Somatic Psychotherapy
You know that gut feeling you get sometimes?
It might be that pit of anxiety deep in your stomach that tells you to get out of a dangerous situation. Or it could be the tingles in your arms and legs that say you’re on the right path. Or the heart-opening sensation that feels like love.
Often there’s no tangible reason behind it… so it’s clearly not coming from your logical mind. No… this is a feeling that comes from your body.
There’s so much going on in our external world that many of us have lost our connection to our internal world.
You might realize that you’ve caved to the wants and desires of others when paving your path, and now you’re ready to build the life that’s right for you.
Or you’ve neglected your own needs to fulfill the needs of others in your relationships, and you realize that’s not working for you anymore.
Even your sense of self-worth might come only from external validation.
So how do you reconnect with yourself?
You tune into the wealth of information that’s stored in your body.
Just as your stomach feels hungry when you need food or your bladder feels full when you need to use the restroom, your body signals other needs, too.
You become joyful and energized when you’re doing work you love, a signal that can help you determine which career path to choose. Your body lights up with joy around people you naturally connect with – a signal that helps you choose the right friends.
Our society places a huge emphasis on the way our body looks, but little importance on the way our body feels.
When we tune in and listen to our bodies…
We reconnect with our passions, our life force, and our inner wisdom. We can better understand our experiences, our feelings, and what’s driving our actions. This, in turn, helps us stay true to ourselves.
When we tune in, we can tune out the messages that surround us but aren’t necessarily the best for us to follow. We can make decisions that feel right to us and build the life we want to live instead of the life someone else wants us to live.
In a somatic psychotherapy session, we pay attention to these feelings.
Many of us spend our lives avoiding our feelings by overworking, drinking, or filling up our schedules.
While this might feel like freedom, it’s actually avoidance. The real freedom comes once you face whatever you’re avoiding.
I bring in the somatic piece by encouraging clients to slow down and notice what they’re avoiding. The extra space allows people to get in touch with their feelings and notice what’s happening inside of them.
For example, you might feel the fear you have about being alone, which, unknowingly, has kept you in a dead-end relationship. Touching into the fear, learning about it, and allowing it to be part of your experience gives you a newfound freedom to decide whether to stay in that relationship.
“If we’re doing this somatic stuff, am I gonna get to talk?”
Yes! Somatic psychotherapy incorporates the body as an important piece of therapy, but it is not our only focus. My clients spend plenty of time talking during session, and often it feels like a regular talk therapy session.
The somatic piece gets incorporated when I encourage clients to slow down their talking and turn toward their feelings. They sometimes close their eyes to focus on themselves, which can help people better connect with their emotions. They might describe their sensations (e.g., “My face feels hot and there are knots in my stomach”), which often brings them to their emotions (“Oh, now I realize I feel anxious!”)
Identifying emotions can be helpful in various ways. First, emotions provide valuable information. Understanding that you’re anxious about a situation can help you determine how you want to proceed. Additionally, allowing yourself to feel an emotion often helps the emotion dissipate. When you feel instead of pushing it away, it has less control over you; and people find they can manage it better than expected.
“How did you get into somatic psychotherapy?”
I used to be all about the mind, thinking cognitively about how I could figure my way into and out of things.
I spent several years traveling after college, where I was lucky enough to experience several life-changing bodywork sessions. I had direct experience with the way my body held my trauma and the amazing freedom that came after my body released it through crying, feeling, and moving.
As I continued to pursue psychotherapy, I knew that incorporating the body into my practice was essential for healing.
Try it yourself!
Take a moment and tune into your body by moving your attention from the external world to your internal one. Gently notice what’s happening in there: your breathing, body temperature, sensations…
Think about the words you’ve already read on my website: Have they been resonating with you or have they fallen flat? Notice if you have the tingles of excitement or the emptiness of boredom. Instead of thinking about it, feel how your body is reacting.
Notice your emotions, sensations, and general somatic experience…
… and let them inform your decision about whether you want to call me for a complimentary 20-minute phone consultation:
(970) 673-0846.