[HN Gopher] The Rise of Somatic Therapy
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The Rise of Somatic Therapy
Author : bookofjoe
Score : 53 points
Date : 2023-05-21 15:10 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.nytimes.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.nytimes.com)
| bookofjoe wrote:
| https://archive.ph/uMGAU
| ryanjshaw wrote:
| This sounds a lot like "Focusing":
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focusing_(psychotherapy)
| neonate wrote:
| http://web.archive.org/web/20230523160431/https://www.nytime...
| nico wrote:
| The west rediscovers yoga
| dang wrote:
| " _Please don 't post shallow dismissals, especially of other
| people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something._"
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
| nico wrote:
| Thank you. Why are you shallowly dismissing my comment?
|
| There is a very deep connection between movement,
| consciousness and health
|
| This has been studied and practiced for thousands of years by
| millions of people
|
| Yet the west insists on reinventing the wheel and marketing
| these "discoveries" as their own invention
|
| Please don't dismiss my comments as shallow if you are just
| going to point to some policy instead of actually adding to
| the conversation
| [deleted]
| tokyolights2 wrote:
| I completely believe that somatic therapy can be helpful. I have
| over the last few months been taking an SSRI to help with
| genralized anxiety. There has been a small effect in my
| mood/thinking, but for me the largest change that I noticed was
| actually in my body. I no longer get tension headaches, I don't
| have horrible gastro problems, my skin has cleared up. I went
| from being the most ticklish person I knew to being barely
| ticklish at all.
|
| I feel strongly that these changes in my bodily function are
| affecting my mood more than the reverse.
| PragmaticPulp wrote:
| > I feel strongly that these changes in my bodily function are
| affecting my mood more than the reverse.
|
| Depression isn't just a "mood" disorder. Everything you
| described (headaches, digestion, hormonal effects, alertness to
| touch) is controlled by your nervous system and modulated or
| controlled by your brain.
|
| It doesn't make sense to separate them and try to draw an arrow
| of causality because they're one in the same.
|
| Medical science has known this for a very long time, which is
| why standard depression inventories include questions about
| things like gastrointestinal problems.
|
| Interestingly enough, many SSRI-treated patients don't notice
| their mood improvements very much because the changes are
| gradual over many months. Usually if you interview their family
| members they'll say the change is more dramatic than the
| patient self-rates.
| tokyolights2 wrote:
| Oh I completely agree that they are connected. I just noticed
| before starting that I would regularly feel the effects of
| stress in my body and that would put my in a defensive,
| exhausted, irritated mood. It is hard to have a good time
| when gas makes it hard to walk straight.
|
| The thing that made me start the drugs was actually this
| realization that physical anxiety was preceding any anxious
| thoughts. For years I had done talk therapy (which was very
| helpful) but that therapy was mostly based around making me
| realize my anxious thoughts weren't "real". As soon as I
| stopped having the physical symptoms now I don't have anxious
| thoughts to begin with.
| confoundcofound wrote:
| We have for so long incorrectly believed the mind is both the
| disease and the cure. This is evident even in our use of the
| phrase "mental health."
| UncleOxidant wrote:
| We have for so long incorrectly believed that the mind and body
| are separate.
| adolph wrote:
| When you say "mind" do you mean consciousness, or System 1 in
| Kahneman's terms? Or do you also include nonconscious nervous
| system activity including Kahneman's System 2 and other
| embodied cognition?
|
| Even though a mind may arise from a body, could the
| computational processes characteristic of a mind not also be
| activated from a non-body?
|
| I'm reading and influenced right now by Kinds Of Minds by
| Daniel Dennett.
|
| https://www.amazon.com/Kinds-Minds-Understanding-
| Consciousne...
| confoundcofound wrote:
| Correct
| flashback2199 wrote:
| Hyperfocus on specific body parts by providers seems to be a
| major failure mode of modern health care. The universe doesn't
| care that mankind decided to split the body into N systems for
| the sole purpose of creating specialties to provide health
| care.
| confoundcofound wrote:
| Yep, and the various specialists hardly communicate.
| rdtsc wrote:
| > The other side was more woo-woo: You're vowing to be each
| other's person, and you can't change your name? What's wrong with
| you?" With her therapist, she learned to focus on "superhelpful
| data" from her body, as Petersel put it, to "trust the visceral.
| It was clarifying."
|
| I think it's just a matter of having someone to listen to you.
| The focus on the legs or body parts body is interesting, but I
| think it's more of a helpful prop to keep the interaction going.
| Doctors and other types of therapists might be too rushed, busy,
| judgmental, etc. They don't have time to listen to anxieties and
| worries and give life advice.
|
| People used to visit friends and neighbors more to listen to each
| other's issues and offer advice and support. But nowadays, and
| especially after the pandemic, people are more alienated, they
| forgot how to talk to each other. The therapy session provide a
| structured way for that interaction. It could somatic therapy,
| mediation, dance therapy, acupuncture.
| KrugerDunnings wrote:
| Stimulating different parts of the body stimulates different
| parts of the brain[1]. Through cross talking neurones this might
| influence parts of your brain to be rewired differently and
| relieve some over burdened circuits, just like it might happen
| with traumatic events, but the rigour and precision by which this
| can be done is still very much an open question.
|
| [1]
| https://twitter.com/chrost_hugo/status/1660788882559078400/p...
| Glench wrote:
| I shifted my career away from tech to therapy[0] and took lengthy
| trainings in Hakomi, a method similar to Somatic Experiencing
| mentioned in the article. It's truly amazing how much more
| profound sessions can be with experiential therapy that includes
| the body. I have really benefited from somatic therapies myself
| and have given loads of sessions that others have found useful.
|
| [0] http://glench.com/WhyIQuitTechAndBecameATherapist/
| realz wrote:
| Did you have to take a pay cut? Asking for a friend.
| rednerrus wrote:
| I've also got a friend...
| doodlebugging wrote:
| I have a relative who is a psychologist. I will send this to them
| to get their reaction.
|
| I think that people who have a need for therapy, maybe all of us
| at one time or another in our lives, will entertain the
| possibility that any of the methods used by therapists can solve
| their problem. It comes down to initial belief that they can be
| helped. Sometimes, simply talking about a thing that has been
| bothering you is the best therapy and in that way, the best
| therapist is someone who is a good listener who can respond to
| the person's ramblings in a non-judgmental way so that the
| subject can be made to feel that the monkey on their back has
| been captured and caged.
|
| The S. E. therapy involving touch and finding a calm place inside
| to sweep your troubles seems to be an extension of the idea that
| physical touch and intimacy is important to mental health which
| to me makes sense since touching someone helps them know that
| they are not alone and even if the hands are cold, there is only
| a short time before body heat transfers and things are more in
| equilibrium.
|
| I have no idea what I'm talking about.
| Jimpulse wrote:
| > It comes down to initial belief that they can be helped.
|
| This part is definitely key. The other part is believing they
| need help or should work on something.
| doodlebugging wrote:
| Yeah. For that part peer pressure can be important. When your
| closest friends make a habit of pointing out your issues then
| it can be easier to seek help because you know your friends
| support you.
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