"Often the hands will solve a mystery that the intellect has struggled with in vain"   ~ C.G. Jung
​

​SOMATIC  THERAPY 

​
​Touch has the ability to break through normal patterning in our brain and nervous system.  Touch can give a direct message to the brain of relaxation; safety; that everything, in this moment, is truly ok; that I can let go, and allow the body's innate wisdom to find deeper states of well-being.   
​

Treating Mental / Emotional / Psychological Symptoms

Working with the body can often be an important additional step for people who have been doing talk therapy.  Or, for those who already know working with their body is an integral step in their healing.

Safe, nurturing touch can effectively ground and center us in our body.  If we struggle with dis-association, or chronically experience our bodies as a place of anxiety, irritation, depressed states, or a place of suffering, then having present-moment bodily experiences of being safe and nurtured can be the key to getting at old patterns and beliefs held within the nervous system. 

For some, simply experiencing therapeutic touch in a safe, intentional environment is what is needed.  Mindful touch that sensitively attunes to what your body needs, leads to a new way of feeling in your body,  a new way of relating to your body, and the feel of truly "living in" your body.   A transformative, bodily experience can teach and give your body, mind, and spirit more than a thousand words ever could. 

For those who tend towards dissociation or have more trauma in their past, we may take a more step by step, skill-building approach to slowly introduce being mindful and aware of the body in the present moment.  This may first happen by casually experiencing mindfulness of one's body and it's sensations while seated, and only eventually laying down on the massage table.  Only after a level of comfortableness and awareness has been gained will touch be used to increase skills of awareness or communicate messages of nurture, safety, and relaxation.  Often, the majority of our work is done with clothes on, and only removed if we decide to move toward using more typical massage strokes with oils.  

For someone who has gone years, perhaps most of their life, disconnected from their body, it becomes an art of systematically inviting and guiding one back into his/her body.  One re-remembers the body as a place of safety, positive experiences, and wisdom. Motivation to practice self-care in other areas of life can be greatly improved.  This journey back to the body can be integral in one's self-healing on all levels.
 
 Via touch, we are able to interrupt unconscious messages we've built up in our nervous system from earlier experiences.  We can offer the nervous system new messages of safety, calm, trust, and pleasure.  Messages of  "I can soften",  "I can receive nourishment",  "I am supported",   "It is ok to feel my body",   "I can trust my body",  "My body is a place of pleasant experiences",   "I am safe right now".   
When we struggle to accept these messages via words and dialogue, there can be hope that one can get that message via gentle, therapeutic touch.  
​

Treating  Medical  Symptoms

​Stress, trauma, and unresolved conflict impairs our immune system and creates disorder in various bodily systems.  Often  headaches, dizziness, bodily aches and tension, old and new injuries, IBS and digestive issues, all manifest and become bigger issues because of how we are relating to stress in our lives or managing anxiety or old trauma.  For many it is critical to re-work how we manage these influencing factors (stress, anxiety, past trauma) in order to allow the body and immune, endocrine, and digestive systems to optimally do their work to balance one's body and mind to a state of wellness.  

When we truly rest and relax, our parasympathetic nervous system kicks in and works to restore, heal, and rejuvenate our body and mind.   This is what will naturally happen when we allow it.  However, we often stay in a low level "on" or alert position, either globally, or a specific part of ourself (shoulders raised, stomach gripping, area around an injury tense and protective).  This keeps us in the sympathetic nervous system, the part whose job it is to prepare our body's systems for action.  If we are not allowing ourself, or a part of ourself, to fully relax and rest, then we are not allowing our body to do it's natural job to heal, repair, and restore our vitality. 

Somatic massage works directly with your nervous system to engage the parasympathetic nervous system, the heal and repair part.   In conjunction with other body-based strategies we begin to understand your nervous system and work through patterns you may have that keep you from regularly allowing deep rest and relaxation.  We change how both your body and mind manage day to day and past experiences so that they no longer get in the way of the body's natural healing mechanisms.    

                                     Read  Somatic Psychotherapy                                                     Read  Relaxation - Mindfulness Practices