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Integrating Psychotherapy with Bodywork: Thoughts About the Therapeutic Work of Somatic Soul Care I know from sitting with individuals and couples that life feels like too much sometimes. I know that being understood allows you to understand yourself and act for change. I also trust that you are developing, despite how bad things may seem or feel on some days. Somatic Soul Care offers help when your usual relationships are not enough--or if your usual relationships are the issues you need to attend to. It can help when you know something needs changing. In this therapy you get my undivided attention for yourself, in order to experience all the components of your life. From this new options arise, or there is a change with what is difficult. People tell me this work is different from other kinds of counseling. Attention to physical sensation while noticing thoughts and feelings adds to therapeutic benefit. Somatic Soul Care is different from talking about and rehashing stories. I am interested in including your physical and spiritual experience into the work. How you live in your body and how you experience the mysteries of soul, spirit, divinity, and the unfathomable universe have a part to play in how you do your life. They deserve respect and attention. Anxiety and depression represent the opposites in the range of emotional difficulty--too much activation or no activation. Somatic Soul Care can help your body feel less agitated and burdened, you can acknowledge and feel buried emotions without being overwhelmed, and you can clarify your thinking process to diminish useless brooding or worry. Your body may recall its power. Your will can take action. I am particularly interested I working with the impact of life threatening or overwhelming events. Trauma and PTSD from accidents, surgeries, violence, abuse, neglect often continues to live in the nervous system. Trauma needs physical attention for healing so the nervous system can regain flexibility instead of being locked in hyperarousal or frozen in depression. Unresolved trauma is often undernoticed as it contributes to anxiety, depression, ADD, and Borderline or Bi-Polar style difficulties. What a session looks like: When you arrive you decide what is important to work on for the day. I will help you become more mindful of present responses so you can know how past or future events are influencing now. As you deepen into your experience I will suggest experiments to help you get more information. Sometimes a few words, sometimes a movement, sometimes touch; often asking what do you notice and what happens when you notice what is happening at the moment. All these options are your choice and any option can be modified or stopped at any moment you wish. The process follows your lead and discovery as you work toward transformation and integration of new experiences. You will have ample time to know your experience and to take advantage of insights, the movement of feeling and the activity of sensation, in a way that respects your pace and ability to strengthen your resources and digest difficult experience. Other applications of this work: I work with women who can benefit from working with a man. Even if a man treated you badly, it may be important for you to maintain your sense of self in professional or personal relationships with men. I work with men who have issues with their fathers. You can transform confusion about power and learn to use it well. Many men also have unresolved issues with their mothers and the role of the feminine in their life or psyche. I can work with your creativity--the artistic part of you who wants to be able to express yourself in life. I am willing and usually able to understand and appreciate the parts of yourself that are complicated, entangled and sometimes feel like a quagmire or endless labyrinth. I can help you be with and accept conflicting parts of yourself. You will be able to find some light within the deep maze. Connecting the parts of yourself that canŐt be together is essential to regain self-acceptance--self-worth, relief from grief, gender acceptance, professional development, and less shame. Life is not simple. The acceptance of complexity usually eases isolation, and difficulty connecting with people or maintaining intimate relationships. Establishing intimacy is also no small task. Having the opportunity in therapy to open to yourself as you are seen and accepted can help you to navigate what may appear as the treacherous territory of intimacy. When you consider psychotherapy for yourself or referring a loved one: It is worth considering that entering psychotherapy is about finding a way to work with another on things that are difficult to work on alone. It asks you to examine and experience your deepest self. This self lives in your body, and gives expression to who you are. In a therapeutic relationship it is possible to find safety, to alter perspective, to digest difficult experiences and find ways to be in life with its unpredictable gifts and struggles. Somatic Soul Care offers you an opportunity to experience yourself in a new way, and it goes beyond problem solving when working with family shame, lack of focus, or diminished will. It cares for your body, your soul, your self. When you would like collaboration or support for what is transforming in your life, give a call. You are welcome to 30 minutes to find out if we can work together for what you need. The only cost to the initial consultation is the your effort to move in your own interest and care for your life. |