Somatic Synergy: healing via movement and interoception

Sue Nesler, owner of Yoga East Healing Arts Studio located at 835 Broadway, Suite 100, in Cape Girardeau, incorporates her knowledge of counseling with yoga therapy to help individuals heal their trauma using Somatic Synergy.

Somatic Synergy is a program designed for people suffering from trauma to help them regulate and balance their emotional state.

Nesler, a professional counselor, has been a yoga therapist for 25 years. She is one of the first 900 people to be grandfathered as a certified yoga therapist. She is also on the certification committee for the International Association of Yoga Therapists. What makes her approach to yoga unique is the incorporation of existential counseling to yoga therapy in healing mental health challenges such as depression, anxiety and trauma.

"We are all having similar experiences because we are human beings. We experience freedom and responsibility, meaninglessness in life, and we all have a relationship to death. All of those make us human and are pathways to receive trauma," Nesler said.

She uses yoga therapy, which is the prescriptive nature of all of the practices of yoga, to address trauma. Using techniques of yoga and her knowledge of psychology, Nesler conducts a dynamic assessment of a person to help them find the proper practices to achieve the goals they are working on, including the "shedding of trauma".

From left, Jamies Hazard, Sharon Williams and Cara Bader paticipate in a yoga class at Yoga East Healing Arts Studio.Maryam Seyedalhosseini ~ MaryamS@semissourian.com

From left, Jamies Hazard, Sharon Williams and Cara Bader paticipate in a yoga class at Yoga East Healing Arts Studio.Maryam Seyedalhosseini ~ MaryamS@semissourian.com

Nesler explained that trauma occurs when something happens to a person that eclipses their ability to tolerate it. It affects them mentally, emotionally and all the way down to the neuroscience of trauma -- even on the cellular basis.

"As a result, what we call trauma is stored in the body; they become somatically charged within us," she said.

Traumatic experiences are deeply emotional and activate brain networks that mediate perception and higher processing. As a result, when individuals experience trauma or are re-triggered from trauma, the brain does not function properly, she said.

"Then we have to release the trauma. If you don't control (it), it controls you; it starts coming up when you don't want it to. You start experiencing triggers out in the world and start having panic problems, or you start avoiding people or you become hypervigilant," she added.

In order to re-regulate and balance the nervous system, Nesler uses a variety of therapeutic techniques married from traditional therapy and yoga therapy.

Among the primary techniques used in healing the trauma are grounding and centering practices.

Those practices help individuals "slow down enough to understand that they are here, and they're not in the future, where anxiety lives, and they're not in the past where depression lives. They're in the present moment. That grounds them, and then they're able to center on whatever is required, like being peaceful and harmonious or shedding trauma,"

Nesler also uses techniques involving the five senses to regulate and balance the emotional state. For instance, she encourages using a specific and unusual smell, such as lavender, in the class. Students will subconsciously learn to associate the smell with a calm restful state brought about by the yoga practices.

"Research shows that the period between the smell and that calm restful state shortens the more you use it," Nesler explained. "Pretty soon you can smell the smell, and you're immediately dropping deeply in that state."

One other technique used for the healing of the trauma is vocalizations that are not language oriented. This practice is not only good for the throat and vocal cords, but it is also cathartic in nature, helping individuals to release and let go. Using the vibration that the vocal cords make also helps to relax the nervous system and to bring individuals even further into that grounded centered harmonious place, Nesler explained.

Other techniques in Somatic Synergy include repetition practices, cleansing practices, breathing practices and body and mind scans.

Nesler said yoga therapy can teach people how to harmonize and regulate their nervous systems providing the necessary tools for healing the trauma: "Once you've taught your body how to do that, and you've learned some skills and techniques that aligns with you, you can use them anytime."

The next Somatic Synergy protocol starts Monday, Jan. 8, and lasts four weeks. Yoga East also will host a workshop on yoga therapy and trauma Saturday, Jan 13.

For more information about classes, counseling and schedules, contact Yoga East at yogaeast1@gmail.com or (573) 388-7272.