Do you often experience muscle tightening in your back and neck? Or do you often find yourself clenching your jaws? It could be due to prolonged stress that is resulting in physical manifestations.
However, you can’t leave these issues as they are, or else they might lead to severe conditions that could risk your well-being. Thus, we recommend you take advantage of somatic therapy, which aims to treat the mind and body using various techniques.
These mind-body techniques tend to have a wide range of therapies, including grounding, breathing, sequencing, and many others. Thus, today we are going to discuss these somatic therapies, their benefits, types, and related pros and cons. So, without further ado, let’s dive in!
What is Somatic Therapy?
Somatic therapy, also known as somatic experiencing therapy, is a form of psychotherapy that aims to treat trauma and stress-related disorders through mind-body techniques and help achieve sound mental health.
As many therapists believe, trauma is often endured at the cellular level; thus, somatic therapy follows the principle of healing from mental conditions by eliminating physiological symptoms.
Hence, it prioritizes exploring how each individual’s body experiences painful trauma and how the body reacts to the provocation throughout the day.
Therefore, somatic therapists allow the patients to acknowledge their emotions and help them feel secure in their bodies. As a result, the patients learn to process their overwhelming emotions and release them slowly using healing techniques.
Note:
To look for the right somatic therapist, make sure to ask them about their:ExperienceApproachQualifications and TrainingAvailability and ScheduleCost and Experience
Types of Somatic Therapy Practices
As discussed above, somatic therapy includes various techniques, and hence, we are going to take a look at these techniques in detail. But today, we are going to look at the most common techniques. So, let’s dive in!
Grounding
This technique mainly focuses on connecting you with the present moment. In this practice, you are asked to perform intentional movements like deep breathing or tensing to awaken the internal sensations and process the emotional responses.
Breathwork
This approach implies breathing intentionally to focus on the physical act and the mental act. With these repetitive breathing exercises, you become more aware of your surroundings and learn to calm yourself in the process. This exercise is said to have a therapeutic effect on your physical, mental, and emotional state.
Pendulation and Titration
In titration, the therapist asks you to slow down your self-awareness of the surroundings, while in pendulation, the patient is asked to transition from calm to stress or stress to calm. In this way, you can train your nervous system to become familiar with the calm state.
Resourcing
In resourcing, you will be asked to recall a memory that you deeply treasure, be it small or big. With this technique, your nervous system learns that it might experience stress, but it must come back to a calm state.
Sequencing
In this method, you get to release the stored memories that might be hurting you physically, which allows you to let go of the tension.
Movements
With simple movements of the body, you can create a sense of accomplishment and heal the untold stories that only you and your body are holding on to.
Somatic therapy is a healthy approach to treating anxiety and other mental health concerns. It can help you overcome issues like grief, anxiety, depression, trust, ADHD, chronic pain, and many other conditions.
Benefits of Somatic Therapy
This comprehensive therapy can assist you to address the various mental conditions and assist you in the healing journey. So, now, let’s look at what benefits you can expect from this psychotherapy!
- Treat Trauma and PTSD: Somatic therapy provides you with a safe place to explore your bottled-up emotions and the related bodily symptoms. As a result, you get to treat trauma and PTSD in the process.
- Regulate Emotions: The therapist allows you to develop self-awareness and recognize the symptoms as they arise. By doing so, you get to manage your emotions accordingly.
- Reduce Anxiety and Depression: As you get to recognize your bodily reaction to the traumatic experience, the therapist offers you exercises that help you heal from anxiety and depression.
- Body-mind Wellness: With customized techniques for your body and mind, you get to revive your body-mind wellness along the way.
- Improves Self-esteem: Feeling self-conscious or inferior to others can be a symptom of trauma or depression, and somatic therapy can help you heal from that, raising your self-esteem.
- Healing from Chronic Pain: By recognizing the underlying emotional and physical discomfort, you can heal from the chronic pain.
To conclude, this therapy enables you to process inherent sensations and use them to prevent psychological issues.
The Pros and Cons of Somatic Therapy
Somatic therapy is not a one-size-fits-all treatment. Thus, it has its limitations and may not work for people with severe conditions. For more information about somatic therapy’s use cases, refer to the section below.
Pros of Somatic Therapy
- It allows you to tackle the symptoms of depression, anxiety, and PTSD.
- With this psychotherapy, the patient might recover in various aspects, such as social, physical, and psychological.
- Along with that, you might be able to develop a sense of belonging in the community.
Cons of Somatic Therapy
- It might not suit people with severe psychological conditions, who require medical professionals to deal with mental crises.
- Not all somatic techniques are guaranteed to help you heal from depression and traumatic experiences.
- According to studies, people suffering from depression face challenges looking for a somatic therapist.
Thus, if you are planning to look for a somatic therapist, we would recommend that you understand your conditions before visiting a therapist.
Conclusion
Somatic therapy can help fuel your healing journey and self-development process. With these techniques, you can unleash your emotions and find inner peace.
So, make sure to visit a somatic therapist to cope with the traumatic events that are holding you back from enjoying your life.
However, we would suggest you visit a psychologist and get your condition examined to determine whether you are fit for the somatic therapy. If your result turns out to be a severe case of psychological conditions, you must avoid somatic therapy in all cases, or else it might worsen your situation.
