Maybe It’s All in Your Body

The word “somatic” comes from the Greek word “soma,” which means body. In our modern culture, “somatic” refers to the physical sensations, movements or changes in the body in response to emotions or experiences. For example, when you’re anxious, you might feel tension in your shoulders or tightness in your chest. In wellness, somatic practices focus on the connection between mind and body—specifically, how the body holds onto emotions, stress and trauma.

Somatic therapy, also known as Somatic Experiencing (SE), has gained use over the past few years as scientific research has shown that we store memories, experiences, and emotions on a cellular level. Our bodies also hold data about past unprocessed events. It seems that many things aren’t “all in your head” after all.

SE uses techniques to help people become more aware of physical sensations, release stored tension and process emotions to help heal through the body. It is sometimes considered a bottom-up approach to treating trauma-related conditions.

Over time, identifying and processing bodily feelings that relate to safety, comfort and trauma help reduce the harmful effects of post-traumatic stress disorder.

A Case Study in Somatic Experiencing

When Lynn, a breast cancer survivor, first contacted me, she was having trouble moving past her breast cancer experience. Two years earlier, she had been diagnosed with and treated for stage 2 breast cancer, and her treatment included a double mastectomy with reconstruction, chemotherapy and radiation.

Like many cancer survivors, she was left with post-traumatic stress from living through a life-threatening illness and subsequent aggressive and life-altering treatment. Lynn was disconnected from her body, stuck in time, and unable to re-enter her life in a meaningful way. She was experiencing emotional and physical pain that she was unable to resolve.

We spent a few months focusing on her reconnection with her body, using several SE practices to help her regain embodiment, a sense of purpose and hope.

First, we worked on developing somatic awareness by cultivating Lynn’s body awareness. We worked on reconnecting Lynn to her breath using breathwork techniques to calm her body and nervous system.

Her breathing was shallow, and she was unable to identify and direct it. As she became more aware of those patterns, she gradually returned to a more natural, deeper breathing pattern. This helped regulate her nervous system and allowed her to feel more calm overall.

Through her newfound awareness, Lynn could begin identifying areas of tension and constriction in her body. With mindful breathwork, she was able to start letting go.

Next, we focused on grounding exercises. These exercises focus on the physical present moment, helping Lynn feel more connected to her body and reducing her constant anxiety. She added these methods to her “toolbox” to use whenever she felt activated or triggered.

Then, we began to identify Lynn’s resources that could help strengthen the sense of safety in her body. These included significant people in her life, relationships and personal strengths that promote a sense of safety and choice. Through guided imagery, she also created her own “safe space” to go to whenever she needed to feel that sense of safety and grounding.

We then added gentle somatic yoga movements and stretching to relieve stored tension and allow energy to flow through the body. The combination of mindful deep breathing and gentle movements signals to the body that it is okay to release these holding patterns and reach a more relaxed state.

Lynn began to use her new tools to self-regulate. We all benefit from co-regulation, a feeling of soothing and safety received from others, and from self-regulation, which is our ability to calm ourselves. When co-regulation is unavailable, one’s ability to self-regulate becomes even more critical. When we are able to self-regulate, we can live more deeply, love more fully and truly experience the moments of life.

She also began to utilize body scanning. Through guided practice, Lynn focused on different areas of her body, noticing any tension, pain or sensations. Those who are suffering from post-traumatic stress are often disconnected from the complete sense of their body and unable to verbalize what they are feeling in their bodies.

Lynn was beginning to reconnect to her body. When we first started working together, Lynn couldn’t describe what was happening in her body. She felt numb and shut down. As with many cancer survivors who fight the good fight and then are “released” from treatment, she was deeply fearful of going about her life in a meaningful way. Paralyzed by that fear, she could not breathe deeply, move freely and truly experience life.

We utilized titration, a technique used to help people gently process traumatic memories. We titrated small experiences to focus on releasing or discharging the tension in Lynn’s body. We also used pendulation, which involves moving focus from stressful content to calming and soothing content to ensure it doesn’t become too much.

As time passed, Lynn’s healing began to look like dominoes falling, one after the other. The first stressor got released, and then others followed. Over three months, she achieved her goal—to reduce the stress and anxiety that had been gripping her and to be able to return to her life in a meaningful and purposeful way.

What SE Helped Accomplish

Somatic therapy helped Lynn do the following:

• Release stored tension and trauma. Lynn was able to release the trauma that had become “trapped” in her body, leading to chronic stress, pain and emotional distress.
• Improve mind-body awareness. Lynn reconnected to her physical sensations and became more mindful. She began to recognize physical signs of stress, anxiety and difficult emotions as they arose and thus responded to cues before they escalated.
• Reduce anxiety and stress. Somatic therapy helped calm Lynn’s nervous system and reduce her stress. She began to feel more present, peaceful and in control.
• Heal from trauma at a deeper level. SE provided Lynn with a body-focused way to process difficult emotions, allowing her to heal without needing to relive painful memories.
• Promote emotional resilience. Lynn developed a stronger connection to her body, learned to manage stress and became more resilient, physically and emotionally.After our time together, she responded to herself with more compassion and to life’s challenges with greater clarity and balance.

What are Signs that Somatic Therapy Could be Helpful?

Somatic therapy may be helpful for people experiencing the following conditions.

• Feeling stuck emotionally or mentally. If you’ve been dealing with emotional or physical pain that feels unresolved, even after talking it through, it could be that your body is holding onto that stress. Somatic therapy helps address this by working through the physical responses in the body.
• Experiencing unexplained physical symptoms. Do you have chronic pain, tension, headaches or stomach issues with no clear medical cause? Unresolved emotional trauma sometimes manifests as physical symptoms. Somatic therapy often helps people understand the connection between their emotional and physical well-being.
• Having a history of trauma. If you’ve experienced trauma, your body may have stored some of that trauma physically. Somatic therapy provides a safe space to gently explore how your body might still hold onto those experiences and helps release that stored energy.
• Struggling with anxiety or stress. Anxiety often shows up as physical tension in the body, such as tightness in the chest, a racing heart or shallow breathing. Somatic therapy teaches people how to recognize these sensations and release the stress that fuels them.
• Feeling disconnected from their body. If you often feel as if you’re living on autopilot, disconnected from your body, somatic therapy can help. It helps bring more awareness to one’s physical sensations and promotes a sense of grounding and peace.

“Mindfulness not only makes it possible to survey our internal landscape with compassion and curiosity but can also actively steer us in the right direction for self-care,” writes Bessel Van Der Kolk in his book, The Body Keeps Score.

Whether you’re looking to overcome trauma, reduce anxiety or simply feel more connected to yourself, somatic therapy could be a powerful tool on your journey to wellness. ❧

Based in Atlanta, Hope Knosher is the founder of Healthy Living with Hope, offering health coaching, yoga classes and retreats. She is a national board-certified health and wellness coach, a certified yoga therapist and a certified E-RYT 500 yoga teacher. Contact her at 770-789-7782.