Somatics
Soma is the Greek word for “the lived experience.” Somatics is a growing movement based on robust research, proven interventions, and highly trained approaches concerned with the development of holistic approaches to integrating mind, body, and spirit. Somatics recognizes that the body and mind have distinct functions, yet, through our lived experience, are integrally connected aspects of a greater whole.
Somatic practices, at their core, seek to value the inherent wisdom of the information coming from the body and to help individuals to become more attuned to and trusting of that flow of information. Somatics does not value any type of information: sensation, emotion, or thought, as superior, but rather as essential aspects of a greater whole. Somatic practices help individuals to find genuine healing rather than merely adapting to unnatural or toxic elements of the culture.
There are many different types and branches of somatic practices, included but not limited to: somatic psychotherapy (such as Somatic Experiencing, Hakomi, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, etc.), somatic healing practices (such as reiki, acupuncture, Feldenkrais, ortho-bionomy. Etc.), and somatic movement practices, (such as yoga, qi gong, 5rhythms, ecstatic dance, authentic movement etc.)
All of these somatic practices share a common core of values and complement each other very well. They differ in the frame of what they can hold, and the goals of what they aim to accomplish.
Somatic Psychotherapy
Somatic Psychotherapy is not merely “the body” added onto traditional psychotherapy; it is a distinct way of looking at the self through an integrated body-mind lens. The frame of somatic psychotherapy is often more intimate and individual than other somatic practices, as the objective is for the therapist and client to hold together a client’s whole history, present, and future. Somatic psychotherapy provides a secure, non-judgmental space and therapeutic relationship by which clients can explore problems of living, and our human need for growth, maturation, and manifestation. With a safe therapeutic container, it is possible to reflect on and discover earlier patterns of feeling, behaving, and thinking, and how they have lived through the physicality, emotions, and mind. Somatic psychotherapy utilizes body-awareness, mindfulness, movement, and occasionally touch to achieve these goals. With a present-time experience of empathy, mindfulness, and recognition, it is possible to find new meaning and discover well-being, integrity, and integration.
Somatic Experiencing (SE)
(From the Somatic Experiencing® Website)
Somatic Experiencing is a somatic, psychobiological method for resolving trauma symptoms in the body and helping to regulate the nervous system. It is the result of over forty years of observation, research, and hands-on development by Dr. Peter A. Levine.
It is based on the realization that humans, like animals in the wild, have an innate ability to overcome the effects of trauma and stress. SE® restores self-regulation and returns a sense of aliveness, relaxation, and wholeness to traumatized individuals who have had these precious gifts taken away. Peter has applied his work to combat veterans, rape survivors, Holocaust survivors, auto accident and post-surgical trauma, chronic pain sufferers, and even to infants after suffering traumatic births. Peter's work is widely applicable, including to individuals who do not identify with the term "trauma." It can offer a sense of resilience while dealing with life's ups and downs.
