Yes! Many healing from trauma or intense/repressed emotions turn to somatic techniques for safe healing options.

These techniques do not require any digging into the event, invasive questions, or reliving. That's because these techniques work with focus on the body, not the trigger or the trauma. For many, they reduce trigger-sensitivity and dependence on trigger-avoidance.

Because the premise of these techniques focuses on your current state and sensations, they can actually reduce experiences of re-living or stuckness by bringing clients to the present and empowering them with new ways to interact with their bodies.

Many clients experience a reduction in fear or mistrust of their bodies, the ability to feel embodied after chronic dissociation, derealization, or depersonalization, and an increased ability to move forward past the trauma or emotions that have triggered these physical states.

Why it works for trauma and emotional effects:

Traumatic or emotionally intense responses come from a combination of cognitive effects (which can be aided with therapy for re-processing or coaching to change associated mental and physical habits), plus the physical responses that perpetuate these effects and signal to our brain that its fixation on these threats is justified to protect us. Somatics works with the latter, very important part of the feedback loop. Trauma responses are highly physical, affecting musculature, breathing, heart rate, hormones, neurotransmitters, and much more. By bringing awareness to and changing our interactions with these responses, we can break the feedback loop of the effects our bodies produce that perpetuate the re-experiencing and perception of trauma as a constant danger long after it has passed.

For emotions, while we tend to think of them as a mental construct, they are primarily felt in our body. Somatic work gives us the opportunity to let our body mend emotional intensity from a different angle, and change our habits into literally "feeling" emotions so they can pass through, rather than intellectualizing them, which can "make them make sense" yet trap us in the physical effects of them.

Somatic work primarily affects the autonomic nervous system, which is responsible for regulating and modulating many other bodily systems (immune, cardiac, respiratory, etc). The autonomic nervous system controls our stress response. This is why both physical and mental stressors can create such systemic forms of illness- by disrupting the nervous system's ability to regulate all of our bodily processes.

Somatic work aims to rebalance the nervous system to "undo" this process of dysregulation that instigated the illness by allowing the body to heal itself to its fullest possible extent while regulated. Therefore somatic work can have a huge impact on illnesses in these other affected bodily systems. These techniques can often assist regardless of whether the stressor that triggers an episode or symptom is mental or physical.

When used for physical illness, Somatic Work is most impactful in conditions that are stress-impacted. Typically symptoms feed into themselves by creating physical and/or emotional distress with one flare, which then sensitizes the body and triggers the next flare easier. By reducing and re-regulating the stress response, over time Somatic Work helps clients break these feedback loops. In cases where it is needed more frequently, the practitioner will likely try to assist the client in ways they can also access these skills on their own, to interrupt dysregulation any time it occurs.

Some of the conditions, symptoms, and sensations Somatic Work can eliminate or aid with:

• Autoimmune and inflammatory conditions

• Autonomic heart rate, temperature, and breathing conditions (dysautonomia, POTS [postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome])

• Immune conditions (allergies, non anaphylactic cases of MCAS [mast cell activation syndrome])

• Digestive issues (IBS [irritable bowel syndrome], stress-induced GERD [gastroesophageal reflux disease])

• Chemical and electromagnetic sensitivities

• Sensations like numbness, tingling, pain, internal shaking

• Chronic pain and pain conditions like fibromyalgia

• Migraines and sensitization of cranial nerves

• Chronic symptoms associated with stress-responses (heart palpitations, temperature dysregulation, dry mouth and eyes, insomnia, feeling disconnected, apathetic, or emotionally numb, feeling hypervigilant or on edge, nausea, indigestion, diarrhea or constipation, breathing pattern disorders or changes)

• Tension patterns in the body that create discomfort or can feel crushing, painful, or restrictive

• And more

  Note that the extent of the impact of Somatic Work on these conditions may also be affected by specific variables and causes in individual cases. While it can help many people in these situations, there are times where other interventions are more potent, needed first, or needed simultaneously while using Somatic Work. We're also happy to assist clients that would like help finding other providers or professions, both conventional and alternative, that may help. Please feel free to schedule a Free Consultation with a practitioner if you'd like to discuss your specific case before starting Somatic Work. Click here to visit the scheduling page.

We offer experiential methods of Somatic Work that allow the body to do some of its own emotional and mental processing, without intellectualizing all of the emotions and experiences. Evolutionarily, our bodies were designed to do a lot of emotional and mental processing in the background, as our ancestors had significant more down-time and mundane tasks that put them into a flow state. Since modern society moves us away from this, Somatic Work helps clients regain space and methods to encourage the processes needed to work through different trapped emotions, trauma responses, and symptoms of mental health conditions.

Our Somatic Coaching methods also significantly increase awareness of the correlation between physical and mental states, which can help clients working with therapists in their therapy process. These methods allow clients to explore mental factors to how and when their nervous system get dysregulated, tools to re-regulate, and ways to evolve contributing mindsets.

Most importantly, they give clients ways to re-establish a sense of safety within themselves. This can significantly reduce symptoms and increase quality of living.

Somatic Work can non-invasively help break the cycles that keep clients stuck in:

• Panic attacks

• Anxiety

• Depression

• Alexithymia (via other routes of emotional recognition)

• Dissociation, depersonalization, or derealization

• PTSD or C-PTSD

• Burnout and stress responses

• Feelings of shutdown, emotional numbness, or disconnectedness

• Feelings of hypervigilance or being on edge

• Repressed or intense emotions

  Your practitioner may also assist you with tools to build a care team of other professionals if requested, especially if you are seeking diagnoses, past-processing skills, medication, or other therapeutic management skills. This could include psychologists, therapists, psychiatrists, or other alternative medicine options like acupuncture or traditional/cultural medicine practitioners.

If you have any questions or want to discuss your specific case with a practitioner, schedule a Free Consultation on our appointment scheduling system by clicking here.

These sessions are normally a customized combination of the following based on your needs and preferences. Your practitioner will do an intake to help collaborate with you on the best methods to work with.

• Guided, custom meditations to reduce or change the stress response with current physical, emotional, or mental experiences and sensations

• Massage or guided self-massage techniques that affect areas of the body heavily associated with stress, emotions, and threat responses Typically the psoas muscle, jaw, scalp, pectorals, hips, hands, or rocking and shaking techniques.

• Massage or guided self-massage techniques that reduce compression on nervous system structures or that help regulate parasympathetic functions like digestion

• Specific breathwork techniques

• Vagus nerve activation techniques (can involve massage, muscular activation, breathwork, self-regulation techniques, or meditation)

• Movement activities that induce physical safety responses

• Coaching, awareness, and recognition techniques to help you create a routine you can use at home, and achieve longer lasting results

Each of these will be applied based on your unique circumstances, sensations, goals, or concerns.

We offer Somatic Mind-Body work as its own service or an add on to massage or energy services, as most clients benefit from a combination of methods.

If you get a Custom Therapeutic Massage session with the free Somatic Work Add-On, your massage therapist can integrate the meditations, massage techniques, and movements into your session.

Use the online appointment scheduler to book a Somatic Mind-Body Therapeutics session, where the entire session will be a customized version of Somatic techniques for your situation. These are offered in online tele-wellness and in-person formats.

Book appointments by clicking here.

Or schedule with us by call/text at 443-353-0658.

If you'd like to experience meditative and/or massage-based Somatic techniques during a massage session, you can book the Custom Therapeutic Massage session and select the free Somatic Work Add-On.