Why Somatic Therapy is the Best Treatment for Anxiety

If you've experienced anxiety before, you know that it is near impossible to think your way out of it. You could reason with yourself as to why you should not feel anxious, tell yourself its silly but in the end you still feel anxious. The keyword here is "feel".

Anxiety is felt in the body because it is a bodily response. The body responds with sensations and changes such as sweating, tension, increased heart rate, shallow breathing, racing thoughts, difficulty forming a thought, etc. These responses are automatic and are usually done as the body interacts with your environment.

To move through anxiety it is necessary to work with the body and felt sensations rather than thought processes.

What people term as anxiety is usually old unintegrated stress responses. These stress responses are stored energy that stays and can get triggered later. This can happen after any event that feels traumatic: injuries, medical procedures, abuse, etc. When an event is out of our norm and feels like a threat to our body, it goes into a stress response to create the energy it needs to fight back or flee.

Dr. Peter Levine best describes what happens after this fight or flight response that could cause stored stress responses:

"when we prepare to fight or to flee, muscles throughout our entire body are tensed in specific patterns of high energy readiness. When we are unable to complete the appropriate actions, we fail to discharge the tremendous energy generated by our survival preparations. This energy becomes fixed in specific patterns of neuromuscular readiness. The person then stays in a state of acute and then chronic arousal and dysfunction in the central nervous system."

In a Somatic Session, a practitioner guides you as your body goes into one of these stored stress responses. They guide you through the sensations then use various somatic tools to bring the felt sense of safety and to 'discharge' the stored responses.

Once the stress response is discharged, the body naturally comes to a calm regulated state.

Working with an experienced practitioner can bring back the ability to feel at peace in your body and easily move through stress.