Somatic Therapy
What Is Somatic Therapy?
More traditional forms of therapy focus on thoughts and cognitions. However, thoughts and cognitions are just the tip of the iceberg; most of what drives us lies under the surface of conscious awareness. Our deepest desires, needs, and fears are often held in our unconscious, or implicit memory. Working through the body is an access route to this deeper, underlying core material. Somatic therapy is an approach to counseling that uses the body as a starting point and explores how it holds and expresses deeply painful experiences and unresolved emotional issues.
Approaches to somatic therapy are incorporated in several therapeutic methods, including Hakomi therapy, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, IFS, EMDR therapy, Somatic Experiencing and therapeutic yoga practices. Somatic approaches are especially powerful at addressing unhealed trauma. Traumatic experiences trigger the brain’s fight-flight-freeze-fawn response, which bypasses the neocortex (the part of the brain responsible for rational thought) and alerts the body’s response system. Methods that focus only on cognition and changing thought patterns generally do not access the body’s responses to events perceived as threatening. Somatic therapy can, and that’s why it’s so powerful.
How Effective Is Somatic Therapy And Who Can It Help?
Contrary to the earlier traditional approaches of “talk” therapy, the mind and body are intimately connected. Our deepest core beliefs and traumatic experiences are held within the body, so it is impossible to provide full healing without treating the body and mind together. Traditional therapy is rooted in “talk therapy” or cognitive processing, and while this can be helpful initially, it can’t access the deeper core material that’s driving behavior and emotional responses.
There have been numerous studies that document somatic therapy’s ability to treat trauma, PTSD, and many other mental health conditions. What’s more, breathwork is an essential part of somatic therapy, and working with the breath has been proven to be the quickest way to regulate the nervous system (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6).
In my practice, I use somatic therapy to help clients deal with depression, anxiety, trauma, complex PTSD, chronic illness, and autoimmune diseases. I’ve personally witnessed somatic approaches provide relief to clients who were unable to improve their symptoms through more conventional therapeutic methods.
How Does Somatic Therapy Work?
I generally begin the therapy process by using Hakomi methods. Hakomi refers to an experiential, body-based form of therapy that focuses on body language and facial gestures to access a client’s “core material,” or their deepest core beliefs and traumatic experiences.
For instance, I might observe a body posture or gesture and then explore it through mindful awareness, which is what I refer to as the “observer self.” I may have you close your eyes and observe what happens when I repeat a prompt, such as “You are whole and complete just as you are.” I am looking for body responses, not just what the intellect may say in response. Perhaps your shoulder rolls inward, your body relaxes, or you furrow your brows. These movements and gestures are access routes to deeper core material.
Once you have developed the “muscle” of mindful self-awareness, you can start to distance yourself from your reactions. You can learn to take a step back and observe your reactions instead of letting them guide or control you. This can allow you to respond to life’s stressors more thoughtfully and deliberately.
In order to help you improve your mindful self-awareness, I may teach breathing practices (pranayama) from the yoga tradition. Breathwork can enable you to shift out of a sympathetic (fight-or-flight) or parasympathetic (freeze-or-shutdown) nervous system response. This can help you reduce the pain of unresolved trauma and respond to life from a calmer, more regulated place.
I may also utilize EMDR therapy, which stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. Traumatic experiences and the core beliefs and symptoms they create are held within the deepest recesses of the nervous system. EMDR therapy uses sets of bilateral stimulation to reorient the nervous system’s response to trauma. With successful EMDR therapy, you can remember your experience without feeling triggered or overwhelmed.
We may explore different “parts” that are holding traumatic memory through IFS therapy. For example, you may have child parts that are frozen in the past and held in the body as emotional states, chronic illnesses, or tensions. By bringing healing energy (referred to as Self energy in IFS) to these parts, we can help them release their burdens and live freely in the present.
In the end, the whole process of somatic therapy is very organic and free-flowing. There is no set-in-stone structure to sessions, since it’s more about what comes up in the moment and what is felt in the body. As your awareness becomes more embodied through various somatic approaches, you can regulate your nervous system, track escalation and dissociation, and learn how early childhood experiences have been stored in the body. You will then learn to release painful experiences and unhelpful beliefs from your body.
My Experience With Somatic Therapy
I began my personal journey with therapy 40 years ago when I found my first Hakomi therapist. Hakomi changed my life. Instead of trying to get rid of my symptoms (severe depression and anxiety at the time), Hakomi taught me about how these symptoms were living in my body and what they were trying to tell me. I also worked with a therapist trained in IBP (Integrated Body Psychotherapy), which further deepened my commitment to body-centered (somatic) approaches. Inspired by all I had learned and witnessed, I began formal studies in Hakomi and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, EMDR therapy, IFS, and many other somatic approaches. I also studied yoga at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in 1995, which led to my training in yoga as therapy.
In addition to my therapeutic credentials, it’s worth noting that I worked in biotechnology and studied neuroscience in my previous career. My scientific understanding of the nervous system has aided me greatly in my therapeutic career, allowing me to psycho-educate clients on the nature of the mind-body connection. I am deeply passionate about the different ways that we can expand our somatic awareness, and I believe that this is the ultimate key to initiating lasting healing and relief.
Release Negative Beliefs And Experiences Through The Power Of Somatic Awareness
If you want to experience fuller, more long-lasting healing than talk therapy can provide, I encourage you to pursue somatic therapy with me. To get started, you can call (303) 507-6310 or use the contact form.
(1) The Body Keeps the Score, Bessell van der Kolk, MD
(2) Body Bears the Burden and Trauma Spectrum, Robert Scaer, MDTranscending Trauma: Healing Complex PTSD with Internal Family Systems, Frank Anderson, MD
(3) Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: Interventions for Trauma and Attachment, Pat Ogden PhD and Janina Fisher, PhD
(4) Hakomi Mindfulness-Centered Somatic Psychotherapy: A Comprehensive Guide to Theory and Practice, Halko Weiss and Greg Johanson, et al.
(5) How Breath-Control Can Change Your Life: A Systematic Review on Psycho-Physiological Correlates of Slow Breathing, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6137615/
(6) Assessing the Effectiveness of Yoga as a Complementary and Alternative Treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: A Review and Synthesis, The Journal of Alternative and Complementary MedicineVol. 23, No. 10