Somatic Therapy in Fremantle: Restoring the Body’s Equilibrium

​In the flow of life's demands, tasks and daily grind, we often overlook the profound importance of awareness to breathing, digestion, and sleep. We find ourselves caught up in the complex web of performance, achieving and 'doing'. Yet, those basic processes are the pillars of our existence. When your sleep is fragmented, your digestion is strained, or your body’s response to physical touch feels "off," the entire human organism falls into a state of disequilibrium.

​It is no coincidence that a vast majority of psychological struggles manifest through disruptions in appetite, sleep, and physical arousal. When healing trauma, we cannot focus solely on the mind - we must first tend to these very basic primal functions that keep our internal systems in balance.

​The Biology of Chaos: When the Brain Splits

​To understand why trauma feels so physical, we have to look at the 'Triune Brain' model. Our brain is essentially organised into three levels: the brainstem (also called the reptilian brain), which handles survival and basic life functions like sleep. digestion, arousal etc; the limbic system, which processes emotion; and the neocortex, which manages logic and language, mainly organising ourselves and the external world, relations, decision, orientation.

​In an optimal state, these three layers work rhythmically. However, trauma acts like a short circuit. When a trauma survivor is triggered, the barinstem and limbic brains alert 'danger', effectively hijacking the neocortex, the logical part. This creates a state of disequilibrium. The signals for hunger, rest, and safety become distorted. You might find your sleeping cycle is disturbed because your brainstem fire signals that keeps the system on guard, or your digestion may shut down because the body has diverted all energy to a perceived 'flight' response.

​"Fire Together, Wire Together"

​There is a principle in neuroscience: 'Neurons that fire together, wire together.' When an individual experiences trauma or PTSD, the neural pathways associated with fear and hyper-vigilance become like well-structured highways. Because the brain has spent times and times over 'firing' signals of distress, the 'wiring' of the nervous system had become fixed in a state of survival.

​For a trauma survivor, this means the body has 'learned' to be or survive in a state out of imbalance. The housekeeping functions—the basic chores of the body like keeping the heart rate steady or processing nutrients—become a second priority because the system is perpetually preparing for survival response. This is why talk therapy where dealing with trauma often overlooks the somatic part where one actively changes their neuropathways through new experience within the therapeutic container; It's practically impossible to reason with a reptilian brain that is convinced it is currently being 'hunted'.

​How Somatic Therapy Tends the Internal Landscape

​Somatic therapy shifts the focus from the story of the trauma to the felt sense of the body. If the problem is that our neurons have wired themselves for chaos, the solution is to provide the body with new, safe experiences that allow for different wiring to take place.

​Healing is about the cultivation of awareness to our basic housekeeping functions. We don't start by asking 'Why do you feel this way?' but rather with a somatic approach of 'How does your body experience this right now?'

1. ​Breaking the Circuit: By focusing on physical sensations—the weight of your feet on the ground, the rhythm of your breath, or the temperature of your skin—we begin to interrupt the old neuropathways of stress.
   

2. ​Creating New Pathways: Through gentle somatic experiencing, movement, sequencing, orientation and other somatic practices we bring the nervous system to the plane of safety. As we intentionally practice states of calmness and presence, we start to fire new neurons. Over time, these neurons 'wire together' and create new channels that lead to equilibrium rather than exhaustion.
   

3. ​Restoring Function: As the reptilian brain begins to feel safe, it hands back control of the body's housekeeping. Digestion improves because the body is no longer in a perpetual state of fight-or-flight. Sleep becomes deeper because the guard at the gate finally feels it is safe to do so.

​ Moving Toward Equilibrium

​The journey of a trauma survivor is often one of returning home to a body that has felt like a battle. By tending to the basic functions of sleep, appetite, and touch, we are rebuilding back the safety mechanisms of the self.

​Somatic therapy is the process of re-wiring the brain from the bottom up. It is an invitation to move out of the disequilibrium of the past and into a more balanced, rhythmic present. A Supportive Healing Space in East Fremantle Find Elijah Forest Therapy clinic on 38 George Street, East Fremantle Perth, within Nourish Me Wholefoods health hub and cafe - A quiet, supportive space is held for you here to breathe, feel, connect and ground gently and safely. Elijah Forest Therapy offers trauma-informed, integrated somatic counselling and remedial bodywork. Sessions are designed individually, according to where you are at and what you may wish to explore and work towards. Visit www.somaticforest.com for more information on somatic therapy and remedial massage therapy.