All sessions begin with talking to explore what is going on and what you would like to work on. From there we might use therapeutic touch, breathwork, or hypnosis. You are welcome to request sessions specifically using any of these modalities, or we may use a different one each time we meet. We can decide together which way to work each session. Read more here about therapeutic touch and hands-on listening. It is a valuable tool to facilitate listening to the cues of the body, leading to deepened understanding about how you are feeling and insight as to what is desired.
Hands-On Somatic Therapy
Some healing cannot happen through words alone. Since long before recorded history, lineages around the world used touch to heal the body, mind, heart and spirit. Yet current treatment tends to divide the body, mind and soul. The mind goes to therapy, the body goes to the doctor, the soul goes to church–but where do we go to be whole? Sometimes it is clear that the symptoms of the body have causes in the mind, emotions, and spirit. Sometimes, the pains of the mind don not need more thinking, but rather need the soothing power of touch. Hands-on somatic therapy provides this most human capacity of touch and healing that comes when we remember our wholeness and connection.
Physical touch reconnects us with experience prior to thought or analysis. It reminds us of our connectedness and deeper knowing. It can be an essential element in the resolution of trauma and of physical tension. With the help of this most primary form of support, you can recognize that, whatever it is you are going through, that you do not need to go through it alone. Though this sense of being supported, it becomes more possible to embrace–rather than restrain or fear–the wisdom of the body. Through this process, physical symptoms that may be acting as messengers can have their messages heard, incomplete stresses of the past can be released, and the body can begin to relax.
The therapeutic touch used in hands-on somatic work can be very helpful in process of therapy. It balances the nervous system, connects to the soul, and helps you come into contact with what you feel and know. Many have had the experience of going to a talk therapist and not being able to access what they feel, and then going to a massage therapist and not knowing why they are crying. Hands-on work creates the bridge between. Touch creates balance and calm, assists emotional understanding and release, helps connect the client to their body and sensations, and increases comfort in the body. It is done fully clothed laying on a bodywork table. It is not a massage. It is not sexual. In the scale of time, it is actually a very recent phenomenon for therapists to not use touch. But since touch has become uncommon in therapy, it is important that the client understands the context of the touch as healing.
This style of touch based in a process of listening. The therapist listens to the body rather than analyzing or trying to change it. The client is asked to listen to their own sensations as well. Together, the therapist and client explore body sensations and what situations, thoughts, memories, conflicts or questions might be behind them and what the sensations are asking for.
Somatic Therapy is the understanding that emotional, mental and spiritual health is inseparable from the care of the body and earth. This does not at all mean that our body must be perfect in order for our spirit to be whole. Rather, it means listening deeply and honoring wholeness, life, and intelligence in everything.
Individual sessions can also include breathwork, or hypnosis. Please click through to read more.