Somatic Therapy

We all have a human nervous system. Because of this, we are beholden to its inherent way of working. How our nervous systems naturally manage stress, interact with our environments, and perceive safety in our lives can dictate a lot about our lived experience.

Symptoms like anxiety, depression, panic, feeling “other”, over-functioning, burnout, and certainly trauma symptoms (hypervigilance, distrust, sleep disturbance, relational challenges, etc.) can be an expression of a nervous system that is dysregulated.

While evolutionarily designed to manage stress, our systems are not designed for the modern world. It is very common for a nervous system to be significantly impacted by an aspect of our life experience and to become a system that is no longer managing stress in a way that is helpful for us, despite its best intentions. A common expression is “We are designed for survival, not for happiness”.

The nervous system’s protective instincts, developed sensitivities, over-activity, or pain/tension patterns can be worked with directly through somatic therapy. In somatic therapy, we use knowledge of the complexities of the nervous system and the body to support both deeper understanding of current symptoms and challenges as well as to promote new ways of being and increase your capacity for a felt sense of safety and a more flexible, effective stress management system.

What Does a Somatic Therapy Session Look Like?

In therapy, we combine psychoeducation (learning about your own nervous system and how it works) with Somatic Experiencing somatic therapy. This is a gentle, incremental, collaborative approach where we include your body and internal experience in our session. We limit the focus on verbal content, story, and analysis and instead focus on what we can learn from the body and your felt experience. With support and guidance from your therapist, you will learn to pay attention to and mindfully track your inner experience in a way that can generate information, allow for release or completion of patterns, helping the system move towards a more integrated, natural way of functioning. It can feel a little like a body scan or maybe like a mindfulness exercise, with the therapist guiding you and observing your system as you work together. You may notice sensations, images, emotions, memories, or whatever may arise as you attend to your body.

This approach can complement other therapy work or be a primary modality to work towards change. Somatic Experiencing can build resiliency in an otherwise depleted system and help restore energy and capacity. It also emphasizes incremental, bite-sized progression in order to avoid overloading the system or any sort of re-traumatizing experience, for those who are engaged in trauma work.

The good news about our human nervous systems is that they are plastic. They can learn and change and grow new ways of being. Somatic therapy can provide direct engagement in the process of creating change in the nervous system and can support a wide variety of therapy goals. It can also help build a more connected, compassionate relationship with yourself and your own experience.