Somatic therapy?

[stolencrumbs]

Anybody have an experience with somatic therapy? Thoughts?

I am searching for a new therapist. I don't feel like my current T is helping me very much at this point. I'd like to focus more on myself, and my current T seems, for understandable reasons, to be too focused on my W and navigating her behaviors.

So I had an initial appointment yesterday with a therapist who practices somatic therapy. I'm just getting up to speed with what that is, and I will say I am a bit skeptical. Mainly the talk of "energy"' and such turns me off. It seems to be based on largely unconfirmed theories about the brain, the mind, and the body, and, well, it *feels* a little hokey to me. But I'm trying to keep an open mind. I have another appointment scheduled for Friday where I think I'll get a better idea of what things will look like.

Despite my skepticism, I think the overarching ideas seem like they would be helpful for me. It's largely about processing past trauma, and getting a person out of the "freeze" response to trauma. There's a lot about getting the person to be aware of their emotions and reactions, and then creating different "pathways" for those emotions to come out. That all seems like something I need. I'm just not sure I buy that that happens through somatic therapy. Anyway, if anyone has any experience with this, I'd love to hear about it. 

[zachira]

In response to your question: I have done many kinds of somatic therapies and lots of talk therapy to manage my CPTSD from being part of an abusive family with up to six generations of scapegoats, and I am one of the scapegoats. I have found both EMDR and doing all kinds of somatic work extremely helpful. Talk therapy has its limits, and does not help to process some of the trauma that can never be remembered or put into words. Many traumatic memories are stored in the body and can only be healed by accessing the parts of the body that store these memories. Many members including myself have found extremely helpful: "The Body Knows the Score", which explores many different kinds of somatic therapies for trauma. You are on the beginning of a journey towards healing which is challenging yet will change your life in many rewarding ways.

[stolencrumbs]

In response to your question: I have done many kinds of somatic therapies and lots of talk therapy to manage my CPTSD from being part of an abusive family with up to six generations of scapegoats, and I am one of the scapegoats. I have found both EMDR and doing all kinds of somatic work extremely helpful. Talk therapy has its limits, and does not help to process some of the trauma that can never be remembered or put into words. Many traumatic memories are stored in the body and can only be healed by accessing the parts of the body that store these memories. Many members including myself have found extremely helpful: "The Body Knows the Score", which explores many different kinds of somatic therapies for trauma. You are on the beginning of a journey towards healing which is challenging yet will change your life in many rewarding ways.

Thanks! I'm most of the way through Peter Levine's "Waking the Tiger." I'll check out that book when I finish this one. I have definitely experienced the limits of talk therapy, and I hope your last sentence is true.

[kells76]

Hi sc;

If you have some time, consider reading Peter Levine's book "Waking The Tiger: Healing Trauma". It's been a few years since I've read it, but I believe he talks in-depth about the connection between our experiences (emotional too, not just physical) and our bodies. He may use some of the "blocked energy" type vocabulary, though I think he also delves into neurobiology. He uses the natural world and animal behaviors as reference points for much of his thought.

zachira made a good recommendation as well for Bessel Van Der Kolk's "The Body Keeps The Score", which I think is a more recent publication where he draws on his work counseling veterans and the unexpected roadblocks and solutions he encountered to healing trauma.

My guess is that even within the subsector of somatic-based therapy, you'll find a wide range of practitioners. Our marriage counselor uses somatic practices with us when verbal processing approaches or hits an activating/triggering level; it's a way to bring ourselves back down, as it were, and not get re-traumatized by the talk therapy. He's a military vet, no-BS, seen it all, sense of humor, faith based kind of guy. I'm not sure I'd connect as much with a "crystals/gems, orient your chakras, tap into the energy of the universe, channel your flow" kind of practitioner, even if they were doing the same kind of somatic experiencing techniques.

So, I guess it's less the specific technique/practice for me, and more "do I connect with and trust the person leading me through this" sort of question. Maybe it'll be that way for you -- do you click with and trust the T? Then somatic practices may be a game changer for you. If you aren't sure about the practitioner, though, then the practice possibly won't be effective or helpful. Hard to feel safe in one's body -- very vulnerable -- if you aren't really sure about the person across the room from you.

Yeah, give the books a shot, see how you feel with the new T, maybe go from there.

Best wishes for this journey;

kells76

[kells76]

Funny that we cross posted about Peter Levine 

Glad you found his work. He also wrote "In A Silent Voice" (again, it's been a while since I've read it), but as someone whose #1 defense mechanism is a combo of flight-freeze, with fawning thrown in when it's really desperate, it was a good read. I'm not a yeller or a fighter; I get really quiet and try to disappear when things get spicy. So, that connected with me.

[stolencrumbs]

Thanks kells. So far I like this guy well enough. His bio made him seem more crystals and chackras than he was in the actual session, but the first session was mainly background and assessment, so we'll see. The sessions are also virtual right now, which seems even less ideal for this kind of therapy. But I have a bunch of free sessions through my EAP, so I'm willing to see how it goes for a while.

I've liked what I've read of "Waking the Tiger" so far. There is some language that makes me skeptical, but I'm also open to the idea that there are just different ways of describing something that is real.

I guess I'm coming around to the idea that there are a lot of things in my past and in my FOO that have contributed to where I am right now, and that I need to deal with those things in order to move forward in a meaningful way.

I'm not interested in rediscovering a bunch of trauma from my past, and I know that's not the point of this therapy, but there was one really interesting "a-ha" moment when I was reading the book. He lists some common experiences that lead to trauma, and one of them was having to wear leg braces as a child. I don't really remember much about wearing braces, but I know that I did, and my mom talks about how awful it was to put them on me at night and how much I hated them. I don't know how long I wore them, but she eventually stopped putting them on me because she couldn't stand doing it to me. Hmm. That's literally not something I have ever thought of or considered that it could have had some longer lasting impact on my brain. And maybe it didn't. Who knows. I've also had chronic migraines since I was a teenager. Hmm. Maybe that's not a purely physical thing. I don't know. Trying to be open to all of it.   

[kells76]

I have a bunch of free sessions through my EAP, so I'm willing to see how it goes for a while.

That makes a lot of sense to me. In fact, even it "not working out" with this guy could be a positive, because you could walk away from it knowing more about the kind of person YOU need to work with. That being said, I do hope it "works out" just because I know it can be tough to keep transitioning from one practitioner to the next.

there are a lot of things in my past and in my FOO that have contributed to where I am right now, and that I need to deal with those things in order to move forward in a meaningful way.

Me too. Our T was interested in helping me see how the fact that I'm not working on FOO stuff is coming out in how I treat SD12 & SD14. If I can't or don't come to terms with what's real from my past, then whether I even mean to or not, it still comes out -- just in other parts of life. It's like -- my mind/body know that there is work to do with family relationships; with me and my mom and me and my dad. I'm not doing it; it'll probably be painful and hard. But that doesn't stop my mind/body from trying to resolve it. And the relationship arena readily at hand is with the kids. It's not healthy to use other people to work out relationship stuff that doesn't involve them. So I can relate to you; I know I need to work on FOO stuff that is contributing to what I'm doing right now, and I will be stuck in reenacting old stuff unless I work on it.

Hmm. That's literally not something I have ever thought of or considered that it could have had some longer lasting impact on my brain. And maybe it didn't. Who knows. I've also had chronic migraines since I was a teenager. Hmm. Maybe that's not a purely physical thing. I don't know. Trying to be open to all of it. 

You know, that just makes a ton of sense, too. It'd be just as not-helpful to ascribe "traumatic meaning" to EVERYTHING our body does, as to be closed off to any signs/hints/meanings. OK, I have a stomachache today... I must have been abused as a child! Not helpful. OK, I have stomachaches repeatedly after seeing family... Nope, nothing to see there, no information to gather! Also not helpful.

It sounds like you are trying to find some balance. Being open to what your body is telling you, without going crazy with labels and hidden meanings. I think it's great to be open to the idea that some experiences we may remember as neutral, benign, or not a big deal could have impacted us in ways we never really thought about or recognized. Makes sense to me. And hopefully that's where a skilled practitioner can help keep things on the rails, as it were. Maybe that's something to look out for -- if a T seems to be "pushing" a label or "deeper meanings" in a way that you're not ready for or not seeing, that could be a  . It kind of seems to me that a key part of somatic experiencing is that the experiencer drives things, and it's not about the T "making" the client "go farther" for a breakthrough or whatever. It's about you, me, us, taking back the steering wheel and developing tools to take ourselves back down from activation. So you could try things with this T, dip your toes into exploring some stuff from the past, see how the somatic experiences go, see if you are building some tools for managing your activation... take it a session at a time, and be in the driver's seat.

[babyducks]

great topic.    and I appreciate the comments so far.

one of the things I found helpful in understanding somatic therapy was this quote:

Somatic psychotherapy uses a “bottom up” rather than “top down” approach. CBT is a classic example of a “top down” mode of therapy, working with cognitions and the “thinking brain” to create change. Top down approaches generally involve the body and the nervous system very minimally, if at all. Somatic psychotherapy instead works from the “bottom up”– reducing stress and anxiety physiologically, through changing the autonomic nervous system and discharging trauma.

if my goal is to live more comfortably and fully I can approach it from the thinking brain direction.   I can think of ways to reduce my stress and anxiety levels,  I can meditate.    I can give myself mental pep talks.   and that will be helpful in reducing my stress and anxiety.    But I can also see how approaching it form the bottom up - doing some yoga,  go sitting outside with a cup of tea...   doing some breathing exercises can help reduce my stress  and anxiety.      

I kind of think, if I want to comfortably inhabit my world, I need to be able to comfortably inhabit my body.    and I carry a lot of stress and tension with me in a physical way.    releasing that can only help.

'ducks

[formflier]

doing some yoga,  go sitting outside with a cup of tea...   doing some breathing exercises can help reduce my stress  and anxiety.      

I kind of think, if I want to comfortably inhabit my world, I need to be able to comfortably inhabit my body.    and I carry a lot of stress and tension with me in a physical way.    releasing that can only help.

So...I'm sure we all have our impressions of what each of us would be like in person.  I'm obviously very conservative and would have been in the camp of describing most things as "hokey", "BS"..or worse if it wasn't completely science based and able to be replicated in the lab. 

I really wasn't into "we'll see...", I mean shouldn't you "know"?


Well...you get to the point in life where this logical know it all brain of mine says "dude...this ain't workin" so you might as well try some "hokey stuff"

https://www.drlindenfeldresettherapy.com/single-post/2017/04/15/The-Healing-Sound

www.baudtherapy.com/

I mean, the way I used to think...this was the high point of hocus pokus except it works.

I'll specifically point this to stolencrumbs comment about not being able to remember the leg brace and other trauma...and not wanting to "rediscover" it (hopefully I got that right)

Well at least with this Baud thing, there is the thought that your body/brain can only handle so much and sometimes that is where "forgetting" comes from.  However, the physical effects can still be there.

Quick version:  You are instructed to remember a trauma at the same time the sound is being adjusted.  "Remembering" trauma is like playing a movie in your head.  So...I would remember what it was like to open the door in the Hawkeye cockpit and see lots of fire (yikes!)...over and over. 

Well at some point there would be a physical reaction(s) at which point the sound adjustment would stopped and volume turned up.

Then play the entire story in my brain until it got hard to recall...no kidding it would start to be hard to "play the movie".

Once you can't play it anymore...pick out another story and play it...until it goes away..

wash rinse repeat for about 10-15 minutes and then therapy is over and some soothing talk from therapist for a while and then you go home.

My reaction was from a smaller subset (maybe 10-15% if I remember) in that I felt normal for a day or two and then I spent a day of uncontrollable weeping.  (not wailing...but hours long "good cry")

Then...the "freshness" and "lightness" that I felt is really hard to describe.

Can I still describe the fire(s) to you.  Yep...but there is no "umpf" to them.  In fact, if we were having an intimate dinner, you would probably find it odd the way I talk about them and other things I've "bauded" because it would come across as "detached"

Kinda like looking up a "horror book" on a library card.  You kinda intellectually know it's bad...but you aren't scared of going to take that book off the shelf.

Does it fix everything...nope.  But it took my "reactivity" way..WAAAAY down, so that I had a chance to (like Ducks said) use my thinking brain.

Oh yeah.."remembering".  Once I dealt with some memories, others became "clearer" so I dealt with them too.  Perhaps accurate to say my brain "suppressed" what it couldn't handle.  So we kept doing "baud" until I had a couple sessions where nothing really came up.

Switching gears to Ducks tea comment:  Probably no shock I'm not into (or wasn't) meditation.  I'm still not a smokey room "Ommmm" type of guy (maybe one day...everybody enjoy snickering to yourselves...) but there is so much to be said from intentionally being "non-productive" and just being part of the world...letting go...letting your mind wander.

In fact, I'm watching the sun come up right now.  No kids around.  Just me a cup of coffee and my Chromebook.


Keep up the hard work stolencrumbs...

Best,

FF

[Cat Familiar]

EMDR helped me get over a fear of heights. I don’t have any idea where that fear originated, nor did I get any insights doing therapy, but the subsequent times I found myself in situations where I previously had fear, it was gone.

I also did EMDR some years later about getting triggered by my BPD mother. Even though I was an adult, and she was slipping into dementia, she could still make me tremendously uncomfortable by her criticism. After doing a couple of sessions, I could simply regard her as I would any wacky old person who was trying to insult me. The emotional anchor she had on me which caused me to feel insecure and unsure of myself...was gone.

[AskingWhy]

As Cat states, come body-based therapies are effective.

SC, don't discount the effectiveness of body therapies.  Traumas get bound up in the body.  Please read the book, "The Body Keeps the Score," by Bessel Van der Kolk, M.D.  Trauma does indeed manifest in the body and some therapies directly address this.  My being raised by a uBPD parent, and then R/S with two uBPD Hs put me in a state of constant anxiety.  Therapy is helping me with this.

[stolencrumbs]

As Cat states, come body-based therapies are effective.

SC, don't discount the effectiveness of body therapies.  Traumas get bound up in the body.  Please read the book, "The Body Keeps the Score," by Bessel Van der Kolk, M.D.  Trauma does indeed manifest in the body and some therapies directly address this.  My being raised by a uBPD parent, and then R/S with two uBPD Hs put me in a state of constant anxiety.  Therapy is helping me with this.

I've now read a good bit of that book, too. I think at this point my best hope for any of this helping me is to stop reading about all of it. Most of the stuff I'm reading immediately moves the dial on my BS meter (which is admittedly idiosyncratic and calibrated within a decidely non-spiritual life) into the red. And if I keep reading, I'm going to end up talking myself out of trying any of it instead of merely being skeptical of the theoretical underpinnings. At the end of the day, I don't really care or need to care about all of that. I'm interested in whether it helps me, and I appreciate the firsthand accounts of how it has helped others here. I can be open to that without buying into the theoretical structure that's been built around it. People hundreds of years ago didn't need to be right or even know about why willow bark tea helped with pain. What matters is that it worked. That's where I'm at right now, at least.

[AskingWhy]

People hundreds of years ago didn't need to be right or even know about why willow bark tea helped with pain. What matters is that it worked. That's where I'm at right now, at least.

I think when we are hurting, we reach out to what will work for us.  Not everyone is the same, and not all therapies work.  Sadly, the mental health and medical professions treat patients this way.  You know what will work for you and what will not.  Discard the advice of those who insist one therapy will work for you.  The most important thing is to keep looking for your own solutions.