Somatic and Mindfulness therapy across greater Oregon and Washington

“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

mindfulness-therapy-seattle-washington

SOMATIC AND MINDFULNESS THERAPY:

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 does 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. CULTUR. SURVIVAL. RELIGION. UNHEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS. HEALTH ISSUES.

These things take a toll!

These techniques offer you and your body a chance to get reacquainted, so you can trust your body again when it starts to react instead of seeing that reaction as a sign of danger. Then you can release the stored trauma and tension and start to feel at home in your body again. Finally.

Do you experience frequent migraines?

Or carry tension in your neck and shoulders? Do you have tight or stiff hips? Maybe you have mystery pains that seem to come out of nowhere and last for days?

Do you deal with inflammation in the body?

  • autoimmune disorders

  • fibromyalgia

  • digestive conditions like GERD (gastroesophageal reflex disease), Crohn’s Disease, irritable bowel syndrome

  • some skin disorders like eczema or psoriasis

Children often struggle to describe their distress but may report frequent headaches, stomach aches, or similar somatic symptoms

Among many others, some somatic techniques include:

  • learning body awareness and how your body responds to emotions

  • tuning in to your body during and outside of therapy

  • creating healthy boundaries in as many relationships as possible

  • mindful breathing

  • titration of difficult emotions and sensations

  • grounding when overwhelmed or flooded

“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

Online Therapy