What Happens in a Somatic Therapy Session?
In my practice, I have two avenues through which people come for sessions: the bodywork or the psychotherapy track. Each has a different flavor, container, boundaries, and techniques, but both are somatic and the goals are the same. I see a broad spectrum of discomfort and symptoms. Some clients have diagnoses they received from medical professionals for issues of either or both mind and body that they are specifically interested in addressing with somatic therapy. Others come for personal growth reasons, blocks to allowing their fullest expression of themselves, and long-standing limiting beliefs.
PSYCHOTHERAPY ROUTE
If you come by means of the psychotherapy route, we start with an intake that focuses on psychological content but still includes the body. The length and depth of your intake process are based on your needs. If you want to tell me a lot right away, please do, but I will encourage you to slow down and check with yourself that all of your parts are ok with you sharing your information. We are strangers, after all. If you feel distressed when talking about the reason you seek therapy, I get the information I legally and ethically need to get from you and let the rest unfold slowly as you become ready.
Our session will mostly be in chairs, sitting on the floor, standing in the room, and occasionally on the table for cranial and somatic touch work. I have an extra consent form for touch work that you can sign if you want to work that way, and I will get verbal consent every time we use touch in a session.
Sessions start with you talking about what is up for you this week, and I begin to highlight what seems salient. You always get to confirm or deny that what I highlight is important to you. We will pick themes in which to deepen. Deepening means we observe how your whole being, mind, body, emotions, etc., respond to a theme.
Next, we bring somatic explorations such as meaningful movements, phrases, and arranging objects in the room. We also explore your "parts" or subpersonalities and how they relate to one another, to you and your body. These explorations evoke new states within your patterns, thereby gently interrupting and highlighting processes that have been outside of your awareness, perhaps for years or even decades.
At the end of sessions, people often feel “better” or at least have gained some insight. My goal is that you feel empowered, clear, calm, in awe, compassionate, creative, and/or whatever your goal state is when you walk out the door. This is not always right or possible for everyone every day, and that’s okay, too.
BODYWORK ROUTE
If you come by means of the bodywork route, we also start with an intake, but it focuses more on your physical content. You are welcome to add relevant mental/emotional/spiritual themes that emerge from the bodywork, and I will work with those with a kind of dialogue.
For the hands-on sessions, you will wear treatment clothes (shorts or shorts and a loose sports bra). Once you are in your treatment clothes, I will do a four-angle view of your body (front, back, left, right).
You’ll get on the table, and I will do a hands-on assessment, touching your tissues and gently pushing, pulling, and rocking different body areas.
Then, I will release your tissues where you and I find the greatest need. We will be in both verbal and nonverbal communication throughout the process. You may always withdraw consent.
Other techniques used in bodywork sessions include progressive relaxations, neuromuscular techniques, breath work, guided imagery and visualization, mindfulness practices, parts work, somato-emotional patterning exploration, and more.
Contact us today!
In my practice, I have two avenues through which people come for sessions: the bodywork or the psychotherapy track. Each has a different flavor, container, boundaries, and techniques, but both are somatic and the goals are the same. I see a broad spectrum of discomfort and symptoms. Some clients have diagnoses they received from medical professionals for issues of either or both mind and body that they are specifically interested in addressing with somatic therapy. Others come for personal growth reasons, blocks to allowing their fullest expression of themselves, and long-standing limiting beliefs.
PSYCHOTHERAPY ROUTE
If you come by means of the psychotherapy route, we start with an intake that focuses on psychological content but still includes the body. The length and depth of your intake process are based on your needs. If you want to tell me a lot right away, please do, but I will encourage you to slow down and check with yourself that all of your parts are ok with you sharing your information. We are strangers, after all. If you feel distressed when talking about the reason you seek therapy, I get the information I legally and ethically need to get from you and let the rest unfold slowly as you become ready.
Our session will mostly be in chairs, sitting on the floor, standing in the room, and occasionally on the table for cranial and somatic touch work. I have an extra consent form for touch work that you can sign if you want to work that way, and I will get verbal consent every time we use touch in a session.
Sessions start with you talking about what is up for you this week, and I begin to highlight what seems salient. You always get to confirm or deny that what I highlight is important to you. We will pick themes in which to deepen. Deepening means we observe how your whole being, mind, body, emotions, etc., respond to a theme.
Next, we bring somatic explorations such as meaningful movements, phrases, and arranging objects in the room. We also explore your "parts" or subpersonalities and how they relate to one another, to you and your body. These explorations evoke new states within your patterns, thereby gently interrupting and highlighting processes that have been outside of your awareness, perhaps for years or even decades.
At the end of sessions, people often feel “better” or at least have gained some insight. My goal is that you feel empowered, clear, calm, in awe, compassionate, creative, and/or whatever your goal state is when you walk out the door. This is not always right or possible for everyone every day, and that’s okay, too.
BODYWORK ROUTE
If you come by means of the bodywork route, we also start with an intake, but it focuses more on your physical content. You are welcome to add relevant mental/emotional/spiritual themes that emerge from the bodywork, and I will work with those with a kind of dialogue.
For the hands-on sessions, you will wear treatment clothes (shorts or shorts and a loose sports bra). Once you are in your treatment clothes, I will do a four-angle view of your body (front, back, left, right).
You’ll get on the table, and I will do a hands-on assessment, touching your tissues and gently pushing, pulling, and rocking different body areas.
Then, I will release your tissues where you and I find the greatest need. We will be in both verbal and nonverbal communication throughout the process. You may always withdraw consent.
Other techniques used in bodywork sessions include progressive relaxations, neuromuscular techniques, breath work, guided imagery and visualization, mindfulness practices, parts work, somato-emotional patterning exploration, and more.
Contact us today!