How does Somatic Therapy help with depression?
Tapping into your bodily experience can provide relief from lethargy and despair by accessing deeper feelings that are buried underneath
3 min read | Illustration by Anthony Orozco
When we are depressed a lot of our energy goes toward attempting to manage the stress brought on by being depressed. This, in turn, siphons energy that we might otherwise use to relax, seek pleasure, or gain comfort. Joy fades, concentration wanes, decision making becomes muddled, our appetites fluctuate, our sleep habits suffer.
All of these factors can lead people experiencing depression to feel dissociated from their bodies, to feel not quite like themselves, to feel that they are living but are perhaps not fully alive. This might take the form of retreating into TV, the internet, or fantasy as a distraction. It also could manifest as a sort of obsessive hyper vigilance, making it hard to feel much else apart from anxiety, fear and a sense of dread.
Somatic therapy and somatic mindfulness can serve as a conduit, allowing depressed people to reconnect with their bodies in a manner that promotes the sort of comfort and ease that contending with depression often eradicates. At first, a somatic therapeutic approach might feel quite difficult or uncomfortable to the depressed person. However, therapeutic modalities like AEDP, Internal Family Systems and Somatic Experiencing all provide a framework to allow therapists to assist people with the discomfort brought on by negative affective states like depression.
Stefan Allen-Hickey, a therapist at Downtown Somatic Therapy in Manhattan, says “by cultivating a non-judgmental attitude of self-acceptance while focusing on the discomfort brought on by depression, people can eventually come to terms with and lessen the pain they are experiencing. It may seem counterintuitive, but by directing more awareness to how depression affects our bodies, people can dissolve the more pernicious impacts of depression.”
“It may seem counterintuitive, but by directing more awareness to how depression affects our bodies, people can dissolve the more pernicious impacts of depression.”
Somatic therapy can help people notice their tendency to dissociate to protect themselves from the fear and pain associated with depression. By being encouraged to eschew their tendency to dissociate, people learn to spend more and more time tolerating bodily sensations, and emotions. As previously warded off feelings like fear or emotional pain are explored, new feelings of vitality often emerge.
A by-product of somatic therapy is often an improved ability to assess our emotional needs in real time, since we learn to be less afraid of feelings that previously might have been avoided. As Stefan notes: “Somatic therapy allows people to come back into their bodies and experience sensations more vividly than their depression had been allowing. This can, in turn, allow people to begin to feel a bit more like themselves again”.
“Somatic therapy allows depressed people to come back into their bodies and experience sensations more vividly than their depression had been allowing.”
By acknowledging, and sitting with, how depression makes us feel in our bodies, we can begin to overcome the feelings of “overwhelm” that depression can engender.
If you are wanting to meet with a skilled therapist to improve your ability to cope with symptoms of depression, consider contacting Downtown Somatic Therapy today.