WHAT IS SOMATIC THERAPY?
Soma is the Greek word for “living body.” Somatic therapy works with the nervous system and the body to facilitate healing and transformation. I work with two distinct somatic therapy modalities depending on your unique issues and goals for therapy: Transforming the Experience-Based Brain (TEB)® and Somatic Experiencing®.
During our meet-and-greet, I will work with you to determine which of these two modalities may serve you best as a starting point.
what is Transforming The experience-based brain (TEB)?
Transforming the Experience-Based Brain (TEB) is a Regulation Based Modality. The modality is based on the theory that when we experience ruptures during our development years, they continue to disrupt our lives at any age. This disruption can be seen as behavioral challenges, psychological challenges, spiritual challenges, and physical challenges. Transforming Touch® Practitioners create a safe place for you to experience healing through a lens of safety, presence, and regulation. We understand that your body already knows how to heal itself if it is allowed more safety and less survival energy.
Transforming Touch® Practitioners see you as whole and complete from the moment you enter our Healing Space/Offices. We do not rely on pathology to label our clients. We lean into the ideal that your body is capable of creating new neural pathways in your brain that allow for less stress/anxiety and more ability to learn, relate, and heal. Often, when we are young, our caretakers aren't able to fully connect and support our early development due to medical or psychological reasons. In this approach, developmental trauma is considered to occur anytime between conception and approximately 25 years of age, when the brain is fully developed. (Click here to read more about the types of things that can cause early developmental trauma.) This is a way of repairing those early ruptures through co-regulation and building somatic trust and attachment. The way it works is that we support seven different places in your body and have options to adding enhancements for more specific somatic clarity. We understand that we have a window of tolerance, and our goal is to expand that window of tolerance so that you have more options and experience more joy in your life. You can learn more about this modality here and here.
what is Somatic experiencing?
Somatic Experiencing (SE) is a mind/brain/body healing modality that facilitates recovery from symptoms associated with traumatic and accumulated stress. It was created by Dr. Peter Levine who recognized the innate capacity of the human organism to rebound from various states of distress if properly supported. SE helps to cultivate the systematic use of attention to various nervous system processes, such as the “tracking” of sensation, which liberates the energy bound in symptoms and returns the nervous system to a more self-regulated state. This process has been shown to be effective for recovery and improvement from a wide variety of physical and psychological complaints such as chronic pain, anxiety and panic disorders, PTSD, depression, etc. It is a safe, short term therapeutic process that utilizes a comprehensive scientific understanding of how the human nervous system is designed to respond to and recover from stress. SE is taught and practised worldwide. You can learn more about this modality here.
what does a session look like?
Based on the information you might provide in our meet-and-greet and/or your intake form, the session may consist primarily of either Transforming Touch or Somatic Experiencing, or a combination of both. Ultimately, it is your soma (living body) that determines the best approach.
In sessions you will receive background theory to support a deeper understanding of the issues that you bring. We use benchmarks to keep track of how the treatment is supporting the transformations that you seek. You can learn more about how each session typically unfolds below.
Transforming Touch Sessions
In a typical Transforming Touch session*, we spend time checking in and talking about your themes. When appropriate and with your permission, we move into a treatment phase, involving table work, typically 20 – 40 minutes long.
Transforming Touch is offered to key areas of stress physiology, such as the kidney adrenals and brainstem. You remain fully clothed, still holds of 2 – 7 minutes build somatic trust. In transforming presence, we travel around your physiology using attention and intention, guided by my voice.
Later sessions can include primitive reflex enhancements, supporting the integration of interrupted early developmental stages. Some reflexes pertain to specific conditions, or we may build through them one by one, like restoring the foundations of a house.
Treatment typically takes place within the frame of a weekly or bi-monthly hour-long session, offered either in person or online. Other frameworks may be negotiated too – intensive sessions over a period of two or three days involving a couple of in-person sessions per day during your visit, supported by regular sessions on Zoom.
Somatic Touch Sessions
Somatic Experiencing (SE) sessions are often conducted in a seated position; touch may be used, only if appropriate. Gently and only as your own symptoms allow, I introduce minuscule amounts of ‘traumatic material’ and then observe your physical responses to that material, such as shallow breathing, a change in facial tone or a shift in posture. Frequently checking in with you to assess and record somatic sensations that may be imperceptible to me, such as feelings of heaviness, tightness, or dizziness, I proceed carefully and cautiously to avoid re-traumatizing or triggering you. The goal in this work is to help people to develop and employ self-regulating strategies. A key component to enhancing your ability to self-regulate is the practice of alternating, or “pendulating,” between the sensations associated with trauma and those that are a source of strength and comfort.
I will help you to find places of safety, comfort, soothing and spaciousness, whether they be places in the body that are not activated by the trauma, or a physical place to retreat to in your mind. Experiencing the sensations related to the traumatic event in a safe way allows you to fully renegotiate and process the trauma. In the process, you also achieve heightened awareness of your physical responses to stress and this skill can serve you in everyday life.
*With thanks to True Self Systems.
Can this Approach Help Me?
If you’re still wondering if this approach is right for you, I encourage you to watch this 5-minute video I put together for prospective clients:
How Somatic Therapy Helps to Heal Trauma
If you want to learn more about the nuts and bolts of Somatic Therapy, I’ve put together this 13-minute video that explains more about trauma, somatic therapy, and why it helps to create lasting change and healing. If you’ve never experienced somatic therapy, this can be a great way to learn more and prepare yourself for our first session together.
