Have you ever had the experience of feeling like your body was tense or a pounding headache at the end of a stressful day? Or feeling nervous before you were about to take a big test? These physical feelings can be your body’s way of showing how it’s responding to emotions, stress, and sometimes even past experiences. Our bodies are constantly sending us information and speaking to us, but sometimes we don’t know how to listen to them.
Somatic therapy is a powerful form of therapy that can help people to pay attention to these physical feelings, translate what their body is saying to them, and understand how their physical feelings can help them to heal. In this blog, we’ll explore how somatic therapy can help people reconnect to their bodies, especially after trauma or stress.
What is Somatic Therapy?
Somatic therapy is a form of therapy that helps you to build a bridge between your brain and body. It helps you connect with, heal stuck sequences, and deepen your relationship with your body. It’s a form of therapy that can help you to witness, understand, and attune to what is showing up in your body and meet your body’s needs- as well as help release tension, stress, and anxiety.
Somatic therapy differs from traditional talk therapy in that we aren’t just talking about stuck
areas or areas you’d like to change. Rather, somatic therapy can help you to notice physical sensations like tightness in your chest, tension in your shoulders, or a swirly feeling in your stomach to name a few. By paying attention to these symptoms, people can uncover hidden emotions and work through past experiences, like trauma and stress that can affect people’s well-being today.
Why Body Awareness Matters
When you have had experiences of trauma or stress your body can have a variety of reactions.
For example, you may feel tightness in your chest, tight or sore muscles, shallow breathing, or racing heart. These physical sensations can be your body’s way of responding to danger or emotional pain.
When trauma or stress happen over and over over time, your body can get stuck in a “fight or
flight” mode. This means that your body may often or almost always be on alert even if there is
no real danger. This can make you feel tired, anxious or out of control.
Body awareness is being able to notice and understand these physical sensations. It’s like learning a new language and listening to what your body is telling you. When you are aware of what is showing up in your body, you can begin to learn how to manage the stress responses as they show up and even help heal past trauma.
How Somatic Therapy Helps You Reconnect With Your Body
Somatic therapy can help you reconnect with your body in a variety of ways. Below are a few examples of how somatic therapy works:
Tuning Into Sensations
The first step in somatic therapy is often learning how to pay attention to your body, and learning how to listen to and speak the language of your body. A therapist may guide you to focus on different parts of your body and notice any feelings, sensations or images that may arise. For example, you may start by focusing on your feet, your hands, or your breathing. Are there any areas in your body that feel tense or relaxed? Do you feel warm, cold or tingly?
By focusing on these small sensations, you can start to hear and understand what’s happening inside your body. Over time, this practice can help you recognize when you’re feeling stressed or triggered by something in your life.
Releasing Tension
Sometimes, when you’ve been under stress or experienced something traumatic, your body can hold onto tension. This may show up as tight shoulders, stomachaches, clenching your jaw, or clenched fists. In somatic therapy a goal may be to have support in learning ways to release this tension.
The therapist may guide you through different exercises to help invite your body to relax. These could be breathing exercises, gentle movement or making sounds that can help release tension and emotions. When you start to have ways to release this tension, your mind may also begin to feel calmer and clearer.
Exploring Emotions Through Movement
Our emotions are experienced in our bodies and just like our mind can intellectualize emotions, our body can also hold onto emotions. Sometimes we may feel sad, angry, or scared but we aren’t sure how to express those feelings. Somatic therapy can help explore and encourage movement as a way to be in touch with and release, a little at a time, emotions that may feel stuck in your body.
For example, the therapist may encourage you to move your body in a way that feels good to you. You may sway, stretch, or even dance in place. Or the therapist may help you tune into where emotion is showing up and helping build a pathway for that emotion to move through and out of your body. For example, if you felt a tightness in your chest, the therapist may suggest moving into a heart opening gesture to help that tightness stretch and be able to move through your body and be released and expressed. Movement can help your body release emotions that may have felt stuck for a long time. As you move, you may feel more in touch with your emotions and at ease with how to work with them as they arise.
Creating a Sense of Safety
If you have experienced trauma or chronic stress, your body may feel like a place that’s unsafe. You may avoid certain activities or disconnect from your body because it reminds you of something painful. Somatic therapy can help you rebuild trust with your body by creating a safe space to explore your feelings.
The therapist will work slowly, at your pace, and help you build skills to cope with difficult emotions. This gradual approach can allow you to feel more comfortable in your body, which is an important step in processing and healing from trauma.
Mindfulness and Grounding
Mindfulness is the practice of being present in this moment. In somatic therapy, mindfulness exercises can help you focus on what’s happening in your body right now. These exercises can help you to connect with a place of calm even when you are anxious or upset.
For example, you may be guided to sit in a comfortable position and take a few slow, deep breaths. As you breathe in and out, you may focus on how your body feels on the ground or in the chair. This can help you to stay connected to your body in a grounded way and remind you that you are safe in this present moment.
Why Somatic Therapy Works
Somatic therapy works because it can help people connect their mind and body. Oftentimes, when we experience trauma, stress or difficult emotions it can feel hard to connect to our body and we can feel a pull to move away from the physical feelings that come with trauma and stress. Somatic therapy can help people see, understand and help bring healing to those physical feelings.
Many people find that somatic therapy can help them feel more in touch with their emotions and feel more capable in managing stress as it arises. By focusing on the body, somatic therapy can help people regain a sense of trust in their bodies and feel safer and more connected to themselves.
How Somatic Therapy Can Help With Trauma
When you experience trauma, your body can carry the effects of that trauma for a long time. Trauma can cause changes to your physical body like struggles with sleep, chronic pain, and digestive issues to name a few. Somatic therapy can help people process and heal from these physical and emotional wounds.
For example, someone who has been in a car accident may feel tension in their neck and shoulders whenever they get into a car. Somatic therapy can help them become aware of this tension, learn ways to help release it, and process and heal the emotional memories that come with it. Over time, they may regain a sense of control and feel less anxious, afraid, and tense when they drive.
Somatic therapy is a powerful tool that can help people reconnect with their bodies and heal from trauma and stress.
By becoming more aware of the physical sensations in your body, you can learn to release tension, process emotions and regain trust in yourself. Whether you’re dealing with stress, trauma, or interested in feeling more connected to your body, somatic therapy can offer a unique and effective way to heal from the inside out.
Start Working With a Somatic Therapist in San Diego, CA and Golden, CO or ONLINE
Your body is always communicating with you. Learning to listen to these messages your body is sending you can help you to feel more balanced, calm, and connected. Our team hopes this blog has been supportive in learning ways somatic therapy can help you to reconnect to your body. If you think somatic therapy may be helpful for you, we are a practice that specializes in somatic therapy and we would love to assist you in your journey to building trust and connectedness in your body. Start therapy with Compass Healing Project by following these simple steps:
Reach Out and fill out our New Client Inquiry Form to get started.
Schedule a discovery call with a caring therapists.
Start reconnecting with your body!
Other Services Offered with Somatic Therapy in San Diego, CA and Golden, CO
At Compass Healing Project, we take a holistic approach to therapy, using a range of modalities to support various mental health needs. In addition to Somatic Therapy, our team is happy to offer support with EMDR, Clinical Sexology, hypnotherapy, ketamine-assisted therapy, and embodiment practices. We also offer support with anxiety, depression, PTSD, grief, sexuality concerns, and relationship issues. To learn more about our services, visit our blog or connect with our compassionate therapists in Colorado and California. Our team specializes in trauma resolution, emotional healing, and integrative therapy to support your journey to well-being.
About the Author
Mallory Burggraaf is a social worker, somatic experiencing, IFS, and DARe therapist. In short, that means she specializes in somatic attachment work and is the ideal provider for online therapy in Colorado if you want to develop a secure attachment with yourself, stop those old survival strategies like people pleasing, self-neglecting, and loss of self in relationships. Read more about and connect with Mallory today for a free discovery call!
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