How Somatic Therapy San Francisco Can Help You Reconnect With Your Body
Rediscovering the Mind-Body Connection in San Francisco
Somatic therapy is growing in popularity in San Francisco as more people want to experience therapy that goes beyond just talking. Since somatic therapy uses the body to help heal the mind, talking is only a portion of the therapy. In our fast-paced, tech driven society, we often ignore our body and the emotions that our body conveys. Somatic therapy can offer a way back to our bodies and ourselves.
What is Somatic Therapy? A Mind-Body Connection You Didn't Know You Needed
Somatic therapy refers to any mental health therapy that uses the body to help heal the mind. Examples include somatic experiencing and dance therapy. The body is the first way we know that we are experiencing emotions: for example, when angry, a person might make fists with their hands, feel tension, or get really hot. The physical cues experienced help us discern what emotion we are feeling. Trauma also stores in the body in the form of implicit memory. Since somatic therapy uses the mind and the body to address psychological conditions, it can delve deeper than talking alone.
Why San Francisco is the Perfect Place to Explore Somatic Healing
San Francisco. is a thriving city that offers a range of opportunities for holistic healing. Acupuncturists, chiropractors, reiki practitioners, and a multitude of therapists abound. In a city that is open-minded, somatic therapy is also offered. However, each healing modality that qualifies as somatic therapy may require different training and certification for providers to practice. For instance, dance therapists typically need a master’s degree and to become board certified. With all the extra training and attentiveness to the body, somatic therapists can access feelings and memories that just talking can’t!
From Stress to Serenity: How Somatic Therapy Eases Daily Tension
Living in San Francisco can add an extra layer of stress to life, which is already stressful. Whether it is traffic, the cost of housing, or the sheer number of people in the city, many things can increase anxiety in its citizens. Many people find that they store the tension they accumulate from the day in their bodies. Whether it is having back pain, shoulders that creep toward their ears as their muscles contract, or headaches, the embodiment of stress is there, whether they realize it or not.
Somatic therapy helps people connect how mental health and the effects of stress manifest in the body. Not only do somatic therapies allow people to talk about their busy urban lives, through continued attention and care for the body somatic therapies help unravel the traumas that live inside.
Unlocking the Power of Your Body's Natural Wisdom with Somatic Therapy
Somatic therapy, specifically dance therapy, uses the body to access what may be happening emotionally and mentally for clients. While doing a movement warm-up, the therapist will guide a person by suggesting movements and helping the person notice the feelings, images, and sensations that arise when the client moves. By paying attention to what the movement FEELS like, rather than how it looks or how productive or effective it is, the client begins to tune into the body’s natural wisdom. What feels right in the body? What feels icky or wrong? What movements are you naturally drawn to or repelled by? All these questions help inform the person’s sense of living in his/her/their body.
The Science Behind Somatic Therapy: How Tuning into Your Body Promotes Healing
One of the main healing tenets of dance therapy is that the implicit (feelings, sensations, memories, and images) is made explicit. The things that our bodies remember that are sometimes below the level of consciousness are extracted using movement. The therapist then draws attention to the movement and helps the client verbally process what the movement means.
More research has emerged about how the body stores memories from trauma. Different therapies that use the body can be more helpful in healing psychological trauma than talk therapy alone. Books like The Body Keeps The Score and The Body Remembers highlight the body’s role in trauma recovery and explain the science behind the mind-body connection. These are great resources if you want to explore the science that informs various somatic therapy practice.
Finding a Somatic Therapist in San Francisco: What to Look For
When you are looking for a somatic therapist in San Francisco, it is important to first decide what type of somatic therapy you would like to pursue. Whether it is somatic experiencing, dance therapy, or another type of somatic therapy, make sure the person is licensed and can offer an initial consultation. During that initial consultation, see how you feel when speaking to the therapist. You should feel able to speak with the therapist fairly comfortably (even if it is initially awkward) and outline what you are hoping to receive from therapy.
Take the First Step Toward Reconnecting with Your Body
If you are ready to start connecting with your body and learn more about how to discharge stress and trauma, please send me an email at lisa@lisamanca.com. I would love to find out how I might help you!