What is Somatics?
‘Soma’ is a Greek word for ‘the living body known from within’. Somatic work is an experiential approach towards mindbody integration. Trauma and all of the symptoms resulting from it, create pain, overwhelm, and coping responses. Trauma can cause us to not feel at home in our body and can create the feeling that there is a split within ourselves.
Somatic work can help:
Restore the body as a safe place to be
Expand our capacity to process body (preverbal and nonverbal) memory
Metabolize unprocessed emotions
Bring incomplete stress responses to completion
Restore trust in our relationship to self and the world around us
Somatic work offers techniques for individuals to sense and regulate their body and states of being. For example, building internal and external resources to connect to in times of overwhelm, building trusting and co-regulating relationships, learning to observe what is happening internally with compassion, processed unprocessed trauma, being invited deeper into feeling and sensing the body. Somatic techniques often help unwind trauma and restore wholeness and well-being.
What is Trauma?
In somatic work, we define trauma not as the event itself, but rather as an overwhelm to our body-mind’s capacity to adapt, thrive, and flourish.
Trauma can occur when:
There is too much too soon
There is too much for too long
There is not enough for too long
Power, choice and agency have been taken away from a person or collective
Stress outweighs the tools and resources available to navigate them
When our primal protective instincts, intuitions, and responses are thwarted
There is not enough time, space, or permission to heal
The symptoms of trauma may occur immediately or emerge over time from the compounding stress and challenges of processing and adapting to the experiences of life. Symptoms of trauma emerge as the body and mind attempt to cope with and resolve the stressors.Trauma can lead to feelings of powerlessness, helplessness, and groundlessness. It interferes with our ability to feel real in body and mind, it disrupts our very sense of existence, and takes us away from the present moment.
In Somatic work, symptoms are the gateway to healing trauma, and sensations are the language of the body. Through listening to the messages and wisdom of the body, we can find many answers.
“Trauma is a fact of life. It does not have to be a life sentence.” — Dr. Peter Levine
