Somatic Therapy - What is it?
Somatic therapy is a type of psychotherapy that uses the body as a resource to help explore deeper emotions, sensations, and belief systems that may be difficult to access using traditional cognitive therapy based approaches. It focuses on how suppressed emotions and traumatic experiences can manifest as physical sensations in the body.
A somatic therapist will work with clients by helping them bring awareness. curiosity, and acceptance to these sensations. They may also guide clients through different somatic practices to help them process and release suppressed emotions and traumatic stress that may be preventing them from moving forward in life.
What Somatic Therapy can help with:
Somatic therapy is often used with clients who have a history of trauma, and who may be feeling stuck using traditional talk therapy methods. This therapeutic approach may help uncover deeply rooted belief patterns, physical pain, and suppressed emotions that can be stored in the body after a traumatic event has occurred. It can also be used with clients without a history of trauma, but who are looking to deepen their connection with themselves and who would like to become more aware of dysregulation cues that the body may be trying to communicate.
Somatic therapy can also be used to help with:
What does a somatic therapy session look like:
Instead of focusing solely on understanding the client’s issues from a cognitive sense (traditional talk therapy), the therapist will guide the client to pay attention to what physical sensations may be arising in their body. The therapist will assist client’s in noticing and following these sensations to help strengthen the mind/body connection and they may use a variety of somatic techniques to help clients process and work through these sensations. These techniques may include breathing exercises, guided visualizations, gentle movements, grounding exercises, and learning to become more aware of what physical sensations may be arising in the body.
The goal of somatic therapy is for client’s to cultivate a feeling of safety and trust in their bodies, and to learn how to listen to the body in order to better care for themselves.
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