Somatic Therapy on Long Island
“True wealth is having a healthy mind, body, and spirit. True wealth is having the knowledge to maneuver and navigate the mental obstacles that inhibit your ability to soar.”
— Ru Paul
Somatic Therapy
Our bodies have eternal memories. Whether we remember our experiences or not, they live in our nervous system, our digestive system, our head, neck, shoulders. These are the places where trauma hides from plain view, and somatic therapy seeks to heal the body from the tension associated with trauma.
Trauma Locked in the Body
Somatic Therapy is built on the idea that our bodies are affected by the traumas we may have experienced in the past. Everything we have experienced stays in the memory of our bodies, in gestures and facial expressions, in posture, pain, or other forms of body language. Somatic therapy seeks to address the underlying issues that manifest themselves in your body.
If we think about our bodies in biological terms, we can better understand how stress affects our nervous system. In our past, stress was beneficial and necessary—if a mountain lion was chasing you, you needed to run away! Now, our concerns are not as urgent but our body still interprets them in similar ways. Our bodies don’t know the difference between being chased by a mountain lion and wondering how to respond to a rude email.
Sōma is Greek for body, and that’s the cornerstone of somatic psychotherapy. It focuses on the body and how trauma has embedded itself in your physical being. We may be great at convincing ourselves and rationalizing different things, but our bodies don’t lie.
How Somatic Therapy Works
Talk therapy can often be enough to reveal causes and symptoms of mental health issues. However, when a person undergoes trauma, talking through it could be harmful or simply not beneficial. Somatic therapy looks at how the body is manifesting trauma by paying attention to any digestive issues, muscular tension, pain in certain areas of the body, sexual obstacles, etc.
Throughout somatic therapy, you are guided to feel more attuned to your body’s messages. This type of therapy does involve light touching in order to determine what areas are especially sensitive. For instance, your therapist may encourage you to touch your shoulder and feel where the tension resides, or your therapist could use their hands to support your shoulder and help you find a position that offers less tension.
The ultimate goal is to provide you with insight into your mind-body connection that will benefit you for the rest of your life. Somatic therapy has been known to reduce stress and provide opportunities to address physical and emotional problems. Knowing how to listen to your body will ensure you stay both healthy and aware of the underlying issues you may face.
FAQs
What if I don’t like being touched?
Often people who have undergone trauma do not like being touched, and that is perfectly normal. However, it’s important to consider the benefits associated with somatic therapy. We try to set up a safe environment where you get to decide your comfort level, and any contact during a session is up to you. Sometimes, physical contact is replaced by self-touching or moving around a physical space. Our goal is to help you in whatever way works best for you.
What’s the difference between stress and trauma?
Both stress and trauma are associated with events that impact you negatively. Stress is the immediate aftermath of the event, while trauma is caused when a person can’t let go of the impact caused by the event, or otherwise termed chronic stress. For this reason, trauma is deeper and thus manifests itself in our nervous system and other parts of the body.
I went through a traumatic experience, but it was a long time ago. How could somatic therapy help me?
Trauma is like a wine stain on a white shirt. It can be covered up, and you can forget about it, but in the end, it’s still there. We don’t often aim to “cure” trauma because it’s so deep-seated in our consciousness and our bodies that sometimes that task is impossible. What we aim for, rather, is to manage trauma and to provide you with coping skills in order to target symptoms of trauma in the body.
Do I have to talk about my trauma?
Of course not. While talking is beneficial to both yourself and your therapist because they get to know your story better, we understand that trauma is a serious situation and we would never want to make you talk about something you’re not comfortable doing so. Moreover, the focus of somatic therapy is the body, so more often than not, the type of trauma is not as important as the effect it’s having on your body.