What is somatic therapy?
Somatic-based therapy is a more holistic approach that helps you reconnect and access the connection between your body and mind. This approach uses various body-based strategies to enhance and gain Greater insights from talk therapy.
This approach helps you tune in to the messages your body is trying to tell you. When you experience a trauma or event, it can leave a record that’s stored in your body. These unconscious body patterns can be difficult to access with talk therapy alone.
Somatic therapy helps you tune in to these unconscious patterns and messages. As you reveal and work through what your body is expressing, you can gain Greater insights and clarity into yourself and problems.
This approach is offered as part of body-centered therapy for women in Massachusetts and the Greater Boston area by Kimberly S. Bevans, LMHC, BC-DMT, through in-person and telehealth sessions.
Who can benefit from somatic therapy?
We all have bodies, so everyone benefits from body-based therapy!
Somatic therapy is often used to support healing for anxiety, trauma, and chronic stress. This approach can be particularly helpful for people who feel that they need more than a traditional talk-based therapy.
- Anxiety
- Increased clarity and insights
- Stress
- Personal growth and exploration
- Depression
How does somatic therapy work?
Somatic (from the greek word soma, meaning body) or body-oriented therapies honors that all of our experiences are stored in the body.
Somatic therapy also helps people learn how to release physical tension and develop new and healthier thinking patterns and behaviors to life’s difficulties. Some interventions commonly used in somatic therapy include breathing exercises, grounding techniques, sensation awareness, re-orienting to your surroundings, and more.
How Kimberly Schmidt Bevans, LMHC, BC-DMT uses somatic therapy in sessions
The approach and strategies used are tailored to what you need in that session to move you forward to increased insight and healing. One goal is to help you gently shift the unconscious body and behavior patterns that are no longer serving you.
During the course of our sessions, you’ll also learn how to listen to your whole self—body and mind. I gently work with where you are to help you get to know your body better and learn the signals it’s giving you. We’ll also explore the reasons (very valid reasons!) why we sometimes ignore these signals.
As you become more aligned with your whole self, you’ll feel more present and empowered in your life. Over time, you’ll be able to learn new patterns of thinking and behaving that allow you to respond to life difficulties and emotions when they occur.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Somatic Therapy?
Somatic Therapy is a large umbrella term for holistic, body-based approaches that help strengthen the body and mind connection. Somatic Therapy with a licensed mental health counselor or therapist incorporates body-based strategies, usually alongside talk therapy to increase awareness and insight, process unresolved patterns and traumatic events, while building holistic skills.
How is Somatic Therapy different from Traditional Talk Therapy?
Somatic Therapy goes beyond talk-only therapy by using body-oriented strategies and interventions. It focuses on increasing awareness of physical sensations, unconscious body patterns to support insight and change. Somatic Therapy helps build body-oriented tools to encourage the natural, innate ways your body already knows how to process stress and move through difficult, joyful and everyday experiences.
What techniques are commonly used in Somatic Therapy?
Somatic therapy may include breathing exercises, grounding techniques, sensation awareness, movement exercises and re-orienting to your surroundings. Additional techniques may be used based on your needs.
Is Somatic Therapy helpful if talk therapy hasn’t felt like enough?
Yes, it is very common for people to seek out Somatic Therapy if they’ve felt like talk therapy has been limited in helping them reach their goals. Somatic Therapy can be especially helpful for people who feel disconnected from their body and emotions, feel overpowered by their body experiences and emotion. It’s helpful for people who are aware that their body is holding stress and suspect that built up stress or trauma is contributing to health issues.
Can Somatic Therapy help with trauma?
Somatic Therapy works with experiences and events that may be stored in the body. This includes traumatic events and habitual responses to stress and challenges that may be playing out in your life. Trauma responses that are repeating in the body and are unresolved can often not be resolved through thinking and talking alone. The body must align with the mind to know that the trauma and threat has passed; space must be created for the body to settle and adapt to the reality that the threat is no longer present. The body must also be allowed to embody and verbalize the emotional responses that it might not have had the chance to do yet.
What does a Somatic Therapy session typically feel like?
Sessions focus on creating a safe space and guiding you in exploring information stored in both your body and mind using strategies tailored to your needs.
Will Somatic Therapy help me become more aware of my body’s signals?
Yes. Sessions include learning how to listen to your body, recognize your body’s signals, and understand why those signals may sometimes be ignored. Sessions help to nurture the connections of the body, mind and soul so you can listen and trust your inner wisdom.