What is Somatic Therapy Like?

Prospective clients often ask me to describe somatic therapy and it’s a hard question to answer because it’s so experiential. Somatic work differs depending on the therapist, the client and whatever is happening in the moment. There are unlimited ways that somatic work is done and unlimited ways it is experienced.

It’s easier to describe EMDR because there is a specific protocol. The basics can be learned in a few weekends, although the practitioner, of course, would only have a rudimentary understanding of the mechanics. 

Somatic work is a whole other thing. It takes years of study, practice, personal development and innovation to become a talented somatic therapist.

I can describe the concepts of somatics, why it is a cutting edge therapy, why we use it and how it differs from traditional talk therapy, but it really has to be experienced by each person. The only way to truly understand it is through one’s own bodily experience.

Interweaving our 4 modalities

Here at Cutting Edge Counseling we use all four of our trauma therapies, Somatic Experiencing, EMDR, Mindfulness and Attachment Repair, in an attuned, creative way. These four approaches are all embedded in relational talk therapy. We use what I call our “somatic eyes”, attunement to our client, training, experience, creativity and felt sense, often flowing from one approach to another to meet the client’s needs in that moment.

Historically, psychotherapy has largely ignored the body. It has focused on thinking about beliefs and emotions, on gaining a cognitive understanding of what has happened to us and the resulting impact. This give us an understanding of why we feel the way we do but that knowledge is limited. We still don’t feel good in our own skin.

We call this a “top down” therapy because it privileges our brain and our thinking. This approach only goes so far, leaving you emotionally disregulated because trauma is held in body and needs to be released from the body. We can’t think our way to feeling better. 

The window of tolerance

We each have a window of tolerance, an optimal area of arousal to cope effectively in our lives. For those of us who have experienced trauma, the effects of the past intrude on our current lives, narrowing that window. We have difficulty regulating our emotions, are reactive and easily triggered.

Our nervous systems have become habituated to a lack of resiliency and we tend to over- or under-react.  We may sink into depression, shoot up into anxiety or feel a blast of heat from shame. We may easily tip into fight, flight or freeze, our bodies automatically reacting as if a perceived threat is an actual threat.  Many of us spend our lives as if the difficult things that have happened to us can imminently occur. The past is not in the past for us.

A cutting edge approach to trauma

Somatic therapy is a “bottom up” therapy, not disregarding thinking, but adding in the missing element of the body where all this reactivity is arising. We don’t think our way to emotions; we feel them. Working in this way, including the entire body with all its emotions and sensations, we find that beliefs change spontaneously and often surprisingly to the client. 

This occurs not because of a cognitive understanding or by challenging the illogic but by regulating the nervous system. When the bound energy of the trauma(s) are released, we are more resilient. In a real and embodied way, we feel safer and those old, protective beliefs lose their traction.

Leave the past behind

Our past experiences deeply inform us but do not have to limit us. Having come through difficult times is often a catalyst for profound change, wisdom and an appreciation of our strengths. 

With effective therapy we still have the memory of what happened but our relationship to it has changed. We remember it, but not as often and without the shock and big reactions, without the endless cycling of intrusive memories, shame, anxiety and self-judgment. There is the imprint of the trauma but its impact on us has lessened and its power has drained. 

In our bodies we feel clearer that these events in the past and are no longer a threat. We live more fully in the present, more fully in our bodies and in our relationships. We are more capable of distinguishing between real threat and perceived threat, more able to react when we need to and then reurn to a relaxed state when the threat is past. We feel safe.

Find relief with Somatic Therapy

If you’re seeking Somatic Therapy from licensed therapists in Los Angeles, we invite you to contact us for a 15-minute phone consultation. It’s free, confidential and we’re easy to talk to.