Somatic Therapy in Orange County, CA
Online Therapy for Somatic Interventions in California and Florida
Experience the richness of the sensations in your body
Do you notice every sensation or ailment in your body?
You might benefit from somatic interventions if you…
Experience distressing sensations in your body
Feel disconnected from the sensations in your body
Every little sensation or ailment makes you worried and stressed that something really bad could be happening in your body. When you are experiencing a strong emotion, it may show up intensely in your body and it may feel unbearable at times. You may find yourself avoiding things that could cause your body to go into alarm mode. Alternatively, you may be someone who does not feel connected to your body. You might report feeling “nothing” or “numb”. You may find that you are more easily able to identify negative sensations in your body rather than positive sensations.
With somatic interventions, you can build your capacity to experience the richness of the sensations in your body.
What is Somatic Therapy?
Therapy that focuses on somatic interventions includes education on the nervous system so that you can learn to recognize and release stressful energy from your body. When we are in stressful situations, the body can go into survival mode which can activate a fight or flight response. Unfortunately, over time, and after enough stressful experiences, the body can believe that you are in danger when you are not.
Therapy focusing on somatic interventions would include us exploring your body sensations while staying grounded and connected to yourself. The goal here would be for us to help you build capacity to tolerate discomfort while also creating richer experiences of positive sensations in your body. This would include noticing areas of tension, pressure, numbness, etc. As you build capacity to sit with these sensations, your body will let go of this energy and create more feeling of peace in your body.
What somatic therapy can do for you…
● Release stressful, survival energy from your body
● Reduce feelings of numbness
● Build capacity to experience positive and negative sensations in your body
Experience peace within
FAQs
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A Somatic Therapy session might start off with you identifying a stressful situation you experienced. I would then ask you to identify the sensations you experience as well as the location you experience these sensations in your body as you think of this situation so that you can develop language and awareness of how you experience various feelings. I would then ask you for permission to stay with this area of your body and the sensations. If it feels too difficult to tolerate, we might try to focus on just one sensation or just one area. Or we might focus on a different place in your body that feeling neutral or positive and then gently shift back and forth very gradually to help you release stored stress and increase your capacity to experience a wider range of sensations and emotions.
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EMDR does include components of noticing your body sensations when recalling the traumatic event however EMDR and Somatic Therapy are not the same. Equally, Somatic Therapy can include recalling traumatic events. Both types of therapies have the goal of releasing trauma from the mind and the body.
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Anyone can benefit from becoming more in tune with their body. All of us experience stress in our regular day-to-day life whether it be due to our Zoom audio not working or finance related worries. These little things that happen day after day also affect our body and we want to be able to recognize this energy and release it so it does not become stored in our body and reduce our capacity to manage life’s stressors.
For those with trauma histories, there can be stored stress due to these traumas resulting in constant states of hypervigilance, tension or numbness that hinder our ability to fully experience our sensations.