1. Talk Therapy, Alone, Is Not Always Enough.
Cutting edge treatment centers have integrated body-oriented therapy into their services for the last ten or twenty years. Why? Because it works. Because it works and because clients respond.
I love talk and insight oriented therapy. It's a beautiful thing. And it's not always adequate by itself. After over a decade of practicing as a somatic therapist, I'll admit it. I'm biased. For some of our clients, talk therapy will never be enough. Not in the long term. We're not just intellectual beings. Or emotional beings. Or mindful beings. Or physical beings. We're all of that and more. The most effective therapeutic approaches recognize and exploit this reality fully. Somatic Experiencing (SE) is one such approach.
I love talk and insight oriented therapy. It's a beautiful thing. And it's not always adequate by itself. After over a decade of practicing as a somatic therapist, I'll admit it. I'm biased. For some of our clients, talk therapy will never be enough. Not in the long term. We're not just intellectual beings. Or emotional beings. Or mindful beings. Or physical beings. We're all of that and more. The most effective therapeutic approaches recognize and exploit this reality fully. Somatic Experiencing (SE) is one such approach.
2. Your Clients Have Been Storing Experiences of All Kinds In Their Bodies Since They Were Born. Maybe Before.
Your addicted, chaotic, eating disordered, and highly traumatized clients have been storing experiences of all kinds in their bodies since the day they were born. Perhaps, since conception. We all have. Layer enough of the right kind of experience into the nervous system and bodies and systems react the way they react--seeking numbing experiences and experiencing high levels of activation and internal chaos. Impulsivity. Destructive relationship patterns. Addictions. Somatic Experiencing can begin to loosen and resolve the issues driving such behavior patterns and do so in a non-retraumatizing and elegant manner. Smooth.
3. Your Clients Need Stabilization And The Ability To Self-Regulate And Self-Soothe In Order To Benefit From The Rest of Their Treatment Program.
Deepening the ability to self-soothe, cultivating resiliency, identifying triggers, reducing impulsivity, establishing and maintaining healthy boundaries, getting in touch with a renewed sense of safety, and understanding emotions as they emerge are important skills each of your recovery minded clients needs to have. Somatic Experiencing is a real boon in this way and a perfect pairing with DBT and other approaches you are already employing.
Not every client is stable enough for EMDR. Lovely and powerful as EMDR is, not all your clients have enough resource or ego strength in these early days to navigate EMDR. In addition to being a strong stand alone therapy, Somatic Experiencing is great tool for creating resource and resiliency in your clients' nervous systems and prepare them for entering your EMDR program over times.
Not every client is stable enough for EMDR. Lovely and powerful as EMDR is, not all your clients have enough resource or ego strength in these early days to navigate EMDR. In addition to being a strong stand alone therapy, Somatic Experiencing is great tool for creating resource and resiliency in your clients' nervous systems and prepare them for entering your EMDR program over times.
4. The Desire To Numb Out Is At The Bottom of Many Client Behaviors.
Of course. We both know this. At a certain point, your clients will recognize this, as well. Your clients have used their behaviors and substances to numb their feelings for a long time. When those behaviors are brought to heel through the hard work of your clients and your treatment team, there's a natural and yet dangerous void remaining. All the ways in which struggling folks numb out have now been taken off the table and clients are left with a deficit of self-care skills to address the overwhelming emotional and physical discomfort of being with their feelings again. All the time.
You and your treatment team are working night and day to support your clients in developing a skill based and mindful approach to dealing with these overwhelming emotions. Somatic Experiencing promotes increased self-awareness, increased self regulation, and increased well-being by supporting an individual's ability to gently learn how to be more present to themselves and their somatic sensations. Those sensations are fueling their emotions.
You and your treatment team are working night and day to support your clients in developing a skill based and mindful approach to dealing with these overwhelming emotions. Somatic Experiencing promotes increased self-awareness, increased self regulation, and increased well-being by supporting an individual's ability to gently learn how to be more present to themselves and their somatic sensations. Those sensations are fueling their emotions.
5. The Brain Has a Natural Negative Bias.
Our brains are designed with a negative bias. Not just some human brains. All human brains. We have a big juicy frontal lobe, which has evolved as wonderful problem noticing, problem solving organ. We've spent eons identifying risks, avoiding catastrophe, scanning for danger, noticing and attending to what is wrong in our environment and in our bodies. We need to know when we are in trouble or injured. It's simple survival, really. Apparently, noticing the positive and what was quietly going well wasn't nearly as important to survival of the species as identifying pain and trouble. As I tell my clients every day, the anxious survived and we're the result. Fun stuff.
Overcoming that natural negative bias is one of the tasks of evolving as a person and creating a happier existence in an overstimulating and chaotic world. Somatic Experiencing, with its focus on sensation, can be a wonderful tool for noticing what is going well with the body, what is neutral, or even great, despite the concurrent presence of pain, discomfort, or anxiety. SE can form a huge learning in being able to be with both, hold both, the good and the bad, the positive and the troubling. Learning how to cultivate an awareness of what is actually okay can be a very stabilizing and encouraging support for recovery of all kinds.
Overcoming that natural negative bias is one of the tasks of evolving as a person and creating a happier existence in an overstimulating and chaotic world. Somatic Experiencing, with its focus on sensation, can be a wonderful tool for noticing what is going well with the body, what is neutral, or even great, despite the concurrent presence of pain, discomfort, or anxiety. SE can form a huge learning in being able to be with both, hold both, the good and the bad, the positive and the troubling. Learning how to cultivate an awareness of what is actually okay can be a very stabilizing and encouraging support for recovery of all kinds.
Utilizing a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP) As Part of Your Treatment Plan Can Increase Your Clients' Overall Success.
Treatment centers are always striving to increase their clients' success rates and satisfaction with services. It's good clinical work. And good business. Increasingly, I see this desire for excellence and a competitive edge includes acknowledging the body-mind connection in a manner that is both accessible and least activating for clients. Somatic Experiencing, which can be provided within the treatment center or as an adjunct individual service or as part of your regular group rotation, can satisfy this need in a safe and titrated way. Learning how to be present to the body, aware of but not overwhelmed by strong emotions or sensations, constitutes a hugely powerful, empowering, and healing experience for our clients. Isn't that the exact thing we are wanting for all our clients?
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