How I Got Into Somatics
Most “helping professionals” come into their careers by searching for answers to their own issues. I’m no exception. I grew up in a religious culture that put me at odds with my body. So when I had my first massage, a new world opened to me. I connected to my physical self through touch in a way that felt safe, healthy, and nourishing. From then on I was hooked. I enrolled in massage therapy school but through life’s twists and turns, I didn’t actually get licensed for ten more years.
Massage Therapy
As a massage therapist, it wasn’t long before I became aware of the different kinds of pain my clients experienced in their bodies. Some of it was straight forward. I could link it to things like repetitive use, postural misalignment or injury rehabilitation. Quite often, however, my clients had physical pain with no apparent cause. Moreover, they reported feeling the pain in their muscles yet it remained elusive to pinpoint. I believed their experiences were real, so then where was this pain coming from?
I didn’t know it then, but that question ultimately led me into the field of somatic (or “body”) psychology. Its focus is on how psychological, emotional or spiritual experience manifests in the physical body. A common example that showed up on my massage table were tight shoulders from chronic stress.
Somatic Psychology
I started Pacifica Graduate Institute’s graduate program in somatic psychology in the fall of 2012. I chose this unique program because I wouldn’t come out on the other side as a licensed mental health care professional. This was perfect for me. I didn’t want to become a psychotherapist—I wanted to be a somatic practitioner. That meant I could keep the emphasis of my work on the body, not the mind. I knew I was taking a chance because (as is true today) there is no licensure tract to become a somatic therapist. There would be no guaranteed work placement come graduation. I followed my heart anyway and graduated in 2014.
To make a long story short, it was during my studies that I figured out the most likely source of my massage clients’ pain: accumulated stress and unresolved trauma. Both cause dysregulation in the autonomic nervous system. Dysregulation generates all sorts of physical issues—chronic muscle tension being just one.
Somatic Trauma Healing
After grad school, I decided to get more specific training in somatic trauma healing. In 2017 I became a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner and in 2019, a professional in the NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM). My private practice slowly grew from offering only massage therapy to what I do today: somatic trauma healing. To learn more or to find out if a somatic approach is right for you, click here to schedule a consultation.
What is Somatic Bodywork?
The purpose of somatic bodywork is to address the impact of trauma using the added element of physical touch. The appointment proceeds in a similar style as a “non-touch” Somatic Support session except with two main differences. First, as the client you are comfortably dressed while lying on the massage table as opposed to being seated in a chair. Second, as the somatic practitioner, I use still (non-moving) touch with light pressure to facilitate the trauma healing process. Using touch in this way can be helpful for three main reasons.
1) It brings mindful awareness to the areas of your body impacted by trauma. These may be places that carry a surplus of energy (i.e., chronic tension, lack of mobility, constriction, pain, etc.). There may also be a notable lack of energy that you experience as diminished mind-body connection, sluggishness, decreased physical sensation, “stuckness”, impaired mechanical function, etc.
2) It can provide you with an added sense of safety and connection. Many people choose somatic bodywork over a dialogue-based somatic session for this very reason. “I’m very responsive to touch” or “Touch is my first language” are comments I often hear from clients for whom this is a good fit.
3) I have developed palpation skills over years of education and training as a touch professional. This allows the me to perceive activity in your nervous system through the tactile experience of vibration, temperature, texture, contraction and expansion. It also provides another way of connecting to the rhythms of breath, heart rate, muscle tension—other indicators of nervous system activity.
Using touch does not necessarily make the session more or less effective than Somatic Experiencing® and/or NARM alone. It just makes it more customized to your preferences and needs, especially if you respond to touch with an increased experienced of safety.
Somatic Bodywork is not massage therapy. Somatic Bodywork is not psychotherapy. Jenny Winkel is not a licensed mental health care professional. If you have any questions as to whether or not Somatic Bodywork may be right for you, scheduling a consultation may be a good place to start.
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