Somatic Therapy: When You Can’t Think Your Way Out of It [Video]

Somatic Therapy: When You Can’t Think Your Way Out of It [Transcript]

At times, we may start to feel stuck or stagnant in therapy, leading us to questions about whether therapy is working. If this happens to you, I encourage you not to panic. It might just be a sign that you  are ready to explore somatic therapy. 

A “Bottom-Up” Approach

Often, therapy includes a lot of cognitive work or processing, which focuses on our thoughts. It centers on the thinking region of the brain and is something we can call a “top-down” approach. Somatic therapy flips the script and asks us to approach from the bottom-up. This approach can be more suited for people who are dealing with trauma, depression, or anxiety or those who are feeling stuck, hyper-vigilant, numb and tend to shut down. What we’re targeting in somatic work is the order in which we approach those feelings and conditions. 

Read more about understanding emotions

We start with the body, specifically the felt sensations in the body, as opposed to paying attention to our thoughts. Another part of somatic therapy is learning how to view our trauma responses as protection and defenses. These responses were our only choices in the past when we had no other options, and we can be grateful to these responses for keeping us alive. However, these defenses can be challenging in the present when we aren’t dealing with a life-or-death situation.

Read more about suppressed emotions

We can start by being really curious and by becoming familiar with these states. When in the fight or flight mode, we might notice tension, tightness or clenching in our jaw and we might be trembling, feel hot, flushed and have sweaty palms.  We may feel jumpy, restless or a need to move. Our lips might tremble. When we go into the freeze state, we might feel numb, cold, frozen, or quiet.  We might notice a heaviness or slowness in the body or the urge to curl up. We might cry, slouch, or have aches and pains in our bodies. 

Becoming “Unstuck”

Unfortunately, our trauma responses can keep us in a cycle where we feel stuck in shame, defeat, humiliation, anger, or hopelessness. When we work somatically in therapy, we hope to change the external feeling so that when you’re activated and experience a trauma response, you can work with a different awareness from the bottom-up. This approach can help us experience something new and different in our bodies instead of the trauma responses that we have come to rely on. The goal is to move toward an open nervous system state of connection, where we might feel an open chest, a relaxed face and stomach. We might feel warm, steady, and calm. We might feel as though we’re standing tall and feel a general softness as well as relaxation. Additionally, we might feel awake and have a more open body posture. 

Somatic Work is “Experiential”

Somatic work is what we call “experiential.” It’s about experiencing a new sensation, a new way of processing what you’re feeling and what you’re thinking. Just like anything new, it might feel strange or awkward, and it usually takes some practice. However, it can help us unlearn the responses that we’ve had to rely on in the past and create a new approach that we can use in the present moment to apply to our work in therapy. You can use a variety of somatic practices and experiential exercises that are centered on the breath and connecting with the body. These includes breath work, body work, physical grounding, and stretching.