What Is Somatic Therapy?
What Is Somatic Therapy?
This form of therapy focuses on the mind-body connection and seeks to heal psychological distress through physical awareness, embodiment, and movement.
People can experience “body anxiety” in situations where there are no negative thoughts present. This can be especially true in certain occasions, times of year, and environments, even if there isn’t an obvious cause. In these cases, the body can recall something that the mind does not remember and can send out signals of caution or worry.
In recent times, the term “Somatic Psychotherapy” has seen increased usage due to the recognition from scientific research that our bodies harbour memories, encounters, and emotions on a physical level, in addition to them being “all in our heads”. This implies that our bodies also store data.
Body-Focused Techniques To Assist In Mending On A Cellular Level
At the start, somatic treatments were established to assist those who have gone through traumatic experiences in finally finding a way to manage their trauma symptoms – for example, flashbacks, difficulty sleeping, chaotic relationships and lifestyles, and disordered eating.
In recent years, somatic therapy has been shown to be an effective method for aiding people who are under stress, and has provided them with much needed relief.
Relationships and intimacy, feeling secure, having trust, achieving too much or too little, parenting, managing anxiousness, working through depression and other emotional issues are some of the topics that can be addressed.
Gaining Insight Into The Source Of The Problem- An All-Inclusive Way To Recovery
Discussing challenging topics, developing abilities, and depending on the psychodynamic relationship without implementing somatic, mental-body consciousness or trauma treatments can be of assistance until a certain juncture.
Although clients might be taking the necessary steps to address their issues, they may still not experience any sort of relief. This is generally due to therapy that is concentrated on brain-based issues, and that the issue is usually attributed to a mental and cognitive process. However, this is not always the case and the problem might not be rooted in an anxious, depressed, or worrisome thought.
Your Physical Body Bears The Imprint Of Your Suffering, Rather Than Simply Occupying Your Thoughts.
At times, the brain and body are programmed {because of experiences] which makes it so that unconscious, ingrained convictions are not perceptible by cognitive processes like “I am bad”, “I’m isolated”, or “I will never heal”. Usually, a person may not be aware of the convictions they carry until they are challenged by an issue that is linked to it.
Dr. Peter Levine and Dr. Pat Ogden have extensively studied the effects of somatic approaches in psychotherapy, which take on a holistic, whole-body approach. This form of therapy assists clients in accessing beliefs stored in the body and ultimately leads to long-term alleviation. Subsequently, these theorists have trained numerous therapists in these practices.
“Traumatic symptoms are not caused by the “triggering” event itself. They stem from the frozen residue of energy that had not been resolved or discharged; this residue remains trapped in the nervous system where it can wreck havoc on our bodies and spirits.” - Peter Levine
Somatic psychotherapy employs the body as a crucial instrument in the treatment process. This approach encourages the patient to become more aware of their physicality.
In order to form a link between the brain, body, mind, and behavior, somatic techniques are utilized. Therapists trained in this area use interventions to assist in calming their clients’ nervous system for a more successful healing process.
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This blog was originally written by Natlie Talson on September 26, 2023.