Core Purpose Psychotherapy
When you meet yourself in your body, you begin to change
Somatic Therapy
When you meet yourself in the Body, you begin to Change
Somatic Therapy is a body-based approach that highlights the connection between emotions, physical sensations, and the nervous system. It aims to get to the root of trauma by supporting the body's relaxation response and creating space for introspection and self-reflection.
When the body experiences something as traumatic, it does not necessarily mean that it came from an intentionally abusive act or catastrophic life event, as we often may think. Our nervous system can become overwhelmed by experiences that leave us with a distressing perception of ourselves, people, and the world around us.
Bringing compassion and non-judgment into the experience is key to creating enough safety in the body and nervous system to express what has been experienced as distressing, and begin to heal at a deeper level.
Engaging your Senses
Your senses remind you that you are Alive in your experience.
Here we notice Sensations, Movement, Breath, Emotion, and Presence.
Our Senses give us space to slow down and observe what is happening in the present moment, helping the body move out of automatic survival responses and toward greater regulation. When the body has enough resources and a sense of safety, we can begin to stay present with experiences that might otherwise feel overwhelming.
This can create space for what has been held or carried in the body - the experiences we don't want to repeat in our lives- to be felt, understood, and released, allowing new experiences to be formed in the body.
The moment of Change
Something shifts when a different experience becomes possible.
Change becomes possible when we are present enough to allow the body to experience something new.
As an old pattern held within us comes into awareness, something may begin to move. We may start to experience sensations of heat, emotions, twitching, deeper and heavier breaths, or a wave of sensation moving through the body. There is no right or wrong way to process. The body has its own way of moving through an experience.
In the end, we can check if the old experience is still there. When the shift has occurred, the space that once held the old pattern may feel completely neutral. From this place of neutrality, there is room for a new truth, or belief, to take shape.
Meeting Youself in the Body
First we land and become present with what is happening within.
Understanding is not always enough to create change.
Somatic Therapy brings us into direct contact with our embodied state, where we begin to notice what is happening within.
This requires presence. We slow down enough to recognize what we want to do differently, rather than allowing automatic responses to overtake us and send us into the good old survival mode.