Eliza's Approach to Somatic Therapy

Somatic therapy is a way of resolving trauma and stress that accumulates in the body when it is not acknowledged or processed fully. Unlike talk therapy where you are invited to talk about how the symptoms of this stuck stress and trauma impacts your day to day life and why it’s there, somatic therapy invites you to feel into these symptoms by tapping into the sensations of them in the body. Somatic therapy can often feel like learning a whole new language for those used to more traditional talk therapy approaches. 
By being able to feel emotions and sensations as they arise in the body, you will begin to build your capacity to sit with the discomfort of some of these past experiences and traumas in a way where you can move through them, rather than continuously suppressing them. 
Trauma symptoms develop over time when our human instinct to fight or flee from a perceived or real threat is consistently suppressed or thwarted, leaving us feeling helpless and overwhelmed. When we are unable to protect ourselves, we move into a freeze or shutdown state as a means to survive, ultimately suppressing the energy activated in the body to fight or flee. This can be a helpful mechanism in the moment, however if that energy is not eventually released, it can wreak havoc on our minds and bodies.