Somatic Therapy | 1880 - Present
The Foundations of Somatic Healing
Somatic therapy is currently a much sought after method of therapy and in some respects is like the new kid on the block — it’s getting noticed. However, while this focus on body-centered therapy has been gaining traction since the 1960s, the origins of somatic therapy stretch all the way back to the 1880s. The French psychologist and physician, Pierre Janet, was the first to systematically study how trauma can be expressed through both our personality and our behavior. Janet coined the term “subconscious,” which his contemporary Sigmund Freud made famous in his work treating psychological issues by bringing to light what was buried beneath the conscious mind.
Taking this idea one step further, in the early 1900s Wilhelm Reich, an Austrian physician and a student of Freud, claimed that the body itself stored trauma. Referred to as the father of somatic psychology, Reich pioneered the concept of “muscular armor,” the mechanism by which the patient stored the memories of traumas and which could lead to inflammation, physical aches and pains, tension and anxiety, and other physical problems. Just as the subconscious had been a new concept years before, the idea that there was a connection between the mind and the body broke new ground. This ‘body psychology’ paved the way for the somatics movement of the 1960s and ‘70s, led by Thomas Hanna, an American philosophy professor and theorist. Hanna coined the term ‘somatics’ to refer to physical sensations, internal perceptions, and experiences of the body — “the body as perceived from within” — and promoted the idea that all of life’s experiences lead to patterns and memories held within the body itself.
Somatic Therapy Alongside Cognitive Models
As somatic therapy was evolving, cognitive models of therapy were being taught in formal education programs, focused on the mind and behavior. Cognitive approaches concentrated on working with emotional issues through thought. Finding some success, it was theorized that visceral, gut reactions could also be controlled by the mind. The question was: could the mind exert control over our deepest inner feelings and reactions stemming from the visceral nervous system? Biofeedback was a method used to address this question, but the answer was ultimately ‘no’. So, without a method to rely on, the attention shifted away from a body-based approach and embraced Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) developed by psychiatrist Dr. Aaron Beck in the 1960s, which gained widespread popularity in the 1980s and 1990s.
Concurrent with this predominant cognitive model, somatic therapy continued to develop even as CBT took center stage. In the 1970s trauma therapist Peter Levine combined the concept of somatics with the early 1900s theories of Reich to develop an approach called Somatic Experiencing. Levine remains one of the most recognized and respected somatic therapists today.
Throughout the 1960s and for the following three decades there was much experimentation, creativity, and growth in the field of somatic therapy and many different therapeutic methods were developed. While many of these were not recognized or named as being a somatic approach, they can now be categorized as such because they are all firmly grounded in the foundational precepts of somatic therapy:
The body holds trauma as engrained neural patterns.
Brain function can be brought back within a normal range through a sensory approach.
The body learns first through imprinting from our experiences.
Healing begins by becoming aware of body sensations.
Some therapies of the 1970s and 80s that were originally unrecognized as somatic include NeuroLinguistic Programming (NLP), Educational Kinesiology/Brain Gym®, the Feldenkrais Method, Touch for Health, and many dance disciplines: all bring attention to the “body as perceived from within,” in order to heal emotionally and psychologically.
Culture Influences Our Understanding of Mental Health
Throughout the history of somatic therapy, each generation has offered its own cultural perceptions, scientific knowledge, and ideas about health and mental illness to support the concept of a body centered approach to healing. Today, as with each preceding generation, we have current research, empirical knowledge, and scientific studies of our time that shed light on brain function, emotions, and health.
Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, a Dutch-American psychiatrist based in Boston, is an internationally-respected trauma researcher, author, and educator. His work with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Vietnam Veterans has reinforced support for somatic therapy. Through the MRI studies, he observed how trauma alters brain chemistry and function related to our emotions and language. He found that talk therapy was inadequate in helping survivors heal because the memory of the event was not in the conscious mind but rather in the body as a state of being at the neurobiological level. As a result, the neural networks shaped by the trauma required somatic techniques to move the residue of the experience out of the body. Dr. van der Kolk’s research over the last 45 years has offered a credible explanation as to why and how somatic therapies help people heal from trauma.
Major, single-event traumas are only one cause for disruption of the nervous system. Normal function of the nervous system can also be interrupted in early childhood and over time. When the brain of a child develops in a dysregulated, unpredictable, or an emotionally repressive environment the brain will find ways to cope and survive. As these children grow into adults, they may find it difficult to access healthy emotional patterns until the neural system has reprocessed the original experiences and rewired itself. Painful developmental experiences as a child, referred to as Adverse Childhood Experiences, affect the brain by changing the way neural networks are shaped. The memories of the abuse or neglect are sometimes outside conscious awareness due to the coping mechanisms of the child or because of their early onset. But the impact of these experiences remains stored in the body as neurobiological changes in the nervous system.
“Long after a traumatic experience is over, it may be reactivated at the slightest hint of danger and mobilize disturbed brain circuits to secrete massive amounts of stress hormones.”
Dr. Stephen Porges, neuroscientist and author of the Polyvagal Theory says, “Trauma is an experience, not an event. It is what happens inside us as a result of what happens to us.” His theory provides an explanation and a working model as to how stress, trauma, and emotional distress can be held in the body. The vagus nerve, the 10th cranial nerve and the largest nerve in the body, runs like a cord from the base of the skull all the way down through the throat, chest, abdomen, and into the gut, connecting to most organs along the way.
The Polyvagal Theory states that the vagus nerve consists of two sections: a more primitive complex of circuits below the diaphragm that are reptilian in nature and which function outside of our conscious control; and the newer, mammalian circuits that evolved later, and which function above the diaphragm and are within our conscious control. By means of “neuroception” the vagus nerve is continuously picking up signals both in the environment around us and also inside us – what we are experiencing internally. It is like an antenna that is constantly assessing incoming signals, checking for threat or safety. We might experience the vagal sensing mechanism as a “gut feeling” or “something I can’t quite put my finger on.”
If the vagal antenna senses danger, or simply thinks something is dangerous, the older reptilian circuits will gear up for defense and trigger the networks of fear or anger stored within us. But when we are free of dysregulated neural networks – free of the stored, repressed emotions — our newer, more developed mammalian vagal circuits can quickly determine if the danger is real or not and react accordingly. When these newer circuits are in control, we can respond to challenges with problem solving, communication, and creativity.
Healing the Body
Eighty percent of the neural fibers in the vagus nerve are sensory, meaning the dominant purpose of this nerve is to pick up signals from the world around us, functioning as our primary defense mechanism. However, the proportionately smaller 20% that consists of motor neurons has a profound effect on our bodies because it sends signals to the various organs to prepare us to face a challenge when needed. When responding to either real or perceived danger, it signals the release of stress hormones that prepare the body for fight or flight, or in extreme situations to shut down and immobilize.
Various neurochemicals then flood the body, such as cortisol, adrenaline, and noradrenaline, which has a longer affect. While these stress hormones are effective in helping us deal with challenges or danger, prolonged release of these hormones can lead to chronically high levels that may underlie many physical problems. When the neural system is dysregulated and in a constant state of fight/flight these chemicals are continually flowing through our bodies and affecting us in some way. During the fight/flight response our neural signals redirect blood flow away from nonessential functions, such as digestion, and send it to the heart, lungs, and muscles of the limbs. This often results in reduced motility of the intestines, causing intestinal cramping, inhibiting the processing of food, and interrupting the absorption of nutrients. And digestive issues may be just one indication of a chronic fight/flight neurophysiological state. We might also experience things such as generalized tension, headaches, hives or rashes, pervasive anxiety, or fatigue.
As somatic therapy enters the therapeutic mainstream, we are now looking at our health issues from a different angle. By reducing the vagal stress response and unwinding the neural patterns locked in our vagal system, we may be able to address some of our health concerns. Read more in my article Somatic Therapy — How Your Body Can Heal You.
The Highpoint Method
My work centers around The Highpoint Method of somatic therapy, which utilizes specifically designed movements, touch points, and gentle, manual manipulation to stimulate and open the nervous system directly and assist in connecting to deeper, related networks. This allows for a broad rewiring of multiple networks in one session. Each subsequent session then builds upon this to expand and strengthen the new neural networks created. Once the neural system is rewired, the neurobiological organization of stress and trauma is released — and when this change takes place, it is permanent.