Somatic Therapy
Somatic Therapy Can Help You Process Trauma
Do you feel held back by old beliefs, traumas, or unconscious struggles that prevent you from reaching your full potential? It is not your fault.
We have old stories and levels of consciousness in our minds and bodies that have not been resolved or updated to our current capabilities. Piecing this together on our own often leaves us frustrated or stuck. We think it should be easier or we begin to blame ourselves for what we can’t overcome.
As a Sex Therapist who specializes in Somatic Therapy and its applications, I am here to guide you through the process of overcoming these challenges and improving your mental health.
What is Somatic Therapy?
The mind-body connection is a powerful relationship within ourselves and often collects emotions and beliefs. A past traumatic experience and pain are trapped within our bodies and nervous system unless we can release them. When moving forward in life, these trapped roadblocks haunt us and need a holistic approach to healing.
Somatic therapy tends to these entangled emotional and psychological issues within the mind-body connection and seeks to process and release those inner struggles. Your previous negative thoughts and experiences that affect your life today are given an outlet in a safe setting.
Traditional talk therapies are effective for many, and they concentrate on the mind and thoughts. Somatic therapy first focuses on the body instead, helping you find peace and relief from your body's natural tensions associated with trauma.
How Behavior Patterns Impact Our Physical Bodies
Our unconscious feelings, sensations, and images in our bodies often match where we stopped developing in childhood. This may look like not learning how to ask for help because help wasn’t available when we were younger. Or, we may have been made to feel worse because we were struggling. Intellectually, we understand we need to ask for help, but we are not able to actually alter behavioral responses to create the changes we are seeking.
Your body's stress response and internal state create tension. Your body will form behavioral patterns like shallow breathing, a freeze response, or trouble making regular eye contact.
When is this body-forward therapy helpful?
You may find yourself with depression, anxiety, or a general feeling of inertia without an obvious connection to an event. Or, you have posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a prior sexual assault, physical trauma, or any scarring experience that you carry. Somatic therapy is a way to process these emotions and liberate yourself from their hold.
Benefits of Working With a Somatic Therapist
Somatic therapy works faster than traditional cognitive approaches. Many therapy models, like cognitive behavioral therapy, teach how to change your thinking, but they don't teach you how to evolve the language of the body.
Somatic therapists believe our bodies hold our histories, memories, and emotions and require equal attention if we want to truly embody the transformation we desire. Specific movement techniques, breathwork, and exercises promote honest self-expression, release energy flow in the body, and bring unconscious feelings and belief patterns into greater awareness. This body awareness supports a more mindful relationship with yourself and with others, which then informs new behavior. New behavior creates different results in all areas of your life, including your intimate relationships and quality of life, and your full potential begins to be realized.
What does sex therapy have to do with somatic therapy?
When previous experiences cause struggles, they affect other facets of life. Your beautiful body and mind are intertwined, and suffering in one space influences other aspects of our lives.
For example, working through a generally painful childhood, traumatic memories, or a specific incident brings confidence and safety to pursue other healing and explore your sexuality and sexual health. Or, the trauma that needs processing is directly related to your sexual health. Somatic therapy techniques help your mental health conditions and physical symptoms.
We can examine, more specifically, your difficulties with emotional and physical intimacy and sexuality within the framework of somatic therapy. As we create a supported environment for this exploration, we begin to unpack the moment-to-moment struggles, such as anxiety, numbness, or disconnection, that occur in intimate situations. We will also focus on connecting to your natural arousal, desire, and relationship skills. This often leads to clients learning how to trust themselves and how to communicate effectively with a partner.
You do not need to explore sex therapy as part of the somatic therapy experience if that doesn't suit you. They may or may not be connected for you.
A resource if you are feeling disconnected from your partner: https://www.cindymichel.com/blog/disconnected-from-your-partner
What is the First Visit Like?
I provide a judgment-free space that increases your safety and resiliency.
We will discover the awareness of your breath, embodiment, and movement in relation to your life experiences and past traumatic events. I will meet you where you are and help you get ready to explore your body awareness further. As we make space for this, it becomes easier to witness the difficult places in our minds and bodies. I will support the natural unfolding of your physical impulses and needs so that you begin to feel more connected and whole.
This approach uses various techniques to bring awareness of your body and physical movement and bodily sensations into light. It might look like deepening the physical act of breathing and sending your breath into your belly. Let your arms and legs follow their impulses, i.e., putting your hands out before you and asking someone to stop or motioning to hold your boundary. It might include making contact with parts of your body that feel numb or tense by putting your hand, intention, or breath there.
Often, when we form a relationship with the experiences inside of ourselves, our bodies find a relaxed state. They no longer have to hold vigil to what occurred in the past. Forming that relationship and learning tools to support its unfoldment creates wholeness.
Somatic therapy can seem scary
We all feel self-conscious about what we haven’t been able to resolve or overcome. Inviting a therapist to work with our bodies can feel too vulnerable or too overwhelming. I understand, I felt that way, too, when I first started this type of therapy.
Your brain and body know better than I do, so I follow your pace and readiness. I trust and listen to your comfort and direction about beginning this relationship with your body.
I provide a safe, shame-free environment where you can begin to explore this connection with your body. I truly love helping clients with this skill because it is key to a deeper relationship with yourself that will support you throughout your lifespan. When we learn how to listen to our body and begin to practice rest and play, we begin to feel at home in our bodies.
For more resources, visit: https://www.polyvagalinstitute.org/whatispolyvagaltheory
My Experience as a Somatic Therapist
Working as a somatic therapist since 2004, I have enjoyed helping many clients experience a full range of feelings, embodiment, and awakened aliveness. Becoming a somatic therapist convinced me to enter the field of psychotherapy because I saw proof of real-life changes in myself and in others. I am trained in several forms of somatic therapy, such as EMDR, brainspotting, trauma resourcing, and resiliency practices.
I am currently in my first year of Somatic Experiencing training to expand my somatic therapy education. It is a 3-year program that works directly with trauma in the body. My core energetics training was more about developmental trauma - the armoring we learn in childhood to protect us when we aren’t seen; our needs aren’t met, and we have narcissistic parents who don’t see us for who we are but only for what we do for them. When we close down our hearts after being sexualized or traumatized, it becomes unsafe to feel our feelings, and somatic therapy overcomes this.
Somatic Therapy in Los Angeles
The effectiveness of somatic therapy is proven in overcoming trauma history and challenges ingrained in us. This therapy approach reconnects our bodies and minds to create profound change. After releasing old beliefs and traumas, you can overcome your struggles and reach your full potential.
If you are ready to reconnect, join me for a complimentary consultation to determine whether somatic therapy is right for you. I look forward to meeting you!
Learn More About Me and My Services
Begin aligning with your life and goals today
Other Therapy Services By Cindy Michel, M.A., LMFT, CST
Somatic Therapy may not exactly what you are looking for. I also offer other types of therapy services online such as Individual and Couples Sex Therapy, Online Sex Therapy in California, New Mexico, and Florida, EMDR Therapy, Sexual Trauma Therapy, and Brainspotting. I also provide Sex Coaching Services.
I am available for in-person sessions in my Los Angeles office and online in California, New Mexico and Florida; please reach out if you want to learn more about my other services and explore if therapy or coaching is right for you.