Somatic Trauma Informed Counselling 🌸

What is somatic healing?

Somatic healing is a bottom up approach to healing that seeks to integrate the homogenous system of the mind and body as a whole and one, somatic relates primarily to the body.

What does The Soma mean?

The soma means the inner body without physical structure

What does ANS stand for?

The Autonomic Nervous system

What is the Autonomic Nervous System?

The Autonomic Nervous System is a component of the peripheral nervous system that regulates the involuntary processes including the heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, digestion and sexual arousal.

What does the nervous system contain?

The nervous system contains three anamotically distinct divisions — Parasympathetic, Sympathetic And Eneric.

Describe the sympathetic system?

The sympathetic system can be described as our fight or flight response, get up and go, action, energy, motivation and accelerator.

Describe the parasympathetic system?

The parasympathetic system can be described as rest and digest, slow, soothe, settle, integrate and brake.

What is the vagus nerve?

The vagus nerve serves to create connections betwen the brain and the digestive track, lungs, heart, spleen, liver and kidneys. It is involved in speech, swallowing, eye contact, facial expressions and the ability to tune into other people's voices.

Who was Polyvagal Theory developed by & when?

The Polyvagal Theory was developed by Steven Porges in 1997

What does Polyvagal Theory do?

Polyvagal Theory gives us the scientific framework that supports the integration of physiological (bottom up) therapies with cognitive (top down) approaches to help change and improve how we think, feel and connect with others.

What are the mind and body connected by?

The mind and the body are connected through the vagus nerve, the longest nerve in the autonomic nervous system, stretching from the brain stem to the colon. It is our internal control centre, allowing the brain to monitor and receive information about many of our bodily functions.

How does the vagus nerve work?

The body takes in information automatically through neuroception, the vagus nerve communicates this information to the brain, which processes the signals and cues from the world around us and in them determines how we react through three physiological states: Parasympathetic/Ventral Vagal State, Sympathetic State or Dorsal Vagal State.