333 Grand Avenue #206, Saint Paul, MN 55102
What is "Somatic Massage?"
Please note:
I am NOT accepting clients seeking only traditional massage therapy.
The work I do is NOT traditional massage therapy. My use of touch is limited, gentle and very specific to the needs of your nervous system, especially if you seek relief from trauma responses.
I use touch only in conjunction with Somatic Experiencing® or in the form of gentle craniosacral techniques, and only as needed to support the process of nervous system regulation and trauma resolution.
Was I looking for "Trauma Informed Massage?" Or "somatic massage?"
"Massage therapy is for sore muscles and to help you relax, right?"
Muscles get sore because they've done hard work, like after a vigorous workout. But when a body has been affected by trauma, which is a nervous-system response to a sudden physical or emotional impact (or a long-term pressure), muscles contract and stay contracted without a release.
And that's for a reason! Not because you have a "bad" body part, or you "slept funny". Muscles contract in order to perform the task of movement for a specific purpose, and then naturally return to a resting state. But if it is in response to a threat that's too much that happens too fast and too soon, or even a perceived threat, that rest doesn't get to happen. Your muscles (and your nervous system) continue to be geared up and ready, but with no outlet to complete that purpose.
Not completing a purpose can lead to feelings of frustration, anger, worry, anxiety, fear, and even hopelessness, failure and despair. Being "ready" all the time, especially when your brain "tells" you nothing is wrong, is exhausting, but...you can't seem to relax.
The "Freeze" Response: "Stuck in Fight or Flight"
Your whole body - your whole Self - seeks relief, but your body doesn't seem to be doing what you really want it to do. It's like all the energy to Do Something is fighting with the Exhaustion - that's a freeze response, when the inability to fight or flee leaves shutdown as its only option. The "somatic massage" you might be looking for is in an effort to find relief.
The word "somatic" comes from the Greek word meaning "body". Whereas a psychotherapist works mainly with the "psyche", or "mind", I work with your whole body, inside and out. A massage therapist for 15 years, I have thousands of hours of hands-on knowledge of the deeply subtle ways a human organism can shift and change.
So...is a "Somatic Massage" really a massage?
No. Not at all If you're thinking about lying on a massage table, face down under a sheet while you luxuriate in the feeling of lotion being spread on your skin, or being pushed and prodded to "get the trauma out" as if it were toothpaste from a tube.
Your body and mind are inseparable, and together, we work with why and how your body moves or doesn't move in response to its environment, and help you to recognize responses that work easily, rather than the "default reactions" you've developed that you can't seem to change no matter how hard you try. Those responses might be there for good reason! At one time, they provided protection: way to adapt to your environment! But those adaptations have become maladaptive, meaning they do you more harm than good. But guess what? Those default responses aren't gonna give up easily...especially when they involve muscle tension patterns.
So...I need some sort of "somatic bodywork?"
I use Somatic Experiencing® as a way to "be with" rather than "do to" your body as we subtly unravel the links between your body's responses and the mind's reasons why they exist.
"Hmmm. Is this like talk therapy?" Well...you were seeking massage therapy as a way to feel a change in your body. And now you've realized that your mind and body affect each other. What if your body could change your mind, and change your Whole Self?