What is Somatic Yoga Therapy?
From a Western perspective, it is a therapeutic modality consisting of practices aimed at facilitating a gradual healing of the nervous system through trauma-sensitive, polyvagal-informed, natural vagus nerve stimulation techniques and embodiment practices that foster self-regulation, vagal tone, and resilience, while balancing the overall physiology. This process helps to set the conditions in the body and mind that are most conducive to healing. The tools used are sourced in both yogic tradition and Western somatic healing modalities.
The foundation of all somatic therapeutic methods lies in the principle that Body and Mind (Soma and Psyche) are part of a continuum and constantly reflecting each other. Our stories are stored in our body’s tissues, and body-centered therapies are an essential complement to top-down approaches in addressing the effects of traumatic experiences, as exhaustively explained by psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk in his book, The Body Keeps the Score.
Somatic, Body-Mind therapeutic modalities rely on interoception, our internal sense modulated by the autonomic and central nervous system and housed in the fascia, deeper tissues, and visceral depths, including the gut.
Most of the work is aimed at exploring and releasing the emotions stored in these body tissues. Our stories can be tracked in the state of our Autonomic Nervous System and its patterns. What kept us safe in the past might be limiting or even harming us now, flooding our system with untimely stress hormones and keeping us in a state of disregulation that is depleting our vital energy and weakening our immune system.
Our nervous systems have very specific dynamics that were intelligently devised in reaction to our personal, unfolding story. The somatic approach involves a skilled assessment methodology to prepare for the work of healing the nervous system and set ourselves free from the effects of a painful, limiting past.
The Eastern Perspective
Developing interoceptive awareness is the core of our learning, and it involves the willingness to feel the uncomfortable, what we have been running from and tried hard to repress. This attitude brings the precept of Svadhyaya (self-study) to life, one of the yogic observances in the ancient Hindu sage Patanjali’s sacred text, the Yoga Sutras. By learning to rest our attention on the inner, ever-changing flow of sensation and emotion as a felt-sense in the body, we can explore existing symptoms, emotions, or beliefs as they manifest as sensation, and become aware of new information stored in the tissues of our physical body or in the more subtle layers of our being. This process is gentle and compassionate and never forced or rushed. Material that is ready for release will arise of its own accord.
Attention and embodied awareness (the practice of being present in our bodies, feeling what is) have the potential to change what is present, and to bring any sub or semi-conscious material to consciousness for release before it has a chance to become somatized.
Our work is guided by Ahimsa (non-harming), another ethical precept from the Yoga Sutras: physical tension and emotional blocks are built over time as part of an intelligent self-protective mechanism, and it can take just as long for them to safely release.
Release is a gentle, gradual process that happens in absolute respect of personal boundaries, and it is never to be pushed to happen before we are ready. Sudden release is possible, but not often desirable.
Through the progressive exploration of all layers of being or koshas (physical, energetic, emotional, mental, and spiritual), we access the potential to come closer to the perception of our true nature, our inherent state of wholeness that is always present and always healed.
This process begins to reveal the habitual patterns (samskaras) that have been in the way of our emotional, mental, and physical health, therefore allowing for a natural shedding of the hindrances to well-being (kleshas) according to yogic tradition.
The principles of Yoga Therapy are rooted in Ayurveda and classical yoga philosophy. All practices used are evidence-based and backed by research in contemporary scientific fields, such as neuroscience, psychoneuroimmunology, and all branches backing up modern mind-body medicine.
Through the lens of yoga therapy, the wellness journey is supported in accordance with the teachings of the ancient yogic texts, aiming at the purification of body, mind, and emotions.
Whether we’re working with breath or therapeutic movement, the rule is to be gentle and practice kindness toward our whole being, respecting our body’s timing and honoring its innate wisdom.
This service does not replace licensed medical and mental health care, and it is offered as an available choice in a range of resilience-building lifestyle and behavioral practices within an optional multidisciplinary approach to preventing or managing chronic and acute conditions, facilitating nervous system and emotional regulation, and fostering spiritual growth.