Do you often experience a disconnect between your mind and body? The body is where your consciousness flows through all parts of your being influencing everything that you feel and perceive. Yet many of us are stuck in our head/thoughts. We are often dissociated and unconscious of the wisdom, memories, information, feelings and energy that is stored throughout our body. Somatic Psychology explores this fascinating relationship between mind and body while giving us the tools to integrate them.
What is Somatic Psychology?
Somatic psychology is an interdisciplinary field involving the study of the body, and the embodied self. This includes therapeutic and holistic approaches to body. The word somatic comes from the ancient Greek root σωματ- somat- (body). The word psychology comes from the ancient Greek psyche (breath, soul hence mind) and -logia (study).
Understanding “the Place Between”
We are often caught in polarization between competing ideas or world-views. Yet reality flourishes in the “in-between”, nuanced places but many of us are uncomfortable there. We prefer the simplicity of absolutes like black and white. The difference between a caterpillar and a butterfly is the gushy metamorphoses period in the cocoon.
This is a territory that is more comfortable to the artist and spiritual seeker than the scientist. Somatic Psychology focuses particularly on the interstices. It may emerge as an important discipline in connecting art, science and spirituality for a better understanding of human consciousness.
Painting has got to be the most ecstatic experience I know… When you really get into the juicy bits where there are no boundaries, there is nothing the brush can’t wield into being… Falling backwards into the void and trusting that something will catch you… All those loud and annoying voices of resistance will tell you what a bad and unsafe idea it is, but you have to prevail long enough for the wand to hang unbridled in space to tickle the sweetness of new worlds into being. – Amanda Sage
What is Embodied Cognition?
Somatic Psychology has opened the door to ideas such as embodied cognition. This idea argues that many features of human cognition are shaped by aspects of the body beyond the brain. Here are some examples:
- Using visualization practices like having a patient engage their imagination to “intuit” the voice/story of different parts of the body. This can help to heal physical or psychological wounds.
- Utilizing expressive art therapy based on the idea that people can heal through various forms of creative expression.
- A process called somatic experiencing, which has been very successful in the treatment of trauma and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
- Before the modern clinical version of somatic psychology there were earlier practices like Yoga. Some cultural traditions naturally incorporate science, art, and spirituality to be seen as one integrated whole through our body poses.
Most psychologists treat the mind as disembodied, a phenomenon with little or no connection to the physical body. Conversely, physicians treat the body with no regard to the mind or the emotions. But the body and mind are not separate, and we cannot treat one without the other. – Dr. Candace Pert, Neuroscientist
The Link Between the Physical and the Emotional
In 1911, psychologist William James wrote The Gospel of Relaxation. He postulated that it is necessary to make a correlation between physical and emotive expression. Stating that if a person does not express an emotion, they have not felt it at all. This implies that the act of moving emotions through our body requires us to engage with them, feel them and express them.
Further research has actually shown profound connections between body posture and facial expressions. Not only do they predispose us to certain emotional states, communicating via body-language to others, but we can change how we feel by consciously changing our facial expression or physical posture.
For example, researchers John H. Riskind and Carolyn C. Gotay show evidence that subjects who held a slumped posture “verbally reported self-perceptions of greater stress than subjects that were placed in a relaxed position.” James Laird noticed that moving the facial muscles into a “smile” shape made subjects feel happier. Whereas moving them into a “frown” caused the subject to feel pain more intensely.
This research became known as facial feedback hypothesis. Clearly there is a relationship between the hypothalamus, which secretes hormones associated with emotional moods/states, and the muscles of the face. The beauty of this research is that mood is not only regulated internally. It can be changed externally through physical movement!
Somatic Psychology for Healing and Self-discovery:
We have all heard that it is bad to repress our feelings—so what happens if a person intentionally suppresses his or her negative emotions on an ongoing basis? Work by psychologist Judith Grob of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands suggests that this suppressed negativity may “leak” into other realms of a person’s life. – Scientific American
This gives a nice introduction to the impetus for expressive therapies in somatic psychology. Human expression is a powerful vehicle for healing and self-discovery. Just as we know that repression of emotions is unhealthy, so is the over-indulgence of them.
So we are once again invited to stand somewhere in the middle between two polarities. Most people are good at one or the other but not very good at holding a balance between the two. Somatic psychology gives us a tool for balance.
This short blog barely scratches the surface of the field of somatic psychology. However, it is easy to see the value of this field of study in our modern world of fixed polarization. We are needing models that help us integrate science and spirituality. The quantifiable and the immeasurable, as well as the overlapping places between them are important.
Take some time to learn how to be comfortable in the liminal “in between” places. Observe what sorts of secrets your body has to share with you. What feelings dwell in your flesh that are waiting to be felt and heard?
If you like this area of conversation you will certainly enjoy some of my other related articles. Join me as I explore this fascinating research from the perspective of dance, visual art, music, and various healing arts. What kinds of creative or therapeutic expressions help you bridge the divide between your body and mind?
