Mint Images / Getty Images
What Is Somatic Trauma Therapy?
The trauma response is a normal, natural way of reacting to significant stress and life-threatening situations.
Sometimes, however, the brain still perceives a threat.
Mint Images / Getty Images
Resourcing is the process of developing a sense of safety.
A therapist will also want to teach you how to manage the discomfort at increased levels without becoming distressed.
This process takes time and practice.
ttsz / Getty Images
People learn to safely navigate this distance.
How Do You Release Trauma Through Somatic Methods?
It involves developing a connection with the body and learning to pay attention to internal physical experiences.
These experiences serve as information for working through physical and emotional pain brought on by severe stress or trauma.
Some, though, remain in a state ofdysregulation(unbalanced).
With this approach, the therapist helps the person see how dysregulation feels in their body.
The Hakomi Method
TheHakomimethod is a therapeutic approach developed by Ron Kurtz also during the 1970s.
People are encouraged to be fully present and aware, and the therapist provides a supportive and calming alliance.
One example is calledtapping.
The therapist teaches the person to tap repeatedly on different areas while recalling feelings associated with the traumatic event.
The idea is that the person cannot become distressed while using this form of physical distraction.
Brainspotting
Brainspottingis a method for treating trauma that was developed in 2003 by psychotherapist David Grand.
It is an alternative therapy types that uses spots in a persons visual field to help them process trauma.
The therapist helps people to work through any sources of physical or emotional pain as they are discovered.
Is EMDR Somatic Therapy?
Who Can Benefit From Somatic Trauma Therapy?
Somatic trauma therapy can help with both emotional and physical pain.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Somatic treatments are mainly used as a way to treat past trauma experiences.
These methods approach trauma as a natural response to a significant stressor.
This can include a variety of symptoms, includinganxiety.
Participants described deep emotional experiences and feeling grounded within the mind-body connection.
Complicated grief can interfere with daily life and attaches to other experiences in addition to death.
They can include job loss, the end of relationships, health setbacks, or natural disasters.
Depression
Symptoms of depression often co-occur with physical manifestations in the body, such as back pain.
Some studies have shown that somatic trauma therapy can help people diagnosed with depression.
It’s also important to choose someone you feel comfortable working with and with whom you feel a connection.
You will not begin processing any traumatic experiences right away unless you are in crisis.
Summary
Somatic trauma therapies are approaches for treating trauma and severe stress experiences.
These approaches to therapy include Somatic Experiencing to develop awareness of the mind-body connection in trauma.
2021 Jul 12;12(1):1929023. doi:10.1080/20008198.2021.1929023.
The University of Toledo.Fight flight freeze response.
2015;0. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00093.
Harvard Health Publishing.What is somatic therapy?
Schlote S.Somatic Experiencing and Attachment Principles.
Increasing Safety and Welfare in Equine-Assisted Interventions and Horsemanship Approaches.
2017;38(4):573-581. doi:10.1002/anzf.1270.
Gallo FP.Efficient treatments for trauma/PTSD: Harnessing the power of bioenergy to efficiently treat psychological distress.MOJ Public Health.
2018;7(4):229?231.
Saint Arnault D, OHolloran S.Biodynamic psychotherapy for trauma recovery: A pilot study.International Body Psychotherapy Journal.
2015;14(1):20-34.
2017;5(1).
2021;11:620381. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.620381.
2023 Jul 20;20(14):6412. doi:10.3390/ijerph20146412.
2020 Oct 5;15(10):e0239969.
