BODY-CENTERED THERAPY
WHAT IS BODY-CENTERED PSYCHOTHERAPY?
Body-centered psychotherapy is also known as somatic psychotherapy. “Soma” is the Greek term signifying the cognitive, emotional, physical, and emotional body are one living unit. In this field of work, the body is recognized as central for self-awareness and includes mindfulness of body sensation as the primary role in mental health and therapeutic interventions. By utilizing both the wisdom of the mind and the body, the approach can offer healing on a holistic level. Body-centered psychotherapy practices can be a powerful avenue to allow unconscious behaviors and habitual patterns to surface and heal an individual’s deeply held core material and trauma.
Somatic Experiencing is a specific body-centered modality and trauma based treatment therapy that integrates body and sensation processing with cognitive and emotional processing. The body is recognized as the primary avenue for processing trauma and allows for presence of mind-body connection in order to create more capacity, coherence and equilibrium in self. Many times trauma symptoms get stuck and reside in the body as images, sounds, smells, sensations, pain, constriction, numbing, and immobility. This unresolved trauma results in an individual to be incapable of thinking clearly and having the ability to manage different emotional states. Somatic Experiencing is a therapeutic, trauma modality that allows one to mindfully track body sensation and movement and to create more expansion for healing. This expansion can offer a person to feel more joy, empowerment and bring more vitality to one’s life. This practice cultivates presence by tracking moment-to-moment body sensations, impulses and thoughts. It encourages an individual’s awareness and presence to be with their body’s natural movement responses, resulting in the ability to holistically heal and self-regulate when feeling overwhelmed, distressed, or triggered.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF BODY- PSYCHOTHERAPY?
Often we are not aware of our physical sensations and emotional disturbance and how they keep us recapitulating unhealthy habits and defenses. When triggered, we often react immediately due to how we are conditioned and often we don’t have the tools to manage our reactions in the present moment. Body-centered psychotherapy allows an individual to practice ways of becoming more present. It increases an individual’s self-awareness around how their body communicates non-verbally when activated and what helps them feel grounded. The result is enhanced self-awareness and consciousness; giving one choice to be empowered to make healthy decisions and take healthy actions in the here and now.
I provide an individualized and integrative approach through body-oriented and mindfulness practices, to support you and your journey to connect more fully and deeply to your fullest potential.