Somatic healing, or Somatic therapy, has had a significant impact on mental health care in recent years. This form of treatment focuses on your mind-body connection, allowing you to identify and address trauma, anxiety, and other mental health issues.
Many people appreciate it for its holistic approach. There’s more to learn about the impact of Somatic healing on mental health care, so make sure to keep reading.
Somatic Healing Assists With Trauma Care
First, you’ll often hear about how Somatic therapy can assist with trauma. We store trauma in our bodies when we come under a lot of stress, triggering our flight or fight response. It can change how your brain works and leave a lasting effect that can take a long time to undo.
Untreated trauma is stored in the body, which can cause serious health concerns, including strokes and heart attacks. Since trauma keeps the body under constant stress from elevated heart rates, it will harm your health with time.
This treatment teaches you how to get your mind and body out of survival mode. In a study published in 2017, people with PTSD who used Somatic healing showed improvements in their trauma symptoms.
Somatic healing helps you identify where your body stores your trauma, allowing you to manage it. You’ll learn how to deal with your body’s reactions to the trauma in a healthier way and can spend more time focusing on healing.
Overall, Somatic healing can work well with comprehensive mental health care, especially for those with trauma and anxiety. Its high focus on the mind-body connection makes it work well for dealing with intense survival responses.
Somatic Healing Offers a Holistic Perspective
Next, many people feel that Somatic therapy offers a holistic perspective to mental health care. That means it focuses on all of a person’s mental health needs and not just one aspect. Many other forms of therapy will tackle one or a few issues one time instead of all of them at once. Somatic healing can help a person improve their mental health in multiple aspects.
Somatic therapy also considers your physical needs. You can tailor the treatment to your fitness level, allowing you to move in ways that feel good to your body. Many people also say that Somatic therapy enhances their spiritual well-being.
Additionally, Somatic therapy considers how your diet, activity level, and even your posture impact your mental health state. You’ll work on making positive changes to these aspects to live a healthier, happier life.
So, if you’re searching for a more holistic form of mental health care, Somatic therapy is one of the best options because it can cover so many different sides to mental health.
Somatic Healing Offers Emotional Understanding and Regulation
Somatic therapy can help you identify, understand, and regulate your emotions without making you feel ashamed. It works by having you learn more about how your body reacts to certain feelings and movements. With time, you can identify even complex emotions on the spot.
The benefits of emotional understanding can affect various aspects of mental health. You’ll know when you’re feeling overwhelmed or stressed so you can safely remove yourself from a situation. You’ll also be able to better express yourself to others, which can improve your social health.
Working on your social wellness isn’t often included with other types of mental health care, making Somatic therapy more comprehensive.
Somatic Healing Pairs Well With Other Treatments
Plus, you can easily combine Somatic healing with other forms of therapy. Many of its techniques and exercises apply to other treatments. For example, it works well with cognitive-behavioral therapy.
Somatic therapy also encourages you to learn more about yourself, allowing you to respond to other therapies better. It’s effective when you don’t always know how to express yourself verbally. You can spend time learning about yourself through Somatic therapy, then talk with a professional about what you’ve discovered.
You can easily tailor this therapy to your unique needs, allowing you to incorporate it with other treatments. Many of the skills you learn in Somatic healing overlap with other therapies. For example, Somatic therapy teaches many practical grounding techniques for various situations.
These skills are excellent for coping with stress and other negative emotions, making it easier to focus on healing during your therapy sessions.
Somatic Healing Keeps You in the Moment
Remaining present is essential in many forms of mental health care. If you have trouble focusing on your current thoughts and feelings, it can be challenging to work through them. Being more aware of your emotions and state of mind can benefit you in many ways, leading to more comprehensive mental health care.
It can reduce overthinking and negative thinking cycles, which stem from multiple mental health issues. Many other forms of therapy also focus on this.
Next, being more present increases your mindfulness. Many people experience more gratitude and feelings of peace when they live in the moment. You’ll also have reduced stress and feel happier overall, which is the goal of every therapy type.
If you want to remain more in the moment, Somatic therapy can help you achieve that in many ways. Doing so can benefit your mental, social, and spiritual health.
Somatic Healing Focuses on the Long-Term
Lastly, Somatic therapy is there to help you make long-term changes to your mental health. It aims to teach healthier coping mechanisms, allowing you to be more in control of your daily life. These skills can apply to many things, making it a more comprehensive treatment.
Here are all the ways Somatic healing can have a long-term, positive impact on you:
- It provides a healthy trauma resolution
- It teaches mindfulness techniques for the everyday
- It strengthens the mind-body connection for a more balanced well-being
- It encourages positive lifestyle changes
- It feels empowering to many people
Focusing on improving your mental health in the long term will provide you with comprehensive care.
Somatic Healing is Comprehensive Care
To summarize, Somatic therapy provides comprehensive mental health care and has a significant impact on the field. It’s very useful and versatile, making it easy to tailor to a patient’s needs.
