Somatic psychotherapy Mind Body Psychotherapy

Somatic psychotherapy (Body Psychotherapy or BPT)

Somatic psychotherapy is a form of body psychotherapy. There are a number of forms of somatic psychotherapy. Many incorporate other complementary or creative therapies. In each case the idea involves “hearing” the mind and body through the “soma” or symptoms /feelings manifested in the physical body. The model is based on a rejection of the Cartesian divide, and the acceptance of mind and body being intimately linked, or indeed one.

Questioning the body versus exploring issues

Some methods focus on the body and determine what the cause might be by “listening”. Other styles explore commonly linked themes drawing on the underpinning theory of that style. Some practitioners may use intuition or linguistic clues.

Somatic therapy is a form of psychotherapy that focuses on the connection between the mind and body. It recognizes that trauma, stress, and emotional difficulties can manifest as physical symptoms, and that addressing these physical sensations can be a crucial part of the healing process. 

Here’s a breakdown of key aspects:
  • Mind-Body Connection:
    • Somatic therapy is based on the understanding that the mind and body are interconnected. Experiences, particularly traumatic ones, are stored not only in our thoughts but also in our physical sensations. 
    • This approach moves beyond traditional talk therapy by incorporating awareness of bodily sensations, movements, and postures. 
  • Focus on Physical Sensations:
    • Rather than solely focusing on thoughts and emotions, somatic therapy encourages individuals to pay attention to their physical sensations. 
    • This includes noticing things like muscle tension, changes in breathing, or other bodily responses. 
  • Trauma and Stress:
    • Somatic therapy is often used to treat trauma, PTSD, and other stress-related conditions. 
    • It helps individuals release pent-up tension and regulate their nervous system, which can be dysregulated by traumatic experiences. 
  • Techniques:
    • Somatic therapy utilizes various techniques, including:
      • Body awareness exercises
      • Breathwork
      • Movement 
      • Grounding techniques
      • Somatic experiencing 
  • Goal:
    • The ultimate goal of somatic therapy is to help individuals:
      • Release stored trauma and stress  
      • Improve emotional regulation
      • Increase self-awareness
      • Restore a sense of wholeness and well-being 

In essence, somatic therapy helps people reconnect with their bodies to understand and heal emotional and psychological wounds.

Mindfulness

Methods like meditative listening and body scanning are commonly used to “hear” and process. This also enabled enhanced emotional awareness of self, emotions and soma.

Mindfulness Informed Professional

Hypnotherapy

Mindfulness based methods, visualization based methods, meditative methods, hypnoanalysis, and regression methods as well as ideomotor questioning are among the methods used.

Hypnosis Trauma Treatment

Hypnosis Trauma Treatment

Analysis

Various forms of analysis, including psychodynamic or psychoanalysis can occasionally use topic association to explore links between physical sensations and emotions underpinning them.

Intuitive movement

Dance, intuitive chi gung or role play are among methods that can he used to explore through movement. (Stuart uses the second two but not dance).

What can somatic work assist with?

Stuart bases all clinic work around research evidenced or NICE recommended core methods. Somatic exploration can therefore be combined with a range of recommended and evidenced methods to treat clinical mental health conditions. This is a multi modal approach allowing holistic adaptation while maintaining evidence based practice. Somatic work is extensively used in moving on from trauma, especially complex trauma and abuse.

Stuart is registered with the CNHC (who hold a PSA AR) under  Hypnotherapy.  He has several competency certifications in Clinical application of Mindfulness for Clients and Groups. Stuart is a fully registered psychotherapist, hypnotherapist and counsellor and has completed CCTP-I Certification in Trauma Treatment, CCTP-II Certification in Complex Trauma and Dissociative Disorder Treatment, Specialised Certification in Hypnosis, Neurology and Mind-Body work with Trauma, Certification in Anxiety Treatment and Certification in Depression and Mood Disorder Treatment. He has completed specialist trauma somatic training with the Arizona Trauma Institute.

Rosendahl et al (2021) showed positive effects by BPT (body psychotherapy) on a range of psychological issues. Wintera et al (2022) found positive effects on body image in chronic depression. Duffy et al (2021) found positive effects on body image in adolescents.

“Effectiveness of Body Psychotherapy. A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis” Sophie Rosendahl, Heribert Sattel  and Claas Lahmann (2021)Department of Pneumology and Respiratory Medicine, Thoraxklinik, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany, 2 Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Klinikum Rechts der Isar, Technical University Munich, Munich, Germany, 3 Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Medical Center—University of Freiburg, University of Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany

“Construing and body dissatisfaction in chronic depression: A study of body psychotherapy”  David Wintera , Clelia Malighettib , Sabrina Cipollettab,⁎ , Sajjad Ahmedc , Benjamin Bensonc , Frank Röhrichtd (2022)

“Mixed methods pilot evaluation of interpersonal psychotherapy for body image for adolescents” Fiona Duffy, Helen Sharpe, Emily Beveridge, Kate Osborne and Cathy Richards (2021) Department of Clinical Psychology, School of Health in Social Science, University of Edinburgh, Medical School, Edinburgh, UK 2 NHS Lothian CAMHS, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Edinburgh, UK

Key words

Depression, mental health, anxiety. relationships, emotional release, somatic therapy, somatic psychotherapy, somatic hypnotherapy, somatic Mindfulness, MBSR, MBCT, CBT, CBA, CBASP, DBT, Gestalt, humanistic psychotherapy, body mind work, body psychology, humanistic psychology, psychoanalysis in body work, critical psychotherapy, Edinburgh, Falkirk, Glasgow.