Somatic Therapy with
Mandy Brouse

The body is a profound source of healing and growth. Challenging emotions and triggers can be stored in the body during traumatic experiences which we could not process effectively at the time. These emotions and triggers might later arise during crises, life transitions, relationship challenges, and other life events. We often don’t know what causes these triggers or why a seemingly “old” issue might arise in our present experience. Our bodies can operate at a deeper level than our conscious thinking; this is where challenging and even traumatic emotions and experiences are held. As a somatic counsellor, I work to identify, acknowledge and release these stored emotions, memories, and behaviours at the somatic level, below our conscious thinking minds. Often, simply talking about our challenges and traumatic memories may not be enough to heal them and can sometimes result in deepening our aversion to healing. With an accompanying somatic approach to healing, we work with thoughts, emotions, and felt senses in the body as a whole to release stored issues affecting our present life. 

Incorporating somatic healing into your counselling journey can help move you into new levels of healing that are not as easily accessed by strictly cognitive or emotional approaches to growth. Somatic challenges and traumas can be experienced just below the surface of our awareness, yet appear in our behaviours, thoughts and beliefs in ways we do not anticipate. Similarly, somatic counselling begins below the surface of our conscious mind to access the stored memories, experiences and triggers operating in our lives. With Havening, this process is done with great care and at the client’s pace. Reconnecting with our body’s senses can be a new experience for some, as sometimes the body is not considered safe. Often, it is because of the stored triggers and experiences that our body is felt as unsafe. In releasing stored memories, experiences, and traumas, our bodies can be considered a source of comfort and safety. 

Together, we can work with somatic counselling to release challenging memories, emotions, beliefs, experiences related to our past, our relationships with others, accidents, chronic illness, experiences of grief, loss and death, and struggles related to anxiety, depression, stress, and phobias.