Somatic Facilitation

The body is
our portal

It holds everything we've carried. Let's listen to it deeply, and come to a real understanding of how your mind and body work together. More contentment, more love, fewer blocks, and a deeper alignment.

Get In Touch My Story

A quiet, body led path back to yourself

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My Story

Coming back to the body

I'm Michael. For most of my early life, I was looking for freedom, though I wouldn't have called it that at the time. I was always chasing something: a peak experience, an intensity, a feeling that this time it would finally be enough. It showed up through relationships, achievement, whatever came next. It never was enough. I was insatiable.

I grew up in Australia and eventually moved to New York, where I worked as a consultant at a top management consulting firm. I loved the pace, novelty and intensity of the city. For a while I thought it was the answer, but the same restlessness was still there underneath it all, just dressed differently.

What started pulling at me was meditation, and a growing fascination with the human psyche: why we suffer, why we repeat the same patterns, and underneath it all, a real search for freedom, for truth, for something greater than myself. Eventually I left my career, left New York, and moved to India, to live in an ashram and study some of its most ancient spiritual teachings.

From 2022 to 2026 I studied at Arsha Vijnana Gurukulam, a traditional Advaita Vedanta ashram founded by Swami Dayananda, surrounded by jungle and silence. The ashram cracked something open. Unexpected emotions surfaced, hard to pinpoint, even harder to ignore. I realised how disconnected I was from my own body, and how much wisdom was there still waiting to be discovered.

The body isn't an obstacle on the path. It's a doorway.

I trained under Scott Kiloby while doing the long-term Advaita Vedanta course, and for a period became a facilitator in the Kiloby Inquiries, a framework heavily focused on emotional repression and the identities stored in the body. I've since developed my own style, blending parts work, raw expression, and teachings from ancient spiritual traditions into an approach that's precise and deeply embodied. Over the past decade I've also had the fortune of practicing with Vipassana, Zen, Dzogchen, Chan and Advaita masters, as well as contemporary non-duality teachers.

I now work with people all over the world, using the body as a portal for deep change, whether that's deepening spiritual insight, or working through the everyday things we all carry: work, relationships, and whatever else life puts in front of us.

Work With Me

The Name

Why "knots of the heart"?

The phrase comes from the Upanishads, where the knots of the heart must be cut for one to become totally free, a strikingly somatic image for something written thousands of years ago. Suffering is described as something tied, bound, held deep within.

This work is not theory about freedom. It's the slow, patient untying of what's actually there, knot by knot, until the body, and our whole relationship to life, lives in more freedom.

The Work

What we actually do together?

Somatics is attention to the body: sensation, touch, movement. We use this to go deep into stored patterns held in the body. There's no fixed sequence, different sessions move in different directions depending on what's alive for you.

Feel Sensations

We aim for deep, precise contact with the body, starting with sensation, not story. If something is alive in your chest, your gut, your throat, we go there first, before the mind explains it away. We ask simple questions: what does this sensation want to say? Is there an image, a word, a memory? Sometimes nothing comes, and that's fine too.

hot shaky tight heavy jittery deep in the gut a lump in the throat
Explore Identities

Underneath most of our suffering are a handful of core identities we've unconsciously organised our lives around: "I'm not good enough," "I'm too much," "I'm weak," "I'm misunderstood." Most people carry a few of these, binding us and keeping us stuck. We bring them gently into the light, and explore how they were built, and what they were protecting you from feeling.

Release Repression & Resistance

As children, repressing certain emotions was often a survival strategy. If sadness made you feel pathetic, or anger made you feel dangerous, your body learned to shut that feeling down. Often, the identities we carry are chosen to elicit a safer emotion instead: someone who represses sadness might hold "everyone is out to get me," because anger feels safer than sadness ever did.

Together, we excavate these layers, and the old emotions that are stuck are finally able to move through. Once we can feel what an identity was protecting us from feeling, it stops being necessary, and we naturally loosen our grip on it. All feelings are allowed.

Awaken Intuition

People come to this work for all kinds of reasons: to unblock certain emotions, to find direction when feeling lost, to understand repeating patterns in dating or family, or simply to feel more alive and at ease in their own body. We work together to find what you actually want to explore, taking into account your unique mind and background.

Dissolve Attachments and Seeking Patterns

This work aligns with ancient wisdom on the root of suffering: a constant, often unconscious motion of grasping toward what feels good and pushing away what feels bad, with a restless seeking underneath that's rarely satisfied. We learn to recognise that seeking energy directly in the body, and slowly unbind from it, not by forcing it away, but by finally feeling what it was trying to outrun.

Cultivate Devotion

Devotion and a real willingness to surrender make a significant difference to deep bodywork. Prayerfulness, surrender and trust are powerful attitudes we cultivate in this work. As our relationship to these grow and deepen, emotions move and unblock more freely, because the fear keeping them stuck loses its grip once we feel safe, loved, and open hearted.

Sessions

Ways we can work together

One to One Sessions

Individual somatic inquiry sessions, tailored to what's alive for you right now. Together we tune into the body to identify and release deeply held beliefs and old emotional conditioning, whether that's one knot to untangle or a broader pattern to explore.

60 min
In person or online

Talks, Workshops & Groups

I'm open to talks, workshops, guided groups, and collaborations on somatic inquiry and the body's role in release. Email me to discuss what might work.

By arrangement

Intensive Container

A three month container for those ready to go deep. Each month includes four somatic sessions plus one session on meditation, concentration techniques and devotion, alongside a daily practice plan and ongoing WhatsApp support.

3 months
Online or in person

What Clients Say

In their own words

"What I really appreciate about Michael is that he's both rational and logical, but he's also gone deep enough into meditation and inner work that he understands the less logical parts of being human too. He has a way of helping you connect with those parts without it feeling intimidating or overly spiritual. After only a few sessions, I let go of a lot of the hatred and resentment I was carrying towards my ex, started a regular meditation practice, and overall feel much better."

Daniella · Barcelona, Spain

"Working with Michael has been very illuminating. In addition to his somatic training, he has a deep well of lived spiritual experience and knowledge I could call in when I needed it. Whatever came through in our work, he had the capacity and presence to fully hold and witness that with zero judgement. The work itself has consistently generated new perspectives that never came up through more conventional cognitive modalities."

Will · Washington, USA

"My somatic session with Michael was incredibly powerful and deep. He has a unique ability to help you connect physical sensations directly to deep-seated emotions and inner narratives. It was a highly intense experience that truly pushed my boundaries and challenged my body's responses in a meaningful way. Michael brings incredible energy and dedication to his work. If you are looking for a practitioner who can guide you through serious, transformative inner work, I highly recommend Michael."

Daniel · New York City, USA

"Michael's passion, presence, attunement, curiosity, and wisdom are truly one of a kind. Michael has a unique ability to help untangle and uncover deep-seated emotions while maintaining a safe, compassionate, and supportive container. His thoughtful yet provocative guidance helped me untap and release hard-wired limiting belief patterns and narratives that had been holding me hostage, both physically and emotionally, for decades, while also bringing about a new level of somatic awareness and understanding that has been pivotal to my personal growth."

Carly · Berlin, Germany

"Working with Michael has been transformative. He is an excellent facilitator. He has the remarkable ability to explore emotional repression and shadow material with a lot of depth and attention. I love that he draws on his extensive background in both somatic practices and spiritual traditions, he offers a direct, grounded, and deeply embodied approach to inner inquiry."

Kevin · Léon, France

"Really grateful to Michael for the sessions we've had. It's been amazing to deal with some difficult stages in my life. I come away from every session with something different, leaving me with clearer direction and focus. We have delved into places which I hadn't considered before and I am really finding connection within my body."

Dom · Bogotá, Colombia

Get In Touch

Let's begin

Not sure if this is the right fit? I offer a free 20 minute clarity call so we can talk it through before committing to anything.

If you have any other questions you can send me a note below or reach me at michael@knotsoftheheart.com

Please note: this work is somatic facilitation, not psychotherapy or clinical treatment, and I am not a licensed therapist or clinical psychologist.