Spiritual Healing

Spiritual healing does and can occur in Somatic Psychotherapy. It is not guaranteed, or I could promise it and advertise it that way. I can give hundreds of examples of where it occurred for my clients, but this one is special. It is not because it is more critical or happened to a more deserving person, but it happened during our first session.

She was small and busy describing herself as a hummingbird. She was overwhelmed with grief, crying, and speaking fast with loads of hand gestures. I asked her to come to the table, where I held her feet, and we breathed for a bit.

She kept talking, which was her nature, and then we noticed a sensation in her chest and shoulders, almost like a cage, she said. After naming and sitting with the feeling, her awareness went to childhood and a specific memory where she braced herself for something terrible.

We talked and worked with the sensation for several more minutes, connecting old behavior patterns, acknowledging their usefulness at the time, and seeing where these coping mechanisms had kept my client safe and afloat. At this point, my client knew letting them go was safe.

The sensation disappeared, and she lay quietly, just noticing the shifting. I went to wash my hands.

When I came back in, she stated clearly from the table the sensation was bracing. Her nervous system had been in a state of bracing for the worst-case scenario for decades.

As she returned to sit on the couch, she said she felt the bracing leave her body out of her feet, and now she could feel her feet on the carpet. For years, she had not felt her legs and feet ground in and shoot energy below her body. As she cried and marveled at the difference in her body, we talked about adjusting to this new way of being and the spiritual healing that had just occurred.

Sometimes, in this work, a client is ready to let go of a nervous system pattern, and with stillness and the right combination of safety, it happens.

In moments like these, both client and therapist are bystanders to an undeniable mystery of life and the magic that can happen when the body is ready to heal itself.

I know it is real and permanent, the shifting that occurs and leaves.

Even after a moment like this, belief systems and other coping skills that were permanently attached to the pattern that is left and will need work.

It has taken me years to write about this because language does not do this type of healing justice, and I do not want to encourage people hoping for a quick fix to be drawn to my work.

I have a deep love for this work and a sense of awe for all about it that I do not understand.

Consultations are free and can be done in person or virtually.