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with Somatic Tools and Authentic Movement
What is Somatics?
Somatics is a field within bodywork and movement studies which emphasizes internal physical perception and experience. The term was coined by philosopher and body worker Thomas Hanna and derives from the ancient Greek word “SOMA”, which means, of or pertaining to the body, as experienced and regulated from within.” The term is used in movement therapy to signify approaches based on movement, touch, breath, and the internal experience of the body, including everything from Body-Mind Centering to Feldenkrais Method to Rolfing.
What is Somatic Psychotherapy?
Somatic Psychotherapy integrates somatic (body-oriented) processes and awareness with traditional therapy. Somatic Psychotherapy combines traditional counseling approaches, including dream work, talk, interpretation, and reflection, with experiential explorations of our bodily or "felt" experience.
What does Somatic Psychotherapy with me include?
How is Somatic Psychotherapy relevant to your life?
Most of the time in life and in therapy we are caught up in worries in our mind about the past or the future, or our projections. Somatic Psychotherapy can help us move beyond this state of worry into a more “embodied,” present-time direct experience of their emotions, allowing us more choice and freedom in our daily lives.
“Embodiment” is accepting and acknowledging the full range of our experiences in our bodies. Behaviors such as checking Facebook, distracting ourselves by checking out, or various forms of addiction, may distract and help us avoid this interconnectedness, and part the work of therapy is to "recover" or "reconnect" with our emotions and experience of our bodies.
In this way, we can gain access to the inner workings of their deeper selves, and develop more autonomy over our actions. Not through cognitive over-riding, but through participation and interaction with their bodily responses they can experience lasting change.
Somatic psychotherapies have been found to be effective means in resolving issues such as trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), dissociation, identity issues, nervous system dysregulation, and affect regulation. .
Interesting facts about the Mind-Body Connection
In today’s Western world we’ve been taught that the brain dominates the body and dictates everything we do, but this is a modern idea. Stanislav Grof, MD, a psychiatrist and founder of Holotropic Breathwork, states that “Western civilization is the first civilization to believe you can think your way out of your illnesses." Most indigenous cultures believe consciousness comes from different parts of the body such as the heart or gut, Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine attribute different emotions to different parts of the body or the balance of different elements in the body.
Somatics is a field within bodywork and movement studies which emphasizes internal physical perception and experience. The term was coined by philosopher and body worker Thomas Hanna and derives from the ancient Greek word “SOMA”, which means, of or pertaining to the body, as experienced and regulated from within.” The term is used in movement therapy to signify approaches based on movement, touch, breath, and the internal experience of the body, including everything from Body-Mind Centering to Feldenkrais Method to Rolfing.
What is Somatic Psychotherapy?
Somatic Psychotherapy integrates somatic (body-oriented) processes and awareness with traditional therapy. Somatic Psychotherapy combines traditional counseling approaches, including dream work, talk, interpretation, and reflection, with experiential explorations of our bodily or "felt" experience.
What does Somatic Psychotherapy with me include?
- Paying attention to and Mindfulness of bodily experiences
- Movement/dance therapy (Authentic Movement)
- Understanding and paying attention to body language
- Tools for nervous system regulation
- Learning to identify physical experience of emotions
How is Somatic Psychotherapy relevant to your life?
Most of the time in life and in therapy we are caught up in worries in our mind about the past or the future, or our projections. Somatic Psychotherapy can help us move beyond this state of worry into a more “embodied,” present-time direct experience of their emotions, allowing us more choice and freedom in our daily lives.
“Embodiment” is accepting and acknowledging the full range of our experiences in our bodies. Behaviors such as checking Facebook, distracting ourselves by checking out, or various forms of addiction, may distract and help us avoid this interconnectedness, and part the work of therapy is to "recover" or "reconnect" with our emotions and experience of our bodies.
In this way, we can gain access to the inner workings of their deeper selves, and develop more autonomy over our actions. Not through cognitive over-riding, but through participation and interaction with their bodily responses they can experience lasting change.
Somatic psychotherapies have been found to be effective means in resolving issues such as trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), dissociation, identity issues, nervous system dysregulation, and affect regulation. .
Interesting facts about the Mind-Body Connection
In today’s Western world we’ve been taught that the brain dominates the body and dictates everything we do, but this is a modern idea. Stanislav Grof, MD, a psychiatrist and founder of Holotropic Breathwork, states that “Western civilization is the first civilization to believe you can think your way out of your illnesses." Most indigenous cultures believe consciousness comes from different parts of the body such as the heart or gut, Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine attribute different emotions to different parts of the body or the balance of different elements in the body.
- Research at HeartMath in Santa Cruz demonstrates the heart sends more information to the brain than vice versa
Your vagus nerve, the longest of the cranial nerves, controls your parasympathetic nervous system, and oversees a vast range of crucial functions, communicating motor and sensory impulses to every organ in your body. - Your gut uses the vagus nerve like a walkie-talkie to tell your brain how you’re feeling via electric impulses called “action potentials"
- Although serotonin is well known as a brain neurotransmitter, it is estimated that 90 percent of the body's serotonin is made in the digestive tract.
- Changing our emotional state via spending some time focusing on our heart can create nervous system harmony.
- Paul Pearsall’s book “The Heart’s Code” discusses how the receiver's of heart transplants take on memories, thoughts, and emotions of their donor, postulating that our heart and organs in our body actually carry memories and consciousness.