Somatic Experiencing
What is somatic Experiencing
Well somatic experiencing can explain the connection between the biological response of our bodies to events that occur in stressful events and the baseline that you have. Somatic experiencing can include a large amount of sensations that one goes through including anything from relaxation all the way to pain. A way in which this can be explained is the polyvagal theory which includes the following. There are three levels of arousal that one can have in that the nervous system reacts to those being the green zone, yellow zone and red zone.
Green zone:
When your body is in a state of relaxation there is not necessarily a response and no signs or fears of potential threats. You're in a state of safety and you are able to communicate emotions and how your body is doing in said state. Able to have social interactions with others and many more.
Yellow zone:
This is when your body is starting to experience fight or flight symptoms. That comes out in many different ways. Those could be cognitive worry, panicking, irritation, rage or on the other side something such as raised heart rate, blood pressure and more biological symptoms that come into play.
Red zone:
This is seen as the danger zone where you are hyper aroused. This can lead to things such as spouts of depression, dissociation or things such as feelings of helplessness. Some biological responses in this stage that one can go through are increases in immobility, higher pain thresholds decreases in things such as social interactions that normally are done such as eye contact, ability to communicate and understand what others are saying.
With these stages that one may go through there are many ways the body reacts to situations that there is no control over. When in certain situations responses may happen that go in these zones like a roller coaster going up and down based on one's ability to regulate when in these stages. The higher the arousal the harder it may be to lower the biological body's response to what is happening around you.
How this plays a role in therapy
This plays a role in therapy as it helps individuals recognize and connect cognitive thoughts and experiences to their body. It helps guide the ability to see what needs to be focused on to create a balance between somatic and cognitive as they both intertwine. Although one can be more prominent for people than the other, leading to getting them to the same level even on both sides of the scale can be a large amount of help for clients. This can lead to understanding of why emotions are in fight or flight or freeze, why one might be stuck in one of those spots. Managing when these emotions arise and arousal is higher give the chance for mind-body connection when dealing with the biological responses that come up. Also being able to take what needs to be focused on let's say recognizing in your body when there is a reaction and what is causing this to happen what situations you might be in. Then the therapeutic role of being able to guide you as a client to make those connections and lead to a better understanding of the way your body reacts to each situation it is put into. Also gives the opportunity to have the conversations of how it is a wave of going through these experiences and not having control over how the body reacts and more finding a way to recognize the reactions and what can be done.
Somatic experiencing who can it help
Somatic experiencing can help individuals who are unaware of what their bodily responses are tied to. Think of it as a scale being extremely aware of either cognitive aspects that you are going through but unaware of what is happening in your body. Going off of this helps individuals who are unaware of why their body is experiencing things such as flight or fight mode. Also for individuals who have a harder time explaining emotions or even know how to recognize when these emotions are tied to biological responses we all have as humans. Being able to help individuals who may have excess knowledge of the emotions that happen on a day to day that cause them to feel the anxiety, worry, irritation, sometimes even the more severe shut-down but not being able to notice what happens in their body.
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