The Body-Mind - Using Somatic Methods
When I first started working with tapping, there was little understanding of why this might work, or research supporting effectivness, just lots of anecdotal reports of big and surprising improvements. Now, however, theres a growing body of evidence that somatic methods—techniques like EMDR and tapping—can offer rapid healing.
Let's explore how these techniques work, and why they're gaining popularity.
The body-mind connection
Traditional talk therapy emphasizes exploring limiting patterns of thoughts and behaviours within a supportive, accepting relationship. Therapists help clients understand how these patterns originated, leading to "aha" moments and breakthroughs.
However, there's a growing trend to consider the body's role in distress. Many therapists already incorporate calming approaches such as breath work and progressive muscle relaxation. They may also suggest practices such as yoga, massage, or exercise.
A body-mind approach is supported by the 1960’s two-factor theory of emotion, that an emotion has both psychological and body sensation components. We are each always subconsciously scanning the environment to see if it feels safe or unsafe and the criteria for what is unsafe is based on our core beliefs and previous experiences. The first conscious awareness of unsafety may be physical sensations like tension, agitation, or pain. Our conscious mind then interprets these sensations based on our beliefs and awareness. For example, a client experiencing body tightness and a racing heart might identify this as fear and initially attribute it to an upcoming work presentation, but when the sensations persist they might then consider an upcoming doctor visit as the cause.
The Body’s Role in Processing Emotion
In recent decades, we've gained a deeper understanding of how the body processes emotion. Polyvagal theory explains in more detail how our autonomic nervous system responds to perceived threats or safety. Brain structures like the amygdala play a key role in sensing danger and mobilizing for defense. We now recognize that stress and anxiety often involve "fight or flight" reactions that can become stuck, leading to chronic stress.
It's increasingly clear that conditions like trauma, anxiety disorders, and depression involve both thoughts and body reactions. Somatic modalities naturally extend traditional mind-focused approaches by directly calming the body while addressing emotional and physical pain, often leading to more complete and rapid healing.
Somatic Treatment Methods
Therapists guide clients to focus on bodily sensations (like tightness or tingling) while holding an upsetting event in awareness and become aware of the intensity of feeling. A physical or imaginal intervention helps release the intensity, bringing the client to calm awareness. Key principles particularly for trauma include keeping the intensity within a "window of tolerance", including by oscillating between the painful feeling and a positive memory or initially exploring the event in less detail before delving deeper.
Different somatic modalities vary in their methods of diffusing intense feelings and their underlying rationales. Here are some of the most well-known:
Somatic Interventions improve Body and Mind
There is now strong evidence showing that somatic methods work and how, and EMDR and EFT tapping are the most researched. For tapping there are now more than 200 clinical studies documenting effectiveness and it meets criteria to be evidence-based for anxiety, depression, and PTSD. Research has shown that the act of tapping itself contributes to the benefit and that reduced stress intensity correlates with improved physiological stress markers like cortisol levels, blood pressure, heart rate variability, and brain function as seen in functional MRI measurements.
Whether a somatic intervention balances brain hemispheres (EMDR) or restores energy flow in meridians (EFT tapping), the result is normalizing the body’s overall stress physiology along with reducing symptoms such as pain, anxiety, and depression, and normalizing the cognitive component of the distress. As the body and emotions calm, understandings also usually shift to be more positive and realistic. For example, “my boss generally approves of my performance, this one mistake is not really going to get me fired”.
Bringing Somatic Methods into Therapy
I have found that taking a body-mind approach to therapy using tapping, the method I know well is helpful. It allows powerful changes to occur gently for many clients, whether that’s tapping while discussing a painful topic, calming when big feelings arise, or structured trauma release.