Somatic Therapy uses the body as its starting point for healing. The word “somatic” is derived from the Greek word “soma” which means “living body.” It is a holistic form of therapy that views the mind and body as one.
Research shows that including the body in the therapeutic process leads to more beneficial outcomes. These benefits include:
- it resolves symptoms of trauma thus restoring access to ease and joy.
- it reduces discomfort, strain, and stress in the body.
- it creates a stronger sense of Self.
- it builds resilience.
- it increases a more positive relationship with one’s body.
The field of mental health is changing dramatically, and Somatic Therapy Partners (STP) plans to stay at the leading edge of innovative approaches to healing. Our mental health therapists are trained both as traditional talk therapists (top-down, cognitive approaches) as well as somatic (bottom up, body-based) approaches. All therapists at STP are trained in various forms of somatic approaches to healing in addition to their core specialties
Our work aims to heal and resolve the underlying traumatic stress that gets stored in the body during challenging experiences. We want to help your nervous system return to a more balanced state, also known as resilience or healthy nervous system regulation. Sign up for the Free Somatic Healing Foundations Course to learn more.
The Goal?
Harnessing the Power of Your Body’s Wisdom for Increased Resilience
At STP, the number one belief that we rest our practice on is the belief that your body possesses powerful and innate intelligence to heal.
While traditional talk therapy engages the mind looking for insights through talking and telling the story, it is not the whole picture. Our goal is to awaken people to the wisdom inherent in the body and how to access it. Trauma, depression, anxiety, and relationship struggles are problems that exist both in the body and the mind – so the cure must involve both as well.
When we experience challenging or life-threatening events, our body’s survival intelligence of fight, flight, freeze, fold and/or fawn turns on. During times of danger, our bodies are meant to react but then we are meant to come back into flow. However, if our systems are not given time and care to return to flow, people get stuck in a state of nervous system imbalance, also known as dysregulation/dysregulated states which can cause a variety of physical, emotional, psychological, and mental conditions.
Resilience is defined as the capacity to recovery quickly and effectively from difficulties. The way back to resilience from nervous system dysregulation happens through harnessing the power of your body’s wisdom. Ultimately, somatic approaches restore joy, pleasure and ease, three experiences that cannot happen without a body! So, you need your body in the healing journey.
What happens in a somatic therapy session?
To live fully we must be fully embodied, which means inhabiting our bodies with care, connection, listening and responsivity.
With a somatic approach, clients become more aware of the body’s language and wisdom. We are here to guide you in the ways of listening and connecting to your body. When you learn how to do this you start to feel more comfortable in your skin and you understand your body’s attempts to heal so that you can make new choices and create the change you seek.
This means that therapy isn’t about reclaiming memories or changing your thoughts and beliefs. It’s more about helping you become more fully embodied.
Somatic therapy supports healing and embodiment through helping you:
- experience safety at a body level through finding body anchors to keep you grounded
- feel your emotions and the sensations and impulses that come with your emotions
- slow down, get out of your head and back into your body
- uncover habitual patterns in mind and body that keep you stuck
- track the rhythms of your nervous system,
- implement somatic and cognitive skills to increase your capacity for regulated or balanced states,
- and eventually, trust your body to guide you through your daily life such that you feel more states of flow and ease.
It is a collaborative process that fosters and forges a healing dialogue in which the client fully participates. Together we discover and listen to the story of the body, to the interior landscape of the person.