Beyond Talk Therapy: Discovering Somatic Experiencing

Why We Think and Talk

We think and talk for lots of reasons. One of those reasons is to feel better. Let's explore this more.

How Thinking and Talking Help Us

When we feel something strong inside, we want to let it out. This brings us relief and contributes to our life. Here are some examples:

- When we're sad, talking to someone helps us feel less sad and understand ourselves better

- When we're angry, we might want to rant to someone about what's bothering us, think about how to solve what’s bothering us and maybe even fantasize about what we could have done differently, all in an attempt to feel less angry.

- When we do something good, we want to share it with others, this helps us feel more whole and happy.

- When we’re intrigued about something we think about what’s grabbed our attention in order to enjoy the exploration and hopefully to eventually feel the relief of understanding

Our feelings are like messages from our body. They tell us what is going on and what we need to feel better and live happier lives.

Why Some Feelings Are Hard to Notice or Talk About

Sometimes when we share our feelings, things don't go well. Maybe someone didn't listen, or we got hurt. When this happens, we might start automatically hiding these feelings, even from ourselves and even before we know we’re having them. This can make us feel worse over time. They can even cause us to misunderstand the present, to confuse our current situation with the past and react poorly because of that. With feelings that are stuck, out of our awareness and causing us problems talking and thinking alone are about the slowest ways there are to feel better. And often then only keep us stuck.

A Different Way to Feel Better

There's a special way to help with feelings that are hard to access or even know about. It's called Somatic Experiencing. Instead of just talking, we:

- Pay attention to your body and the sensations inside

- Allow some of the movements from spontaneous impulses in the body

- Learn how to navigate activation and de-activation in the body which helps you deal with stuck, pent up feelings little by little instead of in an overwhelming way.

- Empowers you

- Plus much more

Someone trained in Somatic Experiencing helps you do this safely. They teach you how to listen to your body and understand what it's telling you. While you still talk about your feelings, you also learn to feel them in a way that's comfortable and safe. This brings things that are unconscious to the light of day and lets them out so you feel better and live easier.

All of which helps you find answers that come from deep inside yourself, making you feel more sure about what you need.