emelia lovink

My name is Emelia, and for as long as I can remember, I have been drawn to the language of the body. As a child I found myself exploring qualities of touch as a form of healing, sensing that our bodies held stories, intelligence and an innate capacity to heal.

Over time, that curiosity has grown into a lifelong study of embodiment, relationship, grief, trauma and the many ways we come home to ourselves.

Today I offer Lomi Lomi and Somatic Relational Inquiry as practices that invite people to slow down and listen to the wisdom already present within them. Rather than seeking to fix what is broken, I believe healing begins by becoming curious about how we have learned to survive, relate and belong.

My experience continues to remind me that healing is deeply relational, and meaningful change rarely happens in isolation.

Rooted in the traditions of the Kanaka Maoli people of the Hawaiian islands, these sessions offer restoration through nurturing touch, rhythmic strokes, and deep presence, with loving hands and attunement to the needs of the moment.

A generous application of oil is used to lend itself to the long fluid strokes that encourage lymphatic drainage, and loosen patterns of holding. The receiver is guided into a deeper connection of breath, supporting a collaborative approach to working with the body.

The invitation in this practice is to lay down our burdens and remember our lightness of being. The intention is to inspire compassion toward our bodies and empowers our ability to witness the intrinsic health underneath our ailments.

Lomi Lomi is considered to be a ceremony of the body, inspiring the potential to release blocks that keep us from understanding our true nature and connection with the cosmos, also known as our family or Ohana.

I offer this practice with reverence for the Kānaka Maoli people, who continue to carry its living wisdom today. My teacher, Sheah Fiaklow, studied within the lineage of Aunty Margaret Machado and Uncle Abraham Kawai’i, both of whom were instrumental in sharing Lomi Lomi beyond Hawai’i to the western world. Their teachings encouraged these healing practices to be shared widely, as it was seen to be a gift of necessity for all to receive.

I received my training in 2022, and I carry these teachings forward with humility and kuleana (responsibility), doing my best to practice in alignment with their spiritual and cultural foundations.

Relational Somatics is a practice that intersects body-centered counselling, trauma renegotiation and relational repair, using sensory pathways for exploring how we hold our experiences.

It is a collaborative process that explores our lived experiences through the wisdom of the body. Rather than focusing solely on thoughts or behaviours, we become curious about the sensations, images, emotions, impulses, and memories informing us. Through slowing down and tuning into the senses and signals of our body we begin to foster a connection to our inner landscape.

Our bodies are continually responding to the world around us. They learn to protect, connect, withdraw, trust, grieve, and belong through relationship. Many of these patterns develop long before we have language for them, and while they may once have been essential of our survival, they can sometimes leave us feeling disconnected from ourselves, others, or the lives we long to live.

In this practice we learn to slow down enough to notice these patterns and imprints with curiosity. Instead of trying to fix or overcome them, we listen for the intelligence they carry. And Through the practice of witnessing and deepening attunement to ourselves we can widen our capacity for life, build resiliency can create more possibility for choice.

Each session is unique and unfolds at a pace where your nervous system can learn to trust and discover new pathways.

My work is also informed by my own experiences, and personal exploration. These are some of the areas that I have worked within myself and studied more deeply:

We are shaped through our early experiences and relationships – with caregivers, family, culture, community, history, and the dominant worldviews that we have been assimilated into. Our nervous systems develop within these relationships, and they continue to be shaped by them throughout our lives.

This inquiry into the soma(body) comes from the understanding that we cannot change our past but we can change how we are holding it. It is an exploration of learning to meet ourselves with greater curiosity, and compassion, building greater awareness of how we have developed to protect, connect , adapt, and survive. Often these patterns once served us beautifully. Sometimes, they no longer do.

It is about cultivating the conditions where your body can discover greater choice, connection, and aliveness.

Alongside contemporary somatic practices, I continue to be shaped by an animist worldview and kinship-centred ways of understanding the world. I am continually learning from mentors, community, land and the more-than-human world around me. I hold deep gratitude for Indigenous ways of being and knowing which have influenced my understanding of relationship and reciprocity – while recognizing these teachings arise from traditions that are not my own – they have pointed me back to the old ways of knowing within myself.

As someone of European ancestry living on the traditional territories of the Lək̓ʷəŋən (Songhees and Xʷsepsəm/Esquimalt) and W̱SÁNEĆ peoples, I understand my practice as part of an on-going commitment to relationship-with place, with history, and the responsibilities that accompany both.

Somatic Inquiry Sessions are offered with the options of in-person at a studio space, in a nature setting or through video call.

A minimum of 10% of each bodywork session is donated to the Ka Lāhui Hawai’i Indigenous Grassroots organization https://www.kalahuihawaii.net/

emelia lovink

Bodywork – Relational Somatic Inquiry