The first thing you may be asking yourself is, “What the heck is Somatic Therapy?” It is a term I never heard until I enrolled in massage school. The word Soma means “body experienced from within.” If you think about that, it isn’t too difficult to put two and two together.

Biologists are beginning to realize that all cells in the body have the capacity to store information in their cytoskeletons (the nervous system of the cell). This includes information regarding memory, otherwise known as “tissue memory”. Any physical or emotional trauma we’ve experienced in our lives can be stored in muscle and tissue cells. Ask yourself this: have you ever had to deal with an unpleasant person who, after they leave the room also leave you with a pain in the neck or a wrench in your stomach? Do you ever find yourself at work in the middle of the day, leaning over your keyboard or desk with your shoulders tightened up and contracted? Do you even KNOW if you do? I’d say most of the time, you don’t. Let’s try an exercise to see. Do this NOW: take several deep, long and slow breaths… long exhales. As you do this, release your shoulders and roll them around a bit… now your head. Surely you probably noticed that you just released some tension… and all because you merely brought some awareness to that stressed, neglected area. Inner awareness can do a lot!

Any time a trauma is experienced, small unconscious contractions form in muscle tissues… a protective reminder of painful experience. Where physical injury is concerned this contraction will remain even as tissues heal, leading to further chronic pain. It can even spread to other parts of the body and, in response, the body may adjust and shift to strain patterns which can lead to chronic pain with no “known cause”.

Worries and stress build up and become outward physical manifestations. Maybe you were yelled at or scared by something or someone repeatedly as a child, and as a result, developed a “holding pattern” somewhere in your body, contracting a certain group of muscles. After years of continual adaptation to this, your conscious mind doesn’t even recognize that it can no longer relax. The contraction practically becomes an involuntary response. Trigger points develop, muscle fascia binds up and tightens. Aches, stiffness, and pain develop and worsen as time goes by as a result. (For those of you who have a hard time relaxing during a massage or at night before bedtime… this can mean you too).

Mind-body communication is a powerful healing tool. Many times on my massage table, clients have had an emotional release. Getting regular massage can help us become aware of our bodies and what is going on inside of them. After all, it is a well known fact that nurturing human touch is essential for healing and growth, and massage therapy is a beautifully orchestrated form of healthy touch. With Somato-Emotional Release in mind, massage can trigger memories that we may have blocked out or otherwise forgotten. During our lives, we’ve become so wrapped up in schedules, relationships, family, work, and social activities that we become UNaware of our selves. Not just our emotions in many cases, but our bodies and in turn… we become detached from grief or pain in order to “move on” or keep going (or so we think).

However, awareness plus focus equals release. If we become aware, initially we want to shift away from and ignore this uncomfortable sensation or memory. Very traumatic memories can be extremely uncomfortable or painful if they come up. It is easy to want to revert back to the old habit of blocking it out or running away. During massage, we are in a safe environment which allows us to STOP; become aware and focus on these forgotten matters that need attention, and remain focused on them. This can help us to acknowledge what happened, honor it and let it go… to become at peace with our past experiences, people, or events in our lives that have injured us. Also, you should never be afraid to ask your therapist for feedback or guidance about what you are feeling. She is working WITH you to guide you through this healing process.

True healing can only come from mind-body communication.

Awareness + Focus = Release. When we can acknowledge, grieve, honor it and let it go up and out of us… then we can experience TRUE HEALING.

We can then cope with life from a place of wisdom within.

When your individual identity is grounded in somatic reality, you can say: “I know who I am by how I experience myself.”

NAMASTE Beth