somatic therapy nashville
Your body has a depth of wisdom and knowledge about the past that can be worked with in the present to lead to profound change.
Somatic therapy encompasses therapeutic and healing approaches that focus on the connection between mind and body. Using somatic therapy techniques can help release trauma and the stored charge that our past can instill in us.
types of somatic therapy
At Elument, our therapists are trained in the most effective somatic therapies, including Somatic Experiencing Therapy, Hakomi Mindfulness Somatic Therapy, Sensorimotor, and EMDR.
- Somatic Experiencing Therapy (SE): SE focuses on releasing trauma stored in the body by tracking and regulating physical sensations to resolve the body's fight, flight, or freeze responses.
- Hakomi Mindful Somatic Psychotherapy: A mindfulness-centered somatic therapy that emphasizes gentle, body-focused self-awareness and aims to uncover unconscious patterns influencing current behaviors and emotions.
- Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: This method integrates somatic therapy with cognitive and emotional awareness, often used for treating trauma and attachment issues by addressing the body’s automatic responses.
- EMDR: This approach combines mindful awareness of the beliefs, images, emotions, as well as the experienced somatic parts of past trauma and an evidence-based and efficient intervention aimed at moving past your past trauma.
elument's approach to somatic therapy
After intensive training and working with countless clients, we’ve synthesized some overarching beliefs in how we work with clients from a somatic lens.
- The Mind-Body Connection is integral to humans, and somatic therapy emphasizes this link between the two. Emotional and psychological experiences are stored in our bodies and somatic therapy exercises can reflect deeper information.
- Trauma and stress can manifest in the body. Our bodies hold unresolved pieces of our past that become stuck or trapped. This can lead to physical tension, discomfort, pain, triggers, and reactivity. By working with this stored past, we can help release what’s there and move to a higher state of both awareness and regulation.
- Somatic therapy relies on mindful awareness of the body. We encourage clients to become more in touch with the sensations from their present moment and the information and wisdom contained in those sensations. By tuning in to this awareness we can explore nervous system dysregulation and work on pieces of us such as self-compassion, lowered reactivity, and self-confidence.
- Building self-regulation and resilience is a part of the process. By learning regulation techniques such as deep breathing, movement, mindful refocusing, or grounding techniques, we’ve found clients can build resilience both while working through their past as well as with coping with whatever comes up in the future. We don’t want to just help with your past, we want to help you have a deeper trust in your ability to navigate when life gets hard in the future.
- We view somatic therapy as a process that involves the mind, body, and spirit. We acknowledge that all our parts can have profound effects on emotional and psychological well-being.
how is somatic therapy different from talk therapy?
which therapeutic approach is right for me?
Both somatic therapy and traditional talk therapy have been beneficial, healing, and transformative for our clients. There isn’t one type of therapy that’s better than the others. That said, somatic therapy can be especially helpful for people who have tried traditional talk therapy but haven’t gotten the results they’ve wanted. It can also be a wonderful starting point for people who feel the descriptions of somatic therapy written above resonate with them.
get started with somatic therapy
Talk to one of our experienced therapists, who can help you find your own path to a better way of authentic living.
