T wants to take me to a somatic T...help?

Sorry for my posting absence here recently. I haven't been doing well, my T told me that I would be classed as 'at risk' and that she is worried about my ability to keep myself safe. And I just haven't been able to find the energy to post here.

So anyway, my T wants to take me to see a somatic T. She kind of explained it to me, what a somatic T does and said she wants me to see this somatic T so that this somatic T can help me with my panic attacks and dissociation in therapy. Because my T has to work really hard to keep me with her during sessions and she thinks this other T would be able to help me make my sessions with my normal T easier. My T said she would go with me, because she knows this terrifies me, but I was just wondering what other people's experiences have been with somatic T's? Did it help, was it worth it? Did you see them as well as your normal T?

Here in NY somatic therapy is called grounding with mindfulness. the basic idea of it is to learn how to relax, learn how to focus on things that will ground you in the moment like smells, textures, tastes, sounds, sights, keeping in touch with how your body is feeling.

I did not have to see a separate therapist to do this because my therapist works on grounding with mindfulness. Some people would call her a holistic or organic type therapist that believes in treating the whole person not just the mental because how a person feels physically can also affect a persons mental health.

she taught me how to be more in touch with my body, senses, feelings and surroundings at first with out my realizing she was doing so. one day I walked in to her office and she had a rose candle lit on the stand not far from where we usually sit. It was so strong that while we were talking we kept coming back to discussing the candle and roses. the next session she had mint green tea made up instead of coffee. we ended up talking and repeatedly coming back to discussing the tea. the next session she had this really bold, bright piece of artwork directly behind her so that every time I looked up at her I was looking at this fantastic piece of art, which we would talk about periodically through out the session. the list goes on, and during all these somatic sessions my therapist would ask me how each of those things made me feel, what was I feeling in my body, was there any pain, was there comfort, happiness, numbness.. this went on for about 2 months. (16 sessions) each time she added an item the others stayed on too for example while drinking the tea, I could still see the artwork and smell the rose candle..

then one day the candle disappeared but through out the session she would ask how I was feeling and if I was feeling tense she would ask me to close my eyes and remember smelling the rose candle.

one day during a triggering moment, without any prompting from her, I grounded myself by telling her to hold on, my stomach feels flip, floppy, I took a deep breath imagining I was smelling the rose candle, drinking the tea then opened my eyes, noticed my surroundings then told her "ok we can continue, Im back in the room and in this moment."

she smiled and said "congratulations you have learned to ground with mindfulness, and you did so very well" then she told me, what we had been doing was somatic therapy. Then she went into the mini kitchen saying "this calls for a celebration" and brought out a cake decorated to represent the mint tea, the piece of artwork and the rose candle.

while eating our cake she and I talked about other ways in which I can ground with mindfulness. my favorite it taking my boat out on the lake, the act of rowing puts me in touch with my body while the sights, smells and sounds on the open lake puts me in touch with the present moment.

we still use the idea of the candle, tea and artwork for grounding with mindfulness in our therapy sessions.

((SilverGlitter))

I'm glad your T is considering all the options.

Somatic Therapy involves hands-on body work ... which is why your T may think you may find it out of the ordinary sort of therapy you're used to. Massage is major ... Here's a link to a California School ... http://www.somatictherapyassociates.com/index.html

Your T will have to explain why this seems a good idea for you ...
In the right circumstances, handled by true pros, it can work wonders.
Be careful, though ... unless you trust your T absolutely, it can be risky
for the physically-inhibited.

Roadie

I think that somatic therapy can also include "mind-body" interventions, that are not hands-on. My T does some somatic experiencing interventions, which I've found really helpful in the area of connecting with what I'm feeling. For the longest time I would have no clue what my emotions were, and the somatic work helped with that.

I understand feeling scared about it, though, given that it's something new. I think it's great that your T is willing to go along with you.

Somatic Therapy is anything that makes you more aware of your body.
Yoga is a great example, and it's free, once you learn it.

It's kinda of cognitive therapy in reverse.
With cognitive therapy, you work finding insights that make you more comfortable, physically.
With somatic therapy, you make yourself more comfortable first, than find the insights that fit the comfort.

It's very powerful if you can do it although many people can't depending on how it's done.
Successfully bringing your sensations to awareness will also activate the reasons you normally repress those sensations.
If your skills for dealing with repression (normally fear) are low then you'll just want to repress the sensations again and stop therapy.
Ask the therapist if he/she has any new tools to deal with repression once it's brought to awareness.

"Ultimately the body will rebel. Even if it can be temporarily pacified with the help of drugs, cigarettes or medicine,
it usually has the last word because it is quicker to see through self-deception than the mind." - Alice Miller, The Body Never Lies

My T is taking courses in what she calls "somatic experiencing" and is doing some of it with me. Instead of being in my "head", she starts out by asking what I'm feeling in my body and where. We go from "in my body" to back "into the room". There is nothing like massage or "hands on" work at all. She also does mindfulness and meditation with me, mostly through my concentrating on my breathing for a few minutes at the beginning of my session.

it may be that where you are somatic therapy is hands on but here w here I am it is not, in fact treatment providers here where I live and work are not allowed to touch clients when doing somatic therapy because those that need this kind of therapy are usually abuse survivors or other types of survivors that are easily triggered by being touched or having a therapy provider put their hands on them in any way.

that link you gave... here where I live and work the stuff in that link you posted would be called "massage therapy" not somatic therapy. course Im in NY and the link is for California so Im not surprised you and I have different words for the same thing and our states use different approaches to this.