About

Home >> About

somatic therapy in new york ; but what is somatic therapy?

 

"Somatic" derives from the Greek word 'soma' meaning body. In touch and talk therapy the body is included in the talk aspect of traditional therapy.  In this work the body, mind, emotions and sense of spirit are inseparable so all are addressed - the body is the starting point rather than the thinking mind in order to get us out of our heads and in tune with what you are experiencing. Instead of talking about an emotion, we resource the experience of that emotion and engage it directly. Instead talking about issues, we engage with them in the body and in the present.

What can this help with?

  • Relationships inside and out

  • Stress and Anger

  • Sleep issues

  • Anxiety and Depression

  • Confidence

  • Self Image and goals

  • Life Coaching

  • Decision Clarity

  • Healing past wounds

  • CPTSD

  • Physical pains and aches - Dis-Ease

  • Mindfullness

  • Panic and Pressure

  • Much, much more.

 

So where did this come from? 

It's many things blended together in order to combine touch and talk therapies in a meaningful way. 

 
firsttouch2.jpg

Touch provides its own language of compassion, a language that is essential to what it means to be human.

In recent years, a wave of studies has documented some incredible emotional and physical health benefits that come from touch. This research is suggesting that touch is truly fundamental to human communication, bonding, and health. - New York Times

Most psychologists treat the mind as disembodied, a phenomenon with little or no connection to the physical body. Conversely, physicians treat the body with no regard to the mind or the emotions. But the body and mind are not separate, and we cannot treat one without the other.
— - Candace Pert PHD

By incorporating talk with touch

 the client becomes an active participant in the process. As clients notice what is happening in their bodies, guided by gentle touch, they are invited to express their experience verbally. - Shelly Meurer and Theresa Pettersen-Chu

 
The choices we make in day-to-day life are prompted by impulses lodged deep within the nervous system… Self-awareness sets us free. The great thing, then, in all education, is to make our nervous system our ally instead of our enemy
— The New York Times
 
EmptyName-5.jpg

My first years in practice revealed that there was a huge emotional component to symptoms, especially pain

Toni Luisa D.C.

The degree to which the person with chronic pain feels received, heard, and accepted may be a significant factor, for often as patients, they feel that their bodies have betrayed or failed them, or that they are constantly at war with the enemy body.
— Pamela M. Pettinati, M.D., M.P.H., Ph.D.