Somatic EMDR
What is somatics?
‘Soma’ is a Greek word for ‘the living body known from within’, or known to the Self. This ‘knowing’ signifies wholeness. Somatic therapy is an experiential approach towards mind-body integration. The pain, overwhelm, and coping responses manifested by trauma take us away from feeling at home in our body, and as a result, there is often a split within ourselves.
Somatic EMDR is designed for those who want to discover the power of a unified somatic approach to address and repair the psychological and physiological effects of trauma.
When brought together these two cutting-edge modalities, somatics and EMDR, help process traumatic memories and reduce emotional distress, while reconnecting with the body and restoring a sense of safety and agency. In fact, according to Trauma expert Bessel van der Kolk,
“Somatic Therapy and EMDR Therapy are considered the best approaches for the treatment of trauma”.
SOMATIC EMDR THERAPY
Is an effective and holistic process to heal from stress and trauma, expand your resilience and enhance your journey toward well-being & healing.
Somatic Therapy helps to:
• Restore the body as a place of safety while helping to expand the capacity to process body (preverbal and nonverbal) memory
• Metabolize unprocessed emotions
• Complete thwarted (incomplete) stress responses
• Restore our optimal relationship to our self and the world around us
Unlike EMDR, (Eye movement Desensitization reprocessing) which may target the worst part of the trauma first, Somatic Experiencing works from the outside edges inward to the core of the trauma. While the pace may be slower than with EMDR, the discharge and release of the traumatic activation from your nervous system can be very powerful, with a bottom-up approach (the body) rather than the top-down approach (the mind).
Somatic trauma therapy offers techniques for Alison’s clients to sense and regulate their physiology and states of being. This includes building more internal and external resources, building trusting and co-regulatory relationships, learning to turn inward with compassion, being invited deeper into the body, and being given time and space to process the trauma. These somatic techniques unwind trauma stored within you and restore well-being.
Your Somatic EMDR sessions will inspire and empower you while guiding you through this effective, enriching and powerful healing process
What is Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)?
EMDR therapy is a comprehensive approach to therapy that integrates elements of psychodynamic, cognitive behavioural, interpersonal, experiential, and body-centred therapies to maximize treatment effects, developed by psychiatrist and educator Francine Shapiro in the 80s.
EMDR Therapy uses a structured protocol for the treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and related past experiences that trigger emotions, beliefs, and sensations occurring from events, bereavement, abuse, neglect or even witnessing another’s traumatic experience.
How EMDR works: researchers believe therapy involving rapid eye movements, much like REM sleep, changes how the brain processes information and releases patients from feeling trapped in frightening emotions.
People who experience trauma and have Somatic EMDR therapy will learn to replace negative images and emotions with positive thoughts, thus no longer continually reliving the feelings, images and sounds connected to the traumatic event and living a life that feels trapped in a revolving door.
Traumatic memories are still present because they were indeed experienced but they cease to hold a strong influence over the traumatized person
Somatic Psychology offers key concepts and interventions that are necessary for a unified Somatic approach to EMDR.
Alison will use Somatic Interventions such as tracking sensations, deepening awareness, boundary awareness, and self-regulation to complement and increase the efficacy of EMDR Therapy and collectively these therapeutic modalities offer a profound healing tool for anyone facing the pain of PTSD.
“The past affects the present even without our being aware of it.”
“The synthesis of somatic psychology and EMDR Therapy is an exciting advancement in mental health. As stand-alone therapies, these are now considered to be two of the best trauma treatment models available. Integrating these therapies enhances the effectiveness of both.”
Dr. Arielle Schwartz
In somatic EMDR therapy, clients identify the root of their pain and what’s holding them back, and together we work on the change of negative thoughts cluttering their mind, restoring their sense of safety, and vitality, processing traumatic memories and reducing emotional distress….
This processing helps clients to reconnect with their own body if they have felt dissociated for some time, and restore safety and agency.
This is a profound healing tool for women facing the emotional and physiological pain of trauma, and deciding to finally move through life without feeling this pain any longer.
Research also shows Somatic EMDR can decrease chronic pain, improve relaxation, and enhance well-being and self-esteem. Somatic EMDR is known to achieve results in as few as 3-12 sessions. While everyone's journey is different, 80% to 90% of people report positive results within their first three sessions.
With Somatic EMDR, Alison has been trained with leading experts and doctors in the tools of Somatic Psychology to enhance the effectiveness of EMDR such as DR Bessel Van der Kolk, Dr Arielle Scwartz, Dr Scott Lyons as well as other EMDR therapists with over 100 hours of intensive training and many further practicum hours.
JOIN ALISON FOR PERSONAL ONE-TO-ONE SESSIONS, enrolling now for MAY 2024
If you are ready to begin your journey with Alison in a Somatic EMDR therapeutic approach, there is currently a SPRING introductory offer of 1 individual taster session for £165.
Alison will use Somatic Interventions such as tracking sensations, deepening awareness, boundary awareness, and self-regulation for your nervous system to complement and increase the efficacy of EMDR Therapy and collectively these therapeutic modalities offer a profound healing tool for anyone facing the pain of PTSD.
If you truly feel you are ready for this support in your healing journey. If the package price is still somewhat out of your reach, yet you truly desire this support, then we will arrange a 3-part payment plan for you so that you can be held within this safety of healing.
Sessions will be scheduled from May 14th 2024 onward.
Join for May 2024
Somatic EMDR sessions
Somatic EMDR therapy for eating disorders
When properly executed, both hemispheres of the brain are stimulated in a way that allows clients to release long-buried traumatic memories and learn to avoid further destructive patterns that are often associated with eating disorders, such as self-harm, substance abuse or obsessive exercise.
Sessions, which usually last 60 to 90 minutes, usually end with relaxation exercises that the client can practice at home. Alison may offer further Breathwork or somatic movement sessions, to complement your healing journey at home.
Although the techniques may seem simple, Somatic EMDR protocols can release the intensity of traumatic memories, and whilst processing them it can be extremely frightening and too intense for unprepared clients and therapists who are unable to hold a safe space with tools to be able to contain and resource you after the session ends, Alison is trained in doing this with you.
A strong support system such as friends and family is strongly advised
Eating disorders can occur for seemingly “no reason”, however, there is always a psychological reason for everything.
Many women live for years, even decades with disordered eating of some form (hidden from even the closest of relationships).
Alison is an Eating psychology coach and now uses Somatic EMDR alongside Functional Health coaching to support her clients in healing from disordered eating.
For people with eating disorders, the goal of the Somatic EMDR technique is to address trauma by unlocking the reasons for destructive eating patterns. It involves a series of very short exercises, in which Alison will use a range of bilateral stimulation techniques, this can even be with fingers or sound, or an object such as a pen in side-to-side motions while a client holds past unpleasant images, and memories in her mind. Instead of watching an object, the technique may involve other types of sensory, bilateral input, such as tapping or an earphone with tones that move from one ear to the other. In time, trauma begins to lose its intensity clients come back to their bodies, create agency, recognise their patterns and have a more manageable approach to their disorder as opposed to the “disorder having control over the person”.
Alison understands the true grip eating disorders can have on a person, she herself was in a loop of disordered eating for almost 7 years, hospitalized from anorexia, followed by Bulemia, orthorexia and purge / starve cycles with an added ingredient of exercise which contributed to her years of suffering with IBS and SIBO. No matter your age, the repetitive negative and self-destruction cyle, can be drawn to a halt.
