WTF is Somatic Therapy
I remember telling my brother once that I was on my way to Somatic Therapy and he said “WTF is Somatic Therapy?!”
Even though I had been doing somatic therapy for months, I didn’t even know exactly how to answer. I said “well…it’s kind of like regular therapy…but there’s touch involved?” After that, he started referring to it as “touch therapy.”
Touch therapy is a little misleading. That sounds a lot more like a massage than what’s actually happening.
Somatic therapy is a form of body-centered therapy that looks at the connection of the mind and body. The theory is that mind, body, and emotions are all connected. Past traumas affect the central nervous system and thus the body, and the emotions are stored in the body.
In my personal experience, somatic therapy can help unlock how you actually feel and what the root cause is in times where traditional talk therapy may hit a wall. By tuning into the somatic experience, I discovered emotions that I was not facing, and I was able to work through them far quicker than ever before.
For a more thorough explanation of somatic therapy, listen to episode 59 on iTunes, Spotify, and everywhere else you get podcasts, and check out Andria Lea here.