West End has more therapists per square kilometre than most Brisbane suburbs, which is good news and a problem at once. Good news because you have options. A problem because the profiles all start to read the same after the fourth one.
So rather than another list of modalities, here's what actually distinguishes somatic work, and how to tell whether it's what you're after.
The gap somatic therapy is trying to close
There's a specific frustration that brings people to somatic therapy, and it goes something like this:
I understand my history perfectly well. I can explain exactly why I react the way I do. And it has changed nothing about how it feels.
That gap is real, and it isn't a failure of insight. Understanding lives in one part of you. The flinch, the held breath, the sudden flatness when someone raises their voice: those live somewhere that doesn't take instructions from the part that understands.
Somatic work goes at that second part directly.
What that looks like in practice
We still talk. This isn't silent bodywork, and you don't have to be someone who's "in touch with your body" to start. Most people aren't, and that's usually part of what we're working on.
The difference is that every so often I'll ask what's happening in your body while you talk. Not as a technique, but because the answer is often information you didn't know you had. Your shoulders came up. Your voice went flat on that sentence. Something in your chest closed when you mentioned your brother.
Those aren't metaphors. They're the nervous system doing what it learned to do, in real time, in the room where we can actually work with it.
What somatic does not mean
It doesn't mean touch. You stay clothed and in your chair. Nothing happens to your body that you didn't choose.
It isn't bodywork or massage. I'm not treating a physical condition. If your symptoms need a doctor, they need a doctor, and I'll say so.
It isn't a faster route. It's often slower than talk therapy, because we go at the pace your nervous system can absorb rather than the pace your intellect can follow.
How to choose, practically
A few things worth asking any somatic therapist in Brisbane, including me:
- What's your actual training? "Somatic-informed" covers a wide range. Ask what they completed and with whom. Somatic Experiencing, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy and Hakomi are distinct trainings with real requirements.
- Are you registered? PACFA and ACA are the main bodies for counsellors and psychotherapists in Australia. Registration means a code of ethics and ongoing supervision.
- What happens if I get overwhelmed? The answer tells you a lot. A good one involves slowing down and settling, not pushing through.
Practicalities in West End
I see clients in a quiet room on Montague Road, West End, on Thursdays. Street parking is usually available, the CityGlider runs along Montague Road, and there's room to bring a bike inside rather than leaving it on the street.
I also practise in Milton on Wednesdays, and I work online across Australia.
Sessions run in English or Spanish. If Spanish is your first language, working in it matters more than it might sound: the earliest memories tend to be stored in the language they formed in.
The first step is a free discovery call. Nothing to prepare, and its only job is finding out whether this is a fit.
