Somatic Therapy
Learn to trust the wisdom of your body.
Are you tired of talking about the same things each week in therapy?
Do you feel stuck and want a deeper approach to healing?
Perhaps you’ve been looking for a more integrative approach to therapy but don't know where to start.
Somatic therapy can help.
Somatic therapy utilizes tools used during counseling sessions that focus on the body rather than the mind. Certain challenges require a different approach to treatment than traditional talk therapy or other cognitive (mind-based) methods. Therapy using only reasoning and logic is seldom sufficient, as the body is designed to have strong responses to traumatic distress that need space to feel released.
Paying Attention To Both Mind And Body Is Key To Lasting Change
Research shows that a unified approach to healing utilizing talk psychotherapy and somatic or movement-based methods is the most effective combination for success. With this therapeutic style, sensations in the body are seen and welcomed as information rather than symptoms, relaying important messages you can begin to understand rather than reject. Somatic therapy is ideal for people who are tired of the traditional talk therapy approach and want to experience something more holistic, deeper, and integrative.
When exposed to frightening experiences, your breath quickens, and tension builds throughout your body. Breathing and moving through this moment is helpful and soothing, but our culture often promotes stillness and silence to find peace in the midst of hard events. Without including somatic considerations in an effort to release trauma from your body, you are ignoring your innate healing capacities. Therapy involving somatic experiencing can teach you to gauge your body's feedback and gain tools to notice what your body is telling you.
During therapy sessions, you will work on building somatic awareness, increasing curiosity and connection to your body's sensations while building up a tolerance to be with challenging emotions. Mindfully staying connected to your body amid powerful emotions helps you regulate more effectively outside of therapy sessions when life’s normal ups and downs occur.
How Do Somatic
Approaches Work?
Mind-body therapy works by regulating and soothing your autonomic nervous system (ANS) through breathing, movement, and gentle self-touch. Even small things can make a big difference. Activities like stretching and walking, touching pressure points, and other experiences utilizing all five senses can all help create regulation amid distressing memories, emotions, and other cognitive challenges.
How Does Somatic Therapy Help
Where Other Approaches Fall Short?
One of the limitations of talk therapy is that the focus is on discussing the memories of the past but not on the body’s response to those memories. Yet all stressful events in life generate a physical reaction like the flight-or-fight response, and in moments where you feel threatened or trapped, your body will likely freeze in response. You can unwind this somatic response of fight/flight/freeze by becoming aware of what is happening, acknowledging that this is a normal response to a perceived threat, and integrating breathing and movement to help your body and mind recover.
In the short term, somatic therapy can help you learn and practice simple and effective coping tools to help regulate your nervous system. Over time, you’ll begin to “befriend” your body and heal. Especially with issues like trauma, somatic healing therapy can help you with processing the stress response cycle and move your body toward safety and connection.
Somatic Counseling
At Third Nature Therapy, all sessions are virtual, during which your therapist will observe you, and your body, creating space to discuss the somatic experiences of your body, moment by moment. All therapy sessions begin with simple grounding activities like breathing and reflecting on the present moment to get comfortable. During sessions, your therapist will ask about any sensations you experience in your body so you gain an increased capacity to be with the sensations and wisdom of your body.
At Third Nature Therapy, the body, mind, and spirit are considered interconnected, and there is no way not to include that in therapy sessions. We utilize therapy treatments like Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), which are essentially somatic. These treatments involve body movements to induce bilateral stimulation to treat issues like trauma, anxiety, and depression. You can read more about our EMDR practice here.
About
Somatic Therapist
Julie Goldberg
Julie Goldberg is the founder of Third Nature Therapy, and she integrates her education and personal practice of yoga and mindfulness into the many facets of her work as a counselor. She became a yoga teacher in 2012, completing a 200-hour training at Amrita Yoga, followed by a 300-hour training with Kripalu and Integrative Yoga Therapy in 2015. After working as a yoga therapist, she attended Naropa University, a graduate school rooted in Buddhism and Transpersonal Psychology.
All of the counselors at Third Nature Therapy are advocates of taking care of your body through sufficient self-care, including considerations of your sleep, movement, and nourishment. Your therapist will work with you to ensure you have a well-rounded support system outside of therapy to get the most out of the weekly sessions.
Book A Call With A Somatic Therapist Today
Julie Goldberg, LPC
Eliot Hagerty, LPC
OUR RATES
While we don’t accept insurance in our practice, we do offer Superbills and partner with Thrizer, a platform that seamlessly helps you navigate out-of-network therapy to save time and money on reimbursement.
READ MORE ABOUT SOMATIC THERAPY ON THE BLOG
Reach out to discuss Somatic Therapy
Mindfully connecting to your body’s responses during distressing thoughts, sensations, or memories can aid you in regulating and healing from trauma, anxiety, depression, and other challenges.
Get in touch with Third Nature Therapy at this contact form for a free, 15-minute phone consultation to discuss Somatic Therapy and how it can benefit your mental health.