How is Somatic Therapy Different?

When I do complimentary consults with people, they tell me their story and symptoms (typically people come to when they're feeling stuck, anxious, chronically angry, and/or depressed as well as chronic pain). If it feels like a good fit for both of us, I explain how we can work together to support their transformation.

Then I usually get this question, how are we going to do that? What does it look like? And how is this different than talk therapy?

These are great questions. I wondered this too when I started and I'm so glad you asked.

Talk therapy tends to utilize the cognitive part of your brain to talk through memories, see patterns, and understand where you came from and why you have these patterns. It helps you to make meaning of those patterns with an empathic guide and witness. Some talk therapies also bring aspects of mindfulness, creativity, and imagination into the process.

I am trained in Somatic Experiencing. Read till the end for a link to their website and my listing.

Somatic Experiencing clears stuck stress aka trauma and brings about ease, feeling of safety, creativity, and willingness to connect with others by working with your beautiful nervous system. Your nervous system is the underlying intelligent glue of your entire being. When we work with your nervous system, you will get in touch with the somatic (soma means of the body) part of you as well as the part of you that talk therapy touches.

Your wholeness is made up of:

Sensation
Images
Behavior
Affect/Emotions
Meaning

So much of our culture and upbringing represses or ignores these amazing and highly intelligent parts of you that are a portal to your healing. A big part of the Settle Your Sh*t process is to clear the stuck stress causing anxiety, feeling stuck, chronic pain, and depression by bringing together all of these parts of yourself. Your whole self feels like you can move forward in your life, connect with the people you love, and safely experience the full range of emotions.

I spent decades wondering what was wrong with me. I felt disconnected, depressed, and like I was living on a different dimension. I felt alone and that no one understood me, that I was damaged. It went on for so many decades and tried so many therapies, diets, and modalities that there was a part of me that felt like healing wasn't possible and that I would never feel how I wanted to feel. When I started this work, I began to feel something different emerge in me. I now FEEL connected, a part of this world, the full range of emotions without it shutting me down. I feel empowered because I now know how to handle the stress that comes my way. I know that I've got me.

If my system can shift then yours certainly can too!

If you're ready to step into your own healing I invite you to join the Settle Your Sh*t Healing Group.

This is a group of 10 women and female-identified humans who are wanting to do this work in the community. We will meet on zoom weekly for 5 weeks and do the work of connecting to your beautiful and highly intelligent nervous system.
Once I have a full group we will decide together on our day/time.

Signup on the waitlist here
https://doriesilverman.com/sysgroup-waitlist

You are not alone. Your nervous system is waiting for you. Let's support it and you in feeling you're wholeness.

Rather do private 1 on 1 work?
Reply to this email to set up a 30-minute consultation

Check out the weekly class schedule and info on Somatic Experiencing below

With LOVE and Regulation~
Dorie

Classes this week:
Wednesday 9:30-10:30 am CST Somatic Bowspring
Saturday 10-11:15 am CST Somatic Yoga

Register at:
www.doriesilverman.com/classes

Somatic Experiencing
Somatic Experiencing Training Institute

Read my practitioner Listing on the SE Website

New Years Reflections 2021

This season and solstice I want you to know how much I appreciate your presence in this community.

I wish you and the ones you love a meaningful holiday where you can be present soak in the love, pleasure, and connection you have in your life.

With the solstice here and the new year coming soon, I've been reflecting on 2021 to step into 2022 with intention and purpose.

For me, this year has brought some new joys.

I have been able to travel to California 4x this year to take in the joys of my family including my delicious and adorable 3-year-old niece.

I've continued to teach yoga online. A big hug to each and every yoga student who has attended a class this year. It is such a joy to share our practice and see each other's faces through these crazy pandemic times.

I created the How to Advocate for Yourself with Doctors guide to support your nervous system when you're going in for hard medical appointments, procedures/surgeries, or receiving test results.

You can get yours here

I hired a business coach and we're slowly putting systems in place to launch an online course in 2022 so that Somatic Therapy can be done in connection, which is so important for the regulation of the nervous system.

You can join the waitlist here.

I finished my coursework for Somatic Experiencing and feel more and more able to be present for my life as I daily connect with my nervous system and tend to it. A huge shout out to my weekly SE therapist who continues to teach me how to be a fully formed human even after decades of medical trauma. And to my private clients who are the bravest and smartest souls I've ever met and inspire me to be better.

While it's important to reflect on your blessings, it's also important to acknowledge the struggles that you overcame and that pushed you to improve. Some of the struggles and emotions I worked with this year were.

Fear
Grief and Shame
Deep loneliness
Scary Medical Stuff
Feeling Anxious and Stuck

Reflecting on the challenges can help you to see more clearly how you want to move forward.
Some questions that help me to evaluate that are:

I wish for you all that you desire to feel this holiday season and into next year

And I'd love to hear what your wins and challenges were this year. If it feels right, click here to share.

With Love and Regulation~
Dorie

RIP Stephen Sondheim and Your Aliveness

Last week, Stephen Sondheim died. The news hit me like a ton of bricks. In case you're unfamiliar, Stephen Sondheim was an American composer and lyricist, and influential contributor to 20th-century musical theater. I know his work and saw a few of his shows when I was little, West Side Story and Company, but the majority of his shows weren't so influential in my life. However, what impacts me the most is that his shows paved the way for the musicals I performed in as a kid Starlight Express, Fiddler on the Roof, Grease, Les Miserables, and those I've seen over the years, too many to count/list, that brought me to tears as soon as the lights went down, evoked every single emotion in me during the story and optimism about my own life as soon as they were over. Musicals, music, and artistic expression have been the places where I've felt the most alive.

When I listened to the story of Sondheim on NPR I started to remember how I felt at musicals. I remembered that aliveness and that desire to express myself. A few days ago, when I got the news of his death, I needed that reminder. I remembered that every time I sing with a song or dance a little bit, I feel more myself, more whole, and I get a jolt of energy, a surge of aliveness. That aliveness can get buried in me in the throes of everyday life which can now hold so much stress and anxiety.

I love how Sondheim's characters were so real, so nuanced and so much of a dichotomy, just like all humans, just like me.

That realness and expression are so important for healing Trauma. In Somatic Therapy, you get real with yourself, allowing your body to have a voice that it didn't have. Clearing trauma releases life energy. Your aliveness lives under the stuckness and anxiety you feel.

You may not like to sing or dance or even like musicals. However, you have a Somatic BodyHome that records all of your experiences and that desires to feel vital and alive. If you're struggling physically or emotionally with anxiety, depression, or feeling disconnected and stuck, your nervous system is likely holding trauma from your past that's holding you back.

When we work together we custom build a toolbox for you. You'll have somatic exercises to build resilience. You'll also have tools you can use when you're with other people and you get triggered or overwhelmed.

If you are resonating with this I invite you to contact me here to book a 30-minute complimentary consultation with me for private work. Sessions are online.

And, join a Somatic Movement (movement +nervous system regulation) class this week.

With LOVE, Courage, and Regulation
Dorie