Somatic work will help us develop Interoception, our ability to sense, feel, and understand what is happening inside our bodies. When we experience chronic nervous system dysregulation, we disconnect from our internal experience. We learn to detach, avoid, and find other ways to cope with stressful feelings. There was a time when this was necessary to protect us from overwhelm, but over time, avoidance and detachment do not give us relief from our symptoms, they make our symptoms worse. Somatic exercises can help us to gradually reconnect and find safe ways to experience feelings and sensations that we have unconsciously closed ourselves off from. This is the foundation of nervous system healing.

When we spend prolonged time under stress as infants and children without the support we need, different parts of our brain and body don't learn to communicate effectively with each other. This causes identity fragmentation. In IFS, we call each fragment a “part.” These “parts” are stuck stress responses and thoughts or behaviors we have adapted to cope with stress. For example, there might be a part of us that believes they are unworthy or not good enough, so they become a perfectionist to "prove" their worth. We might strive for perfection to avoid the part of us that feels unworthy and this creates dissonance in our identity. Each part of us tells their own story. They express themselves in different ways and have their our perspectives, beliefs, and personalities. This is why, as adults, we may be confused about what we feel, as though we are pulled in multiple directions at once. From an IFS perspective, healing requires that all our parts are found, appreciated, heard, and understood so that they can move forward from their stressful reality.

Polyvagal Theory helps us understand the vagus nerve and its role in both regulation and dysregulation of the nervous system. This information helps us track the different states of our nervous system and make sense of our symptoms. Our sympathetic state (fight/flight) has become well-known as our stress response. In this state, we can experience symptoms of anxiety, panic, restlessness, aggression, insomnia, mania, paranoia, agitation, racing thoughts, and more. Our parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for our rest/digest response. This state allows us to feel safe, calmly alert, and connected to ourselves, others, and our environment. This system supports our body in recovering from stress. But this is only half of the parasympathetic nervous system.  The other half is a state of overwhelm responsible for our freeze, shutdown, and collapse responses. In this state we can experience fatigue, paralysis, depression, lack of motivation, hopelessness, numbness, dissociation, shame, dizziness, poor cognitive function, fainting, and more.

We have two different kinds of long-term memory. Our conscious memory,  known as explicit memory, and our unconscious memory, known as implicit memory.  Implicit memory needs to be accessed for us to heal trauma and nervous system dysregulation. This kind of memory affects our mood, thoughts, and behaviors below our conscious awareness. As we connect to our nervous system and begin to feel more safety in our bodies, we may notice more implicit memories that were there all along.  Memory reconsolidation is the groundbreaking knowledge that allows us to access our implicit memories and transform the unconscious effects they are having on us. This is the process, woven into all aspects of this healing, that allows us to find true regulation, and create sustainable change in how we think and feel.