Sometimes body and mind go through deeply painful experiences, giving a lifelong trauma. Somatic therapy is all about exploring these experiences and applying body-mind healing to aid in recovery.
Trauma impacts the body on a cellular level. The impact may be deeper than what can be seen to the outside world. What it means to an individual, the healing and life afterwards – remains at the core of somatic therapy. It’s like an empowerment that the traumatized person must undergo to let the healing happen.
Somatic therapy aims to promote mental and emotional health through the connection shared between body and mind. This approach is all about releasing stress, tension, and trauma.
Talk about other therapies – they all are centered on mind. Somatic therapy differs in way by incorporating body-oriented approaches, including meditation to promote mental healing. Somatic experiences include talk, as well as mind-body exercises.
Most people haven’t even heard of somatic therapy, because it hasn’t hit the mainstream yet. However, it is gradually gaining the momentum for offering a unique healing experience with the feeling of self-consciousness and empowerment.
The fundamental concept itself reveals a lot – the treatment focuses on the body and how emotions work within it. The therapy works on the basis that the human body holds all those experiences and expresses deep emotions. The traumatic events, including the unresolved emotions can become trapped in it. Release of those trapped emotions is imperative for healing.
The therapy
Releasing those painful experiences or emotions is what the therapy is all about. With the therapy, the therapist can help people release those damaging emotions in the body using mind-body techniques. The techniques can vary widely, ranging from breath work to acupressure, dance, and others.
Various techniques are integral, but not used commonly because the therapy hasn’t gained the attention it should.
Body awareness is one of the techniques followed by therapists, which helps people recognize their tension spots in the body, and evoke calming thoughts.
Pendulation is a practice that guides people from a relaxed state to emotions similar to their trauma and then back to relaxed state.
Titration takes people to a traumatic memory and while noting any associated physical sensation, and address that in real-time.
Resourcing is all about helping people recall important persons in their lives who can promote a feeling of calmness and safety. It can even be a place.
An experienced somatic therapist can offer coaching to promote complete healing of body and mind.