r/SomaticExperiencing

I am a lifelong single person but I recently met someone who is extremely sweet and loving. He showers me in soft kisses and soft touches but the more he does it, it sends signals through me that feel like tickles…I’m not a ticklish person. It almost feels like electricity shooting through me to wherever he touches. My hands, back, shoulders, forehead (how can a forehead be ticklish?). I have read that not being ticklish can be considered a neurological response to past traumas but I was giggling like a kid being tickled. Is this my body letting my guard down or is it telling me to run for the hills?

Hi Everyone, I’m writing today because I had an out of body experience this morning and want to know what the community thinks about it. I told my wife and she just thinks I’m crazy. Anything helps.

I have a newborn at home and I typically get up at 3 or 4 in the morning to feed her and take care of her for a few hours before going to work. This morning I woke up at 3:30 and it took a while to get her settled after eating. I decided to go to the rocking chair where it is dark and quiet. I rocked her for about 45 mins. At around 4:30, I started feeling “light” as I sat on the chair. I realized it. I have had that light feeling before when falling asleep and I love it. It feels so good like you are floating. Anyways, I invited the feeling and leaned in. The feeling then quickly amplified and I felt like me and baby were floating in space. I then felt a feeling of pure euphoria and bliss. It was like a beam of energy come down from the sky straight through me. It felt so amazing. I didn’t want it to end. I also heard a buzzing/humming sound. I was so conscious that I knew I was holding my baby and was hoping it didn’t have a negative effect on her. It was a good feeling so I thought it would not. The feeling lasted 45 secs to 1 min and then it faded. But I was left there sitting in the chair like wow! What was that? That was amazing. Come back!

Like I said, I decided to tell my wife about it and she thought I was crazy which is ok. I know it’s crazy but it happened.

I would like to add that I have had back pain for a little less than a year and it seems to be gone. Could be premature I know, but my back was hurting when I went to bed because I played golf on Saturday. Now it seems to be healed or at least much better.

Any thoughts?

Hey! Thank you in advance for any thoughts and suggestions. Im 25 F and I have BPD, autistic traits, OCD, CPSTD, and of course anxiety and depression. I was in talk therapy from 8-22 and it was helpful being able to talk to someone, but never did anything for me. I started DBT a few years ago did the whole program and I learned the skills, it's just I cannot get my body on board to do it. I even started going through the program a second time, its the same thing I know the skills, I just cannot use them in the moment. My brain and body are just not connected. I have very extensive trauma from a child to even now and I am just stuck in a fight or flight no matter how much my brain wants to do the skills my body just will not allow it.

My therapist and I have been looking to see what my next steps are, we don't think EMDR is a fit, and I have done parts therapy before, that truly does not feel like a fit.

My question is, what is a session like during SE? I understand it's feeling body sensations, but how does it work in a session?

Also I have Aphantasia so I literally cannot visualize anything, I have no true memories of what happened. Is that something that is super important for SE to be helpful?

Thank you in advance!

Hi,
I want to know if one goes for therapies like biodynamic craniosacral therapy, somatic experiencing or Tre , is it safe to do gentle yoga and gentle pranayam along with it daily? I know the somatic practices are conducted by the therapist weekly, biweekly, monthly , but can there be a clash? As sometimes after the session the body will start releasing after 48 hours or after a week and needs time to complete stress response. Doing an activity like pranayama can suppress in the name of regulation something that wants to come out. A therapist’s advice would be the best on it
Thanks :)

I posted previously that SE led me down a dark and scary retraumatizing crisis. I am now on meds.

I love this community and i think its great we can share our stories, tips and experiences.

But has anyone actually found it helps, particulary with cptsd and recurrent childhood/adult abuse?

I would love to hear your experience and if retraumatizing occurred. how long did it take to feel okay and/or are flashbacks still occurring?

✨

I have a VERY difficult time with somatic work and feeling my feelings. Last night I was researching somatic release because I feel so much trapped energy in my body, and it said in the recovery phase after crying, the body shifts into a parasympathetic state, and that’s why people often feel better after.

Is this scientifically true? Does it always happen? If so, I’m very frustrated that no trauma therapist has ever told me this. Would it not help so many people to know? I know it would help my brain so much to know that the body knows how to naturally recover from crying. For the past year I’ve been numb and afraid to cry because I don’t want to activate fight or flight. Knowing how and why crying is healing would completely change how I look at processing emotions.

The reason I’m asking is sometimes in therapy I tear up and start to cry a bit, but I stay in fight or flight. If I fully sob alone I notice that shift after. I also know a lot of people don’t feel better after crying if they have very suppressed emotions or can’t soothe themselves out of it, so that’s the nuance I’m wondering about.

I would love to know if anyone knows about this topic or has experience with it.

ive been doing somatic therapy for 5 yrs. hx of abuse and cptsd. w. severe dissociation. i feel a bit betrayed by therapist/SE.

grateful to feel my body but why would i need to come back to my body if its traumatized and i feel unsafe? SE doesnt teach how to deal with the heaviness of the trauma. It feels a bit wreckless to be doing SE with severe physical trauma.

so please be careful, yall.

im on meds now. that shit was scary.

I never thought that the body has a rhythm of its own until I learned about Pendulation technique. When we are in stress or trauma, our body gets locked and stay in that state for long or sometimes permanently. External issues breaks the rhythm of our body and forgets to get out of that tensed state. Moving between tension and relief is crucial, so body can learn getting out of the tensed state is also possible.

Somatic experience has shown only improvement in one randomized study of 63 folks from 2017 for ptsd but the ptsd lacks definition of "the DSM-5 additions such as the separate "negative alterations in cognitions and mood" cluster and the dissociative subtype".

Please be careful out there. I am advising from personal experience and very negative and life altering retraumatizing experiences.

I know this sounds odd, but I stumbled upon a frequency video and after a minute or so, I started gagging and heaving and sobbing? I was coughing up mucus, and I thought it’d be over by now but it’s been two days. I want to stay positive and think that it’s my body is just purging as it realigns with a more healed nervous system, but part of me is worried that may be wishful thinking. Has anyone else experienced anything similar? I’d greatly appreciate any thoughts

I have been through some abusive household in my childhood. I feel today my voice is just shit. Like my voice is just too low to hear, and it's not clear enough. "What?" "Can you repeat?"

Like no one can hear me in one go. I have to repeat myself twice or more for someone to even hear what I am saying. And it's fucking annoying tbh.

I know that somewhere my father's narcissistic rules in childhood, like "Your opinions don't matter" and "Shut up, you are too loud," have caused the damage. I feel like unexpressed opinions and emotions have stored that trauma in my voice.

So I want to ask: how can I undo that damage and regain my original voice back? Is there a somatic work which is voice targeted which can help me out ?

[If you are not familiar with it, I've found so many definitions for samskara, and I'm not sure how to describe it: Jungian complex, a blocked emotion in the body tied to a limiting belief in the mind, unconscious conditioning, cognitive distortion, projective filter, karmic imprint created by even a minor trauma, emotional knot, blocked chakra, pain body, distorted perception of reality, projection of one's own pain onto reality, maladaptive schema, somatic marker, granthi, ...]

My understanding is that during my childhood and adolescence, I experienced (like many people) situations that created low self-esteem. A few years ago, I was friend-zoned by a friend, and I can't get over it. Initially, I thought it was a matter of love and attachment, but now I realize it's because he's reopened or exposed an old wound in me, which could be something like "I'm not good enough." The problem is that it doesn't seem to manifest itself in my body; it's like an elusive sensation in the air, or that I'm so used to feeling this way that I don't know where I end and low self-esteem begins. Or maybe I've chosen to numb myself and detach myself from my body so as not to feel anything. I'm having a hard time figuring out how to focus my attention on this non-sensation. Any advice?

PS. I know that the method described by Michael Singer and David Hawkins, simple as it is, works. In the past another "knot," "block" (samskara) [ which I don't want to discuss in detail, but it was about my relationship with masculine and feminine, being a woman and the perception of men and society ] dissolved simply by "looking" at it patiently. When it dissolved, I felt a sense of lightness and liberation in my body, and a thought that seemed to solve a riddle. (I've always known the solution to my problem, but the moment the tension was released, the same thought seemed new and "brilliant." Like Eureka! It was an illusion!). After this, I began to see the world and people differently, as if I had removed the glasses that made me see some areas of reality as ugly or bad or wrong, while maintaining the vision of myself as a victim. After that experience I no longer see the world or myself in a negative way, at least regarding that topic. So I know this works.

I have been receiving a mix of somatic parts work, mostly somatic touch as i have preverbal trauma.

Its shifting my lifelong disassociation, and one of the things that i have known but its becoming clearer as time passes, is i have part/s that sing or repeat lyrics in my head

i have at times wondered why, and still dont know

i suspect, and its a guess, that with many many times sitting as a baby in a crib with no one coming, just me in crib and my mother suffering in her bed unable to tend to me (she has schizophrenia), i had very long periods of neglect, and just on my own, so any sound was relief....its like a self soothing mechanism for the babies in me, that they arent alone in the void of silence

of course, i am purely speculating, although i have had "memories" come up showing long periods as above, so there is some alignment to that

anyway, sharing seeing what resonates with others,.

I do diaphragm breathing for about 30 minutes to 1 hour a day and it has helped my digestion so much. I have been doing it for close to 2 months now. But I noticed it makes it feel like my nervous system is overwhelmed the rest of the day I will even wake up around 7am every day and can't go back to sleep for 1-2 hours. Even makes me feel like im having tremors sometimes.

Not sure if anyone else has felt this way. What to do?

These trips were 4 and 5 weeks ago now. I just wrote the mushroom trip down in my journal

The mushroom trip
“I told work I was unable to work that Saturday so I could trip on shrooms instead since I had a free flat.
I remember the visuals being underwhelming, however this time I learned that they were less important. I was sitting on the couch "staring into space" as thoughts raced through my mind. I cant remember the exact thought but I fixated on it long enough to connect with the underlying emotions and stored tension (in my body). Currently, I cannot remember exactly how it unfolded; my body began to tense up from my stomach, hips, and lower back. It was as if I had an uncontrollable spasm as my body released, likely decades worth, of stored tension and emotons. This went on for many minutes, then calmed down, then commenced for a second and final time.
As it was ending i let out a long sigh then instantly felt lighter throughout my entire body. I do remember being shocked then I laughed in disbelief as i remarked "what the hell was that". I had to walk around my living room to compose myself and gather my thoughts about what had just happened, all while being so aware about how much lighter, happier, and elated i felt.”

The LSD trip
It happened again the weekend after when i took a 250mg tab of acid but more intensely this time. I was outside walking and being in nature for the come up. Then I got this overwhelming feeling of sadness and loneliness so i had to go home to a safe environment so i could face it all. When i got home i immediately went in the bathroom and looked at my physique in the mirror and said “is this all i am?” Then went into my room, lay on my bed where i cried uncontrollably for a good 10 minutes. I couldnt stop and released so many tears. Then i went back into the bathroom, stared into my eyes in the mirror as i cried some more. I felt all of the shame ive ever felt about my physique and who i am as a person. Then i went back into my room and lay on the floor, at this point i was letting my body do whatever it needed to, it kept “spasming” and tensing in different places as i rolled around the floor for a while. I’d stand up then my torso would fold forward and my arms would dangle lifelessly by my side, my knees would slightly bend trying so hard to keep my body up. Imagine someone on fentanyl, that was the position i was in until it eventually stopped.
After this trip i felt low for days. I knew it was so necessary for my growth and eventually i’d see the benefits show up in my life, but it took so much mental and physical energy from me.

Does anyone know what i experienced? I am curious to know if anyone has experienced something similar from taking mushrooms or LSD (or any psychedelics)?

Side note: i am surprised at how effective the LSD was for connecting with myself and stored emotions. I always had the notion mushrooms would be more impactful for that.

It has been 4 years since I started having these symptoms. It all began with an office job; I was already an anxious and stressed person, but with the new job, everything got worse. What I feel now is tension in my shoulders, head, and neck. I feel a lump in my throat, and in fact, it feels like I have to force myself to breathe. I sleep poorly, which makes me feel tired from the moment I wake up.

I experience this constantly; maybe at certain times of the day, like in the evening, it is less intense, but I still never feel relaxed. It is torture. I have already done various tests to see if there was a physical cause, but nothing; it seems to all stem from stress, but I no longer know how to get out of it. I have tried meditation, hypnotherapy, progressive muscle relaxation, and shamanic breathwork. For example, if I let go of my breathing, the lump in my throat intensifies and it feels like I am suffocating.

I try to be optimistic in believing that in the end I will manage to resolve everything and maybe return to my old life, perhaps even with greater awareness, but in some periods like this one, I want to die, I don't know what to do anymore, and I feel desperate.

Hi,
Can one take sessions of biodynamic cst even if one is feeling healthy enough as our nervous system stores so much without our awareness. Is there any risk for going to a biodynamic craniosacral therapist in such a case? Can we take 10-12 sessions for taking out the remaining charge if we have already done some top down approach energy practices ?