What is Somatic Trauma Therapy?
The easiest way to explain what happens with trauma is a crusting over. Say you are 5 and something happens to you that really hurts 5 year old you. If there were not very skilled loved ones around to help you to feel those feelings all the way through and release them then you are likely to have developed a crust over the pain. This crust is a protective layer and it is made up of new parts of your personality. Maybe it developed into a part that doesn't trust. A part that gets easily angry. A part that just goes quiet and distant.
That part was really important back then. It kept you safe. But now that same part might be causing the adult version of you problems. So the crust needs a softening and a healing. If we were to think of it like a computer program. Your software needs upgrading.
If this doesn't happen then the crust starts to restrict movement and you end up becoming more crust than vibrant moving energy.
My work as a somatic therapist is to use the body as a tool to identify where the pain is being stored and teach you tools to help release the pain. This is a wholistic process. Mind. Body. Spirit.
Somatic Trauma Therapy starts with building your mindfulness resources so that you can find your anchor, your totem pole, your standing stones. This is the beginning of our work. First, you become grounded. Then we have a safety rope to bring us back home when we head into the wilderness.
We do this using the Embodied Creativity Framework.
This assesses where your learned behaviours and defence mechanisms are accidentally shortcircuiting your success.
When you have experienced trauma your mind develops parts. Some parts are protective, some parts go into hiding, and some are exiled. But here is the thing. There are no bad parts. They are just parts in need of an upgrade. To be brought to consciousness and given a new role that supports your dreams and doesn't accidentally sabotage them.
Some of this work can be done on your own. But a lot of it requires an empathetic and skilled mentor to hold space for you while you digest the trauma. This is what I do. I help you to meet and befriend all of the parts of you and give them new roles. Even the ones that scare you right now. They always were doing their best to meet an unmet need in your past. Together we develop strategies to have those needs met now.
My Background as a Therapist
For the past 30 years, I have worked in Women's Health. First as a nurse corps officer in the U.S. Navy where I helped families with the birthing process and learning to feed their babies. There were so many unhealed body traumas that were being triggered at this time in a woman's life that it became clear that so much more needed to be learned to help with the healing. When I moved to New Zealand, I deepened my own healing journey and used art and movement as my personal tools for healing. I then took those tools and shared them as a creative youth worker. This got me so far but there was much more to learn. I studied Non-Violent Communication, Somatic Therapy, and Transformational Creative Coaching. Combining all of these plus many more lines of enquiry helped me to develop the Embodied Creativity Framework, which underpins the unique way I work with people. It is a diagnostic tool that can point out where the crusts are and what can be done to help and return the vibrancy that is our birthright and that wants desperately to return to breathe fresh air again.
Lineage
My Somatic Therapy practice pulls from several modalities - Non-Violent Communication, Hakomi method, Polyvagal theory / Neuroscience, Internal Family Systems, Nursing Science, Ayurveda, Chakra Dance, Creative Therapy, Energetic healing, Attachment theory, and how they intersect with new discoveries in Quantum Physics.
I have been through the gauntlet myself and understand what it is like to be like a floating head, completely disconnected from your body. Dealing with body shame and sabotaging behaviours. It is messy and frustrating and the good news is that there is a way through it.
It wasn't your fault you experienced trauma. And unfortunately, the trauma has likely buried some of your natural gifts.
Working with me is one way to dust them off and breathe life back into them.
There are three ways to work with me.
One option is in a pay-it-forward group session.
Currently the only way to get into my group session is to join the "1% for Women Collective" which is run through Every Body is a Treasure Trust.
This is for people who elect an amount each month to support other women through the trust that represents 1% of their income.
The second is a private somatic therapy session.
My hourly rate is $140.00 NZD per hour. To discuss if this is a good option for you please reach out to mandi@mandi-lynn.com with the subject line "one on one session enquiry" and we will tee up a 15 minute consultation.
The third way to work with me is using photography as a tool to help develop self-acceptance.
These sessions cost $3000.00 and are full-day hair makeup photography and somatic therapy sessions. At the end of the session, you will have a full portfolio of images of yourself and a deeper understanding of who you are. Please email Mandi@mandi-lynn.com with the subject line "MojoMakeover" To discuss if this is the right step for you at this stage of your journey. It tends to be best suited to women who are in a period of transition or recovery.