Guest blog by Courtney Rolla MA, LCPC, SEP
Did you know that anxiety is a normal emotion? We all experience anxiety at different points in our lives and to varying degrees. While cognitive symptoms like worry and racing thoughts are a big part of anxiety, you can’t always think your way out of it. Did you know that by involving your body you can regulate anxiety? In this article, I’ll tell you more about that, specifically how Somatic Experiencing can treat anxiety.
Anxiety consists of both mental and physical symptoms. These include worry, rumination, apprehension, racing heart, shaking, and shallow breathing to name a few. Anxiety is a normal human experience; however, as you continue to experience stressors and traumas in life, anxiety may grow to an overwhelming level and may feel difficult to manage.
Some common therapeutic treatments such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy are widely used to treat anxiety. These modalities are known as top-down approaches. A top-down approach means the therapeutic intervention largely focuses on the mental/cognitive experience and understanding of anxiety. In this article, we will look at a bottom-up approach to manage and treat anxiety called Somatic Experiencing (SE). As you will learn, a bottom-up approach means incorporating the body and its experience in the overall treatment of anxiety.
What is Anxiety?
As mentioned, anxiety is a normal human experience. You can experience anxiety in varying degrees. For example, you might feel nervous at a doctor’s appointment, anxious as your work week starts, or even feel so overwhelmed with anxiety that it prevents you from leaving your house or interacting with people. When anxiety becomes more consuming and intense like this last example and impairs your functioning, it may qualify as an anxiety disorder.
Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the United States with around 40 million adults affected. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5 (DSM 5) defines Generalized Anxiety Disorder as “excessive anxiety and worry (apprehensive expectation) occurring more days than not for at least 6 months, about a number of events or activities”. Additionally, you find it difficult to control the worry. Whether you have a diagnosed anxiety disorder or experience mild anxiety, Somatic Experiencing techniques can be helpful in decreasing anxiety symptoms.
What is Somatic Experiencing?
Somatic means pertaining to the body, and it is derived from the ancient Greek word for the body, soma. Therefore, Somatic Experiencing largely focuses on the experience of the body. It works to restore and enhance the mind-body connection for a holistic approach to treating one’s emotional and mental health.
Interoception is an essential skill in Somatic Experiencing therapy. It means sensing internal signals from your body, almost like a sixth sense. For example, hunger pangs in your stomach may signal that you are hungry, or chills and goosebumps may signal that you are cold. Interoception can also be used to identify and understand our emotions, as well. For example, tension in your shoulders, bracing in your abdomen, and clenched fists may signal that you are angry. Butterflies in your stomach, a smile on your face, and a racing heart may signal excitement.
Related Reading: What is Somatic Experiencing Therapy?
You may be asking, “But why is interoception important and how is it used to improve my emotional health?” To better understand why interoception is important it is helpful to know Somatic Experiencing’s view on emotions and healing. Have you ever heard of fight, flight, and freeze? These are automatic biological responses we all have that protect us from danger and threats. But our nervous system does not only perceive physical danger, it also perceives emotional danger. Examples of emotional threats are anger-provoking traffic, worrisome homework assignments, overwhelming crowded places, and fear-producing violence.
Somatic Experiencing uses an increased understanding of interoception to bring greater awareness to your body’s experience in these survival states. In short, using interoception can help your body come out of survival states and in turn, regulate your emotions. This process takes time and is most effective with the support of a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner.
Anxiety and your body
Now that you have an idea of the importance of the mind-body connection in regulating your emotions, let’s look at the experience of anxiety in your body. The cognitive and mental symptoms of anxiety often get a lot of attention. But how does your body experience anxiety? For some, this can be a difficult question to answer because it can be uncomfortable to even notice. For others, this may be an easy question to answer as the physical symptoms can be intense, overwhelming, or obvious. And we each have a varying degree of attunement to the body.
Think about your automatic protective responses again. Anxiety is the physical, emotional, and cognitive manifestation of a flight response, the production of energy to get you away from a threat. Interoception may detect a racing heart rate, shallow breathing, increase in energy, urges to move limbs, upset stomach, sweating, and shaking, to name a few physical symptoms.
An example of this in your day-to-day life may be wanting to leave the room when approached with a difficult conversation. Another example is the need to bounce your leg and fidget with something during a stressful meeting or boring lecture. This is the energy of a flight response wanting to move you to safety. Because we override this urge and stay put in a meeting, the stored energy that is unreleased is what we experience as anxiety.
How anxiety is treated with Somatic Experiencing
As I mentioned above, anxiety is the stored energy of an incomplete flight response. The way Somatic Experiencing aims to decrease anxiety is to complete the flight response. Think of the times you wanted to get away and couldn’t. In supported work with a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, you will use interoception of sensation, imagery, and movement to allow the body to discharge stored energy and come out of a survival state. This dissipates anxiety.
SE also works to restore a felt sense of safety. Imagery can play a big role in this. Can you imagine a safe and comfortable place? Can you imagine being in the company of your closest friend or loved one? By using this pleasant imagery and bringing awareness to the body, you help your nervous system know that it is okay to deactivate and come out of its survival response, again dissipating anxiety.
It is important to note that building interoception skills should be a gentle and delicate process. Whether you are noticing pleasant, neutral, or unpleasant internal states, you should never force or push yourself to sit with something that is too much. It is recommended to do this with the support of a trained professional, particularly a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner.
Somatic Experiencing Exercises for Anxiety
With our understanding of the body’s connection to anxiety, the coping techniques below may offer some relief when feeling anxious. As with any coping technique, it may take several attempts to feel the efficacy.
- Looking out a window for the furthest point you can see, taking it in for as long as it feels comfortable.
- “Voo breaths” taking a gentle deep breath in and gently releasing the air in the sound of a voo in the deepest part of your vocal register.
- Gentle and intentional stretching
- Shaking, running, and jumping in place
- Visualizing imagery of a safe and comfortable space and/or loving and kind people
Are you interested in Somatic Experiencing videos? Watch Rhonda Kelloway walk you through 5 Somatic Experiencing Techniques that Anyone can use to Stay Grounded.
Whether you experience sporadic anxiety symptoms or have a diagnosed anxiety disorder, you do not have to suffer. Anxiety is your body’s way of moving you to a flight response for protection. By incorporating your body in your understanding of anxiety and in the ways you cope, you can work to dissipate anxiety. You can achieve a calmer mind and a calmer body as well. If you’re in northern Illinois, Life Care Wellness has trained Somatic Experiencing Practitioners who can work with you to regulate your anxiety. Please reach out to us at our Glen Ellyn, Chicago (Jefferson Park), Yorkville, or Sycamore offices.
Courtney is a trauma therapist at Life Care Wellness, a group psychotherapy practice in Glen Ellyn, Yorkville, Sycamore, and Chicago (Jefferson Park neighborhood), Illinois. She utilizes a Somatic Experiencing framework to utilize the body’s wisdom in healing and also uses attachment theory and a variety of traditional psychotherapy approaches in her work. Courtney currently offers telehealth sessions only.
