What is Somatic Therapy?
Photo by Nadia Meli
Somatic therapy, somatic coaching and somatic movement are all big buzzwords right now. Social media is filled with endless posts claiming you can lose your belly fat if you release your trauma. It’s already being deeply capitalised as a silver bullet, a quick fix so we can be well.
The truth is that any therapeutic journey, somatic or cognitive is not a quick process. So lets start there, the type of somatic therapy I offer people is not a quick fix based on the idea that you are broken. In fact, I don’t believe that there is anything wrong with you at all.
Are you frustrated with me now?
This whole idea that we need fixing is quite problematic.
I happen to believe that you, your mind and your body have been doing the best that you can with the tools that you currently have. I believe that you are whole and the process we may take together is one of remembering that and also reclaiming yourself, including the messy parts.
So what is somatic therapy? You will find many many variations out there but I will simply share with you what variation I offer and have been trained in. I am trained specifically in trauma-informed somatic therapy and this approach is all about including our bodies in our process. It’s a bottom up approach that is is led by you, it’s deeply human and holistic, it’s not clinical. There is a coaching element to how I work with people.
Our journey together can include education around our beautiful nervous systems and how they work. We can explore how trauma might be alive in your body. You can learn accessible body practices that tend to your nervous system and help create more ease in your body. We can explore a range of tools and resources that can support you.
Somatic therapy is about developing interoception so you can better understand how your body is trying to speak to you. So many of us struggle with the various sensations and emotions our bodies share with us and this approach is about learning this language so we can meet our needs better.
Most importantly though… this is about having a space that is yours. Where you are met with loving presence and active listening, where you can learn that all of you is welcome including the parts there might be shame or discomfort around. We weave a container of courage, curiosity and compassion so you can really meet yourself.
Somatic therapy has a wilder tone to it. We are working with the body, which btw includes the mind. But while the mind prefers story, patterns, logic and has been highly modernised, our bodies are more of nature. An incredible system that has evolved over thousands of years that has its own deep intelligence. An intelligence that western society in particular has discarded and ignores.
But as we are seeing with the rise of chronic illness and burn out, our bodies are demanding that we listen.
Trauma work plays a large part in this journey. Trauma lives in the body and those of us who have trauma that is stuck find ourselves living lives that feel chronically unsafe, empty, disconnected and dissociated. I have written more extensively about trauma here if you want to go deeper.
Many of us wind up in therapy or starting the great work of knowing ourselves because of how our trauma is playing out in the present. Whether that’s through anxiety, depression, addiction and everything else in between. Ultimately, we are looking to reclaim our trauma so it gets woven back into the great tapestry of us and our lives. Somatic therapy can be the alchemical process of that reclaiming.
Some of the benefits of somatic therapy can be…
The opportunity to build a healthy relationship & communication between mind & body
Find more ease and relaxation even when life is feeling hard
Learn about our nervous systems and how they impact our lives
Learn skills for regulation and resourcing
Build more capacity for all of our emotions
The possibility to integrate & process past trauma (only once our relationship, regulation & resourcing has been established)
Experiencing more joy & connection
Establish healthier, more connected relationships with others.
Many people view their therapeutic journey as a job to complete. That we just need to tick off all the check boxes of self care or rewire ourselves like a machine and then we will be well. It’s often viewed as a linear process, that there is a destination to reach.
Frustratingly, that’s not true. Healing is a journey, it’s about learning how to feel so we can fully participate in our lives. Lives that are complicated and challenging. It’s about being able to experience our pain and our joy. It’s about finding ease with our anger and letting our hearts be broken. It’s about knowing what we want to say yes to AND when to use our no. It’s about being ALIVE.
I will be honest, I have found this blog post really hard to write. While we have so much knowledge and amazing frameworks to utilise, each of us will have a unique journey and there is no guarantees of a specific outcome. This path into the wilderness has many twists and turns, it’s a beautiful, disorientating, magical, challenging, joyful, frustrating journey that has no conclusion. I hope that one day, you take it.
If you would like to find out more about what I offer and how you can work with me, just click below.