Somatic PsychoTherapy
Somatic Psychotherapy, or Body Psychotherapy, privileges the role and experience of the body and its sensations in the psychotherapeutic process. The reasons for this are many. Emotional and mental stressors often find ways to express themselves through the body, while physical, medical, and bodily issues are also felt emotionally and mentally. Trauma affects the brain, nervous system, and whole body. The term "somatic" is derived from the Greek "soma" meaning "the body". Psychotherapy is a healing of the psyche, or what you can think of as your mind. Somatic Psychotherapy is the powerful healing relationship between body and mind.
The power of working with mindfulness of bodily experiences allows access to parts of ourselves that just can't be reached by talk and intellect alone.
Have you ever had a muscle twitch that won't go away? Or an upset stomach or butterflies in your stomach from being nervous? Ever felt short of breath, or feel your heart racing and pounding without any physical exertion? Do you startle easily due to previous physical or emotional violence, or for no reason at all? Or even have eczema, or other physical ailments that doctors have told you are partially stress-related?
These are just a few of the many ways that the body speaks loudly about experiences that we can't always put words to. Building the capacity to notice small shifts in our physical state can help us get in closer contact with emotional wounds and mental stressors that may be associated with that physical discomfort. Somatic therapy can help you manage overwhelming emotions, and memories and sensations from traumatic events, and help you develop the agency to transform that unbridled life force into vitality.
““There is a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive...””