Body-Mind-Energy Therapy
"You've got to feel it, to heal it"
What is "Somatic" Therapy?
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Practitioners of somatic therapy believe that viewing the mind and body as one entity is essential to the therapeutic process. This mind/body entity will move toward healing and growth of its own accord, when guided and supported in a safe and respectful manner, which can positively impact and help regulate the body and mind. While talk therapy can address trauma, verbally, somatic therapy connects with root causes and offers a method of releasing it from the body while providing holistic healing on multiple levels. ​
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​Somatic, or body-focused therapy utilizes an approach called Somatic Experiencing that allows us to go deeper than traditional talk therapy alone by tapping into the wisdom of the body in all it's expression. We learn to get beneath the “story” to root causes by noticing sensations in the body, gestures, and other unspoken mannerisms that accompany the emotion we’re feeling. Using visualization, mindfulness, guided imagery and gentle somatic techniques and exercises, we allow the body to release the stuck emotional energy of past traumas or negative experiences, gently and incrementally, leaving us feeling lighter, freer, and less triggered by the original issue.
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What's Really Happening in the Body?
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Whenever we feel triggered there is an emotional, mental, and physical response. Emotionally, we may feel rejected, dismissed or abandoned by someone's comment. Then our mind kicks in and might begin to perseverate about the reason. We may start to blame ourselves, trying to figure out what we did to elicit this response. Or, we may begin to feel angry at the other person, or try to win their attention. There are any number of ways we could respond depending on our history, sense of self worth, past trauma and other factors.
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While all this is going on, our body's are also responding to the trigger. We may feel our chest tightening, our stomach churning, or a lump or choking feeling could develop in our throats. One's jaw may tighten or their shoulders could become tense. In severe cases one might even have a panic attack. These sensations are the body's "language", and if we were to just feel and observe these sensations rather than go into our head and try to fix, manage, or rationalize the moment away, it then becomes a tool for releasing this emotional energy from the body where the root resides.​
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​​What to Expect
​​​Rather than focusing on the story alone, the verbal, physical, spoken and unspoken dimensions of the self all play an important role in the therapeutic process. In sessions, clients are invited to notice what's happening in their bodies as issues arise, using somatic tools and exercises that encourage the body to express itself gently and incrementally. Energy work can also help clients to release pent up, stuck energy that has served to block their best efforts in the past. The results are a feeling of lightness, freedom, and expansiveness. ​
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As our body shifts from tension and constriction to being more calm, open and grounded, our perspective and relationship to the problem shifts allowing us to see it through a new and different lens where choices, possibilities and solutions inevitably emerge.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
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The Emotion Code and the Power of Aligning the Conscious and Subconscious Minds
The key to change and happiness is having our subconscious and conscious minds in full alignment. We may want to change something in our lives consciously, but when we try and make those changes we can’t. That’s because our subconscious mind isn’t on board, at least not 100%. Which is most likely due to trapped emotions or beliefs that are in the way. ​​​​​​​​​​
When we include the Emotion Code in the therapeutic process we have access to our very own "lie detector" known as our subconscious mind that knows the truth about us and every second of our lives. By muscle testing what we think we want, we can see what percentage of our subconscious mind is on board which can be very eye opening. If our subconscious isn’t 100% in alignment with what we want it will be harder, or even impossible to achieve our goals.​​​
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Using the Emotion Code and body focused therapy we can address these deficits, remove the emotions that are standing in the way and finally feel more balanced and free. And once we’ve cleared away these blocks, we become ready to live a more peaceful and authentic life and there’s no telling what we can do.
How We Change
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Change works more like a dial than a light switch. A simple shift in perspective can change how we perceive a situation which has the power to change the way we think, the choices we make, and what we choose to experience. But it doesn’t mean that suddenly you become someone else or that the challenging situation disappears. It means that you become open to parts of yourself you didn’t have access to before which changes the relationship you have to the situation.
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Since our system is always trying to protect itself and keep us safe, it’s no surprise that resistance may arise when there’s a threat to the status quo, something most if not all of us have experienced.
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But, change IS possible. By addressing thought patterns that are not serving us, releasing root causes through the body, and removing trapped emotions by communicating with the subconscious mind, change becomes much more attainable. And because it is incremental it won't overwhelm the system allowing changes to come forth slowly and gradually, and for these changes to be permanent, rather than fleeting.