In “traumatic” situations, people are pushed beyond the limits of their mental and physical capacity. Events that trigger a strong stress reaction, where the stress reaction is not resolved through interpersonal, spiritual or cultural processes, can manifest ongoing physiologoical and psychological changes. In western medicine, these are classified as serious psychological and physical illnesses such as those described by post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), complex PTSD, and a suite of other personality diagnoses.
Somatic Experiencing (SE) is a theory of trauma rehabilitation developed by Peter A. Levine. It concludes that “trauma” symptoms are due to an incomplete fight/flight/freeze response.
(Levine has a western, biomedical, psychology background.)
“According to SE, post-traumatic stress symptoms originate from a permanent overreaction of the innate stress system due to the overwhelming character of the traumatic event. In the traumatic situation, people are unable to complete the initiated psychological and physiological defensive reaction (e.g. prolonged freeze instead of fight or flight; Levine, 1997). This leads to a persistent somatic and emotional dysregulation of the nervous system and results in the chronically increased stress reaction that is observed in clients with PTSD. Therefore, the primary goal of SE is to modify the trauma-related stress response (Ogden & Minton, 2000). To achieve this, its major interventional strategy builds on bottom-up processing. Clients’ attention is directed to internal sensations, both visceral (interoception) and musculoskeletal (proprioception and kinaesthesis), rather than to primarily cognitive or emotional experiences.”
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/20008198.2021.1929023
This modern-psychology informed process is what underpins many ideas that deal with “somatics”. That is not, necessarily, a problem. But these thinkers did not invent the term, the idea or the healing. Every traditional culture on earth, I would posit, had a way of dealing with the bodily manifestations of our grief, our anger and our love. I think that dealing with the sensations of the body, our internal landscape and how we move in a body through the body of the earth are innately human ideas. Just as animism is/was normative human consciousness….
I think we should backtrack. What are we talking about with “somatic”.
Soma: body (Greek).
Interestingly, Psyche: soul, breath. Not mind…
So, somatic, relating to the body. Somatic healing, healing the body.
Somatic, somatics, somatic work are in vogue in psychology, health, wellness, healing circles. There are a lot of workshops to attend, programs to buy and gurus to follow. But I do not think it is a gimmick. I think this idea, of the emotional experience in the body, has a central role in the work of all health professionals, bodyworkers and healers.
In my Physiotherapy role, when people speak to me, they speak in physical terms and name complaints (very often pains) in the body. Often I will ask about what is going on in their home, work, family environments, but not often will this information be offered. Pain is a response to perceived threat. Maybe, there is perceived or real threat in the tissues which is causing nociception and a pain experience. Never, does this exist in a psychological/emotional vacuum. If sense of safety in life is lower, perceived threat of injury will result in pain levels higher. More stress, more fear, more pain.
There is some professional territorialism associated with this. Psychologists deal with the mind and Physiotherapists deal with the body, stay in your lane type insecurity.
A body separated from its brain is a dead body. A brain separated from its body… is also dead. Health professionals treat living people, who are a moving, breathing, mind/body/spirit phenomenon.
So, to answer my original question (Which was a draft started years ago): what is somatic healing?
It is a process of restoring harmony between soma, psyche and their environment. Allowing flexible, resilient and adaptable interaction with those around us, informed by the immediate environment and current sensory information. Returning to a baseline where pro-living, not just not-dying behaviours can be accessed comfortably.
I had to write a supporting paragraph for my application to sit on the APA’s QLD Mental Health Committee. This is what I wrote:
We cannot separate the body from the mind, just as we cannot separate the feet from the earth in which they stand. Perhaps, momentarily, we can launch them away from each other. But inevitably they come back together; soma and psyche.
Soma: body. Psyche: soul, breath. The vital force flows in and out, while we breathe it, we are living. What breathes it? The body. The thing we call consciousness is a phenomenon of movement.
So as someone who deals in movement, body (the fertile earth that human life inhabits), it would be naïve to think that the feet of psyche would not land soon enough.
