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Somatic Trauma Therapy – Types, Benefits, and Process
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Somatic trauma therapy is a sort of treatment that encourages patients to concentrate on their physical bodies as a way of working through their trauma and chronic stress.
The patient learns via movement and guided exercises how stress and trauma are stored in the body, how the mind and body are related, and how to employ particular movements to release the emotional pain that is held in the body.
Somatic Trauma Therapy – Types, Benefits, and Process
Identifying and Treating the Three-Step Stress Response
As a result of substantial stress or life-threatening conditions, the body’s natural reaction is the trauma response. As soon as a threat is perceived, your brain and body react in a manner that is designed to keep you alive.
There are a number of physiological responses that occur when you are in danger, such as a rise in heart rate, an increase in blood pressure, and a sharpening of your attention on the task at hand. The purpose of this instant reaction is to get you ready to fight or leave the threat.
It’s common for our bodies to return to equilibrium once a stressful situation is gone. Often, however, the memory of the trauma is incorrectly stored in the brain, and the brain begins to see situations that feel similar to the traumatic circumstance as dangerous.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) occurs when the body’s natural reactions to stress—fight, flight, or freeze—become locked and exacerbated by the stressor.
Somatic Trauma Therapy Types
Among the several approaches to treating somatic trauma include traditional somatic therapy, sensorimotor psychotherapy, the Hakomi method, bioenergetic therapy, biodynamic psychotherapy, and brainspotting.
Standard Somatic Experiencing
Peter Levine, a trauma specialist, pioneered the treatment method known as “somatic experience” in the 1970s. In order to achieve this state, one must get intimately acquainted with one’s own body and become adept at tuning in to one’s own internal bodily sensations. For dealing with the physical and mental discomfort produced by acute stress or trauma, these experiences serve as a guide.
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy
After a stressful or traumatizing incident has passed, the body’s systems often return to their pre-event condition. Some, on the other hand, are nonetheless dysregulated (unbalanced). The goal of Pat Ogden’s sensorimotor psychotherapy, which he created in the 1970s, is to restore balance to a person’s system.
Similar to other somatic trauma therapies, sensorimotor therapy uses the body rather than words to repair the consequences of a traumatic experience. Therapists use this strategy to assist the individual to understand how dysregulation feels in their body and to help them travel back and forth between levels of arousal and regulation for each emotion linked with the event.
The Hakomi Method
Ron Kurtz invented the Hakomi Method in the 1970s, and it is a therapeutic technique. Mindfulness is a technique that aims to help people better comprehend their thoughts, emotions, memories, and bodily sensations in relation to a variety of life events. The therapist creates a supporting and relaxing relationship for the patient, who is urged to be completely present and conscious.
“I am perfect exactly the way I am” is one of the statements that Hakomi employs as a source of knowledge concerning prior traumatic events, and the patient is asked to notice any changes that occur when other phrases are presented.
Bioenergetic Therapy
Emotional discomfort may be alleviated by touch and movement in bioenergetic therapy. Tapping is one such example. The therapist instructs the patient to tap on various parts of the body while reliving the painful experience. The concept behind this kind of physical distraction is that it prevents the user from being disturbed.
There is a belief that bad emotions are held in the body and that they may be expelled via particular and regulated movements.
Biodynamic Psychotherapy
Traumatic events are said to be retained in the muscles, which then tighten and stiffen as a result of biodynamic therapy, which was first established by clinical psychologist Gerda Boyesen in the 1940s. Facilitating muscular relaxation aids blood circulation, which in turn helps the body expel any lactic acid or adrenaline that was created as a result of the stress.
Listening to the body with an instrument such as a stethoscope is an important part of biodynamic therapy. The stored fluids may be released by massage and other techniques, allowing the person’s body to digest the stress.
Brainspotting
David Grand, a psychotherapist, invented Brainspotting in 2003 as a trauma treatment approach. It is a kind of alternative treatment that employs visual cues to assist people deal with trauma. Slowly monitoring eye movement, such as blinking, twitching, or eye wobbling, is used to locate “windows.” It is important to highlight that these “spots” serve as a guide for the patient in order to help them maintain certain eye positions when practicing mindfulness.
An approach called “Brainspotting” is used to find and release memories of traumatic experiences that have been stored in a part of the brain that is responsible for many cognitive functions as well as emotions and movements as well as awareness. As new causes of physical or mental discomfort are identified, the therapist works with the patient to address them.
Benefits of Somatic Trauma Therapy
Emotional as well as bodily pain may be alleviated by somatic trauma therapy.
Emotional Pain and PTSD
In order to deal with the effects of prior trauma, somatic therapies are often used. Using these techniques, trauma is seen as a normal reaction to a major stressor. Somatic trauma therapists do not consider post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a condition, but as a syndrome (a collection of co-occurring traits associated with a specific disease).
Therapists use somatic therapies to assist the client process the trauma in a manner that lowers physical symptoms and removes the experience from the physical body so that it no longer affects the person.
Physical Pain
The goal of somatic therapy is to help patients have a better understanding of their bodies and the interplay between their physical and mental well-being. A person may better understand where the pain is coming from and what the cause may be by using these therapy strategies that promote conscious movement.
Learning about chronic pain via somatic techniques may help people learn which motions are painful and which ones are pleasurable or provide relief from pain.
Somatic Trauma Therapy’s Mechanism of Action
Somatic trauma therapy’s main purpose is to educate patients on how to concentrate and be attentive to their bodies, regardless of the approach utilized. With the help of the therapist, somatic treatments help clients get a better understanding of how their bodies feel and how they interact with each other.
When clients begin to relate physical sensations to emotional experiences, such as those resulting from traumatic or stressful events, the therapist is there to guide them.
Resourcing
In trauma-focused therapy, it’s critical to draw strength and comfort from one’s own inner sensations in order to maintain a positive outlook throughout the difficult process. To resupply is to provide a feeling of security in order to maintain equilibrium and stability when the nervous system is out of whack or when one is suffering the physical agony of emotional distress.
Titration
It is common for trauma therapy to be protracted and sluggish, moving at a speed that the patient can tolerate. It’s called “titration,” and it’s a time-consuming procedure that some people find challenging.
The goal of titration is to avoid re-traumatizing or re-triggering a patient over the course of therapy. Therapists also try to help their patients deal with pain at higher levels without getting upset. It’s going to take some time and practice to become good at this.
Pendulation
Pendulation is a term used to describe a process in somatic treatments that helps patients to alternate between states of pain and control. Somatic therapy’s purpose is to assist the patient to become more aware of their body and create a tolerance for the pain that comes with traumatic memories.. As a result, pendulation enables the individual to identify when and how equilibrium has to be restored.
Summary
Approaches to treating trauma and extreme stress that focus on somatic methods are known as somatic trauma therapy (SMT). A variety of somatic therapeutic modalities are available, but each one tries to bring consciousness to the physical sensations of the body and to understand how these feelings link with the emotional experience.
Therapy with somatic therapists teaches clients how to shift back into a comfortable and regulated state of mind after experiencing trauma. Therapists who specialize in somatic techniques are known as “somatic therapists,” and they have a license to practice mental health counseling. There are many ways to locate a trauma therapist: you may ask your doctor for a reference, look for someone on an internet therapy-finding website, or ask your insurance company for providers that are in your plan’s network.
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