What is Somatic Therapy?

Somatic therapy is a type of therapy that focuses on the connection between the mind and body to help individuals heal from emotional and psychological trauma. It involves techniques that help individuals become more aware of the physical sensations in their body and use that awareness to process and release emotional pain. Somatic therapy can be helpful for a range of issues, including anxiety, depression, PTSD, and chronic pain.

3 Most Popular Somatic Therapy tools

Here are 3 of the most popular somatic therapy tools:

1.) Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

EMDR is a psychotherapy that enables people to heal from the symptoms and emotional distress that are the result of disturbing life experiences (PTSD). Instead of talking in detail about a distressing issue, EMDR focuses on changing the emotions, thoughts, or behaviors that are associated with the trauma. This allows your brain to have a more “natural” healing process.

2.) Somatic Experiencing

Somatic Experiencing helps to resolve symptoms of stress, shock, and trauma that accumulate in our bodies. Somatic therapy is based on the idea that trauma becomes trapped in our bodies and therefore we can find ways to release this stress. The goal is to create an increased sense of awareness of your internal experience.

3.) Sensorimotor Psychotherapy

Sensorimotor Psychotherapy is a body-centered approach that aims to treat the somatic symptoms of unresolved trauma. Whereas many therapy approaches utilize just words, sensorimotor psychotherapy focuses on the individual's body. This technique allows individuals to become aware of unresolved trauma that they may not even have uncovered from talk therapy.

If you are looking into working with a somatic therapist, here are some useful resources for guidance:

• How to Find a Somatic Therapist
• Somatic Therapist Directory
• How to Choose a Therapist