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The Somatic Science approach to anxiety and its related dysfunctions is holistic and somatically oriented. Since anxiety (anguish) is at the root of the experience of feeling unsafe, it requires a host of therapeutic interventions.
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anxiety (n.)
1520s, "apprehension caused by danger, misfortune, or error, uneasiness of mind respecting some uncertainty, a restless dread of some evil." Anguish.
Basic elements to address in case of existential (pervasive) anguish:
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restoring the Autonomic Nervous System to safety - complete all pending threat response cycles within the motor cortex
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determine a historical cause, if relevant (shock trauma)
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separate the original perceived cause from the meaning the mind has given it
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reinforce the experience of relational safety within the therapeutic relationship, then internally for the individual, and ultimately with others
Our integrated approach
Learning how to care for your mind and body is not what changes you. It is actually doing it. As we progress in helping extinguish the sense of anguish, we put any progress to the test immediately, in the form of simple behavioral experiments.
Redrawn from Peter Levine
Our approach in healing anxiety emphasizes:
+ Isolating the origins of
anxiety as traumatic stress
+ Identifying and correcting the
thoughts that support the anguished beliefs
+ Identifying and processing the
emotions that support anguish
+ Identifying and allowing the
sensations that generate anguish
+ Identifying the behaviors that re-enact anguish
+ Decoupling the above elements from
each other
+ Re-negotiating physiological
dysfunction via therapeutic touch
+ Resourcing to the pleasant
sensations, emotions, memories,
behaviors and meaning in the client's
life
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Let's try it now...
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Carefully looking around you, slowly moving your head in all directions, ask yourself sincerely:
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Is it true that right here (not somewhere else) and right now (not earlier, not later) all is NOT well? Is it really true?
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Notice what happens in your experience of the body.
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If the answer is yes; it is true that all is not well right here right now...then a part of you (your nervous system) does not yet feel safe in the present. Just notice that it is a part of you who is aware, not you - and ask again.
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