Consider how you would feel daily if you were carrying an unseen yet physically and psychologically demanding load. Though at first small, emotional trauma can have subtle consequences on our physical and mental health that compound over time.
Whether the emotional trauma results from a single, more dramatic incident (such as a death in the family) or from the combined effect of many, more subdued stresses (such as repeated abuse or neglect as a kid), it can have far-reaching consequences. One loses connection to their physical selves as a result. Among other symptoms include worry, despair, hopelessness, and ongoing physical pain.
Understanding Emotional Trauma
According to Center for Health Care Strategies, people who have been through a shocking or upsetting event, like abuse, neglect, violence, or the death of a loved one, are said to have experienced emotional trauma. In contrast to physical trauma, which affects the body, emotional trauma affects the mind and can cause long-lasting emotional and mental problems.
This then causes them to feel overwhelmed, nervous, or scared, and they may also feel very sad, angry, or guilty for a long time after the event. It can also change the way a person thinks and feels, which can lead to negative thought patterns like thinking the world is dangerous or not deserving of love. It may also show up as flashbacks, unwanted thoughts, or nightmares that are linked to the event.
Traumatic stress sets the body on “fight or flight.” The body need this response to withstand the impact, but improper trauma processing can lead to a plethora of symptoms. Among them, some could show up physically: headaches, muscle tension, stomach issues, sadness, and persistent anxiety. The cumulative impact of unresolved trauma on a person’s overall health and well-being can make feeling safe or at ease in one’s own body progressively difficult.
How Does Somatic Therapy Work?
Understanding that the mind and the body are interdependent, somatic therapy approaches emotional healing holistically and from the person-centered standpoint. Somatic therapy stands out from other traditional therapies in that it holds that rather than merely the intellect and emotions, the body is absolutely vital in trauma rehabilitation. Derived from the Greek word “soma,” meaning “body,” the name “somatic” describes a kind of treatment emphasizing the part bodily sensations, motions, and experiences play in the discovery and healing of trauma.
Background and key ideas
Among the therapeutic techniques that have helped to shape somatic therapy include psychoanalysis, Eastern ideas stressing the oneness of body and mind, and bodywork. Pioneers like Wilhelm Reich, who proposed the idea of body armor—that is, the view that the body retains psychological stress and trauma—and Alexander Lowen, who pioneered bioenergetic analysis, laid the groundwork for somatic therapies. Later on, somatic techniques for trauma therapy was further developed and popularized by Peter Levine’s work on somatic experiencing and Pat Ogden’s work on sensorimotor psychotherapy.
The fundamental concept is that by becoming more tuned to and making sense of their own bodily sensations and emotions, people can reduce the emotional and physical stress trauma generates. Reintegration of mind and body helps processing and finally recovery from stressful events.
The Key Distinctions Between Somatic Therapy and Conventional Methods
Somatic therapy approaches trauma in quite different ways than typical talk therapies do. Somatic treatment draws on the client’s natural healing capacity while talk therapy stresses digesting and expressing client experiences. By having patients focus on certain bodily sensations like warmth, tingling, or tightness, somatic therapists assist patients relax; next, they use gentle movements or breathing exercises to release stored trauma.
For example, participants who had Somatic Experiencing—a type of somatic treatment—showered notable decreases in PTSD symptoms as compared to those who received conventional therapy alone, according a study written in The Journal of Traumatic Stress. The study found that somatic therapy was especially successful in lowering trauma-related bodily symptoms including hyperarousal and somatic discomfort.
In somatic therapy—which views the body as a trauma reservoir—unresolved emotional trauma can manifest as physical symptoms. Somatic therapy helps clients to both cognitively grasp and physically release their trauma by means of direct treatment of their symptoms. Trauma handled via the body’s sensory experiences rather than merely verbal communication can result in a more complete and long-lasting healing process.
The intersection of the mind and body plays a crucial role in recovery
The cornerstone to good treatment for somatic therapists is the mind-body connection. Trauma victims may lose their body or find themselves caught in an endless cycle of agony when this link is severed. Somatic therapy aims to rebuild this link by guiding patients to pay greater attention to their bodies and use those sensations as navigational guides on their route to recovery.
Clients can learn to be more sensitive to their bodies and release the physical results of trauma as they work through this process. This helps to reduce symptoms including chronic pain and anxiety and strengthens self-awareness and resilience. By realizing the need of the body in trauma recovery and general health, somatic therapy provides a means to attain whole healing.
case studies also show that somatic treatment can cause significant changes for clients suffering from long-term trauma. For instance, a case report written for Liberty University detailed a client who, following several months of somatic treatment, showed notable reductions in chronic pain and anxiety following a catastrophic vehicle accident. Reconnecting with their body reportedly helped the client release trauma “locked” in their muscles, therefore providing long-lasting pain alleviation and a fresh sense of serenity.
Approaches Applied in Somatic Therapy
Using a variety of techniques, somatic therapy is an integrative approach meant to help patients heal from previous trauma, become more tuned to their bodies, and deepen the link between their mind and body. These techniques help clients of somatic therapists physically process and heal trauma, therefore facilitating more complete recovery. These drawings show some of the most important techniques:
Body Awareness
Somatic treatment is predicated on ideas of body awareness. Without casting judgment on them, clients are allowed to become tuned in to their body experiences—that of tightness, coldness, tingling, or numbness. This method helps people to better grasp how their bodies retain trauma.
Paying attention to these sensations helps clients begin to make sense of the physical representations of their emotional experiences. This insight starts the healing journey from past trauma and re-establishment of a safe relationship with one’s body. Somatic therapy helps clients to gently and purposefully move to release trauma and tension.
The client’s comfort level will determine whether this consists in more dynamic motions or static stretches and postures. Somatic freezing, the disorder whereby the body stiffens or freezes, is one sign of trauma. Movement can assist break the freeze reaction related with traumatic events so absorbing and releasing the pent-up energy.
Inhalation exercises
Common tool in somatic therapy for helping clients with nervous system control and emotional reaction management are conscious breathing exercises. Techniques could call for breathing in a rhythmic pattern, slowly and deliberately, or deeply from the diaphragm.
Breathwork helps clients to release their central nervous system, reduce their anxiety, and keep concentration throughout sessions. Trauma release depends on inner serenity, hence clients can learn to control strong emotions by focusing on their breath.
Reconnecting with the body and letting go of stored trauma
These somatic techniques taken together help clients to recover a connection with their bodies and release any stored trauma. As clients grow more aware of their bodies and learn to respond through movement and breathing, they begin to let pent-up tension and stress in their muscles and tissues go. Release of trauma from your body could feel freeing and relieving.
By means of this process of reestablishing a link with the body, one can rebuild confidence and security. Many persons who have suffered horrific events discover that their bodies are hazardous and apart from their minds. Somatic therapy helps individuals to re-establish a link between their mind and body, therefore empowering them over their own physical and psychological experiences.
Benefits of Somatic Therapy
Somatic therapy can help those seeking emotional trauma recovery in a lot of ways. Somatic therapy helps patients recover more fully by treating the mind-body link and the physical impacts of trauma, therefore benefiting them over an extended length of time. Among the several advantages, the following jump out:
Improved Control of Emotions
Among the key benefits of somatic therapy is better control of emotions. Common side effects of trauma are uncontrollably strong emotions like sadness, anxiety, or fear, which disrupt the body’s natural capacity to control feelings. Through exercises involving movement, breathwork, and body awareness, somatic techniques help people to be more self-aware and balanced in their reactions to emotional triggers. Paying attention to their bodies and the emotions they experience helps people learn to regulate their emotions and reduce the frequency and intensity of depressive episodes.
Reducing Physical Aills
Emotional trauma can coexist with a range of physical symptoms including constant pain, tension, headaches, and digestive issues. Long after the emotional harm has been done, these symptoms may persist as the body’s means of alerting us to unresolved trauma. Somatic therapy addresses pent-up stress and tension directly by helping patients release these physical sensations. As a result, many people find their physical condition much improved, particularly in relation to managing chronic pain and other physical conditions.
Enhanced Resistance
Resilience—that is, the ability to face and conquer obstacles—determines how fast trauma can recover. By allowing one to reconnect with their body self and feel of agency over their emotional and physical experiences, somatic therapy helps build resilience. As they learn to tune in to their bodies’ sensations and control their trauma reactions, clients get self-assurance in their ability to meet challenges of life. Those who build resilience are more likely to heal from trauma and manage future pressures.
References:
- Center for Health Care Strategies, Inc. (n.d.). What is trauma?. Trauma-Informed Care Implementation Resource Center. Retrieved September 2, 2024, from https://www.traumainformedcare.chcs.org/what-is-trauma/
- Briere, John, and Cheryl Lanktree. “Treating Complex Trauma in Children and Their Families.” Journal of Traumatic Stress, vol. 20, no. 3, 2007, pp. 325-335. Wiley Online Library, https://doi.org/10.1002/jts.20454.
- Schlief, A. M. “Somatic Experience Treatment Techniques for Trauma Symptoms: A Qualitative Case Study.” Liberty University, 2023.
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