Somatic Therapy
Overwhelm, hyper-vigilance, anxiety, dis-ease, and shutdown all create massive challenges in your life. Helping your nervous system and body transform these states is what Somatic (Soma=body) Therapy is all about.
With this approach we will be using the wisdom of your inner landscape to bring about real change.
Somatic Therapy
Somatic Therapy utilizes the information provided by your nervous system and inner felt sense to locate areas that are stuck on, stuck off, or just out of alignment of a life that is in flow. Feeling overwhelmed, shutdown, anxious, stressed, emotionally drained, emotionally distressed, can have a massive impact on yourself and your relationships, that is why we partner with the nervous system to increase its resiliency, process stuckness towards movement and flow.
All people can benefit from somatic therapy.
Somatics (soma=body in latin) simply means, we are working with people to create lasting change, not just to have different thoughts (Mental health), but to experience life differently (Whole-Person Health). Creating change on this level is where Somatic Therapy shines.
A somatic therapy session usually goes deeper than talking about or talking through the problem (yes this happens too!), but your therapist and eventually you, will begin to practice getting curious about what is happening on a nervous system level and develop tools to process and repair where the nervous system may have gotten stuck, or possibly where the nervous system needs help developing resiliency.
We work with the soma (body) in therapy, as well as the mind (and heart, and spirit) as the integral data points for getting you living fully again. When the nervous system is stuck in fear, dread, overwhelm, stuckness, stress/threat response either because of past trauma, or current situations and dynamics, we are invested in seeing you as a whole person that deserves aliveness, peace, calm, and easefulness.
We are all trained to assess the data points and work collaboratively with you to co-create the existence that you long for.
Symptoms that a Somatic Approach Can Help You With
While everyone experiences their nervous system a little bit differently, here are some of the common symptoms of a nervous system that is experiencing a cry for help:
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mental chatter, rumination and/or racing thoughts
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a need to constantly move, be busy, and/or difficulty sitting still
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Lack of feeling all emotions or can't feel specific emotions
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Overwhelm along with feeling all emotions or with specific emotions
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Feeling disconnected from self and others
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hyper-vigilance (constant scanning and bracing)
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Under-aware (missing important details, clumsy, easily distractible)
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Environmental sensitivity to sounds, colors, textures, smells
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Avoidance and distraction of certain activities like sex, food, driving, working, completing regular tasks
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"out of nowhere" feelings of racing, panic, anxiety, sadness, shutdown, rage, anger, depression, and physical impulses
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Feeling powerless, unloved, stuck, hopeless, chronically fearful
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Over-explaining, rigidity, control of your environment
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Under-explaining, people pleasing, tolerance or intolerance of chaos
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Dis-ease in your body like skin, heart, gut, lungs
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Conditions like MCAS, Endometriosis, CIRS, POTS, Blood Sugar issues, adrenal burnout, insomnia, SIBO, Chronic Pain, Chronic Fatigue, etc.
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Focus and avoidance disorganization and sensitivity
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Tension and pain in the body
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Sexual issues like hypo-desire, erectile dysfunction, sexual trauma or ancestral sexual trauma
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Jittery, numb, spinning, nausea, stagnancy, ungrounded, floaty, disorganized
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Insecure, Avoidant, Ambivalent, and/or Disorganized Attachment experiences
Somatic Therapy Can Help You Heal, Get Calm, and Connected
When our nervous system is stuck firing fight, flight, and freeze we are experiencing ourselves, our relationships, and our world through a trauma lens. Imagine wanting to get to your desired destination, but the windshield is caked with debris and your driving system computer is causing all the interior mechanisms to malfunction, your map keeps taking you in circles, and your gears keep going haphazardly between the different speeds. This is what it can feel like when the nervous system is not flowing and functioning properly because somewhere along the line it got out of sync.
We use Somatic Therapies because it is an incredibly effective approach to getting the body-mind-heart and spirit back into coherence, synchrony, and calm. By utilizing a mind-body frame, we are able to support the completion, discharge, re-embodiment, re-organization, and reclamation of a grounded, calm, and connected lived experience. This approach will work to cultivate the ability to sense into yourself and produce the change you want to experience in your life and relationships.
Compass Healing Project's Approach to Somatic Therapy
The over-arching modality that we use here at Compass Healing Project is Somatic Experiencing. This is our primary modality because of it's combination of ancient practices of embodiment, relationship orientation, and because it is also backed by trauma resolution literature and research to be incredibly affective for the overwhelming experiences that can leave an imprint on our nervous systems that happen across the lifespan. These experiences that usually benefit from a somatic approach include, but are not limited to birth, developmental emotional and/or physical neglect and abuse, car accidents, combat/war, relational trauma, loss, rites of passage, sexual, medical, falls, and racial, religious, ethnic, societal, and cultural experiences.
We also use a variety of other somatic approaches to heal and repair the nervous system. Somatic Trauma Resolution (STR), Somatic Resilience and Regulation Touch, Somatic Informed EMDR, Somatic Informed IFS (Internal Family Systems/Parts Work), Clinical Sexology, Pelvic Health Practices, and Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy (PACT).
Somatic Experiencing
The Somatic Experiencing® method is a body-oriented approach to the healing of trauma and other stress disorders. It is the life’s work of Dr. Peter Levine, resulting from his multidisciplinary study of stress physiology, psychology, ethology, biology, neuroscience, indigenous healing practices, and medical biophysics, together with over 45 years of successful clinical application. The SE approach releases traumatic shock or "activation", which is key to transforming PTSD and the wounds of emotional and early developmental attachment trauma. This approach underlies all the other treatment approaches we use. In sessions we are assessing how the body may be stuck in a survival state, through a relational atmosphere of safety and attunement that allows for tracking and allowing sensations, feelings, impulses, and memories in the body and facilitating the re-emergence of our natural, inherent resiliency and healing systems to come back on line.
Specialty focus and training within somatic training modalities include Developmental RUPTURE & REPAIR, Touch Training: Somatic Resilience and Regulation Touch Skills Training for Early Developmental Trauma, and Attachment-Focused EMDR.
Begin Counseling at Compass Healing Project
You don’t have to live with nervous system dysregulation and disconnect from your original design. Counseling can help you get connected and into flow. Our Colorado and California counseling clinics have caring therapists who specialize in somatic therapy.
To start your counseling journey, follow these simple steps:
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Meet with one of our Specialized Therapists for a discovery call
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Start healing your heart, mind, body and spirit with Somatic Therapy
Other Counseling Services at Compass Healing Project
We offer this integrative approach, along with EMDR, hypnotherapy, ketamine assisted therapy, Clinical Sexology, and embodiment to issues such as anxiety, depression, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, grief and loss, sexuality, and couples and/or relationship work. Find more info and get to know us on our Blog Counseling can help bring healing and transformation from a holistic perspective here at Compass Healing Project. Our Colorado and California practices have caring therapists who specialize in trauma resolution, emotional healing, and integrative therapy. Fill out this contact form and we'll help get you started.