WORKING WITH TOUCH 
AND THE BODY


HOW I WORK 


To me, Pantarei is a practice of empowerment, of embodying and getting to know ourselves in a curious and empathetic way.

Within a Pantarei process, I support you in building a relationship with your inner knowing—what feels good and right for you—and from there, to begin to transform what no longer serves you.

I’m happy to get to know you and to explore together your needs, feelings, doubts, possibilities for growth, self-directedness and the areas that need attention, by entering into a dialogue with your body and physical experience. Through touch and verbal communication, you can connect to your body, sensations, emotions, and your whole being—and enter a creative learning process.

I want to support you in meeting your challenges. Within the Pantarei approach, I don’t operate from a mindset of “fixing” problems or you. Instead, I encourage you to shift into a mode of exploration: By listening to what your body is saying, to the emotions underneath struggles, why they are experienced as such and to the deeper wishes that might be behind them, we give space to what’s present for you. By giving space to yourself, change can happen from a place of integration instead of disconnection.

Most of all, we create space for your innate wisdom about what you need, where you want to go, and how things can unfold in their own time.

Furthermore, I aim to create a trauma-informed and sensitive space for people facing discrimination and systemic oppression. I’m committed to practicing self-reflection and continued learning about how oppression affects each person individually. I especially offer a sensitive space for queer and trans-related topics, drawing from my own search for such a place as a non-binary, queer person myself.

I believe that embodying ourselves in cultures that have taught us to disembody and disconnect, is a powerful act of reclaiming ourselves.



I WORK FROM THESE PRINCIPALS


  • Our body and our mind are connected. 

  • Our body is where we experience our existence in the world.
    We feel from our bodies. When we feel and understand our bodies, we can make better decisions and be less reactive—we can access an embodied sense of agency.

  • You are the expert about yourself and your life.
    As practitioner, I open a space for listening beyond the words and with the whole body. 

  • Touch is a basic human need and a relational experience.
    Through experiencing that we are in relation, we can learn how to navigate that we are interconnected with the world.

  • Through being in relation, we can learn how to navigate that everything is in change. 
    Pantarei refers to the ancient greek aphorism „panta rhei“—meaning everything flows— in which Heraclitus compares being with a river.

  • We are relational beings and thus healing is relational.

  • When we own who we are, we can question the rules about who we’re supposed to be.  
    Everything that we are and constantly become, how we do things is unique. We can learn about us and create a felt, embodied wisdom about ourselves as essential guide through life—and disintegrate from ideas how we should be or do things that are not aligned with ourselves.  


ABOUT WORKING WITH TOUCH 


Research in neuroscience shows, that the connection to the body creates our sense of ourselves. Furthermore, our bodies are our access to the world and they are in a constant exchange with each other. Therefore, the realm of the body can become to us an important source for knowledge.

In Pantarei, the practitioner encourages curiosity towards exploring the Self through touch and questions, as well as mirroring back observations. 

Touch, when applied mindfully and with consent, can act as a bridge to the felt sense and towards:

Anchoring Awareness
Touch can ground a person in the present moment, helping them access their body's internal landscape. For example, a gentle hand on the shoulder can draw attention to tension, warmth, or subtle sensations in that area.

Enhancing the Sense of Safety
Safe, intentional touch can create a sense of containment, allowing a person to feel supported while exploring challenging inner experiences. This sense of safety can make it easier to tune into the felt sense and explore. It can furthermore create more range between feeling safe or unsafe.

Inviting Sensory Awareness
The physical contact of touch can help amplify subtle bodily sensations, making the felt sense more accessible. For instance, light pressure might bring awareness to a particular area of the body and allow to create more space so contarctions or tensions that are held in the body/mind can be released. 

Facilitating Regulation
Touch can help regulate the nervous system, moving a person out of states of arrounsal. Once the body is in a more regulated state, it becomes easier to access and engage with the world.



Peter Levine, the founder of Somatic Experiencing says: 

„If we follow the inner body’s sensations, tensions, tingling, vibration, trembling, warmth, waves of warmth, all of these things take us into a new experience, an experience that really contradicts an experience of overwhelming helplessness. It helps us to have these new experiences and from these new experiences to have new meanings. Not fixed beliefs, but new meanings.“

Within our culture, we have a lack of vocabulary for our sensations. The more we create vocabulary in tandem with new experiences, the richer our perception of the world cam become.