Somatic therapy helps us to understand and promote a correct harmony between the body, mind and emotions, it is a holistic approach that uses various therapeutic strategies, so its purpose is to help us become aware of various somatic experiences, those associated with traumatic events. or trapped emotions.
Sometimes we miss this intimate conjunction between mind, body and emotions. A notable fact that should make us think is, for example, what Dr. Bruce Perry, director of the Hospital for Child Mental Health in Alberta, Canada, has documented. , who is also a specialist in behavioral pediatrics, noticed a positive and curious aspect.
- All the children who were described by their teachers as very nervous.
- With poor behavior and poor performance in the classroom.
- Made tremendous progress in carrying out a series of physical activities just before entering class; after these exercises.
- They became more relaxed and academically focused.
- To the point of significantly improving the literary and mathematical process.
The truth is that we still do not fully understand this special link between the body, our emotions and even cognitive performance, one of the most relevant personalities in this field is Antonio Damsio, so one of his best known theories is, without a doubt, the somatic marker.
This term defines how emotions create so-called somesthetic feelings, a type of physiological pattern capable of mediating in our decision-making and reasoning processes, is an exciting topic that has also incorporated into its fundamental approaches such as somatic therapy. more data below.
“Feelings are more dangerous than ideas because they are not likely to be rationally evaluated. They grow in a low voice, spread underground and suddenly explode everywhere. -Brian Eno-
Somatic therapy is a psychobiological approach that, in most cases, is oriented to the treatment of trauma, one of the premises that feed the roots of this approach is that if the body and mind are not treated as a unit, it is practically impossible to facilitate a complete healing of the person.
This technique was developed by Professor Standley Keleman of Berkeley in 1971 and his goal was to “cure the physical, emotional and psychological knots resulting from unresolved conflicts, experiences and experiences. “
It is also effectively applied in problems of anxiety, stress, depression, drug addiction and even to promote a better quality of life in people with chronic pain. If we now wonder about the effectiveness of somatic therapy, we can say that we have a lot of scientific documentation.
Studies carried out by the University of Jerusalem and the Los Angeles Trauma Institute explain that somatic therapy is a useful strategy in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. Good progress has been observed in cases of patients who were abused in childhood, and even in people who have been immersed in events related to natural disasters.
We are faced with a type of psychobiological approach that integrates body awareness into the psychotherapeutic process.
It is also worth mentioning that, in recent years, somatic therapy has found greater scientific support thanks to advances in neuroscience; studies such as that of Dr. Lauri Nummenmaa, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Aalto, Finland, are among the most striking and revealing.
This book, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), presented the first body map of human emotions, whose internal realities such as anger, fear, disappointment, surprise or envy have shown greater physiological activity in a certain area of our body.
Dr. Peter Levine, a biophysical physician and psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley, is one of the representatives of so-called somatic experimentation therapy. Is your approach to mediating this emotional release able to do so?Bodies. To do this, we must be aware of this pathological mark contained in our body.
The means to achieve this are
Each person will work better with one type of technique or another, however, the goal is for the person to become aware of somatic experiences, each sensation must evoke images and emotions, those that will help the therapist understand what is happening.
In conclusion, it should be noted that these types of therapies are not exempt from criticism, the main thing is that many people make the mistake of adopting this strategy without first having a clear diagnosis, it is always necessary to exclude organic problems, diseases and hormones. changes, such as thyroid problems.
Somatic therapy, while useful and interesting, does not show the efficacy rate of more relevant ones, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, however, we cannot ignore its growth today.