When Insight Isn’t Enough
Many people come to therapy because they feel stuck—caught in the same thoughts, the same emotional reactions, the same patterns in relationships. Talking about these experiences can bring relief and understanding. But for some, insight only goes so far. Even when you understand why you feel or react the way you do, the feelings themselves—and the bodily responses that accompany them—don’t necessarily change. If that has been your experience, you may be sensing that something deeper is needed: not just understanding, but a different kind of emotional and embodied experience.
A Growing Interest in “Somatic Therapy”
Recently, The New York Times published a short piece entitled, “How some People Are Incorporating Movement in Their Therapy Sessions“. It is an introduction to the various types of therapies that help move people out of their heads and into their bodies. What does that mean? Talking and making meaning are enormously helpful. Having a coherent sense of your life narrative is central to your sense of self in the world. But some forms of therapy emphasize thinking—logical, linear, analytic—more than lived emotional experience. Therapy that includes attention to the body brings additional sources of information and regulation that are not available when we remain focused primarily on “figuring things out.” The NYT article, however, risks suggesting to readers that somatic therapies are primarily about movement. Rather, the deeper mechanism of somatic therapies is experiential processing; that the client has a new, embodied experience that is transformative and not simply insightful. Deep therapy works through the body and mind together—not through thinking alone.
What “Somatic Therapy” Really Means
“Somatic Therapy” is really an umbrella term for a group of therapies that pay attention to how our thoughts, feelings, memories, and desires register in our bodies. Some somatic therapies involve quite a bit of movement, based on the belief that certain movements can literally help us process trauma or implicit memories held in the body and mind. For example, movement (such as pushing, running, or striking a pillow) may be used to help complete defensive responses that were interrupted during overwhelming experiences. Other somatically-oriented therapies may involve less actual movement, but help people begin to pay closer attention to what they notice in their bodies as they talk about a particular incident or experience. Instead of “just talking” or reporting, somatic therapies see change as resulting from processing emotional and physiological states, and not just intellectual insight.
How AEDP Fits In
AEDP (Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy) is a type of somatically-oriented therapy that grew out of psychodynamic therapy, the experiential therapy movement, attachment theory, modern neuroscience, and studies of change. What makes AEDP such a powerful – and unique – approach is that it truly combines the best of many different theories and approaches. It is inherently integrative and holistic. AEDP therapists not only help patients process difficult emotions or traumatic experiences; they also track and deepen moments of relief, clarity, and positive change as they arise, helping these experiences take root and expand. In AEDP the goal is for people to develop a coherent life story that is grounded in a deep exploration of both present and past experience, while also processing emotional experiences that may have once been too overwhelming to face alone. This process fosters greater mindful (including somatic) awareness of self and others, as well as increased access to positive emotions, experiences of emergence, and the mind’s natural tendency to heal and be resilient.
Why the Relationship Matters
All of this is accomplished by first focusing on the safety of the emotional connection with the therapist. We know from attachment theory research that all people, from children to seniors, are more open, self-aware, able to feel, express and process their feelings and thoughts when they feel safe and cared for. An AEDP therapist will often ask you to slow down in order to pay closer attention to yourself- both to what you are saying and its meaning, but also to how you are feeling about it and what happens in your body when you talk about it. This is both regulating and increases curiosity and self-compassion as well as a fuller awareness and access to your unconscious mind, thus making deep, lasting, and embodied transformation possible.
A Different Kind of Therapeutic Experience
This is the kind of work we specialize in at Resilience Restored Psychotherapy. Deep, somatically-oriented therapy that integrates intellectual understanding with embodied emotional experience, is grounded in a safe and meaningful therapeutic relationship, and is ultimately oriented toward growth and a hopeful outlook on oneself and life. If you have found that insight or understanding alone have not led to the change you are looking for, this kind of work may offer a different path forward.
