process, or earth-based ways of growth and restoration

    This work is best suited for those drawn to an embodied, creative, and relational path, which honors both the inner landscape and our connection with the living world.

  • STEP 1:

    Schedule a free 20-minute conversation:
    a chance to ask questions, see if the work resonates,
    and book an intake session.


    STEP 2:

    Intake session:
    a 2-hour deep dive to begin the process.


    STEP 3:

    Follow-up sessions:
    90-120 minutes where we follow your body’s lead.

1-on-1 SESSIONS

90 minutes or 2 hours

90 minutes or 2 hours.

GROUP CIRCLES

Seasonal gatherings weaving somatics, expression, and ritual.

WORKSHOPS

Immersive experiences
with art and land.

Sessions available in person (greater Montpelier area, central Vermont) or online via Zoom.

If you feel called to this work, I would love to hear from you.
You’re welcome to reach out with questions, or to schedule a free 20-minute consultation.

CONTACT

BIO

SOPHIA WRIGHT EMIGH

I am an interdisciplinary movement artist, somatic facilitator, and expressive arts practitioner working at the intersection of embodied ecology, expressive arts, and cultural change. Drawing upon the Tamalpa Life/Art Process. I support people in restoring connection between body, community, and the living earth.

My path has always woven body, art, and land. From training in expressive arts and somatic practice, to carrying folk song traditions, to working with ritual and community performance, this work is my way of remembering our shared, inherent belonging as part of the body of earth— and helping others attune to that same remembrance.

I primarily serve people navigating thresholds — artists, educators, caregivers, seekers — many of whom are neurodivergent, highly sensitive, or deeply attuned yet out of step with dominant systems. Through individual sessions, small group workshops, and land-based gatherings, I invite transformation through movement, visual art, writing, and ritual — through the process of witnessing and being witnessed.

This work helps people shed internalized structures of disconnection and recover a felt sense of belonging: to their bodies, to the earth, to each other, and to their own creative vision. Participants often describe the process as grounding, clarifying, and creatively catalytic — opening pathways to greater resource, rhythm, and connection.

My hope is that these practices resource us against retreating into individualism or scarcity, and instead expand our capacity to meet grief, to sense ourselves as earth, and to act radically toward re-imagined futures — in the midst of this great chaotic unfolding.

  • Registered Somatic Movement Educator and Therapist (RSME/T) —
    with the International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association (ISMETA)
    (completion anticipated fall 2025)

    Tamalpa Practitioner —
    Certificate program in Movement-Based Expressive Arts Therapy with the Tamalpa Institute (training in somatic education and therapy through the Life/Art Process, integrating movement, drawing, and writing)

    MFA in Interdisciplinary Art —
    Transart Institute for Creative Research

    BA in Performance Studies and Photography —
    Yale University

    Grief Facilitator Training —
    with Francis Weller (author of The Wild Edge of Sorrow)

    Vermont Master Naturalist Certification

    Certificate in Permaculture Design —
    Earth Activist Training

    500+ hours of massage therapy training

    200 hours of yoga teacher training with Laughing Lotus

    Ongoing study in improvisational dance forms


  • Body of Earth Somatics is rooted in many streams: ritual and visual arts, land-based pedagogy, experimental performance, and community singing traditions. These influences form a living ecology of practice that shapes how I listen and guide:

    Anna and Daria Halprin, with the Tamalpa Life/Art Process, and teachers including Natan Daskal, Rosario Sammartino, Dohee Lee, Ken Otter, and Marialuisa Diaz de Leon. The Tamalpa Institute, founded in 1978 by Anna and Daria Halprin, pioneered movement-based expressive arts therapy—integrating movement, visual art, writing, and somatic education to support transformation.

    Peter and Maria Schumann and Bread and Puppet Theater

    Larry Gordon and Village Harmony community singing traditions

    El Grupo Cultural Yuyachkani – Peruvian ensemble known for ritual and political performance

    Sankai Juku – butoh practice

    Bad Unkl Sista – butoh/ritual performance collective

    Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater – training in modern dance traditions

    Lifelong practice in folk and traditional singing – Slavic, Appalachian, Georgian, and Shape Note traditions

    Continued engagement with expressive arts, community ritual, and ecological ceremony as part of somatic ecology practice


  • My practice is grounded in the Tamalpa Life/Art Process and aligned with ISMETA’s Code of Ethics. I am in the final stages of RSME/T certification, and all sessions are offered within the scope of somatic education and expressive arts. This work complements, but does not replace, medical or mental health treatment; I do not diagnose, prescribe, or provide medical or psychotherapeutic care. Sessions may include movement, drawing, voice, and writing. In-person appointments may also include consent-based, non-clinical touch, which is always optional and can be declined at any time.

  • Somatic expressive arts is a powerful path of reconnection—through body, image, voice, and movement. Because this work touches into the places where memory lives beneath words, it can stir profound insight, emotion, and transformation. I hold space for these experiences with reverence and responsibility.

    While I am not a licensed psychotherapist and do not offer diagnosis or clinical treatment, I bring deep training in body-based arts, trauma-informed facilitation, and the Tamalpa Life/Art Process. My work is grounded in the belief that healing is not about fixing what's broken, but listening more deeply to what’s already wise within us.

    Here are some of the principles I work by:

    • Informed, Transparent, and Consent-Centered

    I clearly share the scope of my practice and support each client in making choices that feel safe and empowering. I encourage people navigating mental health conditions or trauma histories to have additional therapeutic support when needed.

    • Trauma-Aware and Nervous System Respectful

    I attend to pacing, choice, and containment—inviting each person to move at the speed of their own sensing. I know that intensity can arise, and I aim to meet it with grounded care, not urgency.

    • Guided by Ongoing Supervision and Peer Reflection

    Although not required by my field, I seek regular supervision and peer consultation to reflect, deepen, and remain accountable in my facilitation. This practice supports the integrity of the spaces I hold.

    • Rooted in Relational, Ecological Ethics

    I believe the body is not separate from land, culture, or ancestry. I am committed to ongoing study and discernment around cultural respect, somatic lineages, ecological belonging, and social justice.

    • A Living Practice

    I continue to be a student of the body. I engage in my own movement and expressive arts practices, remain active in somatic research communities, and pursue ongoing training to stay responsive and honest in my work.

IN OTHERS’ WORDS

“Soph provides such tender attunement, wisdom, and skillfully warm space-holding to the in-the-moment unfolding of embodied experience. This is essential medicine for human-ing during thesetimes! Soph offers a deep well of opportunity to gently explore the intuition of the body,relationship with self, with the Earth, with the unseen world, and to authentically connect withone another. I am inspired and so grateful, and I am carrying these magic seeds of embodiedresonance to sow along my journey.”

— A.K.

“Don't hesitate. Soph's facilitation and these practices are subtle, potent, and unfolding. The ultimate in self-care for growth, presencing, and transformation.”

— G.L.

“Working with Sophia is transformative. In a way that is ongoing. In a way that is whole. Sophia is committed and kind, knowledgeable and creative. I've learned practices and tools that support my expansion while experiencing the fullness of my body's sensation and knowledge. This is only the beginning and this work will be with me for life. I'm so grateful for the doors of possibility and freedom that this work has opened for me.”

— D.S.

“Sophia is warm, attentive, and committed. Working with her truly felt like I had a safe space to transform.”

— T.G.

“At this very moment, the earth is above you, below you, all around you, and even inside you. The earth is everywhere.

You may be used to thinking of the earth as only the ground beneath your feet. But the water, the sea, the sky, and everything around us comes from the earth. Everything outside us and everything inside us come from the earth.

We often forget that the planet we are living on has given us all the elements that make up our bodies. The water in our flesh, our bones, and all the microscopic cells inside our bodies all come from the earth and are part of the earth. The earth is not just the environment we live in. We are the earth and we are always carrying her within us.

Realizing this, we can see that the earth is truly alive. We are a living, breathing manifestation of this beautiful and generous planet. Knowing this, we can begin to transform our relationship to the earth. We can begin to walk differently and to care for her differently.

We will fall completely in love with the earth. When we are in love with someone or something, there is no separation between ourselves and the person or thing we love. We do whatever we can for them and this brings us great joy and nourishment. That is the relationship each of us can have with the earth. That is the relationship each of us must have with the earth if the earth is to survive, and if we are to survive as well.

If we think about the earth as just the environment around us, we experience ourselves and the earth as separate entities. We may see the planet only in terms of what it can do for us.

We need to recognize that the planet and the people on it are ultimately one and the same. When we look deeply at the earth, we see that she is a formation made up of non-earth elements: the sun, the stars, and the whole universe. Certain elements, such as carbon, silicon, and iron, formed long ago in the heat of far-off supernovas. Distant stars contributed to their light.

When we look into a flower, we can see that it’s made of many different elements, so we also call it a formation. A flower is made of many non-flower elements. The entire universe can be seen in a flower. If we look deeply into the flower, we can see the sun, the soil, the rain, and the gardener. Similarly, when we look deeply into the earth, we can see the presence of the whole cosmos.

A lot of our fear, hatred, anger, and feelings of separation and alienation come from the idea that we are separate from the planet. We see ourselves as the center of the universe and are concerned primarily with our own personal survival. If we care about the health and well-being of the planet, we do so for our own sake. We want the air to be clean enough for us to breathe. We want the water to be clear enough so that we have something to drink. But we need to do more than use recycled products or donate money to environmental groups.

We have to change our whole relationship
with the earth.”

From Love Letter to the Earth (2013), by Thich Nhat Hanh (Parallax Press)

CONTACT

If you feel called to this work, I would love to hear from you. You’re welcome to reach out with questions
or to schedule a free 20-minute consultation