Stress and Somatic Therapy

Stress is a key element of somatic therapy and healing.

Let’s explore nature to better understand the framework that facilitates this process.

Understand nature to understand the body.

Study an ecosystem in nature and you see that all ingredients (water, soil, plant life, animal life, etc.) interplay with one another to create an interconnected system of balance and harmony.

This is commonly referred to as homeostasis.

Now what happens when you remove an element from a homeostatic baseline?

The ecosystem (momentarily) falls into disarray.

For example, this happened in Yellowstone during the 20th century.

They removed the wolves from the park which created an over flow of deer and elk.

The deer, now overpopulated, ate too much of the plant life which impacted the vegetational structure where aspens and willow trees struggled to root and regenerate.

This impacted the beaver population, since they rely on willows for food and damn production, which in turn impacted the fish population, and subsequently the communities that relied on fishing for economic survival.

This is an example of homeostasis thrown into disarray.

One element of the system became disjointed and inevitably the whole system became disjointed.

Now over time that natural ecosystem adapted to the changes in its environment (stress) and sought to find a new balance, which it eventually did.

For better or worse, the impact was significant, but eventually a new balance was found only in reaction to the stress it was previously under.

This process is called allostasis (not a term in ecology, but the framework is the same). 

Allostasis is different from homeostasis in that it is a reactionary process.

The ecosystem (your body) reacts to a new variable, a new stressor and found a new balance.

This is very important to understand in beginning somatic therapy.

Homeostasis and Allostasis

In somatic therapy, we work with both homeostasis and allostasis.

We create a plan to understand your current baseline, your homeostatic nature, so we can improve it.

We then introduce stress to the body (in a controlled, manageable, and healthy way) to allow the body to respond to and release that stress, undergoing an allostatic process, and finding a new homeostatic baseline.

It looks like this:

1) homeostasis 1.0 (current baseline)

2) allostasis (introduction of stress and adaptive response by the body)

3) homeostasis 2.0 (new baseline)

I have been doing somatic work for 3 years and it has proven to be the most effective form of healing I’ve ever encountered.

The beauty of somatic work is that it does not require endless hours of dialogue in a therapeutic setting.

It does not require an outsourcing of personal power to another person.

It does not have to be expensive.

I have spent close to $5,000 dollars to learn these tools.

I want to offer you my experience for a fraction of the cost (think three figures).

I have three spots available in a somatic cohort that is beginning the first week of March.

There will be four 75-minute sessions, each one tailored around specific somatic exercises to help you find liberation and freedom.

If this interests you please schedule a 15-minute discovery call here.

Best,

Brian Maierhofer (Professional Human)