Reclaiming your Birth Story
A 2-hour somatic healing workshop for women with unresolved or difficult birth experiences
Many women walk away from birth telling themselves they should be grateful, especially when their baby is healthy.
But the body often holds what the mind has tried to move past.
For some, parts of the birth remain unresolved, minimized, or stay within us, even if we think we should have moved on. This workshop offers a structured, body-based space to begin processing and reclaiming your experience, whether your birth was months or many years ago.
Rather than just retelling your story, this is a chance to reclaim it and leave you feeling more settled and complete.
What we’ll be doing
The workshop weaves together somatic exploration, reflection, and optional sharing.
You will be guided through:
Gentle body-based awareness and grounding
Movement to access and shift held experience
Structured reflection and writing
Opportunities for optional, supported sharing
Integration and closing
What this work can support
Participants often come in feeling disconnected from, unsettled by, or unsure how to process their birth experience.
This workshop may support you in:
Feeling more settled with what happened
Reducing the emotional charge around your birth
Reconnecting with your body in a safer, more supported way
Creating a greater sense of completion
Who It’s For
This workshop is for you if:
Your birth experience still feels unresolved, charged, or distant
You find yourself minimizing it or pushing it aside
You want a body-based way to process, not just talk about it
You are months to years postpartum, including many years later
Who It’s Not For
This workshop is not a fit if:
You are in the early postpartum period (for example, within the first 4–6 months)
You are currently in acute distress or crisis
You are looking for a purely educational prenatal or birth class
If you are newly postpartum or needing more individualized support, one-on-one work may be more appropriate.
Workshop Details
Date: May 2, 2026
Time: 3-5pm
Location: Bain Community Centre
Investment
Early bird: $[ ]
Regular: $[ ]
[Optional: A limited number of sliding scale spots are available]
What You’ll Take Away
A pocket of calm in your week
Tools you can return to in daily life
The relief of connecting with other mothers
The reminder that you don’t have to hold everything alone
“Twyla has a very calm and supportive energy. The guided meditation put me in a relaxed and peaceful state. She was able to suggest writing prompts that were relevant to what I was experiencing with my child. I was able to take my time writing what I needed, without feeling rushed. She listens with a compassionate and non-judgmental ear. She is authentic and truly cares about helping other moms.”
Meet your facilitator, Twyla Kowalenko MSW PhD
I am passionate about the wellbeing of mothers and specialise in somatic, perinatal individual and group care. With over 25 years of facilitation experience, I help women reclaim safety, agency and embodied wellbeing.
My background includes a degree in social work, a doctorate in somatics, and ongoing advanced training in perinatal, trauma, and somatic modalities. I facilitate through my body, in deep connection to others and the moment, drawing on my well of experience, and I love helping others foster this capacity through somatic, movement, and improvisational activities. In our work together, we gain deeper and holistic understandings of our patterns, open up choice, and practice the ways we want to be to actualise them in all areas of our lives.
In workshops I offerClear frameworks for grounding and nervous system regulationPractical, body‑based exercises to track sensation and restore agencyGuided processes for processing traumatic memory and integrating somatic shiftsTools for carrying regulation and resilience into daily lifeMy approach is practical, trauma‑sensitive and client‑centred, informed by clinical social work standards and fifteen years supporting women to embody their healing. I design each workshop to honour lived experience, reduce re‑traumatisation risk and support sustainable change.
Check out my bio if you want to read more about my credentials and experience. TLDR: I’m an embodied educator and facilitator with over 25 years experience, education, and training and founder of Soma’ing.
Anything else you want to know about me or about the workshop? Or know if it’ll be a safe space for what you need? I’m always more than happy to connect. Email me to chat!