Release Stored Stress, Chronic Illness & Fatigue with Somatic Psychotherapy

Can you think your way out of the stress and overwhelm your feeling in your body? Many people have attempted this. The masters of manifestation teaches that the thoughts you think shapes your life. Why isn’t this working for you?

In this article, we will explore the questions:

• Reasons why you’ve tried many different therapies and your body still isn’t healing.

• The Limits of Talk and Somatic Therapy.

• What is Somatic Therapy vs Somatic Psychotherapy?

• The T-E-A Framework to help your body release stored stress and be at ease again.

• What You Can Do Today to Heal.

*client stories are real but names are pseudo names.

I met Cynthia in my office and after just 5 minutes of  asking her what she came in to see me for-she was balling her eyes with the lists of heartbreaks and body aches she’s been through. Her traumatic events are body shattering to say the least, and, per her report,  I’m surviving, just afraid that “it’s going to happen again.”

Women have the tendency to normalize these feelings perhaps due to the many responsibilities she need to haggle, so she manages everything else, and she puts herself in the back of her mind. Interestingly, in the back of your mind (head) is your spine. It’s the spine that holds a baby’s head once her neck is strong enough. All the peripheral nerves that come out of your spine are connected to your organs from the top of your head to the soles of your feet.

It makes sense that Cynthia is anxious, overwhelmed and her head feels like its about to explode, not to mention her Crohn's disease. She is not the parts separated from the rest of her body.

Everything in your body is beautifully connected.

WHY YOUR BODY STILL ISN’T HEALING

Talk therapy has many benefits. Many people need to be heard and their experiences validated and witnessed. I like that about talk therapy. 

The downfall of talk therapy is you become what you talk about. The masters of manifestation have this right, your thoughts shape your belief. Your belief creates your imaginative expectation like a self-fulfilling prophecy. This is no longer woo-woo, science has backed this up. The neuroscientist, Lisa Barrett talks about this in her book, How Emotions are Made.

The problem with talk therapy is like using a low beam flashlight to see through a dark cave- you will only see what your low beam flashlight allows. Better yet, since the flashlight can die any time, you choose to see only what you want to see. Let’s call what you can see as your conscious mind.

In traditional therapy, you talk about what you can see with a low- beam flashlight and the therapist works with that material even though the cave has so much more depth to it-unexplored. Let’s call this the subconscious mind.

Therapy that only deals with your conscious mind is like a having tea with a friend-feels good and cozy but later on you realize, you’re still anxious and your body is still hurting.

When Cynthia came to my office, she’s had a series of EMDR (eye movement desensitization response) therapy and talk therapy. It helped her blur the traumatic events but she can still feel it in her body. Her body is still in fight-or-flight. She’s still afraid that it will happen again and her headaches and digestive system continue to speak in symptoms.

Your mind and body are a system that collaborates with each other like tires and an engine in a car.. You can fix the tires but a car won’t run without an engine. Tune-up the engine without a tires and you’re still stuck.

Your mind and body are essential parts of your healing. Does this resonate with you and you have questions? Book your 20 minute Free Zoom Consult with Roanne.

SOMATIC THERAPIES VS SOMATIC PSYCHOTHERAPY

There is a myriad of various somatic therapies that is being marketed in the media at this time. I think this reflects our society’s unspoken need to be felt, connected, and touched. We all have this yearning and there’s no shame in accessing them. Just for the purpose of my writing, I will use the term somatic therapy (therapist) for someone trained in working with the body without a psychotherapy/counseling training.

Somatic therapies range from reiki, craniosacral therapy, trauma-informed Structural Integration Manual Therapy, and many others. I think each one has something to offer and if it worked for you-keep it. But, in my experience, the focus only on the body leaves the mind behind. As if you can fix the engine but the wheels are still inoperable.

Things may start looking good but you’re still stuck.

As I often quote, Dr, Aline LaPierre of NeuroAffective Touch Therapy “......

Somatic Psychotherapy does not see a hierarchy between the mind and body- because you can’t touch one without affecting the other.

In my practice, Somatic Psychotherapy blends therapy that touches the subconscious mind- the high beam flashlight that can allow you to explore the cave deeper & somatic work.

Without Psychotherapy,  Somatic Work can leave the mind confused and can sabotage healing when it can’t make meaning of its bodily experiences.

This can leave you with a feeling of floating, almost a high, in which you’re not sure how to put your earthly feet down the ground. Without psychotherapy, which in my world, tends to the subconscious mind- something is still incomplete.

The limit of traditional psychotherapy is that just talking about things can’t change things. You must be able to experience in your body the change you’re seeking.

Without Somatic Work, the mind understands but doesn’t know what to do with this information. To the body that has stored stress and trauma for years, ease and balance in the body is like a fantasy that belongs to someone else.

But healing is possible.

Somatic Psychotherapy is not new, instead it blends, what I call, Wisdom of the Ages-wisdom that keeps coming up in different times, various disciplines & language, and from teachers across the world that says the same thing.

You are a beautifully interconnected system and your body is conspiring for your health and wellness.

Somatic Psychotherapy is therapy that leans into the wisdom of your mind and body. In my practice, I blend both Spinal Flow technique and Neuroaffective Touch Therapy for my somatic work.

You deserve  not just to feel better but to feel good.

The T-E-A FRAMEWORK: HOW TO HEAL ARE STRESSED OUT BODY AND MIND

In my practice, I’ve simplified my framework called T-E-A. It’s incredibly effective when practiced with intent and consistency. It’s not rocket science, it simplifies teachings from many disciplines and masters. Here is a quick explanation.

With commitment to hear healing, Cynthia rarely could move about freely and her test results show that her digestive systems no longer needs medication.

*please note-everybody's body respond differently. This is her goal to be off medication.

WHAT HEALING CAN LOOK LIKE FOR YOU

Healing is not a linear journey but its always a worthwhile endeavor. It’s too painful to come across women who have normalized feeling tired, anxious, and having aches in her body. I was told by many moms that their children have developed the expectation that -their mommy is just always tired, irritable  or in the sidelines. As a mom myself, and knowing this is not the intent of these fabulous moms- its too bothersome for me.

Whether your a mom or not, healing takes taking a pause from your usual routine that probably isn’t working for your optimal health and wellness. If you have sprain in your feet, you would immediately get off that feet so that you can heal fast. But, when something else invisible is broken ( a broken heart, a traumatized inner child), women have the tendency to keep going. So, the invisible pain, keeps getting worse. They suffer as so does the people they love the most.

People who love you the most, want the best parts of you, not just the breadcrumb version of you.

Your healing journey is not anyone can dictate but I assure you, with your commitment, you will-

• Feel better sooner than later.

• You will begin to feel like yourself again.

• You will have more energy to do things with your loved ones.

• Time will expand. Suddenly you feel like you have more time. 

• Your body will stop screaming with symptoms.

• Wonder why you didn’t start sooner. A dysregulated body has the illusion that everything is urgent and therefore, can’t begin to imagine what pausing looks like.

If you’re ready to start healing, I’m ready to support you. Book your 20 minute free zoom consult below.