“When a new patient comes and tells me that You need to talk about and analyze what is happening to you I tell him I don’t do those thingsthat other professionals can certainly help him better than me,” says Mariano Martelletti, a psychologist and yoga teacher specializing in somatic therapy. However, he admits Your attitude will be different if the patient speaks in a language that is accompanied by physical discomfort.: Panic attacks, muscle tension, chest pain, etc.
What Martelletti will work on with this person in the following sessions is the connection – or rather, the disconnection – that she has with her body. Quite, In somatic therapy, the body is the starting point for healing. This form of therapy promotes awareness of body sensations and teaches people to feel safe in their bodies while exploring thoughts, emotions, and memories. “They feel like what is happening to them is something foreign, but in reality it is their nervous system trying to protect them,” he confirms.
It is a therapeutic approach that dates back to the beginning of the 20th century, when the Austrian doctor, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reichexamined how muscle patterns might be related to psychological states. It would be this author who would develop it Concept of “body armor” This suggests that suppressed emotions manifest physically and that confronting them could lead to emotional healing.
“Typical talking therapies such as psychoanalysis and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) They only affect the mind, not the body, “Encourage people to become aware of disruptive thoughts and behavior patterns and work to change them,” says a letter from Harvard Health Publishing.
Fanny Brito Lettier, a psychologist trained in biological, systemic laws and quantum physics, explains that in a different way Somatic therapy does not aim to desensitize the symptom, but rather helps to identify and bring awareness to the cause of the discomfort. “We look at the person as a whole, including their mind, their body, their context, their family system and, last but not least, their spirit,” he emphasizes.
According to Martelletti The therapist’s role is to facilitate feeling in the body; those sensations that are normally inaccessible due to the intensity they bring. “We do this not through dialogue or conversation, but through knowledge of how the nervous system and energy in the body work.” Practical methods can be different: from acupressure and hypnosis to breathing and dance. In his case, he cites body scans as useful.
Brito Lettier, for example, says that he asks his patients to record their emotions in a diary to clarify the most common complaints in the session, or that he does meditations, movements and sounds They allow them to “make clear the reason why the body is tense or manifesting.”he explains.
Although somatic therapy is not as researched as cognitive behavioral therapy, has shown positive results, especially in people who deal with it Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or with Anxiety symptoms. This, according to Martelletti, is because trauma causes the ability to feel lost to be lost; So through this practice the ability to feel through the body is restored.
This was already expanded upon by Peter Levine, a doctor of physics, medicine and biology, when he postulated this in the 1970s When people experience trauma, they can become trapped in the “frozen” part of the fight or flight response.. These frozen parts collect energy as they should, but They spend it in ways that are contrary to healthy livingfor example through stress and fear. In summary, the goal of the somatic experience is to redirect this energy in directions that allow the patient to have a better quality of life.
“I repeat to my patients: ‘The body is precise and valuable.’ We just have to learn to get to know him,” concludes Brito Lettier.
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