Somatic Experiencing to Heal Emotional Eating
"What is always speaking silently is the body."
-- Norman Brown
Somatic Experiencing is a highly specialized form of somatic therapy which focuses on subtle body sensation to release stress and resolved past traumas, creates permanent changes in the nervous system. These shifts in the nervous system can help heal the stress and issues that trigger emotional eating and disordered eating.
Somatic Therapy: Using Body Sensation to Heal
Unfortunately, most people with eating issues tend to ignore the body, and are no longer in touch with or misinterpret body sensation. In fact, this is exactly what Diet Culture promotes.
When you override your hunger signals by following an eating plan, you are shutting down body sensation.
Unfortunately, this is a significant roadblock in resolving the stress and overwhelm that lead to overeating.
The body that we often take for granted, has it’s own language, which is sensation. We are all familiar with this form of communication when we are in pain.
But the more subtle bodily sensations are easy to miss; in fact, most people no longer hear them.
Somatic therapy will help put you back in touch with these healing sensations and show you how to work them to resolve the stress and negative emotions that trigger overeating.
Somatic Experiencing was created by Dr. Peter Levine who worked with NASA to help astronauts deal with overwhelming stress. He developed this process after studying how wild animals do not become neurotic or develop PTSD even after having been attacked. He found that humans have the same abilities as animals to deal with stress and trauma, but also to heal chronic stress and past traumas.
When the Nervous System Struggles to Maintain Balance
Those with emotional eating and eating disorders often have difficulty managing stress and other life issues without turning to overeating and/or restricting, and even purging, to manage stress, calm themselves, and find comfort. Sometimes emotional eaters do not realize they are under stress, as stress feels normal; however, a closer look would show a nervous system that is struggling to maintain balance.
When the nervous system is off balance, it will be either revved up (you may be anxious, constantly on the go, have a hard time relaxing) or shut down (low energy, can't get motivated, disconnected). Believe it or not, the nervous system can actually be revved up and shut down at the same time, resulting in a person who has even more symptoms, as seen below.
The result is a wide variety of problems, including eating struggles, eating disorders, panic attacks, anxiety, chronic pain, thyroid or autoimmune disorders, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, etc. We end up trying to cope by overeating and undereating, as well as working out, drinking, drugs, overworking, angry outbursts, blaming others when we feel terrible, etc. These symptoms are actually caused by a dysregulated nervous system as shown in the chart below.
SOURCE: SOMATIC EXPERIENCING TRAUMA INSTITUTE
At first I questioned how this "laundry list" of diverse symptoms could all be listed together. Surely all these issues had different causes, and therefore different solutions!
It only made sense to me when I began to understand how the nervous system works. Think about a car with the accelerator or the brake constantly engaged. What would happen to the car? It would begin to break down. The same with the body. When the nervous system is chronically on or off, the body begins to break down.
It also makes it very difficult to change behavior, to do things differently. Bear with me for a brief anatomy lesson to understand why.
We have three parts of our brain:
The Logic Brain ("neocortex") which is in charge of thinking, planning, and figuring out if things are logical or not.
The Feeling Brain ("limbic") which is in charge of feelings, empathy, the ability to connect, etc.
The Primative Brain ("reptilian") which is mostly automatic and which reacts before the other two brains have any idea of what is going on.
When the nervous system is "on" or "off," the primitive brain is running the show. To do that, it sends chemicals to the logic brain to shut it down. In survival terms, this makes sense. Our bodies react to danger BEFORE the mind knows what is happening. Even one or two seconds can be the difference between surviving or not. So the brain doesn't let us think, it just acts--to save us.
If you have lived with overwhelming stress, or have experienced trauma, the nervous system begins to change. In fact, MRI studies show stress and trauma literally changes the structure and function of the brain, making it much harder to challenge old behaviors and learn new ones. Somatic Experiencing calms the reptilian brain and brings the logic brain online, making it much easier to change.
The focus of Somatic Experiencing is on connecting with sensations in the body in a way that allows stored energy from negative events and stress to be gently released. Somatic Experiencing allows the nervous system to return to balance so that emotional eating and other ways we try to cope are no longer needed.
The underlying issues are diminished and even eliminated, literally, and the nervous system becomes more balanced:
With Somatic Experiencing, you can find it easier to negotiate life and relationships without being knocked off balance. You will be able to let go of old coping mechanisms, like overeating, and will be much less likely to erupt in anger, or get caught up in grief, sadness and fear. This, in turn, facilitates recovery from eating and weight-related issues.
Somatic Experiencing is also ideal for somatic issues such as pains in the body or other symptoms that cannot be explained medically. This powerful process was designed to heal trauma, PTSD, etc., and works extremely well with eating issues.
For More Information About Somatic Experiencing Therapy
Somatic Experiencing in Psychology Today
About Somatic Experiencing
Karin is a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, with over 400 hours of specialized training, and has assisted in the teaching of somatic experiencing for several years. She typically only takes clients for somatic experiencing who understand intuitive eating and how food restriction triggers eating struggles. Give us a call to find out more.
