Somatic Experiencing & Healing Techniques

   “Somatic” means relating to, or affecting the body. What does nervous system and somatic healing feel like? It feels like rediscovering who we were before trauma and survival mode took hold of us, hiding our true self deep beneath. Through somatic healing, we begin to rediscover ourselves, our boundaries, interests, skills, and passions. We rediscover our autonomy, choices, and an innate wisdom to self-heal. Somatic Experiencing addresses the physiological symptoms of the nervous system, where trauma & pain is stored. It aims to resolve symptoms of trauma: stress, overactivity, shutdown, freeze, fawn, that accumulate in our bodies, by assessing where in the body we feel “stuck” in the fight, flight or freeze responses, and provides tools to pendulate in and out of these states. Trauma causes disconnection from the self. Somatic healing is reacquainting ourselves to the self that's always been there… just dormant beneath survival patterns and armor.    

** You may be seeing this word “somatic” thrown around lately, a “viral trend,” however, it is anything but a trend, Many do not understand the true meaning and purpose of somatic therapy, nor trained in this modality, so do your research on those offering services. 

A brief anatomy of the nervous system! The autonomic nervous system controls our involuntary actions, largely unconsciously, and is divided into the parasympathetic nervous system, essential for maintaining a relaxed state, repairing tissues, conserving energy, and regulating automatic bodily processes. And, the sympathetic state, our stress responses of fight/flight/freeze/fawn. The amygdala is a pair of almond-shaped structures deep within the brain's temporal lobes that plays a critical role in processing emotions, especially fear. It acts as the brain's alarm system, detecting potential threats and triggering the fight-or-flight response to prepare the body for immediate action. So, when we are stressed, overwhelmed, or triggered, the amygdala is activated, and the sympathetic state responds to protect us.

 The nervous system is the key toward healing! Our trauma may have occurred recently or years past, but our body remembers and may still be holding on to the patterns it learned long ago for protection, a shield to keep us safe, in order to survive. We continuously held onto these states in the body to cope with what was too overwhelming for us, and may still today, because it is familiar for the body. We were stuck in our sympathetic nervous system state, which can vary for each of us, but are the fight/ flight/ freeze/ and fawn modes of survival.  These can look like a racing heart, sweaty palms, tightness in the chest, clenching the jaw, raised shoulders as if to brace for impact, fleeing from life, shutting down into an inactive, immobile state, people-pleasing, among many more patterns. Understanding which of these states is the most common stress or trigger response for us, will help us identify which somatic technique can help us self regulate, and shift out of the sympathetic state. 

The Vagus Nerve is essential to our self-regulation! This nerve lies at the base of the brain, and is the primary communicator between the body and the brain. It runs down the neck, and hits every organ system in the body. 80% of the messages this nerve picks up are from the body to the brain. So, when we are stressed, our muscles may tense, stomach may feel knotted or upset, hyperventilating, sweaty palms, shoulders rise, jaw clenches, and the vagus nerve picks up these messages and sends them to the brain, telling the brain, ok it's time to activate the sympathetic state and prepare the body for protection against a threat. We can, however, stimulate this vagus nerve, to interrupt the messages, to communicate that we are not in fact in any danger. We can self-soothe using somatic techniques to remind the body that it doesn't need to react the same way it once did to a past trauma, what's happening right now, is different, not threatening, and we can come back into the parasympathetic state, back to ourselves.

   Trauma is not only existing as a memory in the mind, it is integrated in the body, being carried with us, even years later. Trauma doesn't always make us stronger, sometimes it leaves scars. This is why we can't simply "get over it," because we finally now understand it is held in the body. Our nervous system doesn't experience time the way our mind does, for the body, the past isn't past, it's still happening right now. Somatic healing isn't about "letting go" of trauma, it's about teaching our bodies that the trauma is already over. Some of us are aware of a past trauma, some of us may not remember. Today, as an adult, we may have even discovered stress responses that are confusing to us, “why is my heart racing right now?” Our mind likely blocked the event to protect us, but something current has triggered a response that still lives within us today, an old trauma pattern that’s very familiar in the body. Traditional methods of trauma healing like talk therapy can be affective, and somatic healing techniques are simply another approach that focuses on healing the BODY FIRST, then the mind. 

I incorporate a somatic practice into every one of my yoga classes, to serve as an additional healing modality to yoga, meditation, and pranayama, breath work practices. It isn't just air, it's the steady hand that guides our nervous system back to wholeness. My somatic therapy training provides many benefits, but MORE importantly, MY own lived trauma experience is of far greater insight into helping others heal. I offer a handful of practices or tools to directly stimulate the vagus nerve, so if you are curious, come to class to experience them for yourself! When we stimulate the vagus nerve directly, we are actively sending messages, from that area of the body we are working on, to the brain via the vagus nerve, to tell the brain that the body is safe, and not under threat, so the heart rate can slow down, shoulders can soften, jaw can relax, the breath can lengthen and expand, and slow down, all signals of safety, shifting us from a sympathetic state to the parasympathetic nervous system state. Applying somatic techniques isn't simply about returning to a calm state.  It is about learning to create a larger capacity to sit with discomfort, to feel difficult emotions and sensations, without drowning. so we don't run away from pain, stress or overwhelm, through unhealthy habits to avoid it all.  We know what these unhealthy habits are. Remember the body can not overthink. Only the mind does. So when the mind is overactive and heavy, shift your presence to the physical body.

Yoga is not self - improvement, it's self-remembrance, reconnecting to who we are once the armor and layers we've built up, are finally shed. We begin to recognize which stories are ours, and which were imposed on us when surviving. We can take these techniques off our mat into daily life to regulate the nervous system, to move fluidly between the NS states, so we don’t become stuck in one. Of course, fight or flight activation is essential to survival, such as when we are in an accident, or fleeing danger, but we don’t want to respond to life in this manner every day for years on end. This harms the body, mind, and spirit. In the same way, an underactive nervous system state, always existing in a freeze, fawn, shutdown state is equally harmful to the mind, body, and spirit. Our practice in class introduces us to a multitude of techniques, with one might resonating deeper than another. And, one might resonate deeper on different days, and for different stress responses. We can use these techniques during yoga, while taking a walk, cycling, while waiting at a red light, after avoiding an accident or someone with road rage, waiting in line at a store, opening an email from the boss, or hearing a loved one’s name, who has passed.  All of my tools can help the body move the energy of years of stored trauma and over time, the body and nervous system will learn the difference between now and then, and that it doesn’t have to respond in the same manner that it did to the original traumatic experience. We can heal ourselves through self-regulation. 

 Come back to your 5 senses, noticing everything around you. Return to the somatic tools you learned in class. The more attention the body receives, the less the mind gets. And so, one day, we won't even need the tools, we will be able to adapt because we've become much more resilient to life's challenges. One day, we will deeply exhale, noticing safety in the body. We will yawn, aware of regulation in the nervous system. Our teeth will separate, tongue will fall from the roof of the mouth, shoulders will lower, chest will open, muscles release, and our jaw will soften. Our eyes will widen, taking in more light, more colors, more beauty. Our stomach will release knots, muscles will ease, and time and our heart rate will slow down. We will become present. This is our healing alignment: mind, body, and soul synergy.