Anxiety, Depression and feeling stuck is your body speaking to you.

Anxiety, depression, and feeling stuck are the actual symptoms my clients come to me specifically to eliminate. And when we work together doing Somatic Therapy on a nervous system level, the anxiety depression, and stuckness change.

However, in order for that change to occur, the client must begin to see these symptoms as the way your nervous system speaks to you when it feels a threat. It is your protective responses that are speaking to you in the form of Sensations, Images, Impulses, and Emotions.

The nervous system states of fight/flight (anxiety), dorsal shutdown (depression), or a combo of the two (freeze or stuckness)  are telling you that your system is feeling a threat.

You may not know why you are feeling that way and when you try to figure out why you just spin and spin in your head.  That spinning/thinking/trying to figure it out just makes it worse.  Let's be real, if that worked, we wouldn't be talking about your nervous system.  So, for now, go ahead and let go of the why.

Instead, focus on what you KNOW you are feeling in the present moment and connect it with your protective responses.

For example, when you're feeling anxious, pause and notice what it feels like in your body.  Even a moment of connecting anxiety to a tightening in your chest, an image of a childhood memory of bullying, or the impulse to run (for example) can begin to digest the anxiety.

Once you recognize that your body is giving you a threat message and you identify what state you're in, you can support your body in DIGESTING that emotion by following your impulses and coming back to a feeling of safety in your body

You'll know you feel safe because you will feel that you're back in your body, you'll notice your environment, and you'll feel a sense of grounding and ease. 

So, the next time you feel anxious, depressed or stuck, rather than trying to change how you feel, shift into getting curious about what your system is saying to you and then use your innate impulses to move that energy through your system.

The greatest paradox of life is when I accept myself as I am,  that's when I change.

                                                               - Carl Rogers

There are a few open spaces in my schedule for 1 on 1 work.  Is it your time?
Contact me here we can set up a 30 min consult to chat about Somatic Therapy