Somatic Transformation

A Lifespan Approach to Healing Trauma
Developed by Sharon A. Stanley, PhD

Somatic Transformation is a practical and direct approach to the healing of acute and chronic stress trauma. Somatic Empathy, a deeply attuned and resonating relationship between therapist and client, is the foundation of this approach. With Somatic Empathy, a client is able to sense the connected and compassionate presence of another as they heal from trauma. Based in neurobiological research, this relational model accesses sensory input from the body to shape and change the structure and function of the traumatized brain, while concurrently allowing the higher brain to shape and alter the traumatized body.

Research in the fields of trauma, attachment, empathy, brain development, and the regulation of the autonomic nervous system, as well as access to ancient practices of healing, have created new perspectives and possibilities for treatment of anxiety, depression, dissociation and PTSD. Somatic Transformation is a phenomenological based synthesis of research and therapeutic approaches designed to address the emerging needs of psychotherapists to understand and apply this research in their work with clients.

In Somatic Transformation, acute and chronic stress and trauma are understood in the context of development throughout the life span, including interactive relational experiences in-utero, infancy, childhood, adolescence and adulthood. Other sources of acute and chronic stress, such as medical procedures, falls, accidents, assaults, natural disasters, terrorism and culturally sanctioned stress, such as poverty, are also addressed.

Specific processes of Somatic Transformation are utilized with individuals who present with emotional and physical symptoms. Basic therapeutic processes are combined in specific patterns to address complex forms of trauma, shifting the client’s conditioned pattern of adaptation to a higher level of resilience. Somatic psychotherapy builds on the principles of positive psychology and research gleaned from neurobiology to attend to the subtle, right brain injuries of insecure and disorganized attachment and other types of trauma.

Supporting Research:
Recent research in brain-body physiology and memory mechanisms has expanded our understanding of the role of overwhelming life events in the development of certain psychopathology. These advances in neuroscience suggest the possibilities of somatic processes in the resolution of conditioned reflexes of trauma. This approach incorporates the work of Bessel van der Kolk on psychological trauma, Mary Main and Eric Hesse on attachment theory, Allan Schore and Daniel Siegel on Interpersonal Neurobiology, Stephen Porges on the polyvagal theory of interpersonal interactions, Vitorrio Gallese on mirror neurons and empathy, and Frans De Waal on primate empathy, as well as other contemporary research.

Neuroscience continues to point to the essential role of the autonomic nervous system in understanding the biological roots of developmental and shock trauma. The autonomic nervous system developed to enhance the possibility of survival of an organism. At birth the autonomic nervous system is unable to regulate and the infant is totally dependent on caregivers in the environment to soothe and integrate experience. Emerging research indicates that the early relational environment present to the young child determines the pattern of self-regulation, thus influencing all areas of life including, cognition, relational abilities and sense of self.

Research on the "plasticity of the brain" assures us that as strongly as early patterns of regulation have been "wired," so also is the potential of shifting these patterns to more effective and fulfilling patterns of autonomic functioning. Regulation theory as described by Allan Schore points to the effectiveness of somatic, right brain therapeutic approaches that allow the practitioner to integrate information regarding the regulation of the autonomic nervous system into their observations and treatment of people with resistant disorders. The extensive integrative work of Allan Schore suggests that all lasting therapeutic change for people suffering from psychological trauma requires right brain healing strategies, which are not primarily verbal processes.