Somatic Therapist Chole Chotrani On The Healing Power Of Dance

The Manila-born, Singapore-based Chloe Chotrani is a practitioner of somatic therapy – an increasingly popular alternative form of healing that’s premised on how past traumas can inflict stress and pain on the body. She was also formerly trained in ballet and involved in the street hip-hop scene back home in the filipino capital for over a decade. Here, she tells us how dance can be good for one’s physical, mental and emotional well-being especially during manic times like these.

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“The crisis brought about by the pandemic has given everyone a common collective trauma… I think the movement of the healing arts and wellness field has become more popular because we need it. Our world on a social level is sick emotionally and physically, and we are learning increasingly that the two are interwoven. It’s why I was drawn to (formally) practise somatic therapy last year.

Interestingly, the word ‘pandemic’ originates from the Greek words ‘pan’, which means all, and ‘demos’, which means people. One could see it as something that unifies; a gateway into a deep healing journey. In somatic therapy, we acknowledge that our emotional states affect our physical reality. Stress has a direct effect on the nervous system, which affects the way we function, digest food, absorb information, and essentially regulate ourselves.