Power of Somatic Therapy in Healing Trauma
The phrase ‘the body keeps the score’ has had more airtime in social media lately. The book, written by a clinical researcher, was written with other researchers as its intended audience, but has since skyrocketed in popularity and its title has become a phrase that has been mentioned with a high frequency outside the clinic.
Dr. Van der Kolk spends most of the book detailing his research experience with people afflicted with PTSD, and provides evidence for somatically oriented therapeutic modalities. Somatic therapy is founded upon the notion that our unprocessed trauma is stored in the physical body. Have you ever gone for a massage, worked a tough knot and found that your mind found itself replaying an incident that hurt you in the past?
This book put into digestible concepts and explanations of this phenomenon that we might already be subconsciously aware of, but have not been able to put into words. And now, empowered by research and exposure by social media, we lay the ground for creating space to practice this form of therapy and a more accessible way to process and talk about trauma.
Here are Some Types of Somatic Therapy:
Breathwork Training: Intentional breathing, or forms of pranayama, aid with nervous system regulation and increasing awareness, which has a grounding effect. Our breathwork training, led by our in-house Wim Hof specialist, is tailored to your needs. Our 60 minute taster session delves deep into the practices and benefits of contrast therapy, helping you realise your full potential.
Hakomi: embracing Frieda Fromm Reichman’s belief that “the patient needs an experience, not an explanation”, using the body as a map of the psyche to evoke a ‘felt sense’, drawing deep into the stored implicit memories that we might not feel comfortable talking about- or remember having. This practice has a heavy emphasis on the relationship between our healing therapist and you, and moves at your pace.
Cranioscaral Therapy: Over the course of our lives, the body takes on many stresses, be it physical, emotional or spiritual, which can compound and eventually compromise the function of the Central Nervous System along with nearly every other system in the body. Craniosacral Therapy appreciates our unique body-mind connection and recognises that symptoms of pain and disease are often due to underlying causes. Through touch, the sessions will help your body deeply relax which in turn enhances your body’s natural ability to re-regulate and self repair.
Created by Peter Levine, PhD, this therapy works on the principle that trauma gets trapped in the body, leading to some of the symptoms people with PTSD or people who have experienced trauma might experience. Through this method, practitioners work on releasing this stress from the body. Many people who have experienced trauma, especially those who have experienced physical trauma such as domestic violence or sexual assault, can dissociate or disconnect from their bodies. Somatic experiencing helps them have an increased sense of awareness of their internal experience (interoceptive, proprioceptive, and kinesthetic sensations).
Psychotherapy and the Somatic Experiencing® together can help to relieve the symptoms of trauma and other stress disorders through a body-oriented approach. This modality seeks to re-set the nervous system and address traumatic shock, essential to recovering from previous trauma.
TRE:
TRE® is an innovative series of exercises that assist the body in releasing deep muscular patterns of stress, tension and trauma. The exercises safely activate a natural reflex mechanism of shaking or vibrating that releases muscular tension, calming down the nervous system. When this muscular shaking/vibrating mechanism is activated in a safe and controlled environment, the body is encouraged to return back to a state of balance.
Tension & Trauma Releasing Exercises (or TRE®) is based on the fundamental idea, backed by research, that stress, tension and trauma is both psychological and physical. TRE®’s reflexive muscle vibrations generally feel pleasant and soothing. After doing TRE®, many people report feelings of peace and well-being. TRE® has helped many thousands of people globally.
Power of Somatic Therapy at Soma Haus
At Soma Haus, we lay the groundwork for an all encompassing dimension of health and well-being, beyond physical fitness, physique and performance.
Through somatic education and therapy we can help to rewire the brain’s neural pathways by teaching the nervous system how to regulate and eventually learn how to self-soothe in times of distress.