What does somatic mean?

Well, soma means referring to the body. So I use “somatic” tools at times with clients. That means I pay attention to the body, to a client’s breathing, their posture, if they’re leaning in or pulling back, their eye contact, their voice if it gets more pressured or softer and more difficult to hear. 

And, we might do some “experiments” with the body. If I see shoulders that are hunched up, we may try hunching them up more – going deeper into the experience of that tension. Or I may ask a client to dig his heels into the ground and feel the ground push up against his feet. Or I might ask a client to notice how it feels to sit in a chair, where is she noticing contact with the chair?

I do this because we understand now that trauma plays out in the body. 

I’ll write more about the ACE study in another post, but basically it was a huge study that determined if a child experienced certain “adverse childhood events” they were more likely to have heart disease, diabetes, obesity, mental health issues, suicide, addictions and so much more. That is trauma playing out in the body.

An excellent book to read is “The Body Keeps Score” by Bessel van der Kolk.