Is Somatic Coaching A Treatment For PTSD And Trauma?
As a somatic coach and bodyworker, I don’t think in terms of treatment, diagnoses, or pathology. I’m not here to fix you, rather I can offer guidance and practices for you to change your way of being in the world.
Somatic coaching is not therapy
As discussed in previous blogs, therapists use the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition) to diagnose and treat. Somatic coaching is about learning to live in your body, and often learning to manage or heal anxiety by learning how to be in your body in a way that allows for more relaxation, aliveness, connection. Although there is often overlap between how a somatic therapist works with clients and how I work with clients, there are some clear and important differences. In general, therapy places more emphasis on why you are the way you are, and coaching places more emphasis on how you are the way you are. For example, the therapists asks, “why do you feel you are unable to speak up at the company meeting?” The somatic coach asks, “what are you doing in your body to keep yourself from speaking up at the company meeting?”
Healing and growth are very much a part of somatic coaching
Even though somatic coaching doesn’t diagnose or treat in a clinical way, I believe the work of learning to live in your body is vitally important to your health, your ability to live in the present, and your capacity to trust yourself. Remember that sensation is what drives our thinking and what drives our mood and emotions. If you are disconnected from your body, it will be very challenging to shift the sensations in your body to support the thoughts and moods you want. For instance, if your history has conditioned you to tighten your chest and diaphragm when you feel stress, it is essential that you learn to soften that tightening so you can respond to stressful situations from a more relaxed and present nervous system. If your chest and diaphragm remain tight, you are likely letting your history control your reactions and you’re letting your anxiety run you. The person who is “healed” is able to feel this tightening, shift the tightness to feel more relaxed, and then respond from a place more aligned with their values in the present moment.
What do you want to be practicing in your life?
Research shows that insight alone does not drive behavioral change. If you want to change, you need practices that support the changes you want. If you suffer from trauma, CPTSD, or PTSD, your history is often in the driver’s seat of your life. Your history is taking over the present moment because that part of your nervous system thinks it’s taking good care of you. And while this isn’t necessarily bad or wrong, what it means is that your body has not yet learned that the present context is distinct from the historical context. Teaching the body that the present is not the past takes time and requires a commitment to daily practices. Remember, we are always practicing something, so we might as well be practicing showing up in the world in ways that serve our present-day goals.
When you arrive at the company meeting and you are nervous about speaking what you need to say, how do you want to practice showing up? What mood do you want your face and eyes to show? What do you want to convey through your tone? We can practice being leaders of our lives by practicing intentionally shifting our body such that we look and sound like the person we want to be. This isn’t “faking it” or “manifesting”; it’s intentionally organizing our body in ways that align with our values. Over time, and through practice, we heal ourselves by conditioning our body, and therefore our entire nervous system, to be more relaxed when we are under stress.
Online and in person somatic coaching is available. Schedule today!