Nora Mertens - Somatic Body- and Process Work

I’ve been becoming increasingly aware of the frames we live in — the cultural, societal, and patriarchal norms that quietly shape our ideas of how life “should” be. Things like needing a romantic relationship, following certain timelines, or fitting into expected (gender) roles.

For a long time, I let parts of my life be pulled into other people’s frames. I thought I needed to act, feel, or show up in ways that weren’t mine — because that’s what they, or society, expected. I didn’t even know they weren’t mine. I had no role models (and still don’t really in regards to being mother AND being creative/erotic/free). Breaking out of those invisible rules has been hard. It took patience, self-reflection, and a lot of gentle -and hard- rebellion. It took (and takes) exposing myself to judgment, including my own.

I live in Berlin, Germany. At times I reject the prevalent culture completely. However, I consistently return to an understanding that freedom isn’t about rejecting the world around me. It’s about noticing the frame, seeing where I’ve been unconsciously pulled into it, and consciously choosing my own path, as much as that is possible (sometimes it’s simply not).

F.ex., I don’t need a romantic relationship (to a man) to feel whole. I can honestly say that I don’t think that I want that, right now. I adore my autonomy and my lovers. I don’t need to measure my life by timelines that don’t resonate with me. And slowly, I’m learning how to live authentically inside the world, without letting it define me.

Just a thought for anyone who feels the weight of what “should” be.

My dears, here’s my upgraded WEBSITE - dt. & engl. 💛

noramertens.com Willkommen Ich bin Nora Mertens – ganzheitliche Massage- und traumasensible somatische Körpertherapeutin & Coach in Berlin mit über 10 Jahren Berufserfahrung. Außerdem bin ich zertifizierte Heilpraktikerin für Psychotherapie, Ayurvedaberaterin, Anthropologin (M.A.) – und Mutter von zwei Kind...

I’ve lately been stepping into more Space Holding beyond my 1:1 sessions.
I’ve held Authentic Relating and Holistic Touch workshops - and then life placed holding this Temple in my hands, in a residency in Portugal. In the end, all I had to do was say yes.

I didn’t ‚do’ much. I prepared what I could in a day, a friend offered a consent workshop for newbies, and I set the space with loving helpers. But mostly, I just showed up. A little shaky, fully myself. My odd self. My dark fairy queen self.

A space beyond the ordinary.
Authentic expression and relating.
Empowered play, eros, and creative mischief.
Deep attention to safety and nervous systems.

The feedback was beautiful and a little overwhelming — invitations, ideas, and future collaborations are already rippling.

Right now, saying yes feels easier than saying no.
As much as I sometimes feel out of place in the ordinary world with its socio-cultural codes and too many words, I come alive in spaces of authenticity, somatic exploration, dark play, and connection with the mystery.

I’m very excited to create more of that.

Another lovely Somatic & Intuitive Bodywork testimonial. Merci Dainius!

More & me here https://maps.app.goo.gl/yeDHZXqisFoXwpnA8?g_st=ipc

www.noramertens.com

Nora Mertens - Somatic Process Work and Holistic Massage in Berlin

www.noramertens.com

Grateful for this recent somatic/intuitive bodywork Google review. Thank you Charlie!

TWO MASSAGE SLOTS opened up tomorrow (Tue 27.) at 10.00 and 12.00. Get in touch if interested!

MEDITATION

Since I was young I thought that there are confusing codes to being human.
How to chat with peers, how to dress, how to play with boys and make them like you.

There’s an old wound in me of not belonging.
Father had left for good, poverty, the brother with disabilities, a hurting mother, who left us alone at night when we were still in kindergarten, and who couldn’t handle my emotionality.

The community I didn’t have.
Being alive meant feeling alone and working on appeasing mother.

Things got much easier once she married a rich man.
A new big house, a new room, a new school, new friends, a new dog. Gifts, restaurant visits. Belonging.

All brought into my life by a man.
Patriarchal lessons learned and soon crushing desperately and hopelessly on boys.

Falling in love, my first real relationship and the terror that came with it, the fear of losing it as if that meant dying, and thus slowly but surely corrupting it.

I pretended that I knew the codes. Played games of communication and friendship, getting my driver’s license, school and university degrees, or whatever.

And have since been on a quest for truth. Over and over falling into traps of my conditioning. Wanting men to save me. Disappointing women and being deeply disappointed by them, as we still carry so much fu***ng patriarchal conditioning in us.

What I have long understood was bodies. Eros. Touch. Presence. Depth. That point of dropping into a current where another force was carrying me altogether. I call it Life.

There, opinions disappear, judgments disappear, agendas disappear, identities disappear. Socio-cultural codes don’t matter. At all.

This is where I feel safe. This is the space I like to move within and hold for others. There is safety and healing in being embraced by Life.

All is welcome here.

It takes courage to surrender into it, or sometimes to collapse into after all the holding, pushing, faking, and surviving.

It’s a coming home that indigenous peoples and ancient temple culture knew about and that we lost.

No need to culturally appropriate stuff from other cultures for this.

Breathe.
Drop.
Feel.

Let me know if I can support you in this.

Pic by