Somatic Therapy Frequently Asked Questions
Why the body?
“The body is the ultimate witness to love”. This quote by writer Ocean Vuong sums up for me why it is vital that the body is part of any sustained change in our physical, emotional, mental states. For many of us, how we realise that something is out of balance is through what shows up at the level of our body - perhaps the chronic gut issues and insomnia, the tight chest and shallow breath, or the braced muscles and sense of numbness. The body is intimately involved in our experience of stress, so it makes sense that we include it in the process of recovery.
Our body is the vehicle of all our lived experiences- the ones we didn’t have the words for yet when we were too young; the place that holds the raw truth of our fears and pains regardless of what we might say or do on the outside; and yet also the landscape of our joys and pleasures. The body remembers how it has been loved, and how it was not.
As such, when we include the body in sessions and there is a lived experience of safety, welcome and allowance, the body too remembers this, and there can often be sustained shifts which ripple out through multiple areas of our lives.
Including the body is also not at the expense of the mind, which has such an important role to play in our analysis and decision-making. Rather, we rebuild the relationship with the body so that we can draw on its wisdom as well, to partner the wisdom of our mind.
What is the structure of a session?
First sessions are an opportunity for us to meet, human to human, nervous system to nervous system. In that spirit, my primary intention for the first session is for us to see if there is resonance, to begin building a sense of safety within our shared container and to be with whatever arises. During the first session what we might typically cover includes:
key points from your intake form to build context and set an intention
psychoeducation based on polyvagal theory to understand your nervous system better
an opportunity and safe space to express your truth and emotion
an experience of connecting in with your body either through guided prompts or supportive touch
Beyond the first session, each session is different and a co-creation between you and me, and I hold a space of deep trust that whatever feels ready to emerge in our session is exactly what we work with. As such, there is no need to always prepare a topic to speak about. This means that depending on what comes up in our session, there will be a mix of different modalities I’ve trained in coming into play e.g. therapeutic touch, somatic dialogue, parts work, inner child reconnecting, TRE, qigong, meditation, etc. What underpins my approach, regardless of modality, is attuned connection, resourcing and safety, spaciousness in pacing and befriending the body.
In general, we start and end a session with some time to speak together, and often you will leave with a self-care practice to support you in between sessions. Some components a session could include are:
Seated somatic sensing and inner child reconnection
Lying on the massage table for more direct touch support
Movement on the mat or floor if exploring TRE or other movement interventions
What ways might my body respond during and after a session?
Throughout our session, all your honest emotions and reflections are welcome - there is no need to hold back. During the session, especially if we were to explore supported touch on the table, a whole variety of responses can show up, depending on how you are feeling that day, your relationship with receiving touch and how tired your body is. What many people experience is a sense of relief and a big inner exhale - firsthand experiences of sessions can be found at the bottom of this page. Some common responses are:
Spontaneous tremoring and jerking of the body
Gurgling of the belly
Heightened discomfort in areas of chronic tension
Coughing or tickling at the throat
Sense of spaciousness
Emotional release
Deepening of the breath
Falling asleep
Even after a session concludes, you might feel a little more sensitive than usual and sometimes might even feel a little worse - this can be because what we had previously not been aware of in our feelings or body, is now more on the surface where we can notice it. You might like to give yourself more space after a session, try and get an earlier rest that day or get some support with our self-care resources.
How often and long should sessions be continued for, how will I know I’m getting better?
Just like how our body has taken many years to develop its various adaptive habits, it also takes time to unlearn those habits. Think of it like strengthening a muscle - we understand that going to the gym once a month will offer us a vastly different experience to a weekly training. Here the “muscle” we are training could be our relationship to our body, new patterns of relating to ourselves, etc.
As such, while a one-off session can serve as a helpful reset for a sudden bout of stress, if there are deeper-seated issues that need addressing, more than one session is typically needed. This also ensures that what gets moved through in a session is not too much for the body to handle at one go. I normally suggest at least a series of 5 sessions after the first session, so there is time for cumulative and sustained change to occur.
From anecdotal experience, initially I find it helpful for sessions to ideally be spaced out a week or at most 2 weeks apart. This allows time for integration of the session and yet not too long that the body’s usual adaptive patterns creep in.
As each person’s reason for seeking out somatic therapy is different, what “getting better” will look like can be very different. The kind words past clients have shared with me can give a flavour of the changes they have experienced. Some ways this can look like are:
Clearer sense of sight and hearing
Reduction in the intensity of physical symptoms
Feeling more “here”
Having a stronger sense of one’s needs, desires and boundaries
Being more comfortable in the arising and expression of emotions
Experiencing a greater sense of trust in oneself and others
How do I know if somatic therapy is for me?
This is a question I am asked often, and my honest answer is until we have the opportunity to meet each other in session, I don’t know if somatic therapy would be a good fit for where you are on your journey right now.
What I can share are the reasons why my past and current clients sought me out:
They feel they have reached a plateau with their talk therapy journey - they have the mental perspective to see what is wrong but are stuck at changing the behaviour and/or their mind is feeling clearer but their body symptoms have not changed
Medically they have taken all the different tests and are supposed to be “ok” but are not feeling that way at all
They identify as being very “heady” people who are very analytical and feel very disconnected with their body
They are aware that they have traumatic experiences (but might not remember them) from when they were in the womb, post-natal, or while still very young, i.e. pre-verbal.
They are following a hunch that there is something more underneath what is showing up emotionally or physically, but are not sure what
What is most important in all therapeutic care, and what matters most in enabling shifts is a sense of mutual resonance between client and therapist. And so if you are feeling drawn to how I’ve been sharing about somatic therapy, that is a good signal. We can also get on a 15min exploration call for you to get a better sense of me as well, if you are still unsure.