Choosing the proper remedy strategy will be difficult, particularly when navigating choices like somatic remedy and eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), two highly effective strategies for addressing trauma and emotional therapeutic. Both therapies deal with connecting thoughts and physique however differ in approach and focus. Somatic remedy facilities on physique consciousness to course of saved feelings, whereas EMDR makes use of eye actions to reframe traumatic reminiscences.
Understanding the distinct approaches of somatic remedy and EMDR is essential in making an knowledgeable choice about your therapeutic journey. Keep studying to discover the fundamentals and key variations between these two kinds of trauma remedy.
What is Somatic Therapy?
Somatic remedy is basically a body-centered strategy to therapeutic previous trauma. It focuses on connecting the physique and thoughts. Somatic remedy acknowledges and acknowledges that trauma doesn’t simply have an effect on your feelings. It may manifest by way of bodily sensations within the physique. Somatic experiencing remedy has been discovered to be an efficient remedy for PTSD, and it’s generally used to deal with different kinds of trauma as nicely.
This sort of remedy helps you course of any unresolved trauma you’ve saved all through your physique. It tunes into sensations you’re feeling and makes use of these cues that will help you launch power that may negatively influence your life and relationships.
Somatic interventions will be very helpful for those who really feel disconnected out of your physique otherwise you expertise bodily signs of trauma, like persistent ache, rigidity, or numbness. When you change into conscious of those bodily sensations and begin to deal with them, you’ll be able to start doing deep emotional therapeutic.
The core rules of somatic remedy
Somatic experiencing remedy’s most important precept is that your physique holds onto trauma, and therapeutic can solely happen as soon as you’re employed by way of the bodily sensations it creates. You can faucet into the trauma and launch it by focusing in your physique as a substitute of cognitive processes like ideas and feelings.
It’s based mostly on a central framework referred to as SIBAM, which stands for sensation, imagery, habits, have an effect on, and that means. The mannequin guides the remedy course of by specializing in the connection between bodily sensations and emotional experiences. You can use SIBAM to know your trauma and begin to regulate the emotional and physiological response to emphasize it has brought about you.
- Sensation: Involves being attentive to bodily sensations in your physique
- Imagery: Uses exploration of psychological pictures that come up throughout remedy
- Behavior: Notices bodily actions or actions associated to the trauma you skilled
- Affect: Identifies feelings you might have which can be related to the trauma
- Meaning: Understands the private significance trauma had in your life
What is EMDR?
Eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) is a structured fashion of psychotherapy that relieves stress brought on by traumatic experiences and reminiscences. EMDR makes use of bilateral stimulation — usually eye motion or tapping — to assist your mind reprocess trauma. It’s a noninvasive strategy that goals to reprocess reminiscences in a more healthy manner in order that they have much less of an influence in your every day life.
Research reveals that EMDR is efficient in treating situations like PTSD, anxiousness, melancholy, and different trauma-related situations. It differs from discuss remedy in that it doesn’t require you to dive into the specifics of a traumatic expertise. Instead, the main target is extra on how reminiscences are saved within the mind and how one can alter the emotional response related to them.
The 8 phases of EMDR
EMDR follows a structured step-by-step strategy that’s divided into 8 distinct phases. Each has a selected recognized goal in the way you course of trauma.
- History Taking: Your therapist will collect detailed details about your life historical past, vital occasions, and trauma-related signs. This section helps the therapist establish particular reminiscences and triggers to deal with, laying the inspiration for focused EMDR remedy.
- Preparation: During this section, the therapist will clarify how EMDR works and deal with any questions or issues you could have. They’ll additionally train you self-soothing and rest methods, like deep respiration or visualization, that will help you handle any misery which will come up throughout or between periods.
- Assessment: Together, you’ll establish a selected traumatic reminiscence you wish to work on, together with the detrimental beliefs or feelings related to it, resembling “I am unsafe” or “I am powerless.” This step helps set up a transparent goal for the reprocessing work, setting the stage for change.
- Desensitization: Using bilateral stimulation (resembling guided eye actions, faucets, or sounds), your mind is inspired to reprocess the traumatic reminiscence, decreasing its emotional cost. This step is usually repeated till the reminiscence feels much less distressing, permitting you to view it with a larger sense of calm.
- Installation: In this section, the therapist helps you reinforce optimistic beliefs to exchange the beforehand recognized detrimental ones, like “I am strong” or “I am in control.” The aim is to create a more healthy affiliation with the reminiscence, fostering a extra empowering perspective on previous occasions.
- Body scan: You’ll be guided to scan your physique for any lingering bodily sensations, resembling rigidity or discomfort, that is likely to be related to the trauma. This step helps launch any remaining bodily responses, selling a way of ease and permitting for extra full emotional therapeutic.
- Closure: Before ending the session, the therapist ensures you’re feeling secure, grounded, and steady, typically guiding you thru rest methods that will help you depart feeling calm. If wanted, they’ll counsel methods to deal with any feelings which will floor between periods, getting ready you for the subsequent section of labor.
- Re-evaluation: In the next session, your therapist assesses your progress with the reminiscence to see how a lot misery stays and whether or not further periods are wanted. This ongoing analysis helps gauge your therapeutic progress, permitting for changes to satisfy your particular wants.
Each of those phases is essential in supporting the secure and structured processing of traumatic reminiscences, in the end serving to scale back emotional misery and fostering a extra optimistic outlook.
Key Differences Between Somatic Therapy and EMDR
While somatic remedy and EMDR are each highly effective strategies for trauma remedy, they differ considerably in focus, approach, trauma processing, and splendid use circumstances.
Focus
Somatic remedy is rooted within the physique’s bodily response to trauma. This strategy encourages you to tune into bodily sensations, recognizing them as pathways to emotional launch and therapeutic. By specializing in bodily emotions, resembling rigidity, discomfort, or rest, somatic remedy goals that will help you reconnect together with your physique as a part of the therapeutic course of.
EMDR, against this, facilities on the mind’s processing of traumatic reminiscences. It makes use of a structured, step-by-step methodology with bilateral stimulation—resembling guided eye actions or faucets—to reprocess distressing reminiscences. This approach goals to assist your mind retailer these reminiscences in a much less emotionally charged manner, decreasing their influence in your every day life.
Technique
In somatic remedy periods, your therapist will information you to note and join together with your bodily sensations. Using methods like breathwork, light motion, and mindfulness, they’ll provide help to keep current and grounded, permitting your physique’s pure responses to information the remedy course of. This bodily focus offers a secure atmosphere to discover and launch saved trauma by way of the physique.
In EMDR, bilateral stimulation is the central instrument for desensitizing and reprocessing traumatic reminiscences. As you consider a traumatic occasion, the therapist guides you thru eye actions, sounds, or faucets, which assist the mind combine and neutralize the reminiscence. This structured, evidence-based approach goals to reduce the reminiscence’s depth and disrupt the distressing patterns it might trigger.
Trauma processing
Somatic remedy processes trauma by way of the physique by encouraging consciousness and launch of bodily sensations related to traumatic experiences. This strategy acknowledges that trauma can change into “stuck” within the physique and works to launch it by way of conscious consideration and therapeutic practices that concentrate on bodily responses.
EMDR, alternatively, processes trauma primarily within the thoughts. By activating the a part of the mind the place the trauma is saved and guiding it by way of reprocessing, EMDR goals to cut back the emotional cost related to the reminiscence. This psychological strategy permits the mind to retailer the reminiscence in a manner that feels much less distressing and overwhelming.
Use circumstances
Somatic remedy is helpful when trauma manifests as bodily signs, resembling persistent ache, muscle rigidity, or bodily numbness. It’s a helpful strategy for those who really feel disconnected out of your feelings, have issue figuring out emotions, or discover that your trauma reveals up bodily in your physique.
EMDR is usually efficient for these coping with particular, distressing reminiscences or situations like PTSD, anxiousness, or phobias. It is helpful when your trauma is tied to specific occasions or experiences, making it splendid for people trying to reframe and reduce the emotional influence of particular reminiscences.
“Somatic therapy may be more effective for clients who have a disconnect from their bodies or who carry psychological trauma as physical tension, as it focuses on body awareness and releasing stored trauma through movement and sensation. EMDR may be more suitable for clients dealing with specific traumatic memories or PTSD, as it focuses on reprocessing these memories in order to reduce their negative impact. It is often effective for individuals who need structured trauma processing without too much focus on bodily sensations.”
Choosing the Right Therapy
Choosing the proper remedy will be an amazing expertise. It typically seems like there’s loads at stake, however deciding between somatic remedy and EMDR remedy simply relies on your distinctive wants and the way your trauma has impacted your life. Fortunately, some pointers might help you establish which is likely to be extra acceptable.
When to contemplate somatic remedy
Somatic remedy is likely to be best for you for those who:
- Experience persistent bodily signs like ache, rigidity, or numbness due to trauma
- Feel disconnected out of your physique or feelings
- Are involved in a therapeutic strategy that integrates thoughts and physique
- Have tried discuss remedy earlier than, however really feel like there’s a deeper bodily degree of trauma that wasn’t totally addressed
When to contemplate EMDR
EMDR is likely to be a great choice for those who:
- Have particular traumatic reminiscences which can be troublesome to course of
- Frequently have flashbacks, nightmares, or intrusive ideas associated to psychological trauma
- Prefer a extra structured, step-by-step therapeutic course of
- Want a remedy fashion that doesn’t require you to speak or recount a lot of your trauma
When to Consider Combining Both Therapies
Combining somatic remedy and EMDR can create a robust ongoing remedy plan that addresses trauma’s emotional, bodily, and cognitive dimensions. Because somatic remedy focuses on the physique’s response and EMDR addresses traumatic reminiscences saved in your mind, utilizing each therapies collectively may provide help to totally deal with the emotional, bodily, and cognitive elements of your trauma.
“Combining EMDR and somatic therapy can be highly effective for clients who need both cognitive processing and physical/emotional release. EMDR helps reprocess traumatic memories, while somatic therapy addresses how trauma is held in the body. This approach allows clients to process disturbing memories as well as release stored trauma in the body.”
If your therapist agrees this is likely to be a great strategy, you may start with somatic methods to reconnect together with your physique so you’ll be able to launch the power. Once you’re feeling in contact together with your physique, you may then transfer to EMDR that will help you reprocess the reminiscences which can be tied to your traumatic occasion.
If that is the route you’re taking, it’s best to discover a therapist who’s skilled in each EMDR and somatic remedy approaches.
Making the Right Choice for Your Healing Journey
There is not any “right” approach to deal with trauma. Both somatic remedy and EMDR are efficient and thought of evidence-based therapies, however they use completely different approaches. When you’re selecting which remedy may supply the very best consequence, think about issues like your particular person wants, how the trauma has impacted your life, and which therapeutic strategy resonates with you most. Talking to a therapist who focuses on trauma is a superb approach to decide which remedy fashion is likely to be best for you.
Talkspace affords entry to somatic therapists on-line that may help you in your path to restoration. Whether you in the end determine on somatic remedy, EMDR, or a mixed strategy, trauma remedy might help you progress ahead and reclaim your life. Learn extra about somatic remedy with Talkspace by reaching out as we speak.