If you are dealing with suppressed trauma, you might not even be aware of it. Plenty of symptoms could be manifesting and affecting your everyday life, while you may not be sure where all of your struggles come from. My name is Jen Stuart and, in today’s post, we will discuss Somatic Experiencing, an alternative therapy that Trauma Sensitive Yoga includes in its practice to help you overcome trauma.  

credit : @peoplebypierre

What is alternative therapy? 

First, let’s define what alternative therapy is since it can be misinterpreted. Sometimes, it can be confused with complementary therapies, which are treatments that can be used alongside conventional ones. 

On the other hand, alternative therapy is the main treatment, which replaces the conventional ones. There are different types of them, such as:

• Traditional: They have been used for a long time, belonging to the common medical practices of ancient cultures. For example, acupuncture, Ayurveda, etc.
• Mind: They focus on improving the body-mind connection through meditation, biofeedback, and others.
• External energy: Reiki and electromagnetic therapy fall into this category.
• Dieting: Have you ever heard we are what we eat? This approach uses herbal medicine and dietary supplements to balance the body from the inside to the outside.
• Body: This approach attends the body, recognising that we can hold negativity in many parts of our physical being. Yoga, tai chi, chiropractic medicine, and others belong to this category.

Somatic Experiencing therapy efficacy lays on its ability to lead the body to complete the cycle between discomfort (being in danger) and comfort (being safe). 

What is Somatic Experiencing therapy? 

It’s a holistic therapy that treats both body and mind. It identifies in what state of trauma response the person is stuck in: freeze, flight or fight. People who suffer from PTSD can benefit from this practice, as well as people who experience chronic body ache, stress, anxiety, or other mental imbalances because it recalibrate the nervous system.

Titration is one of the Somatic Experiencing techniques. It gently prepares you to cope better with all the body sensations that you can experience when remembering the traumatic event. It encourages you to describe the event as much as you feel comfortable doing while making you gain awareness of your body reactions. The repetitive usage of this technique allows patients to handle their memories and the body sensations linked to them better.

Somatic Experiencing therapists guide the client from a state of equilibrium into a state of imbalance, similar to the one experienced when the traumatic event took place. Then, Somatic Experiencing practitioners guide the client back to homeostasis. This technique is used several times, and each time energy is released, making the state of unstable arousal more manageable. Its objective is to empower the patient throughout their recovery journey by teaching them how to go back to balance on their own.

Benefits of Somatic Experiencing 

The benefits that you can get from a Somatic Experiencing therapy session are:

• Reframe the traumatic event and how it makes you feel, emotionally and physically.
• Improve your relationship with yourself. Build a better self-identity, have a better concept about your own self, boost your confidence, and regain self-control.
• Have a more positive approach to life, learning how to step out of discomfort and back into the present moment, where you belong, to be able to enjoy life. 

Yoga for Trauma incorporates this practice to enhance your recovery experience, making it more complete. If you are ready to start your recovery process, please visit Journey with Jen and allow me to accompany you to give your first steps into comfort.