Nervous System Regulation

Always yawn when somebody else yawns? That’s our nervous systems co-regulating.

Somatic therapy is based in the understanding that our nervous system controls how our bodies function and how we feel. Through working with our nervous system we can have a huge effect on our thoughts, beliefs and actions.

Similar to how breathing is an automatic function which we can also control consciously, our nervous system is an automatic bodily function which we can affect with our conscious awareness. And further still, we do this in connection with others. All of that implicit information, intuition, and even empathy. That’s all happening thanks to your nervous system.

A healthy nervous system is a fluid one. We need our nervous system to provide the right information, in the right instances, so that we may respond accordingly. This goes for regular bodily functions, as well as acute reactions to heightened situations. When our nervous system has gotten stuck in fear based survival states it greatly affects our physical and mental health.

Somatic therapy teaches us how to recognize what nervous system state we are in, notice as we move through states, and learn how to shift into greater regulation for better health.