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Stevi Kamphaus
Somatic Coach they/them pronouns
My name is Stevi and I am a community organizer, Somatic Coach and developer of Transformative Somatics. As a neurodivergent trans/genderqueer practitioner descended from German, English and Lithuanian ancestry, I grow between the cracks and invite you to inhabit the liminal spaces where there is room to create space for all that we embody.
Being a human is…complicated, and I have always struggled to understand how to exist in this body. I am a survivor of many things, walking with the spirits of addiction in this life. I became extremely curious about the ways that bodies internalize and process our experiences as well as traumatic events when I began to face the reality of my own lived experiences. It was because of this work and the loving, powerful relationships with so many friends and family who have lived and loved and struggled through so many complicated, messy and impossible things, that I am still here. So many systems of power and oppression are actively working to strip communities and individuals of embodied cultural practices and relationships–relationships that we evolved with and have relied on for transformative healing, inspiration and protection as long as we have called this planet home. The resilience, brilliance and ingenuity to transform and reimagine ourselves and our communities lives in all of us, and in many of our traditional embodied practices. I believe that the work of social change and reclaiming embodied relationships are inseparable. This fact has become the focus of my life and I am committed to developing accessible tools and building networks of social and cultural reconnection and transformation, accountability and self-determination through this work. My role as a coach is to walk with you offering encouragement, tools and support as you explore, reconnect and invest in your own exquisite liberation.
Transformative Somatics is a framework for this work as well as a community for collaborators, organizers, teachers and practitioners to co-create and support each other as we work in our respective communities to grow and develop the wild, embodied, radical visionary futures we dream of and long for.
Background & Training
I hold a Bachelors of Arts degree from The Evergreen State College where I specialized in Somatic Studies and Cultural Psychology.
I have spent years studying various forms of dance, Traditional Chinese Martial Arts, and somatics with different teachers. I have been trained in Laban-Bartenieff fundamentals and also have spent over 5 years engaged in Japanese Butoh exploration and performance art. As a white person learning from culturally based-practices as an outsider, I recognize the inequitable access and present as well as historical harms that have been caused to so many communities by white supremacy, colonization, and appropriation. I do not claim expertise in these practices, and while what I have learned informs my approach to somatics, I do not teach specific techniques that I have not been given permission to share.
I have also spent many years organizing for housing, economic and racial justice in the Olympia area, unceded lands of the Squaxin, Nisqually, and Chehalis tribes. I am a working class ‘poverty scholar’ (a term from the Po-Shunary: a dictionary created by Poor Magazine) and currently organize with a local chapter of Poor Magazine (based out of the Lisjan Ohlone territory a.k.a Oakland) and The Black Power Initiative (a local emergency mutual aid fund created by and for the Black community).
I believe deeply that to show up well in community we need mentorship, and intentional ways to learn from one another. Mentors have meant the difference for me between feeling completely lost and alone and feeling seen and supported to awaken the truth and power within me. I would not be here without the guidance, love and care of so many wise and wild people. I want to especially give thanks to my current mentors:
Kai Cheng Thom, Lisa (a.k.a) Tiny Gray-Garcia, and Chico Herbison, among many other dear friends and loved ones who love me into accountability and show me how to live in my truth fiercely.
Transformative Somatics 