Somatic and Mindfulness based therapy across greater Washington and Oregon
“Mindfulness is about the present but I also think it’s about being real. Being awake to everything, feeling like nothing can hurt you if you can look it straight on.”
Krista Tippett
YOUR BODY, YOUR BEACON
One of the most powerful tools you have in managing your mental health is your relationship to your body. Yes!
How do your body tell you that you are feeling tense? What about if you’re feeling happy? How do it tell you when you are scared? worried? apprehensive? frustrated? angry? feeling sexy? How do your body tell you that you are feeling relaxed or if you are safe?
Your body is a giant sensor, always gathering information about your surroundings, processing data, and sending messages to the brain. This means that anytime you have a thought or an emotion, those things are a delayed response to whatever the body has already interpreted.
Most of the time the body gives unique clues for each of these emotions but sometimes life gets in the way of being able to recognizing this. This might be due to several things but what matters most is that you can change it with just a few minutes.
TRAUMA. DYSPHORIA. ABUSE. SEXUAL VIOLENCE. ANXIETY. CHRONIC ILLNESS. SHAME. CULTURE. SURVIVAL. RELIGION. HEALTH ISSUES.
“Mindfulness practice means that we commit fully in each moment, to being present; inviting ourselves to interface with this moment in full awareness”
John Kabat Zinn
These techniques offer you and your body a chance to get reacquainted so you can begin to trust your body again when it starts to react to stimuli instead of seeing that reaction as a sign of danger… so you can start to release the stored trauma and tension, so you can start to feel at home in your body again. Finally.
Some examples include:
learning body awareness and how your body responds to emotions
tuning in to your body in and out of therapy
creating healthy boundaries
mindful breathing
titration of difficult emotions and sensations
grounding when overwhelmed or flooded
