Somatic Psychotherapy
What is Somatic Psychotherapy?
Somatic psychotherapy is a holistic approach to counseling. During a session, I may ask you to bring attention to your body's experience, encouraging mindfulness and a deeper awareness and connection to what is happening. We might also work with movement or posture if and when physical movement could support your healing process.
With awareness of the mind-body connection, somatic therapy helps release the tension, anger, frustration, trauma, sadness, grief and other emotions that can get stuck in our bodies when we experience trauma, loss, conflict, and other stressful events.
A somatic approach can help you become more aware of conscious and unconscious parts of yourself in order to live in your present moment experience. You will learn how to find and feel compassion towards yourself that will support resilience, self-confidence, good boundaries, and an increased sense of vitality in your life.
Somatic therapy can help people who live with:
stress
anxiety
depression
grief
addiction
problems with relationships
challenges with sexual function
issues related to trauma and abuse
dissociative experiences
chronic physical pain
digestive disorders
medical issues
non-normative identities
life transitions
desire to increase performance in sport/school/workplace
Does it work?
Somatic psychotherapy understands that the mind, body, spirit, and emotions all relate, connect, and affect each other. As a result, stress, trauma, and mood states impact the nervous system and can change the body's biochemistry, experience of tension/relaxation, movement patterns, strength, pain sensations, posture, digestion, sleep, and general health.
Research over the past 60 years has suggested that somatic psychotherapy clients (compared to those in traditional talk therapy) tend to recover faster from their distress, take more responsibility for themselves, and report a lasting experience of change in their daily lives.
By integrating your body/movement experience with your story and thoughts, you can experience lasting, meaningful growth and change!