Somatics

“Somatics” is a field of study focusing on the “soma.” What’s the soma? It’s how we experience ourselves as being alive and embodied.

Take a moment right now to just notice your own aliveness. How do you know you’re alive here and now? It’s a funny question, I know, but give it a whirl.

You might notice your inner feelings — maybe a pain here or an itch there.

Maybe you notice your sense impressions — the ways you interact with the outside world. This includes the act of seeing things and hearing sounds, for instance. Or the feeling of your body meeting the seat below you.

Perhaps you’re aware of the movements of your body — big movements like a stretch of your arm or more subtle movements like your breath or your heartbeat.

And then there are any emotions or moods that might be present, and the momentary fluctuations of your mind — images, memories, and so on.

All of these little experiences combine to form your soma.

In somatic sessions with a trained professional, you engage in explorations of the soma, with the ultimate goal of resolving chronic stress and trauma.

Here’s why somatic guidance is useful:

Sometimes, we get “stuck” in our survival responses — states like fight-or-flight and freeze. We can think of these states as “protection mode.”

When we’re stuck in protection mode, we start to perceive danger even when we’re actually safe. This is trauma. In trauma, the soma — our inner experience — feels chaotic. The muscles might be tensed and braced. Maybe we habitually fidget. Perhaps the breath feels short and rapid or weak. Sometimes uncomfortable emotions arise — fear or sadness or anxiety or anger. Disturbing mental images can even emerge.

Before long, living in protection mode starts to feel really painful.

The problem is that, in trauma, the nervous system “forgets” how to shift from protection mode back to “connection mode” — it forgets how to return from a survival state to a state of ease and comfort.

This is where somatics comes in. The somatic practitioner supports the process of “reminding” your nervous system how to feel safe.

In my somatic sessions, I help you bring your awareness to your present-moment experience of your soma, including your bodily sensations, movements, postures, emotions, and impulses. I support you as you “surf the waves” of your nervous system—your sympathetic up-waves and parasympathetic down-waves. You practice allowing states of activation (protection mode) and deactivation (connection mode) to rise and fall.

Gradually, you start to re-discover the pathways from protection to connection. You begin to taste freedom from the prison of past overwhelming experiences. You access flow and vitality instead of only rigidity and fixation. You remember how to feel safe.

I’ve experienced remarkable transformations in my own nervous system through somatics, so I know first-hand the power of this medicine. I’ve trained in the Somatic Experiencing and Tao of Trauma systems, and I work with anyone struggling with relational trauma and the fawn response — people who want to break free from protection mode and return to a life of safe connection.

Feel free to click below to learn more about my somatic sessions or to book a session.