Somatic Therapy
The somatic perspective acknowledges that the nervous system has evolved to protect us from danger. Throughout our lives, we encounter scenarios that cause alarm in our system. These scenarios may be developmental trauma from living in a challenging environment or single incident trauma(s).
Somatic therapies ask the client to witness their nervous system so that they might become aware of unconscious responses that reflect the past rather than the reality of the present moment experience.
In somatic therapy, we will pay attention to how these unconscious responses arrive in the session. Through witnessing your nervous system, we can:
- Collaborate to recognize incomplete defence reactions and allow them to complete.
- Discover and explore the advantages and disadvantages of management strategies that evolved for safety reasons but may no longer suit your current adult reality.
- Allow the nervous system to find its way to a more balanced state.
- Develop new practices that retrain the nervous system by making it more familiar with orienting to ease, balance and coherence.
When trauma happens, we adapt or cope to ensure safety. Later, our nervous system will earmark these scenarios and protectively scan our environment for clues indicating the need to utilize the adaptations or coping mechanisms. This scanning or orienting is unconscious, utilizes energy and is laser-focused on identifying sensory experiences that resemble those of the earlier alarming scenario(s).
Our internal alarm can become too sensitive, resulting in overuse of our fight. flight, freeze and appease responses. Over time, orienting toward alarming experiences and adapting a management strategy based on quick association rather than present-moment assessment is taxing on the individual. Remember, this feature of the nervous system evolved to protect you, but it evolved unconsciously, without thought. Thus, it can get in the way of conscious present-moment coping.
Having been exposed to developmental or single-incident trauma, the nervous system can become reactive, rarely resting. Over time, the nervous system becomes exhausted from being in a continuous state of alarm, and we can develop a wide range of physical and mental health challenges. The presence of prolonged anxiety or exhaustion is a good indicator that somatic therapy might be a valuable addition to your health and well-being.
