Mya Thieme is a somatic therapist on Formentera, and she is precise about one word: she does therapy, not “healing.” The distinction matters to her, and it tells you something about how carefully she works.
Her method starts from a simple observation about ordinary talk therapy: it lives entirely in the mind. People, she says, know themselves so well that they can talk and talk and talk — and never notice what any of it is doing to the body. Somatic therapy invites the body into the conversation, combining talk with breath, touch and bodywork.
A session has a shape. It begins seated, getting to know each other and setting an intention. It moves to the massage table, where the talk continues but now hands-on, so that mind and body are integrated rather than kept apart. Throughout, she keeps asking the same quiet questions: what did I just say, and where do I feel it? How does my body respond to this?
The part she is proudest of comes last. In conventional therapy, she points out, something opens up — and then the hour ends and you take the bus home and sit alone with it for a week. She refuses that. Every session closes with a period of silent integration, where she leaves the room and lets you rest and reconnect to your own body before you gather yourself and finish together.
And she is clear about what the whole thing rests on. Not technique — connection. “It’s so human. I’m letting you be completely you, seeing you for what you are in that moment, and following you in it.” The touch, she stresses, is a positive extra, never a requirement; the essential move is simply including the body at all.
Somatic therapyBreathworkMind-bodyFormentera
Formentera · August 2024
Formentera, August 2024
Where we met
Mya and her family hosted us on Formentera, and Marek went through a full session before this conversation — so it is one of the few interviews where he had already experienced the work first-hand. What struck him was the breath-syncing: it reminded him, he told her, of putting his son to sleep as a baby, slowing his own breath until Aleksander’s slowed with it.
Formentera
August 2024
Where she works — and where she and her family hosted us.
The session
Before the interview
Marek went through the full somatic session first.
The conversation
Afterwards
Recorded on the island, having experienced the work.
“It’s so human. I’m letting you be completely you — seeing you for what you are in that moment, and following you in it.”
— Mya Thieme, Formentera
On the quest
On Formentera
A somatic session. FormenteraAt the table. FormenteraBy the sea. FormenteraOn the water. FormenteraPresence. Formentera · 2024The three of us. With Olivia Lesslar and Marek — Formentera, 2024.Between sessions. With Marek — Formentera, 2024.
In her words
Feel it, and let it be there
“In traditional talk therapy you get to a point where something’s opening up, and then the session’s over, and you take the bus home and you’re left alone with all of it for a week. I try to avoid that.”
Mya Thieme · Formentera, August 2024
Somatic therapy invites the body into the conversation.
Mya Thieme
Everyone knows themselves so well — but take a moment to breathe and feel: what does this do to my body?
Mya Thieme
The touch is a positive extra. It’s not even necessary. It’s about including the body.
Mya Thieme
Just breathe and let this feeling be there. Allow it, and don’t push it away.
Mya Thieme
In her own words
Straight from the interview
From the conversation on Formentera — what somatic therapy actually is, why the ending matters, and the human connection underneath it.
Body into the conversation
Her one-line definition. Traditional therapy is mind-only; she brings the body in too, through breath, touch and bodywork alongside the talking. The point is not the massage — touch is optional — but the habit of noticing, mid-sentence, where a feeling actually lands in the body.
“What did I just say? Where do I feel this?”
Formentera · from the interview
The silent integration
The detail that sets her apart. Rather than ending the moment something opens, she builds in a closing stretch of solitude — she leaves, you rest, you reconnect to your body — so you are not sent home raw. Only then do you finish together and set intentions for the week.
“A moment for you to reconnect to your body, without my presence.”
Formentera · from the interview
Breath, and a father’s memory
Marek recognised her breath-work immediately: it was how he settled Aleksander as a baby — syncing his breath to his son’s, then slowing it so the child slowed too, a finger tracing the hand, a story murmured low. She works the same way, breathing with the client, going slower, deeper into the body together.
Mya works on Formentera. Follow her on Instagram at @embodiedwithmya.
From the conversation
Mya Thieme, in her words
Video interview
The video interview is coming. Recorded interviews go live after the launch of the film & series Live Beyond.
From the conversation on Formentera, August 2024, after Marek went through a full somatic session. Lightly edited for readability.
What somatic therapy is
Mya Thieme“Somatic therapy is a therapy that also invites the body into the conversation. Rather than only being mind-focused, like traditional talk therapy, I incorporate body and mind, and I focus on the mind-body connection. During my sessions I combine breath, touch, bodywork and traditional talk therapy.”
Mya Thieme“In traditional talk therapy, everyone knows themselves so well, and they keep talking and talking. But to take a moment and to breathe and to feel — what does this do to my body? Where do I feel this? All these little elements we forget about. So I really encourage my clients to pay attention to the body, to feel it, to ground it.”
The shape of a session
Mya Thieme“In the beginning we talk, we get to know each other, and we set an intention. In the second part we move to the massage table and incorporate the talk therapy into the body — it’s hands-on, and we continue the conversation, so this is where we integrate mind and body. And then at the end there’s a period of silent integration, where I actually leave you to rest on your own. It’s a moment to reconnect to your body without my presence.”
Mya Thieme“In traditional talk therapy you get to a point where you’re feeling, something’s opening up, and then the session’s over — you go home, take the bus, and you’re left alone with all of these feelings for a week. I really try to avoid that. I give you a moment to regather yourself, and then together we complete the session.”
On touch
Mya Thieme“For a lot of people, being touched is really scary — “no, I don’t want you to go there.” And there’s still so much you can do without touch. You can learn so much about your body through just talking, already including the body in that conversation. The touch is a positive extra, but it’s not even necessary. It’s just about including the body — and that’s just not done in most therapy.”
On breath — and a father putting his son to sleep
Marek Piotrowski“The breathwork reminded me of putting my son to sleep when he was a baby — synchronising my breath with his, then slowing mine down so he slowed his. Moving a finger up his hand, talking slowly, a fairytale or just about my day. He’d feel into that and fall asleep. I felt like you were using the same mechanisms.”
Mya Thieme“I don’t do it from that angle exactly, but it’s the idea of: I’m asking you to breathe, I’m going to breathe with you, I want to encourage you to feel your body. When I give the session I’m moving as well — creating a flow within the body. And we end up in this thing where I’m syncing to your breath, and the breath keeps getting slower, and we keep going deeper into the body.”
On what the therapy really is
Mya Thieme“That’s the main part of the therapy — it’s so human. It’s a human connection. I’m letting you be completely you, and I’m supporting that, seeing you for what you are in that moment, and following you in it. That’s why I say in the session: anything is welcome. Just breathe and let this feeling be there. Allow it, and don’t push it away. In traditional therapy we sometimes go through things so quickly — but to just feel an emotion, and let it be in the body, or give it a shape or a colour.”
More passages from the full interview will be published here.
Continue the quest
More minds on the quest
Mya Thieme sits in Biohacking Upgrades (the emotional and somatic layer) and Longevity Basics (mindset and connection).
