The essence of this approach
Somatic Science™ uses the scientific method and metacognition to greatly reduce or minimize unhappiness (developmental trauma). We also incorporate SE™, the polyvagal theory, parts-work and relational dynamics to this end.
In this view, unhappiness is simply being uncomfortable with oneself most or all of the time. It results from adverse childhood experiences (ACE) that cause developmental or persistent trauma. Happiness is simply the absence of suffering - peace, calm and equanimity.
The Somatic Science™ approach is goal-oriented and non-pathologizing. In summary, it works like this:
Clinical presentation:
In our experience, most of us who have experienced 2 or more ACEs are unhappy due to feeling unsafe. This generates an implicit experience of life as though something is wrong, always. This experience is implicit and based on autonomic nervous system (ANS) processes that cause us to be governed by the threat response cycle (TRC). Due to the inherent nature of the functioning of the ANS while in the TRC, metacognition is not available to us. Without metacognition, higher brain functions connected to basic reasoning processes (neurocognition) are offline and the experience of suffering cannot be made explicit. Basic reasoning could easily allow an individual to determine that their implicit experience of unsafety (something is wrong) isn't linked to their actual sensate experiences of time and place at any given moment - it would be rendered explicit. Consequently, we would inevitably deduct that these experiences arise out of a different time and place which is not linked to our ongoing, moment-to-moment experience of here-and-now. For the sake of simplicity, we can call these interoceptive threat activation signals that are caused by adverse childhood experiences (ACE).
Methodology Summary:
a. Establish therapeutic safety & appropriate boundaries with Relational Dynamics: Metacognition of here-now
b. Make the experience of happiness (safety) or unhappiness (unsafety) explicit: Titrated exteroception, interoception and apperception with metacognition of time & place
c. Re-introduce metacognition using parts-work, dialectical and therapeutic inquiry (Relational Dynamics): Titrated exteroception, interoception and apperception with metacognition of time & place coupled to dysregulated energies. Rendering implicit content explicit.
d. Test to verify that the experience of happiness (safety) has been re-discovered with relational attunement: Titrated exteroception, interoception and apperception with metacognition of time & place. Testing that metacognition of new explicit content to check if metacognition remains available.
