Somatic Work
Therapy from the Bottom Up
When we think of therapy, we think of what we’ve seen on TV or in the movies. Someone sitting on a couch talking to someone else who seems enigmatic and wise.
Talk therapy is what therapy has been since therapy became a thing. We talk to someone. We figure stuff out. And once we figure the stuff out, we say to ourselves, “Well, great! Now things will be different!”
Oftentimes, that’s enough.
But sometimes it’s not.
Sometimes, we find ourselves locked in such a loop that we don’t know how things will change even with the new knowledge we thought would be the very thing we needed.
But there’s a different approach to the way therapy is done.
Therapy from the Bottom Up.
(No, this isn’t a drinking game...)
Instead of therapy from the Top Down (using our brain and using our words), sometimes it’s more effective to do therapy from the Bottom Up.
This is when we pay attention to what’s happening in our body to help us understand and make sense of it. This part of ourselves doesn’t have a vocabulary of words. It has a vocabulary of sensations and patterned behavior that is difficult to understand and access if we’re not paying close attention.
Some of the work I do is to help you pay attention to what your body is trying to tell you, and to help you decipher what it’s trying to say. When you have that awareness, you’ll be able to help your brain and your body work together to slow down and find ways to soothe and calm yourself, and to make the choices that are right for you rather than reacting to what’s happening in your body.
I do this in two ways:
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy
This form of therapy is one of the most integrative and comprehensive I have found that really helps you understand and name what is happening to you. Your body is always communicating to you and with you, and Sensorimotor work gives you the opportunity and tools to listen and understand that communication. Sensorimotor work synthesizes attachment theory, parts work, mindfulness along with somatic work to really help you get a grasp on what’s happening and what’s standing in your way.
EMDR
Using bilateral stimulation (either by watching something go back and forth, or by tapping on yourself), EMDR helps you bypass your intellect and goes right into the information stored and sometimes trapped in your neural network. Once you can bring it up, you can actually work with it and process it.
Both Sensorimotor and EMDR go underneath your story by focusing you on body sensation or information stored on your neural networks, bringing up and releasing information that can be hard to access otherwise.