The Somatic Therapy Workbook: Stress-Relieving Exercises for Strengthening the Mind-Body Connection and Sparking Emotional and Physical Healing

by Livia Shapiro

Overview

Release tension, boost your mood, and heal from traumatic experiences with therapist-approved activities in this easy-to-use guide to somatic therapy.

The effects of a traumatic event are more than just mental. Trauma can manifest in the body as chronic pain, sluggishness, and even depressed mood. Somatic psychology is an alternative therapy that analyzes this mind-body connection and helps you release pent-up tension and truly heal from past trauma. The Somatic Therapy Workbook offers a primer to this life-changing approach as a means for personal growth, designed for beginners or those already using somatic techniques in their current therapeutic process. Ideal for those suffering from PTSD and other trauma-based afflictions, this safe and approachable look at somatic therapy includes:

- journal exercises
- body-centered prompts for personal inquiry
- movement exercises
- real-life experiments

Readers will come away with a new ability to process and accept their emotions and an understanding of how to live a somatically-oriented and embodied life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781646040957
Publisher:	Ulysses Press
Publication date:	12/08/2020
Pages:	152
Sales rank:	176,611
Product dimensions:	7.40(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Livia Shapiro is a fresh and radically honest voice, illuminating somatic psychology as a practical, meaningful and engaging theoretical paradigm and practice for personal inquiry and healing. She speaks to clinicians, students, clients, and the lay person alike with a kind clarity and witty humor. She has been interviewed by countless podcasts on somatic psychology, yoga, trauma sensitive yoga, and embodied spiritual practice. In clinical practice, Livia works holistically assisting women in healing from trauma, repairing relational wounds, and rewiring their nervous systems so they can live more vibrantly and powerfully in the lives they choose. She graduated Cum Laude from the University of Vermont, holds a Masters of Somatic Counseling Psychology from Naropa University, and is a registered psychotherapist with the state of Colorado.

Table of Contents

Introduction 9

Part 1 The Somatic Therapy Landscape 13

Chapter 1 Terms and Context 14

Chapter 2 Forms and Modalities 22

Part 2 Core Principles of Somatic Therapy 25

Chapter 3 Your Body Speaks through Sensations 26

Chapter 4 Your Body Speaks through Movement 36

Chapter 5 Your Body Has Boundaries 44

Chapter 6 Your Body Has Impulses You Can Trust 53

Chapter 7 Your Body Stores Information 62

Chapter 8 Your Body Has Innate Pathways for Healing 74

Part 3 Journey through the Soma 83

Chapter 9 Cultivate Ongoing Embodiment 84

Chapter 10 Cultivate Resources 100

Chapter 11 Self-Regulation Practices: Working with Big Energy 110

Chapter 12 Facing Resistance and Your Inner Critic 124

Chapter 13 Including Your Body in Ritual 134

Closing 140

Notes 141

Bibliography 144

Acknowledgments 147

About the Author 151